The Complete Guide to Christopher Nolan’s Filmography (Ranked)

No living director has bent Hollywood to their will quite like Christopher Nolan. Twelve features. Zero franchises borrowed. Twelve original visions. We ranked every single one.

12. Following (1998)

The $6,000 debut. Rough around the edges, but every Nolan obsession is already here: time, identity, guilt.

11. Insomnia (2002)

A remake, and Nolan’s only one. Al Pacino sleep-deprived under Alaskan midnight sun. Underrated.

10. Batman Begins (2005)

The reset that saved the superhero genre. Everything you now expect from a comic-book origin story started here.

9. Tenet (2020)

The most divisive Nolan film. Ambition off the charts, coherence occasionally lost. Time will vindicate it.

8. Interstellar (2014)

The Nolan film with the most heart. Zimmer’s organ score alone earns it a top-ten spot in cinema history.

7. Dunkirk (2017)

A war film without heroes. A ticking clock without a plot. Pure cinematic language.

6. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

A messy, ambitious, sometimes-brilliant ending to the trilogy. Bane is one of cinema’s great screen villains.

5. Memento (2000)

The film that put Nolan on the map — backwards. Still a masterclass in structural storytelling.

4. The Prestige (2006)

His most novelistic film. Rewatch value is off the charts.

3. Inception (2010)

The blockbuster that thought it was an art film. And won.

2. Oppenheimer (2023)

Nolan’s Oscar-winning biographical epic. Perhaps his most disciplined work.

1. The Dark Knight (2008)

Not just the best Nolan. The best superhero film. Full stop.