English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Kat describes about her husband:
Kat: Sleeps 70 with crew. Two helicopters. Missile defenses.
Protagonist: Afraid of pirates?
Kat: Andrei lives playing one government off the other. The day they turn, that's his refuge.
What does "they" and "that" refer to?
Source: Christopher Nolan's movie Tenet (2020)
They refers to government which is a collective noun (refers to a group of people).
As for that, it refers to the preceding clause the day when (or the fact that) the government will turn. Meaning is a bit ambiguous, I can't be sure what The day they turn actually means, but probably it is clearer in the context of the book.
