There are spoilers ahead for Interstellar and Tenet. Unless you can prevent your past self from reading this, I recommend you look away if you haven’t seen both films.

Last weekend, the Student Union Movie Organization (SUMO) did a double-feature screening of “Interstellar” and “Tenet”, two movies directed by Christopher Nolan. Even without having watched any of Nolan’s films, it is widely known that he is recognized for his fondness for complex and mind-bending storylines. Both of the films screened this weekend embody that core trait, with “Interstellar” demonstrating the manipulation of space and “Tenet” showing the reversal of time. In a world where studios are afraid of audiences struggling to follow their film, Nolan chooses to trust his viewers with keeping up with his ideas. It’s an admirable trait to have such trust in viewers, but that doesn’t mean this directorial style is without its determinants. Most audiences will not fully comprehend “Interstellar” or “Tenet,” so confusion is practically a guarantee. To make a movie worthwhile despite this confusion, the central challenge is how long audiences will stay engaged with the plot. This is where “Interstellar” and “Tenet” differ. “Interstellar” and “Tenet” are  movies with equally complex and thought-provoking concepts, but comparing the two shows, “Interstellar” is far more successful at holding the audience engaged.

I believe there is one key difference that makes Interstellar more engaging than Tenet: the presentation of information. This difference in presentation comes down to emotion. “Interstellar” is a story that uses its concepts as a background to human emotions, while “Tenet” has human emotions as a background to the concepts.

From the very beginning, the tone is set for each film. “Tenet” opens with an exciting action sequence in the opera house. It introduces the “Tenet” organization and sends the Protagonist on his journey. “Interstellar,” on the other hand, starts with a much more slow and deliberate opening sequence. We don’t start with an exciting introduction to the cosmic scale of the movie; instead, we start with a somber reflection of Earth. We are immersed in simple human problems, see the struggles the planet now faces and the effect it has on Cooper (a retired NASA pilot) and his family. The introduction to NASA and Cooper’s start to the mission happens around 30 minutes into the film, and all that extra time pays off, because the viewer understands why Cooper chooses to go on this mission. Cooper is told about the risks that his journey in space will bring, the unknown and unpredictability he will face, and he accepts the task because he has loved ones he wants to protect. The audience feels the intensity of this devotion, and is therefore willing to buy into Nolan’s puzzles.  In “Interstellar”, the turn to exploring the universe begins after the audience is anchored to the people and motivations of the film. In “Tenet”, we’re tossed right into the action, with no chance to connect with anyone — the audience is only confronted with dry exposition.

The differences between these two films continually extend across both of their runtimes. “Tenet” revolves around getting to the next thing, the next idea, the next action scene. The benefit of this model is that “Tenet” makes the most of its ideas, and it really feels like the aspect of time reversal is used very creatively. But at the same time, there is no scene in “Tenet” that takes the time to breathe, to let us see something other than these neat tricks. When it’s not action, it’s dialogue segments that exist just to prove that the logic of the film makes sense. There is the argument that “Tenet” is not meant to be as emotional as “Interstellar,” but in that case, why should we care about the action in “Tenet”? Why should we care about what happens to the Protagonist? The world may be at stake, but we haven’t had the chance to sink into “Tenet”’s world. In “Interstellar”, we don’t just know what’s at stake, we feel it. There are flashbacks to the situation on Earth, as we see established characters struggle through increasingly complex situations: crops stop growing, multiple people are facing illnesses and it seems like humanity is on its way to extinction. These dire conditions enhance the impact of Cooper’s exploration of space. Even if we can’t understand the mechanics of it all, we fully understand the consequences if Cooper miscalculates his trajectory. No matter how well-composed the action scenes in “Tenet”, there is no use of time reversal that hits as hard as when Cooper watches messages from his aging family over the course of time he skipped during his space voyage.

At the end of both these films, there is a major revelation of how the main plot was set into motion. “Interstellar” reveals that Cooper was the one behind the events of the movie, while “Tenet” reveals that the Protagonist is the mastermind behind the main operation. Both of these revelations are similar, but one is undoubtedly more impactful. With Cooper, there is meaning to his assistance, in how love literally becomes the key to saving humanity. That’s not to say “Interstellar”’s reveal is perfect. The existence of fifth-dimensional beings comes with a huge suspension of disbelief, even with everything the film throws at us. In a way, “Tenet”’s reveal is better in that regard, because you can trace all the events to previous moments in the film, making the reveal believable. But in the end, no matter how logical Tenet’s reveal is, it’s not as powerful as seeing Cooper reach his distant daughter and reconnect with her. And if their bond allowing humanity to persevere isn’t inspiring, I don’t know what is.

“Tenet” is a good film with a lot to enjoy once you wrap your head around the logic of it all; great as “Interstellar” is, it is a lot messier with its usage of the more extreme ideas. In the end, however, those incomprehensible phenomena are overshadowed by “Interstellar”’s display of love. While “Tenet”’s enjoyability hinges on your taste for cool action, “Interstellar” shines because of its illustration of human emotion triumphing in spite of all the complexities of Nolan’s world.