Christopher Nolan is easily on the short list for the best directors of the 21st century, constantly delivering unparalleled cerebral thrills and often taking risks with bold sci-fi ideas. Now that Oppenheimer has arrived, it's the perfect time to revisit our ranking of the best Christopher Nolan movies with a new addition
With 12 films under his belt, Nolan has searched the far reaches of space, explored the forbidden depths of the mind, and brought Batman to the big screen in a way like no one else. Nolan's toying with time and playing with perception has become a calling card, as are lofty ideas and applied physics used for storyline purposes.
From his first film Following to his newest release Tenet, we rank all of the movies of Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan!
12. Following (1998)
For a movie shot on weekends and without a steady supply of quality film stock, Nolan's first feature is an effective character study hiding out in the trappings of a whodunit. Following tracks a young writer who stalks people on the streets of London for inspiration. When he is found out by a thief who takes him under his wing, the writer ends up on a path that doesn't bode well by the time the film ends.
Following establishes Nolan's fascination with the themes of identity and crime as a tool of manipulation; and yes, we even see the director flirt with a mostly successful attempt at the twist ending.
11. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Tom Hardy debuted as Bane and Anne Hathaway donned the Catwoman suit for this ridiculously anticipated finale to Christopher Nolan’s massively popular Dark Knight Trilogy. The Dark Knight Rises shot for the stars, with a larger scope than any Batman movie before it. While reactions were mixed to some of the choices in the movie, on a psychological level, The Dark Knight Rises shows the resolve of the Bruce Wayne character on screen like never before. We get to see him do what his father had always told him he could – learn to pick himself up – and save the city he loves.
Read IGN's review of The Dark Knight Rises here.
10. Tenet (2020)
Tenet — which was first delayed by the pandemic and then released to theaters before the world was ready to head back outside — never quite got the presentation it needed (or that Nolan himself desired). On top of that, despite being a technical marvel, it was one of the director's most emotionally cold efforts to date. That being said, this sci-fi spy thriller movie — starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, and Elizabeth Debicki — is an exciting globe-trotting treat for the senses, telling the story of a secret team trying to stop an attack on Earth's present...from Earth's future. You might not fully understand how reverse entropy works, or how it's able to interact with regular entropy, but it's a beautifully bats*** thing to watch unfold on screen.
Read IGN's review of Tenet here.
9. Insomnia (2002)
Based on a Norwegian thriller of the same name, Insomnia is firmly within noir territory -- a troubled detective unravelling the murder of a young girl –-- but it purposefully inverts many of the inherited stylistic conventions. Since the action unfolds in a small fishing town in Alaska, where the sun never sets, Nolan's 'sunshine' noir eschews shadows for blinding light.
The beauty of Insomnia, which stars Al Pacino, is that it never cheats or dumbs down its story, and it always keeps us on Pacino's level, as his character tries to both do a good cop's job and cover up his own misconduct and while fighting off the worst case of insomnia ever. Robin Williams delivers an unnerving performance as the murderer Pacino's gunning for, and Hilary Swank adds more than what's on the page with her turn as the local cop.
Read IGN's review of Insomnia here.
8. Interstellar (2014)
McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain star in Nolan's space epic, Interstellar -- an imperfect film, sure, but like its central characters it aims about as high as one can. The ambition, execution, and craftsmanship are all to be admired. Interstellar is a slightly divisive film though ultimately the viewers takeaway will likely come down to their emotional response.
This story, about a last ditch effort to save humanity by using a wormhole to search for a new home planet, boasts superb world creation as well as some heady notions about time, which are mostly based on scientific theory, and to date it stands and one Nolan's most heartfelt projects (for a director who admits that love and warmth aren't his strong suits).
Read IGN's review of Interstellar here or check out our favorite movies like Interstellar.
7. Batman Begins (2005)
After the Batman and Robin debacle of 1997, Warner Brothers struggled to get the Batman franchise in motion again and suffered lots of stops and starts with various scripts and filmmakers. Finally, Christopher Nolan came along and everything fell into place. Telling the Batman origin in depth for the first time on screen, Nolan approached the Dark Knight with a hyper-realism that made audiences forget the buffoonery of the Schumacher era and embrace Gotham City once again.
With a grand cast, endearing performances, and just enough comic book geek out moments (that Joker card!) to make the die-hard fans swoon, Batman Begins was a modest success that would reinvigorate Batman’s cinematic standing and lead to what would become the then top-grossing superhero movie of that time.
Read IGN's review of Batman Begins here.
6. Memento (2000)
Nolan's first major success went from being a Sundance event to a movie on every film lover's DVD shelf - and for good reason. Leonard (Guy Pearce) is a man unable to make new memories outside of the event that changed his life: Witnessing the rape and murder of his wife at the hands of one "John G." Armed with a gun and a Polaroid camera, Leonard sets out in a very film noir-inspired hunt for the man who killed his wife, tattooing himself with mission statements the way people write Post-It notes.
One part of Leonard's quest unfolds in reverse, and another unfolds in normal time. Both timelines bleed together in the middle, creating an experience that put Nolan on everyone's short-list, and turned Memento into one of the privileged few movies that become lexicon. It's one of the best mystery movies you'll ever see.
Read IGN's review of Memento here.
5. Dunkirk (2017)
In what Nolan himself called his "most challenging film," Dunkirk was the director's first war film, depicting the Dunkirk evacuation of World War II through the perspectives of the land (taking place over a week of action), sea (one day of action), and air (one hour of action).
As Nolan's most lauded film to date, which also included eight Oscar nominations, Dunkirk didn't dwell on the horror of war but instead successfully conveyed the sheer terror of it all through both small, human acts and deafening scenes of conflict. This wasn’t a war story that lead to victory — that’s not what the story of Dunkirk is about — it was a retreat, an inglorious defeat. The war would continue for five more years. But through its miraculous events, Nolan and an outstanding cast of both young unknowns and veterans were able to depict not only the overwhelming, inhuman forces in play but the power of small acts of decency and bravery.
Read IGN's review of Dunkirk here or take a look at our list of the best World War II movies of all time.
4. Inception (2010)
Nolan won the hearts and minds of fanboys with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but he truly solidified his status as a filmmaker at the top of his game with 2010's Inception -- one of the best sci-fi movies of all time. A mind-bending sci-fi stunner that proved Hollywood blockbusters could still be smart while also dazzling us on a visual and visceral level, Inception is certainly one of the best films to hit, sci-fi or not, in this still young 21st century.
Inception doesn't just simply fit into the sci-fi genre. It's a caper film as well, a Bond film, and an occasionally avant-garde delving into the dreamscape. At the heart of the picture is Leonardo DiCaprio's Dom Cobb, a stricken widower who specializes in a form of corporate espionage that involves stealing information from a mark's mind while they sleep. Of course, as good as Cobb is at his job, it's his own dreams -- including appearances by his dead wife (Marion Cotillard) — that are his biggest challenge.
Buoyed by a great cast (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe and Michael Caine), stunning visual effects and those rarest of Hollywood commodities — an original and intelligent script — Inception is a no-brainer for this list. Unless we're just dreaming all of this…
Read IGN's review of Inception here or check out more movies like Inception.
3. The Prestige (2006)
Adapted Christopher Priest's novel, this tale of two 19th Century magicians locked in a bitter rivalry only gets better with repeat viewings as its secrets reveal themselves. Hugh Jackman played the showy, flashy Robert Angier, while Christian Bale starred opposite as the less successful but more technically skilled Alfred Borden. Jackman excelled at playing a man who lost everything and sank to impossibly dark depths to claim revenge. Compared to Jackman's flashy, suave Angier, Bale played Borden as more a working class magician, boasting unbeatable technical skill but lacking his rival's practiced charm and stage presence.
The crazed cat and mouse aspects of the movie build and bottleneck into a very memorable twist, a sleight-of-hand worthy of these talented magicians. The Prestige is arguably Nolan's most watchable movie thanks to these great performances and cinematic wizardry worthy of the magicians themselves.
Read IGN's review of The Prestige here.
2. Oppenheimer (2023)
Adapted from the biography American Prometheus, Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s incredible biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. Starring Cillian Murphy as the man himself, it’s a film that many have been eagerly anticipating over the summer months (especially in double-feature format with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie - a billing that has earned the name Barbenheimer), and it finally releases in theaters this Friday.
Our review of the film gave it a 10/10, stating that this masterpiece is “Christopher Nolan’s most abstract yet most exacting work, with themes of guilt writ large through apocalyptic IMAX nightmares that grow both more enormous and more intimate as time ticks on.” It’s a film that is “as stunning as it is terrifying.”
Read IGN's review of Oppenheimer.
1. The Dark Knight (2008)
After the success of Batman Begins – not to mention the epic Joker card teaser at its end – The Dark Knight quickly became one of the most hyped movies of the decade. Helped by its amazing viral marketing campaign and, sadly, the death of Heath Ledger, the sequel quickly took on legendary status as the summer’s most anticipated movie. Remarkably, it delivered beyond expectations as one of the best Batman movies.
Nolan’s middle chapter introduced the ultimate foil to Batman – Ledger’s Joker – and depicted how the arrival of a masked vigilante affected Gotham City and its citizens. The Dark Knight is essentially Gordon’s speech about “escalation” at the end of Begins coming to fruition. Meanwhile, Bruce himself has to deal with what being Batman has forced him to sacrifice personally. It’s a well-rounded movie that takes multiple plot threads and seamlessly weaves them toward an intensely thrilling climax.
Read IGN's review of The Dark Knight.
What is Christopher Nolan's Next Movie After Oppenheimer?
Following the incredible success of Oppenheimer, you may be wondering what Christopher Nolan's next film will be? Unfortunately, that's something we don't know yet, either. In a recent interview with Variety, Nolan went on to say that he's open to anything as long as he get's to own it completely. We will be keeping an eye out for any updates on the director's next big film.
Looking for more great films? Check out our guide to the best WW2 movies and best spy films of all time.
