u/Icy_Coast_5790

My guess is they first discover messages from a past agent and link these messages to the final explosion at Stalsk 12. They don't dig it up because so long as the outcome is uncertain (Schrodinger's cat), they feel they can still affect the outcome. They send lots of gold, weapons, instructions back in a long shot hoping to cultivate a past agent. They check records and Stalsk 12 has been undisturbed since the explosion so nothing was stolen from there. So no weapons/gold will be sent after the 14th as it won't affect the outcome. Eventually, they dig it up, and think they've been scammed. They rationalise that if Sator had been genuine and the algorithm stolen before the explosion, he would have told them. But they can't find any more messages. What they didn't realise is Sator WAS kind of scamming them the whole time because he didn't want to die. Since he didn't want the future to detonate the algorithm until after he dies (because he erroneously believes his actions can affect how the world time inversion happens), he sets the trigger to his heartbeat which means he is unable to say anything more to his future handlers. The future people believe they were scammed, have no more leads on where the algorithm is, thus they give up ending the war definitively.

If we take 52 regular season games as the maximum number of games that can be realistically played in a season (as per the current CBA), preserve East/West conferences, and ensure each team can visit every other team at least once, then the maximum number of teams in the league is 22.

Playing teams in your conference 3 times (3X10) and teams in the other conference twice (2X11) = 52 regular season games. It's the neatest schedule.

So I think the WNBA intends to eventually expand to 22 teams with this 52 game regular season format. Playing teams no more than 3 times per season (to keep things fresh) but also playing every team once at home and away.

We have 3 Eastern Conference teams joining the league: Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029), Philadelphia (2030). With Connecticut moving to Houston in 2027. Since the Western Conference currently has 8 teams to the 7 Eastern Conference teams, this preserves the conferences at 9 teams each.

This means there are 4 more potential spots, 2 for each conference. My guess is Boston, Miami in the East and Denver, Austin in the West will be the final expansion teams.

With 22 teams, playoffs will involve 12 teams with the top four getting a bye in the first round.

-Humans crack the code for age reversal and can produce drugs to allow people to live forever

-The drug is extremely expensive to manufacture and cannot realistically be given to everyone, at most maybe 10% of the population can have access to this drug.

-This leaves 90% fated to age and die. To maintain social cohesion and prevent societal breakdown and revolution, the immortal drug is banned by the all authorities.

-There is also the question of environmental sustainability. The world is suffering from resource depletion, climate change, ect. World depopulation is desperately needed to relieve the situation, but who gets to live immortal and who gets to die?

-Obviously, the drug is in high demand by all the elites and wealthy despite being illegal. So many gangs/criminal organisations have emerged to help supply this black market demand. These organisations are incredibly powerful and wealthy as a result and many people depend on them for drugs to continue living.

-The main conflict of the movie exists between these gangs and the authorities who have technically banned the drug, but are corrupt enough to want it.

-People everywhere start lying about their age and concealing/changing their identities so they don't have to admit they are on this illegal drug.

-All the mythological stuff is framed by Odysseus' telling to Calypso. At this point, he's been on lotus flower drugs for seven years that's made him forget everything. It's probably all just a fever dream, hallucinations, and maybe that's how the Odyssey originated. A bunch of super high poets.

-We know Odysseus is super guilty about the Horse and the sack of Troy. It's a form of psychological compensation, to make himself feel better, to imagine that he and his men have been punished by the gods in an insane and fantastical way.

-The Trojan Horse leads to the breakdown of respect for Zeus' law from everyone. As veterans from Troy sail home, everyone closes their doors. No one aids them, houses them, gives them supplies, because no one can trust them after they won such a stunning victory in that kind of manner. So they pillage in order to survive to get home. Also veterans with PTSD used to violence have no problems inflicting more. All the virtuous, courageous men have been corrupted and damaged by war. Back at home, all draft dodging cowards who avoided Troy have no fear of the gods anymore because the gods allowed such a massive victory from the utter desecration of their laws. They try to "copy" the Trojan horse model. Telemachus is nearly slaughtered in the Temple of Pylos. Odysseus telling this tale about the gods is a useful myth to re-instill respect and fear for the gods back into people in order to rebuild a civilised order. So he has every incentive to spread and propagate his myth, even if he doubts the validity of his memories.

-All this means that Nolan can continue to make grounded movies where nothing fantastical happens without plausible deniability. Think of the Prestige, where Nolan says the interpretation that all the "real" magic is simply a deception by Angier is valid. The magic machine doesn't have to work.