Christopher Nolan is undoubtedly one of the best filmmakers working today. He has directed 11 critically acclaimed feature films and 4 short films. Christopher Nolan’s movies are well known for their complex concepts and their storytelling style. Chris Nolan started his career in 1998 with his first-ever feature film “Following” which he made with a budget of $6000.
And since then he’s been recognized as a director that makes movies that are wildly successful at the box office. His movies have grossed over US$5 Billion worldwide and have won 11 Academy Awards and been nominated 36 times. Even though Christopher Nolan has made many incredibly critically acclaimed films, he still hasn’t won an Oscar for best director. Let us hope he’ll at least get a nomination for his next movie
‘OPPENHEIMER’. Ranking his filmography is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do because there are no bad films in his filmography; every one of them is definitely above average. So here are the 11 Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked.
All Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked
11. Insomnia
2002 ‧ Thriller/Drama
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Hilary Swank, Robin Williams, Al Pacino, Maura Tierney, Martin Donovan, Paul Dooley
IMDb Ratings: 7.2/10
Insomnia is a great thriller movie about two homicide detectives who goes to a northern town where the sun doesn’t set, to solve a murder case of a local teenage girl. Al Pacino plays the role of one of the detectives and Robin Williams plays the role of the murderer.
The movie has a great, unpredictable story that’s full of tension, it keeps the audience engaged until the end. Al Pacino delivers a great performance as detective Will Dormer. Insomnia grossed over $113M worldwide. Being last on this list doesn’t mean Insomnia is a bad movie, just like I said Insomnia is a movie that’s definitely above average.
10. Following
1998 ‧ Thriller/Crime
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Jeremy Theobald, John Nolan, Lucy Russell, Alex Haw, Emma Thomas, Tristan Martin
IMDb Ratings: 7.5/10
Following is the first-ever feature film of Christopher Nolan which he made with some friends and a budget of just $6000. This movie tells a story about an unnamed young writer played by Jeremy Theobald who follows people on street to take inspiration for his stories from them, and he meets a thief whom he later teams up with.
The story is interesting but also very confusing at the same time. It’s really hard to follow what’s really happening, but the big reveal hit the audience at the end then everything makes sense. Even though the movie has a small runtime like 1 hour and 10 minutes it gives the audience a truly amazing experience. Following was screened at a handful of theaters and it grossed almost $50,000 at the box office.
9. Batman Begins
2005 ‧ Action/Fantasy
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Cillian Murphy, Katie Holmes, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman
IMDb Ratings: 8.2/10
Everyone was really excited to see how Chris Nolan was going to bring the iconic superhero Batman into the silver screen in his own style. Even though some people think this movie is a little bit boring many audiences believe Chris Nolan laid a perfect foundation for Christian Bale’s Batman in this amazing origin story.
The movie shows how Bruce Wayne turns into Batman and also introduces us to some iconic batman villains like Ra’s Al Ghul and Ducard along the way. This is still considered to be one of the best superhero origin stories by many people. Batman Begins became a success at the box office by grossing over $373M worldwide.
8. Tenet
2020 ‧ Action/Sci-fi
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Elizabeth Debicki, Robert Pattinson, John David Washington, Kenneth Branagh, Aaron Taylor-Johnso
IMDb Ratings: 7.4/10
Tenet is the latest Sci-fi/thriller movie by Chris Nolan. Tenet follows the story of the Protagonist, who journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real-time. John David Washington plays the main character who is known as ‘The Protaganist’ throughout the movie.
The movie has a complex time-related theory that is really hard to follow. So because of that, this movie has received many mixed reviews, but I believe it is a masterpiece in its own way. Tenet has beautiful visuals that are very pleasing to look at. Even though it was released only in theaters during the pandemic Tenet managed to gross over $360M worldwide.
7. The Dark Knight Rises
2012 ‧ Action/Thriller
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Tom Hardy, Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard and more
IMDb Ratings: 8.4/10
The Dark Knight Rises is the final movie of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. The movie follows Christian Bale’s Batman who is now resting and severely injured after the events of The Dark Knight and how he tries to fight criminals in Gotham city after that. It also brings Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman and Tom Hardy’s Bane to the big screen.
This manages to jam a lot of events and characters into one single movie and still make the story really interesting. The movie gives Christian Bale’s Batman a perfect ending. Dark knight rises became one of the most highest-grossing comic book movies by grossing over $1B at the worldwide box office.
6. The Prestige
2006 ‧ Mystery/Mystery
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie, Michael Caine, Rebecca Hall
IMDb Ratings: 8.5/10
Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige is the adaptation of the book that also goes by the same name. It follows a story about two fellow magicians that become enemies and start seeking revenge from each other. With Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, The Prestige includes some A-list actors as its cast. The movie has a simple story but is told in a kind of complex way. And it really keeps the audience surprising and engaged until the end of it. It grosses over $109M at the worldwide box office becoming the 8th highest-grossing Nolan movie.
5. Dunkirk
2017 ‧ War/Action
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Harry Styles, Cillian Murphy, Fionn Whitehead, Tom Hardy, Jack Lowden
IMDb Ratings: 7.8/10
Dunkirk is a war movie based on real events that took place during the Second World war. It tells the story of how soldiers from the British Empire, Belgium, and France tried to evacuate from the town of Dunkirk during an arduous battle with German forces. The story is told in 3 different parts in a nonlinear style.
But Chris Nolan still managed to make the story really interesting with his directing style. Famous singer/songwriter Harry Styles made his acting debut in this movie alongside its amazing cast. Dunkirk is also filled with beautiful visuals from start to finish. It won 3 Academy Awards at the 90th Academy Awards for Best Editing, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing. Dunkirk also became a success at the box office by grossing over $527M worldwide.
4. Memento
2000 ‧ Mystery/Thriller
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Stephen Tobolowsky, Mark Boone Junior and more
IMDb Ratings: 8.4/10
Christopher Nolan’s 2000’s thriller Memento is the movie that really put him on the map. Memento tells a story about a man who suffers from a very rare condition named anterograde amnesia (Basically, what it does is that it decreases your ability to retain new information), so the story tells how he tries to remember a traumatic event that happened to him by piecing together the information around him.
Guy Pierce delivers a wonderful performance as Leonard, the main character. This is a quite simple story but told in an extremely complex way. Even though the movie wasn’t a huge success at the box office (grossed only $40M) it managed to earn Chris Nolan and Jonathan Nolan an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay also earning them a name in the industry.
3. Inception
2010 ‧ Action/Sci-fi
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard and more
IMDb Ratings: 8.8/10
Christopher Nolan’s 2010’s hit Inception is a sci-fi/thriller that tells a story about a man named Cobb, who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology, and how he gets into the biggest mission of his life when offered to wipe clean his criminal history in exchange. The movie has an incredible cast that includes some A-list actors. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a spectacular performance as Cobb.
The story of this movie is very unique and it seizes the attention of the audience very easily. Inception became a wild success at the box office by grossing over $836M worldwide. It is also the highest-grossing non-franchise movie for Christopher Nolan.
2. The Dark Knight
2008 ‧ Action/Adventure
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and more
IMDb Ratings: 9/10
The Dark Knight is the second movie of The Dark Knight trilogy. This movie broke many records and achieved what many superhero movies failed to achieve. The story tells how Batman meets the most iconic Batman Villain ‘Joker’ played by the late actor Heath Ledger. Christopher Nolan does a perfect job portraying the iconic relationship between Batman and Joke. Also It is the highest IMDb rated Christopher Nolan Movies of all time.
Heath Ledger’s incredible performance earned him an Oscar as the best supporting actor at the 81th Academy Awards, also becoming the first and only actor in a superhero movie to receive an Academy Award. It is also the first-ever superhero movie to gross $1B at the box office. The Dark Knight is still considered to be the greatest comic book movie/superhero movie of all time.
1. Interstellar
2014 ‧ Sci-fi/Adventure
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Mackenzie Foy and more
IMDb Ratings: 8.6/10
Interstellar is a sci-fi movie that tells a story about how the future of the entire human species depends on 2 astronauts when they leave earth to find a new home for humans because of the inhabitable condition of the earth. It stars some of the greatest actors working in Hollywood today in the main roles. Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway play the main astronauts. Even though the story is about saving the Human species the theme of Interstellar is love, it’s about how the relationship between a father and a daughter saves an entire species from extinction.
Interstellar has one of the most emotional Father-Daughter relationships you’ll ever see in a movie. Interstellar is a movie that takes you on a journey to a completely different world for almost 3 hours, even though some concepts are hard to understand it’s really interesting to watch. The visuals and Hans Zimmer’s score make this movie even better. Interstellar became a success at the box office by grossing over $700M worldwide. so, here the list for “All Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked” ends.
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