Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked

The greatest director of this generation, and my personal favorite director of all time, released a new movie this month called Tenet. This mind-bending, globe-trotting, perception-altering film stands as Nolan’s tenth major film since 2000. If you don’t recognize Nolan’s name, I’m sure you’ll recognize some of the amazing titles he has directed thus far in his marvelous career.

10. Insomnia (2002) starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, & Hillary Swank

Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to an Alaskan town where the sun doesn’t set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.

One of only two films on this list that was not originally scripted by Nolan. As the director, he obviously had a large say in what happened and was able to make some changes to improve the story, but you can tell that he wasn’t the brains behind this movie.

I recently watched Insomnia for the first time and was pleasantly surprised. Al Pacino carries the film as Robin Williams offers a rare performance as a villainous character and handles it well. The visuals of the Alaskan wilderness highlight one of Christopher Nolan’s strengths behind the camera. Throughout the movie, the use of the protagonist’s literal insomnia works on multiple levels. Al Pacino’s performance digresses intentionally as his character falls deeper into madness—a psychological thriller much in the same vein as the director’s other work.

While this movie displays glimpses of Nolan’s brilliance, on a list like this, something has to be last.

9. Batman Begins (2005) starring Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes, & Ken Watanabe

After training with his mentor, Batman begins his fight to free crime-ridden Gotham City from corruption.

Again, Christopher Nolan has made so many good movies, that a movie of as great as this one is number nine on my list. Batman Begins re-defined the superhero genre and kicked off one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time. This movie was the first attempt at telling a non-cartoony Batman story on the big screen. It also paved the way for the “Golden Age of Superheroes” (2005-present) by showing that comic book movies had the potential to rake in millions of dollars at the box office on a global scale.

Now, to the movie itself. I enjoy Batman Begins, but it’s just not as good as Nolan’s other movies, especially not his other Dark Knight movies. While the origin story of Bruce Wayne becoming Batman is fascinating, the villain (and secret villain) played by Ken Watanabe and Liam Neeson respectively are not as compelling as Tom Hardy’s Bane and Heath Ledger’s legendary Joker. Oh and there’s another villain (Scarecrow played by Cillian Murphy), and yet another villain (Carmine Falcone played by Tom Wilkinson). These low-level villains muddy the water in an otherwise well-constructed story arc with Ra’s Al Ghul.

On its own, Batman Begins is an above-average superhero movie, especially when you take into account the fact that it really was the first of its kind. However, when comparing it to other Nolan films, it doesn’t quite cut it.

8. Dunkirk (2017) starring Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, & Tom Hardy

Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.

To me, Dunkirk is Nolan’s most artistic film. By that, I mean it is the most artistically rendered—visually, Dunkirk is stunning. Multiple times in the movie theater, I wanted to stand and cheer for the shot I’d just witnessed.

In this clip, at the 1:04 mark, the main hero of The Mole storyline (more on that in a second) lies down on the beach. In the distance, the explosions from the dive bombers begin far away and grow closer with each detonation. This shot is brilliant for two reasons: 1) it creates loads of tension by putting the viewer right beside the protagonist as the bombs grow closer and eventually stop just before hitting him, and 2) it places the camera in a unique place that is perfect for allowing the action to run through the shot while not having to move or cut away.

This is just one example. I could go into more detail, but I will spare you and move on to what else I like about Dunkirk. My favorite thing about this movie is the way in which Nolan chooses to tell the story. By dispersing the weight of the plot and scope of the historical event onto three different storylines, Nolan maximizes his reach without narrowing its focus. If he were to have chosen any one of the narratives in the movie, the film would not have worked nearly as well because it would have been like any other war movie (and it would have been awesome for totally different reasons).

That’s the great secret (not-so-secret) of Dunkirk: it’s not a war movie—at least not in the true sense of the word. Similarly to 1917, this film is more of a drama set during a battle than a full-on-Saving-Private-Ryan-style war movie.

Back to the storytelling aspect of this movie… While things begin to slow down in one scene, things begin to rachet up in another. And so on and so on and so on. Hans Zimmer’s masterful score helps reinforce this constantly oscillating mode of narrative with his stopwatch themed tracks. The convergence of the three storylines near the end of the movie leads to a beautiful moment where Nolan reminds his audience of the historical significance of Dunkirk through the words of Sir Winston Churchill.

After praising Dunkirk, I have to bring it back down to earth (at least slightly). After all, I do only have it at number eight on my list. In the end, the lack of character hurts this movie. I enjoy all of the characters in this movie: Farrier, the shivering soldier struggling with PTSD, Tommy, Mr. Dawson, George, and even the apparently mute soldier whom we discover is French later on in the film. However, without any backstory (or any information at all really) it becomes hard to sympathize with the heroes in the story. Another problem I have with Dunkirk is how simple and straightforward it is compared to Nolan’s other movies. As a Nolan fan, a movie without a good twist (or two or three) isn’t really a movie at all.

7. The Dark Knight Rises (2012) starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, & Ben Mendelsohn

Eight years after the Joker’s reign of anarchy, Batman, with the help of the enigmatic Catwoman, is forced from his exile to save Gotham City from the brutal guerrilla terrorist Bane.

I love this movie more than most people (honestly, more than anyone else I’ve ever met). When The Dark Knight Rises came out, I’m pretty sure I saw it in the theater at least five times (maybe even six). Even for me, that is a lot. To put that in perspective, I usually go see good movies twice. If it’s fantastic, I may see it a third time. Rarely do I go for a fourth trip, but five times is crazy.

For some reason, lots of people like to badmouth this movie. I know Bane’s voice is different (I like it and think it’s pretty cool) and some people didn’t like that. The biggest critique I ever hear about this movie is that “it’s not as good as The Dark Knight.” To me, that is a terrible reason to knock this movie. I agree that The Dark Knight Rises is not as good as The Dark Knight, but let’s be honest, not very many movies are. Period. (I’ll go into the greatness of The Dark Knight a little bit later.) Bashing this movie for not being as good as its predecessor is more of a backhanded compliment than a real insult.

The thing that makes The Dark Knight Rises a great movie is its characters. Bane is a great villain. No, he’s not as good as the Joker, but he’s still solid. He’s a bit too philisophical at times, but his physical presence on screen is as good as any villain in recent memory. Also, the fact that Bane actually beats up Batman remains one of the greatest moments a Batman villain has ever had on screen. I thought that Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman was a compelling addition to the series as well as Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Robin. This is Alfred’s best movie. This is James Gordan’s best movie. This is Lucius Fox’s best movie. I think the Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight is slightly more intriguing, but this old man Bruce Wayne is an interesting take on the Batman character. I wasn’t a huge fan of the late adition of the “real” villain, Talia Al Ghul, but even her development was interesting. All in all, the characters in this movie elevate a good movie to a great movie.

6. Memento (2000) starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, & Joe Pantoliano

A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife’s murderer.

I have recently re-fallen in love with this movie. After the release of Tenet (more on that in a second), I rewatched Memento. And then I rewatched it again a week later. It’s that good. This film is possibly the most unique film I’ve ever seen, Chris Nolan or otherwise. For those of you who don’t know, the story is told backwards. The first scene in the movie is the final scene chronologically. Crazy, right?

While some people are turned off by this “gimmick”, I don’t think it is a gimmick at all. The story would undoubtedly be weakened if it were told in a traditional, linear order. All of Nolan’s carefully crafted reveals and twists are planted perfectly in the “flashbacks”. Another strong advantage of this narrative mode is that it puts the audience in the mind of the protagonist. We do not know anything that he doesn’t know. We are just as lost as him. This is a stroke of genius.

The characters of Leonard and Teddy are two of the most interesting characters in Nolan’s writing to date. Each of them are as equally complicated as they are compelling. Leonard’s “heroic” character digresses as the story moves backward, and he becomes more and more of an anti-hero. The final scene in this film is one of my favorite endings to any film ever. Teddy, whom we’ve been told is untrustworthy the entire movie, drops several bombshells of new information on Leonard (and the audience). The question is: do we believe his lies? Is he even lying at all?

***If you would like to talk about this movie in more detail, please leave a comment or a question at the bottom of the article. I could easily talk about this movie for hours, but don’t want to make other people suffer needlessly.

5. Inception (2010) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, & Cilian Murphy

A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a billionare C.E.O.

One of my favorite movies of all time, Inception was the most talked about movie of my teenage years. By far. My friends and I still argue about this movie. This was the film that Nolan wanted to make for years and years, but couldn’t until the success of The Dark Knight garnered him the backing to actually accomplish is vision on screen. And boy, what a vision!

This film tells a relatively simple story in a complex, but traceable way. The multi-layered dream worlds that the characters enter are distinguishable visually as well as contextually. This is one of the arguments against Inception that I never quite understood. Nolan goes out of his way to make sure the audience knows where they are at all times, especially at the end when things get a tad confusing (five levels down!). Here is a quick summary:

Top Level = the group is on the airplane flying from Sydney to LA

Level Two = the group is falling off the bridge toward their final “kick”

Middle Level = the group is asleep in the hotel room where there is no gravity because the van is falling through the air in the previous level

Level Four = the group is trying to break into a fortress in the snowy mountains where the vault holding the secret is located

Limbo = Cobb goes down one more level to find Ken Watanabe’s character who was stuck there because he died on the previous level (this is foreshadowed in the first scene of the movie)

While the idea for Inception is mind-bogglingly awesome, the story is super simple: a father goes to extreme lengths to return to his children. The heart of the film is profound and moving which leads to one of the greatest endings in film history… Does the top stop spinning?

I think yes.

4. Tenet (2020) starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Dimple Kapadia, & Michael Caine

Armed with only one word, Tenet, and fighting for the survival of the entire world, a Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.

This might be the most “Nolan” movie ever. Everything I (and so many others) love about this director is on display in this movie: time-bending narratives, mysterious but likeable leads, huge action sequeneces, gripping visuals, a fantastic score which compliments the film, a few twists, and a moving, heartfelt theme.

My expectations for this movie were pretty stinking high before seeing it, and I was blown away. This might have been my favorite movie-going experience. Note that I didn’t say “best movie I’ve seen in theaters”, but it’s up there. I have not seen anything like in Tenet in the theater before this fall. On the big screen, this film was and is transcendent. If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it on biggest screen you can before it’s too late.

I absolutely loved The Protagonist (yes, that’s the main character’s name in the credits) played by John David Washington and Neil played by Robert Pattinson. Both Elizabeth Debicki’s role as Kat and Kenneth Branagh’s role as Sator stand as each of their best performances in their careers thus far. The same can be said of Washington and Pattinson as well. All in all, the characters shine in this movie, but the plot and cinematic elements are what raise Tenet to the next level.

The idea of inversion, something that is so uniquely Nolan, captures the audience’s imagination and leads to epic battle scenes and emotionally meaningful payoffs. I will admit, the first forty-five minutes to an hour drag a smidge because of all the exposition; however, the final forty-five minutes to an hour one-ups itself over and over again until the last shot.

Without giving any spoilers, I will say that Tenet is a must see for any Nolan fan. The way he handles the inversion stuff visually is otherworldly, and yet seems and feels realistic. If you have any thoughts on the ending, or the movie in general, please leave a comment or a question at the bottom of the article.

3. The Dark Knight (2008) starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, & Morgan Freeman

When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.

This is the greatest superhero movie of all time. Yes, that includes Avengers: Endgame and anything else Marvel Studios has put out in recent years. Heath Ledger gives one of the greatest performances in film history in this movie as the Joker. Christopher Nolan took the foundation he built in Batman Begins and bumped it up ten notches with The Dark Knight.

Christian Bale’s caped crusader sequel brought home more than $1,000,000,000,000 at the worldwide box office and two Academy Awards with a comic book movie! As I mentioned earlier, before Batman Begins, superhero movies were considered second-class movies because they were cheezy, cartoonish, and silly. The Dark Knight follows the blueprint of its predecessor, but with an even more mature tone.

The opening bank heist still stands as one my all-time favorite opening scenes in any movie. Batman and Joker’s game of cat and mouse leads to some of the most iconic moments in film history. Honestly, there is not enough time here for me to dive into what makes this one the greatest movies ever.

My biggest complaint with The Dark Knight is that the ending (the stuff with Two Face) feels sort of tacked on. After the Joker is dispatched by Batman, the film loses some of its traction for me, and that is really the only reason this movie isn’t higher on the list.

2. Interstellar (2014) starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon, Michael Caine, and Timothee Chalamet

A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity’s survival.

The greatest sci-fi movie ever. Matthew McConaughey’s greatest performance. Hans Zimmer’s greatest score. Some of the most stunning visuals ever seen on film. Two of the most tense scenes in film history (more on them in a second). One of the greatest endings ever. All in all, this movie is a masterpiece.

First of all, the science fiction in this movie doesn’t really feel like fiction at all. It just feels like science. The wormhole, time relativity, space travel, talking robots, crazy planets, and the black hole all feel like things that could actually occur in our universe. I’m terrible at science and have no idea if any of that stuff is even possible, but hey, it feels like it.

Matthew McConaughey is one of my favorite actors in Hollywood, and this is his best performance to date. He has had some other fantastic roles fantastic (True Detective, Dallas Buyers’ Club, The Lincoln Lawyer, Sahara, etc.), but this one stands above the rest.

Hans Zimmer is the greatest composer working today (not quite ready to say of all time because of John Williams’ greatness), and this is his best score to date. He has had some other fantastic scores (Dunkirk, The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Pirates of the Carribbean, Inception, Chappie, etc.), but this one stands above the rest.

Two other qualities I love about this movie are the visuals and the supsenseful scenes. Some of the shots in outer space, particularly the ones that show the scale of the ship against the backdrop of an enormous planet, come to mind when thinking of the coolest images in film history. On top of that, there are two moments in the movie that are two of the greatest moments of suspense in Nolan’s tapestry of brilliance.

The first scene takes place on Miller’s Planet (the water planet) when the crew unknowingly land their ship in between two massive waves to search for Miller and her precious data. When I watched this movie for the first time, and the camera finally panned up to the wave, I stopped breathing.

The second scene takes place after Matt Damon’s character (Dr. Mann) blows the airlock and sends the spacecraft spinning wildly. Again, one of the most intense scenes I’ve ever witnessed in a movie theater.

Now, to the most controversial part of this movie—the ending. I love the end of this movie! I know some people dislike the weird, glowy, box thing, but I thought it was brilliant. I love that Cooper is Murph’s ghost. I love that she goes back to the house to find the watch. That bedside scene is even more of a gut punch because of the journey the Murph went on to discover that her dad was the hero the whole time. I love that Cooper goes back out to look for Brand (Anne Hathaway’s character). I love that the ending is open-ended and yet hopeful of a greater future. Honestly, the only reason this isn’t number one is because the next movie’s ending is the best ending of any movie ever.

1. The Prestige (2006) starring Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine, Andy Serkis, and David Bowie

After a tragic accident, two stage magicians engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.

The only movie I’ve ever watched again the second it ended… Let that sink in. I love movies, and that has only happened once. To some extent, this movie feels like Nolan’s thesis statement to the world. Several times throughout the movie, different characters ask, “Are you watching closely?” This question proves crucial to this movie in particular, but most of, if not all, Nolan’s other movies must be watched closely in order to truly enjoy them for their brilliance.

This entire film is about magic tricks, but what I love about it is that the movie itself is a magic trick. Just watch the first two minutes of the movie below:

In this scene, Cutter (Michael Caine’s character) sets up the entire film. The rest of the movie will be one big magic trick with the climax serving as the prestige. Again, one of the most brilliant pieces of writing in film history.

On top of that, this movie is loaded with talented actors who give phenomonal performances. The characters in this movie are so obsessed that they lose all sense of self and devolve into the things that they hate about the other person.

One of my other favorite lines in the movie is at the end when Hugh Jackman’s character is talking about what it’s like to see the audience’s faces. “If you can fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder.” Then at the end, the same monologue from the beginning plays again, this time with slightly different wording. The last line of the movie is delivered by Cutter when he says, “Now you’re looking for the secret. You’re trying to work it out, but you’re not really looking. You want to be fooled.”

And that’s the thing with Nolan, he’s like a magician. In his movies, he lays puzzle pieces on a table face down as the story goes along. Then, slowly, he begins flipping them over piece by piece, but they don’t really go together, and then, he drops in one final piece, and the entire puzzle comes together to create a beautiful, lasting image.

***Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of my list in the comments below. As always, I challenge you to make your own!