All 13 Christopher Nolan Movies, Ranked

Let's defy the gods.

With the release of The Odyssey, we now have thirteen feature-length Christopher Nolan films. Nolan is widely considered to be the best director working in Hollywood right now, and every time he releases a new movie, it feels like a true cinematic event. The Odyssey is the ultimate example of that: a three-hour historical fantasy film based on one of the world's oldest stories is breaking box office records. I finally binged through his whole filmography, so here is my ranking of the whole darn thing.

13. Tenet

Christopher Nolan's biggest swing...and biggest miss

Tenet is the only movie from Christopher Nolan that I would say I actively dislike. This movie is so close to being such a cool sci-fi thriller, but it's too smart for it's own good. Nolan's movies are always like puzzle boxes that you slowly unlock throughout the runtime, but Tenet is like a puzzle that you can't solve. From the get-go, it's confusing. You are dropped into this spy story that is convoluted and messy even before all the backwards time stuff starts happening. John David Washington's main character doesn't even have a name. Nolan has stated that the movie is intended to be more experiential than comprehensive on first viewing, but that's just not how I tend to enjoy movies. The visuals of the time inversion are amazing and there is enough plot to keep you somewhat engaged, but Tenet feels like a movie where you are lost from the minute it starts...and you are never really able to find it.

12. Following

A shockingly solid low-budget thriller with some mind-bending twists

It's always interesting to watch a famous director's first feature, because they are usually middling with all the staples of what makes the director great down the line. Following was made on a shoestring budget of $6,000. It's got a brief runtime of seventy minutes. It uses all of its resources wisely to deliver a wonderfully competent thriller that is, of course, limited by its production quality but still manages to have the intricate Nolan puzzle box effect that makes him so great. The film uses simple but effective tactics to really get you on the edge of your seat. Nolan's quiet, eerie cinematography and direction make this movie feel like a bad dream, and I mean that in the best way possible. It delivers on its thrills all the way to the final reveals, where some shocking twists cement this as a rock-solid debut for Hollywood's top working director.

11. Insomnia

Nolan's most straightforward movie is, to no surprise, his least memorable

Insomnia is the Nolan movie that feels the least Nolan-esc. It is a remake of a Norwegian film from about five years earlier, and I honestly think that's what holds it back. Sure, Nolan has made movies based on other properties, but this is the only film of his directly based off of a different film. I think that put a constraint on how much Nolan could play with the timeline and the unfolding of the actually story of Insomnia. To me, this film feels like a decent enough detective thriller. Robin Williams is deeply unsettling as the primary villain, and Al Pacino gives a typically great performance as the hard boiled cop hunting the killer. I love the uncomfortable Alaskan setting - I think that's the thing that gives the film it's own unique flavor. Where films like Cape Fear or shows like True Detective feel like Southern Gothic because of their swampy, grimy aesthetic, Insomnia has a Northern Gothic feel to it based on the lighting and the cold, insomniac feeling of this small fishing town in Alaska. I wish the actual story could match the horrific beauty of the aesthetic, but as it stands, this is a good yet somewhat forgettable detective movie.

10. Dunkirk

An exciting, unique but emotionally distant war film

Where Tenet seemed like it tried and failed to be more of an experience than a story, Dunkirk feels like it tries and succeeds at that. This movie is designed to feel like one long, relentless scene. It is edited and scored in a way that feels like it is trying to throw you into this survivalist war zone and make you uncomfortable and tense. The film shows us three different perspectives that take place over various periods of time until they converge in the final twenty minutes of the film. There really isn't much of a story - this is a movie that is trying to give you the experience of various soldiers in this ticking clock scenario of trying to escape Dunkirk, and it succeeds in doing that. I appreciate this movie more than I actively enjoy it. My personal preference is a story with character arcs and emotions, whereas Dunkirk feels like a self-contained 100-minute war scene that just tries to throw you right in the middle of the chaos.

9. The Dark Knight Rises

A very flawed but very satisfying finale to the greatest superhero trilogy of all time

This movie feels like the polar opposite of Dunkirk. Whereas Dunkirk tries to make an experience out of a single situation and does it very tightly without much story, The Dark Knight Rises feels so epic and grand that it becomes slightly bloated. The nearly three-hour conclusion to Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy tries to adapt so much of classic Batman at once: The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall, No Man's Land, and more, and sometimes, it just bites off more than it can chew. It gets the huge moments right, though, and that's what matters. The ultimate ending for Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne is incredibly satisfying. Tom Hardy's Bane is, in my opinion, still one of the best cinematic supervillains of all time. He breaks Batman physically and mentally, and that just creates this sense of stakes and danger that you want from a finale to a trilogy. It's undeniably flawed, but The Dark Knight Rises has so many great, memorable moments that feel like the right ending to this version of Batman. As I said, I prefer a bloated, epic story like this to a tight, tense experience like Dunkirk.

8. The Prestige

A thrilling look at obsession with constant twists and mind-bending concepts

The Prestige is a weird film, because it came out right after Batman Begins, but it was actually made before then, so it's really the last of Nolan's smaller films before he transitions to making huge blockbusters. It's thematically rich and looks at the price of obsession in a really interesting way through these two rival magicians. Obviously, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are two of the strongest actors in Hollywood, so pitting them against each other is just incredible. I love the late 19th century London setting with the earliest of technologies starting to engulf the world. The combination of real science with the fantasy of the magic performed makes for a really unique vibe as the mystery of what's really going on with these two magicians escalates. I think this movie is super fun and has everything you want from a classic Nolan thriller. Personal taste holds it back for me: some of his other stuff is just more mind-blowing than The Prestige, but I still think this is a great movie.

7. Memento

Nolan's true first movie shows the immense talent that this guy had from the start

How do you make an impact on Hollywood from the get-go? You make a movie told backwards. Christopher Nolan's first studio feature is a standard mystery thriller in every way except for one: the narrative unfolds in reverse. Because the main character has short-term memory loss, the movie plays with that and makes it so you don't know what happened in the short-term. Every sequence feels like it's own self-contained mystery because you are asking how Leonard got in these situations in the first place. Every sequence also has some sort of payoff because you get the previous sequence's events explained by where Leonard ends up at the end. It is a mind-bending experience the first time you watch it, and it shows how beautifully Nolan is able to play with time in his movies. This is where the Nolan puzzle-box filmmaking really started. Memento is just such a unique and thrilling movie to watch because of how cleverly it's narrative is crafted. It's not the most re-watchable film because the narrative done linearly is pretty straightforward, but it's still a great staple of Nolan's filmography.

6. Oppenheimer

The Best Picture-winning epic about the atomic bomb still has all the staples of Nolan

After 25 years of movie-making, Christopher Nolan finally got his Best Director statue and a Best Picture win with the biographical story of J. Robert Oppenheimer. What makes this movie work so well is how it blends philosophical and moral questions about humanity with the real life story of the Manhattan Project and the building of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer's life is so interesting, and Nolan tackles basically every side of it with the precision and craft we've come to expect from his filmmaking. The Trinity test sequence is one of the most awe-inspiring and horrifying moments I've seen in a theater since COVID, and that just speaks to how Oppenheimer works as a whole. Beyond just Nolan's contributions, Cillian Murphy gives one of the great performances of the 21st century as the haunted man behind the bomb. He plays this role with such subtlety, but you can see the weight of all of his guilt about building this bomb behind his eyes. This movie is a nearly three-hour film that mostly takes place in senate hearings and science meetings...and it is one of the most thrilling, exciting, and iconic films of the last ten years. That just goes to show you how impressive Christopher Nolan is as a filmmaker.

5. Batman Begins

The kickoff to the trilogy is the quintessential Batman origin story

Batman is my favorite superhero, and part of that is because his origin story is so compelling. Well, when you bring that origin story to the big screen with Nolan behind the camera, magic ensues. Batman Begins often gets overshadowed by The Dark Knight, but this is still one of the great superhero movies ever made. This film set the stage for what came next. This feels like the Batman movie where he is the focus the most, and for that, it gets huge props. Bruce Wayne is front and center here, and I am absolutely in love with Christian Bale's version. Begins feels like a true character study of Batman - what could drive someone to push themselves to the mental and physical limit to become a symbol of hope for the innocent and a symbol of utter, paralyzing fear for criminals? By grounding that question in a reality very similar to our own, we got a gritty, realistic-feeling caped crusader that goes through a true incredible transformation to become the one and only Dark Knight. Watching Bruce go from a scared, traumatized kid to the ninja detective that becomes a symbol of hope for Gotham is just such a compelling and beautiful story, and Batman Begins gives it to the audience with all of the thematic richness and timeline shenanigans that you get in every single Nolan film.

4. The Odyssey

The epic of all epics is tackled to near perfection through Nolan's unique vision

Nolan's newest film is a cinematic achievement. Homer's Odyssey is the basis for Western storytelling. Adapting it to the big screen as a true, epic blockbuster is a monumental task. Not only did Nolan do it - he did it to near perfection. From the first frame, you are immersed in Ancient Greece, a "time of apparent magic" (as the first title card says). Nolan is able to bring the grandiose, sprawling nature of The Odyssey to life in a truly mesmerizing way. Every single shot feels like a painting. Every single fantastical creature and occurrence feels real because of the practical filmmaking behind the camera. And yet, in all of the insanity of Odysseus's journey and the epic scale and size of The Odyssey, it never fails to lose its themes about regret, guilt, shame, and, in the end, redemption. We see a broken man questioning the actions of his life as he goes on the ultimate journey. The Odyssey is arguably the most influential story of all time. Without it, who knows if we would even have the movies we have today? Giving this story justice on the big screen is nearly impossible...and yet Nolan did it with a gritty realism and a practical grace that makes it feel like the sprawling, gorgeous epic it should be.

3. Inception

Dazzling visuals and truly unique, mind-bending concepts cement this as a modern classic

The ultimate Nolan puzzle box movie is, of course, Inception. What is the best way to take the concept of a heist movie and make it incredibly clever? Have all the heists take place inside of dreams. Inception is arguably Nolan's most complex film, but it's also his most satisfying if you are able to stick with all of its lofty ideas. Dreams within dreams, plans within plans...there's so much going on here, but when it ties all together, it comes together as one of the most exciting and creative films ever made. Nolan's insistence on using practical effects pays off here as much as it does in The Odyssey. Dream logic is weird, and Inception isn't afraid to have crazy visuals inside of these dreams...and yet, they still feel real. Watching cities fold on top of each other should be a cartoonish image, but because it's Christopher Nolan, it's awe-inspiring. And, like any good Nolan movie, the ambitious nature of the story does not take away from the rich, raw themes at the center of the story. Cobb is a man suffering from the trauma of his wife's death, and through these heists and dreams, we see how his life unfolded. The way that Christopher Nolan takes these epic, ambitious ideas and grounds them in our reality with characters we can relate to is why he is the best working director today.

2. Interstellar

An epic, emotional odyssey through space and time that is still somehow underrated

Some people aren't fans of Interstellar, and I simply do not understand that. This is, in my opinion, one of the best science fiction movies ever made and arguably the best hard sci-fi movie. Interstellar is huge and fantastical, but it still has this grounded, emotional story at the core that makes it feel personal. The gorgeous visuals of the various planets as well as the space sequences (man, that wormhole scene is just fantastic) show a director at the top of his game. The absolutely gut-wrenching finale as Coop tries to tell the past version of himself to stay with Murph is still one of the most powerful moments in any movie I've seen. Hans Zimmer delivers what is, in my opinion, his best score of all time here. Cornfield Chase is an absolutely gorgeous, somber anthem that feels like it parallels exactly what Interstellar is trying to say. This movie has the epic ambitions of a typical Nolan movie, but it delivers more on the emotions than most do. It is one of my absolute favorite movies. The fact that it is number two on this list goes to show how great of a filmmaker Chris Nolan is.

1. The Dark Knight

The greatest superhero movie ever made...and my personal favorite movie of all time

I've said it a million times on this blog, but I will say it again: The Dark Knight is my favorite movie of all time. This is the amalgamation of everything I love about movies. Look, you're working with pretty good source material, because Batman and the Joker are arguably the greatest hero-villain duo ever made, but The Dark Knight may contribute to that statement. This movie explores what happens when the natural order is upset by something so chaotic and so horrifying that the good guys have to turn to questionable methods to get by. Heath Ledger's Joker is iconic for a reason. I can't say anything about him that hasn't already been said. He is the perfect movie villain. He's the perfect antithesis to Bale's Batman. And he's the ultimate adaptation of the Clown Prince of Crime. Even beyond how incredible the Joker is and how he absolutely makes the movie, The Dark Knight manages to grip you by the throat from the very beginning and never let up. It's this slow, unsettling build of tension as Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Dent are pushed further and further towards the insanity of the Joker. The Dark Knight grounds Batman in a crime thriller that explores philosophical questions about what heroism actually means. It's thought-provoking, it's gorgeous, it's ridiculous amounts of fun...it's a special film. It takes two of the greatest fictional characters of all time and pits them against each other with layered complexities all throughout. I love Christopher Nolan and I think his entire filmography is incredible...but nothing is ever going to top the absolute, crystal-clear perfection of The Dark Knight.