WTF?! Director Christopher Nolan was vocal about Tenet being released in theaters last year, extolling the virtues of experiencing the film on the big screen. So he’s unlikely to appreciate it arriving on the Game Boy Advance.
Bob Wulff, who operates the Wulff Den YouTube channel, managed to transfer Tenet’s two-hour, 30-minute runtime onto five Game Boy Advance cartridges. He admits the project was undertaken out of spite and that it is “quite possibly the worst way to view” the movie.
Wulff, who even made custom labels, said Tenet’s length meant five cartridges were required to hold it all. “30 minutes is the maximum time you can have for a Game Boy Advance Video [cartridge] and still have it in somewhat of a watchable state,” he explained.
There are quite a few drawbacks to watching Tenet’s often confusing plot on a handheld released in 2001. For a start, it had to be compressed to a 192 x 128 resolution, which is even lower than GBA’s 240 x 160 display. It also has an 8 KB/s bitrate, runs at just six frames per second, and the software Wulff uses speeds the video up by a third.
Nolan said that Tenet’s “image and sound really needs to be enjoyed in your theaters on the big screen.” He was particularly unhappy about Warner Bros releasing the sci-fi on HBO Max and in theaters simultaneously, later saying that he was “unlikely” to work with the conglomerate again, ending a relationship that began in 2002 when he directed Insomnia.