Heat Vision breakdown Naturally, to use the term annihilation is to invite thoughts of despair and hopelessness, and perhaps suggests a thematic link to horror films of John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy. Yet Nolan’s fascination with humanity’s potential for annihilation isn’t hopeless or horrific. Ultimately, what Christopher Nolan is concerned with is the preservation of the future, ensuring that there is one for the next generations, even if that means sacrifice in the here and now. Tenet is the most recent example of that concern, but the imagery of it, the symbolism of a bullet with its entropic path reversed goes back to