Completely happy Birthday Christopher Nolan, who turns 55 in the present day!

As we sit up for the subsequent Christopher Nolan film, the Homeric adaptation The Odyssey, to be launched in 2026, let’s look again at his earlier physique of labor.

Disagree with our rankings? That’s superb. Tell us why within the feedback. Listed below are all 12 Christopher Nolan films ranked.

By the Manner

There are, in our cautious judgement, no unhealthy Christopher Nolan films. Some are good, and a few are higher.

So for those who’re on the lookout for somebody to complain about Nolan, this isn’t the place. We’re sorry.

Now on with our listing, beginning with No. 12…

Following (1999)

Following is a comparatively small film about an aspiring author (Jeremy Theobald, above) who follows individuals for enjoyable, and finally ends up aligned with a daylight burglar named Cobb (Alex Haw) — the one named character.

Now on the Criterion Channel, it’s a captivating watch due to what number of of its parts find yourself in later Nolan movies. The Blonde (Lucy Russell) seems like an early affect on Tenet‘s Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), although each recall Hitchcock’s icy blondes. The black and white of Following will return in Oppenheimer, and the time-manipulating parts seem in nearly each Nolan movie that isn’t about Batman.

Most amusingly, the primary character has a Batman sticker on his door — six years earlier than Nolan’s Batman Begins.

Additionally Learn: All 10 Batman Motion pictures Ranked, Worst to Finest

Insomnia

The foremost flaw of Insomnia is that it’s the one Christopher Nolan film not written by Christopher Nolan. It’s a remake of the 1997 Norwegian thriller Insomnia, and it unravels within the midnight solar of Alaska (the inverse setup of 2024’s True Detective: Night time Nation). It’s an examination of guilt cloaked as a daylight noir, and whereas Nolan movies will be too difficult, we want this one have been slightly extra difficult.

It’s atmospheric and funky, however not Nolan’s finest. Nonetheless, it did reveal his propensity for working with A-list actors: The stacked forged consists of Robin Williams, Al Pacino, and Hilary Swank (above).

Nolan has known as it probably the most underrated of his movies.

Interstellar

We love Nolan for the density of his plots, and the way he continuously raises the stakes and rigidity whereas asking ethical and metaphysical questions.

However as lovely as Interstellar appears, we felt like the straightforward story of a father (Matthew McConaughey) and daughter (Jessica Chastain) obtained overwhelmed in all of the onerous science.

Nonetheless, we love the ambition. And it’s attention-grabbing how the physics within the movie come up once more in Oppenheimer.

The Status

The Status is undeniably cool, particularly because the rivarly ramps up between Victorian magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). And sure, along with Wolverine and Batman, we even have the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) within the uniformly stellar forged.

It’s an awe-inspiring film, however the reveals perhaps get slightly extreme, beginning once we discover out what Nicholas Tesla’s machine does.

Nonetheless: Are we actually complaining a few film that options David Bowie as Tesla? Truthfully, no. Simply explaining why this one isn’t larger on our listing of Christopher Nolan films ranked.

Tenet

That is undoubtedly probably the most dense and messy of all Nolan films, and it’s thundering soundtrack — which makes a lot of the dialogue powerful to decipher — doesn’t assist. And that’s earlier than Nolan begins all of the head-spinning video games with time.

However you recognize what? Tenet is so unabashedly formidable and crammed with spectacle that we’re keen to disregard the incoherent parts and simply go together with the trip. When it really works it simply soars, and it appears pedantic to get tripped up on the complicated elements when the purely emotional parts work so nicely.

It was additionally extremely cathartic to be welcome again to theaters by Tenet after the lengthy pandemic lockdowns, and that elements into our affection for the movie.

Memento

A homicide thriller noir thriller a few man with no quick time period reminiscence (Man Pearce) that unfolds backwards.

May anybody however Christopher Nolan make a film like Memento? It was an ideal calling card anticipating the brilliance to return.

The Darkish Knight Rises

Like all Nolan films, this one will get higher on repeat viewings. Sure, it’s slightly onerous to observe at instances. However it all is sensible whenever you pay shut consideration. And it does a lot cooler Nolanesque reveals than 99 p.c of superhero films.

In truth, Nolan doesn’t deal with his Darkish Knight trilogy as a superhero saga — which makes it really feel all of the extra grounded and resonant. And Tom Hardy turns in a masterful efficiency as Bane, whether or not you may hear him by way of the masks or not. We additionally love Nolan’s collaborations with Marion Cotillard, whose mystique pairs completely with Nolan’s tight sense of management.

Additionally, Anne Hathaway is one of the best Catwoman, and the plane-hijack opening could be the most assured of all Nolan motion sequences — and there are a lot of unimaginable Nolan motion sequences.

Batman Begins

A Batman film that wonders easy methods to justify each single facet of the Batman legend, regardless of how cartoonish they could as soon as have appeared.

Reminiscence fabric? The Batmobile? Watching this film as an grownup felt like having all our childhood fantasies and suspicions justified.

Christian Bale is one of the best Batman by far, Cillian Murphy is excellent as Jonathan Crane, and the environment is strictly proper.

The Darkish Knight

A Christopher Nolan film posing as a Batman film, The Darkish Knight turns into extra fascinating the second you understand — and it could take a number of viewings — that Alfred is totally mistaken when he tries to elucidate the Joker’s conduct by saying “some males identical to to observe the world burn.” And the Joker is just feeding the parable when he asks Harvey Dent: “Do I actually seem like a man with a plan?”

No, he doesn’t, however that’s simply misdirection. He makes everybody suppose he’s a mad clown, however in fact, he’s one of the best planner in Gotham, in a position to orchestrate a financial institution heist, a jail escape, or a ferryboat morality take a look at with equally devastating aplomb.

In contrast to the numerous lesser actors who play up the Joker’s clownish qualities, Heath Ledger performed him with amused distance. Similar to the unnamed grasp prison taking part in him within the film.

Inception

The highest three Christopher Nolan films on our listing are right here as a result of they finest mix Nolan’s astonishing present for complexity with an underrated energy to harness emotion. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb (sure, the identical title because the thief in Following) is a captivatingly tragic determine caught within the mad love of his misplaced love Mal (Cotillard).

Most of the nice Nolan gamers are right here — Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt — and the set items are in each sense a dream.

You can even watch the movie many times and are available away with a unique reply to the query of whether or not that prime will ever cease spinning.

Lastly, Hans Zimmer’s “Time” could also be our single favourite piece of film music.

Dunkirk

Nolan appears to play in opposition to sort on this tight hour-and-forty-seven minute that eschews all of the cliches of World Battle II epics and performs it small.

Essentially the most highly effective second is a give up. The best heroes are utterly unusual individuals. The massive speech — one of the vital well-known speeches in historical past — isn’t offered as a speech.

And one might make the case, that for all that, the occasions depicted in Dunkirk saved humankind from hell.

Oppenheimer

How do you elevate the stakes from Dunkirk? Oppenheimer could be the story of the start of the top of the world. It’s extremely dense, however all the pieces is rooted in easy human emotion — love, ardour, embarrassment, worry. All of the issues that drive us towards irreversible errors.

Oppenheimer is a narrative of science gone mad, but additionally a narrative concerning the significance of tolerating unpopular views — from political thought to arguing in opposition to the bomb you helped construct. The forged, led by Cillian Murphy, is extraordinary, with Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr. particularly standing out. (Murphy, Downey, and Nolan all gained well-deserved Oscars, and Oppenheimer gained Finest Image.)

Somebody as soon as advised us Oppenheimer is the film we’ll nonetheless be speaking about in 100 years, and I couldn’t agree extra.

And if we take note of the movie, we might even nonetheless be right here in 100 years.

Preferred This Record of Christopher Nolan Motion pictures Ranked?

You may additionally like this listing of the 10 Gen X Movie Stars Gone to Quickly, together with The Darkish Knight star Heath Ledger.

Or this reply to a giant query about Oppenheimer.

Most important picture: The Status. Warner Bros.