All Christopher Nolan Films Ranked

.Christopher Nolan’s movies have consistently challenged audiences, refusing to let go once they’ve drawn you into their intricate worlds. He approaches each project with the care and precision of someone nurturing a deeply personal creation—crafting his films like they are his own children, demanding nothing short of perfection. From his early short films that left viewers scratching their heads and questioning their sanity to grand, mind-bending epics that take you across time and space, Nolan has come a long way as a filmmaker. We took a deep dive into his filmography and ranked all of Christopher Nolan’s movies—from his most experimental efforts to his most masterful achievements.

12. Tenet (2020)

Tenet is a sheer spectacle if not anything else. The kind of scope and scale that Nolan’s film carries within itself can shiver you to the bone. This is the exact reason why it also ends up being his most flawed and unimpressive work. The load that its plot-driven progression has to withhold occasionally rises beyond its grasp. So, despite a technically elegant narrative, this deliberately complex saga doesn’t feel well-earned.

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Following a character who is named ‘The Protagonist,’ there are glimmers of political allegory all throughout the second leg of the film. However, none of it is hinged on a film that understands what and how to play its cards right. The expositionary descent into saving the world thus never manages to keep you honed for the result to show up. The action sequence aside, there’s nothing incredible here.

11. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Batman is not just a name, it has become a symbol. From movie geeks to comic book nerds to intensive-hard-boiled-heroic-rendition-loving people, every single person was looking forward to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. While it did not live up to its hype, it most masterfully gave us a conclusion that we deserved, the conclusion to a trilogy that re-invented Batman. Christopher Nolan movies didn’t just give us the Batman we wanted, but a Batman we needed. A dark, brooding, grown-up version of the knight who saves humanity.

In my opinion, a great superhero movie has anxiety that involves one character and his alter-ego and also the weight of the alter-ego. For example, consider Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, which did it right. The general superhero films get over it quite quickly and get right down to the action. What impressed me most in Nolan’s last Batman installment is how long it took Bruce Wayne to get back in the saddle as Batman. The downside here was the scarcity of the jet-black humor that we saw in the previous film. But again, all Batman nemesises are versions of himself, and I can very proudly say that Nolan was able to bring out a version of Batman in Bane, simultaneously managing to give him completeness.

10. Insomnia (2002)

The third feature film of Christopher Nolan is the remake of the Swedish film of the same name. Insomnia is a crime procedural in which the mystery is revealed halfway. Here, the atmosphere is more mystical than the plot. The movie takes place in Alaska, where, due to seasonal shifts, the sun never sets, and yet darkness continues to mount.

Two detectives from the LAPD are sent to an Alaskan town to solve a murder mystery. Detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino), while chasing a potential suspect in foggy weather, accidentally shoots his partner. His moral dilemma and guilt condemn him into the deadening trench of insomnia. Robin Williams delivers one of the finest performances of his career in this movie. Hillary Swank also leaves a mark with her strong performance. Though the least mind-bending in his entire filmography, Insomnia is Nolan’s most refined movie to date.

9. Interstellar (2014)

When Dust settles in, and corn is the only thing left to eat, what if you had one last hope for redemption, survival, and love? Christopher Nolan’s latest film was a space adventure, a philosophical jargon, a metaphysical cell, a twisted timely fight for life, and everything that follows. Interstellar is possibly the only Nolan film that has varied opinions from Fans and critics simultaneously.

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The film was not only gorgeous to look at, but it also has a Hans Zimmer score that uplifted all the scenes that may sound and feel dull otherwise. The thing where Interstellar went wrong after a very strong start is when people start to explain things to niche audiences. Even with the flaws in your hands, Nolan makes you pick up random scattered bits and asks you to piece them back together. It’s strange how he manages to tell you a tale that is both adventurous and exciting, but its also unafraid to deal with melancholy, sacrifice, and death in a way so many big movies won’t do.

8. Batman Begins (2005)

When the talented independent filmmaker went full studio, Batman Begins happened. It was the first film of the infamous Christopher Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy. Batman Begins was a path-breaking film; it became the film that resurrected the genre and made filmmakers believe in the potential of superhero films as Drama. Nolan made a dark film with multi-layered characters and a nonlinear narrative, which made it a compelling watch, unlike most superhero films of the past. Never before did a Batman feature film try to explore the psyche of Bruce Wayne so curiously, but Nolan was interested in that.

Like most of his films, where the protagonist is emotionally damaged, Christopher Nolan convincingly portrayed a supposedly larger-than-life superhero as a vulnerable human as he could afford to. He convincingly maintained the balance between an emotionally damaged Bruce Wayne who had a lonely/friendless childhood and adolescence and an alter ego who the city of Gotham can count on. Batman Begins works wonderfully as an action drama and also as a superhero film because of this balance. This is one reason why many film fans consider Batman Begins as the best Batman film of the franchise, even though they find The Dark Knight to be a better film.

7. Dunkirk (2017)

When you watch Dunkirk almost spontaneously, your mind draws parallels to so many moments from all of Nolan’s previous work. Yet, at times, one doesn’t feel like one is watching a Nolan film at all. All the grand distractions and narrative puzzles that brought him to fame are gone; what remains is his incisive insight into human behavior and emotion and a steely idealism — for cinematic form, for the 70mm format, and his Nation.

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Dunkirk is about time and hopes running out, and Nolan never lets you forget that. Now and then, one is tricked into hoping but immediately has that hope pulled out from under. So, when hope finally does arrive, you least expect it. The film gives a fascinating insight into the crippling and decaying effect fear can have on the human mind, and yet it also maintains that our love for each other, albeit not always, can still shine through and hold us together.

With every war, as in life, there are myths, and so is the case with this film. It is even self-referential to that effect. A young boy who dies accidentally, even before their civilian ship reaches Dunkirk, is later immortalized in the newspapers as a hero. A man who is welcoming the soldiers back at the home port with refreshments says “well done” to every one of them. Tommy says, “But we only survived.” “That’s enough,” says the man. Later Style’s character complains how that man could not even bear to look them in the eye; it turns out he was blind. The soldiers are terrified of the National shame and anger they are going back to, but instead, they receive a hero’s welcome.

6. Oppenheimer

It is incredibly easy to be swept up in the complexity of the events in Oppenheimer — interlocked and self-propagating, much like a nuclear chain reaction — and lose sight of a compelling narrative core that is both meaningful and never overly didactic. Here, Nolan takes on a relentless, meticulous approach to dissecting the history encircling the tragic, devastating atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki while shifting the focus solely on the titular theoretical physicist, whose legacy is both troubling and complex.

There are, of course, the usual telltale Nolan-isms: there’s a constant, mad dance with the concept of time to weave together a story that shapeshifts into a nuanced biopic, an intimate look into nuclear terror, and a moody courtroom drama all at once. Oppenheimer is neither a celebration nor an endorsement of war or the gross power-play that goes hand in hand with the boundary-pushing achievements of scientific research in this particular context — if anything, it is a mirror held up to world-altering cruelties that can, and should, never be forgotten.

*excerpts are taken from our Oppenheimer Review

5. Inception (2010)

A puzzled Ariadne (Ellen Page) questions, “Wait a minute, whose subconscious are we going into, exactly?” This line, quite precisely, empathizes with how the audience felt while watching Inception for the first time. Apparently, Christopher Nolan started sketching the idea for a short story based on ‘dreams’ during the making of Memento. He spent around ten years tweaking it frequently, rewriting and developing it, which in the process got transcended into a colossal piece of perplexing art that still calls for discussions five years after its release.

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In one of the scenes, Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) tests Ariadne by asking her to create a maze that cannot be solved in under one minute. It is exactly what Nolan does with his audience in the entire film. He creates a cosmic labyrinth that blurs the line between dreams and reality, pushes the boundaries of human imagination, and ascends the bar of innovation to a new zenith. The plot of Inception cannot be told in a simplified manner. Though the plot is one giant hallucination, it’s an experience that doesn’t blow your mind so much but rather challenges it.

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Inception is like a resilient parasite that will take hold of your brain and stay there perpetually, like the spinning top at the end of the film. Inception is, in reality, a heist film – only unlike other heist films where thieves break into a vault to steal, Cobb here, along with his specialized agents, put an idea into the subconscious mind of the multimillionaire Cillian Murphy. But Inception is also a haunting romantic drama in disguise of a heist action thriller where Cobb has visions of his late wife Mal (Marion Cotillard), desperately wanting to stay with her in their dreams. If “Inception” is a metaphysical puzzle, it’s also a metaphorical one: It’s hard not to draw connections between Cobb’s dream-weaving and Nolan’s filmmaking — an activity devoted to constructing a semblance of reality, intended to seduce us, mess with our heads, and leave a lasting impression.

4. The Dark Knight (2008)

“Some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn. “

Alfred explains to Bruce Wayne why it is difficult to reason with Joker. And this is one of the reasons why the Joker has become one of the most iconic characters in the history of cinema and the most loved character in recent times. The whimsical Joker has no motif like other villains, no revenge drama, no lust for money, and is a father figure to none. He is just an “agent of chaos,” the worst nightmare. A sly psychopath who not only loves playing with the minds of other characters. But the audience too.

The Joker emphatically exclaims, “Do I really look like a guy with a plan? Do you know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just… *DO* things.”; which is utter bullshit. Joker is a master planner. He had planned to get himself caught, blowing up the cell and blowing up the hospital. Joker is, in every sense, the perfect nemesis that Batman deserves. And why not? Joker knows Batman is just as much of a freak as he is.

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With such powerful and textured characters, fluidity in its writing, and multi-layered script, Christopher Nolan turns comic pulp into dark human poetry. This is not a superhero film; this is a crime drama that is set in the real world, taking references from 9/11, deals with real-life problems, and romanticizes philosophies like Order and Chaos, the cosmic connection between good and evil, about justice being served in a widely corrupt system.

3. Following (1998)

Nolan’s debut was an intelligent neo-noir mystery. It delivers much more than what people may have anticipated from a first-time director. Especially one making a film with an unknown cast. It was made on a micro-budget of 6000 US dollars. The cast features a bunch of actors who you can assume are Nolan’s friends. But they can act. They sure can. Following was the first of his many films where he used a non-linear narrative.

The film’s protagonist, “The Young Man” [Jeremy Theobald], is a writer. He shadows people to find some material or inspiration to write. Or maybe it’s just an excuse to fill the gap in his lonely life. In one of his pursuits, he gets caught by one of his targets. He then realizes that this target [Alex Haw] also follows people. But unlike the Young Man, he is a burglar. The film is only 69 minutes long. The screenplay is so swift that it demands the audience to completely indulge in the film. It is Nolan’s least popular feature film, but at the same time, it is one of his best works. Christopher Nolan shot, wrote, and directed Following. A No-Budget film can be everything a big-budget, star-studded film can be. This is a perfect example of such a movie.

2. The Prestige (2006)

“Are you watching closely?” questions a character in what is possibly Nolan’s most under-appreciated work. The film not only questions the audience constantly, it asks for and manages to have your complete attention. What makes people take up showmanship? Is it the money? Is it fame? Or possibly the rivalry that makes you push your boundaries?

The Prestige follows two magicians and their instincts to be the best. Told through a series of flashbacks, The Prestige is minutely detailed. Everything seems like a mystery to the ones who are not watching it closely. Everyone is drawn to happy films, but The Prestige is not happy at all. It insists you take its characters seriously. Even when they are throwing curses and magic tricks your way. The characters are so compelling and intriguing. Even with two megastars sharing the screen, the characters stand out on their own. What you see are not famous actors, but two individuals. They are locked in a relentless battle, each desperate to overpower the other.

1. Memento (2000)

Memento is narrated in reverse chronological order. The movie abruptly shifts between black and white and color sequences, making it even more challenging for viewers to comprehend. The movie follows Leonard Shelby, an insurance investigator, who first lost his wife in brutal rape, then his memories. Despite his inability to create new memories, he is set on a quest to avenge the culprit. He constantly reminds himself of vengeance by snapping Polaroid pictures of places and persons, inscribing tattoos on his entire body. Memento is structured as a complex puzzle. The non-linear narrative of the movie has now become the trademark of Christopher Nolan. ‘Memento Mori’- a short story written by his brother Jonathan Nolan serves as genesis for this movie. 

Aren’t memories the true ghosts of our lives? Our very reason to be alive is tied up in our memories. Memento is a story of a guy haunted by his fractured memories. Without his memories, he then feels his nothingness, his insufficiency, his dependence, and his emptiness.

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Christopher Nolan Movies: IMDb, Wikipedia