Christopher Nolan Movies, Ranked Best to Worst
Christopher Nolan has gone from making a backwards-walking indie thriller for pocket change to directing the biggest original blockbusters on the planet. That's a strange and pretty great career arc, and it means this list has a lot of ground to cover: puzzle-box noirs, superhero epics, a time-bending heist movie, a biopic about the atomic bomb, and one film shot partly on an actual real beach with actual real soldiers.
We ranked all 13 features (including the upcoming The Odyssey, based on what's known so far) using fan forums, critic reviews and our own opinions where the two don't line up. Disagree with where something landed? That's half the fun. Rank them yourself and see how close you get.
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SS Tier: The best he's ever made
The Dark Knight
The one that changed what a comic book movie could be taken seriously as. Heath Ledger's Joker is the reason people still quote this thing at parties, but the real trick is how Nolan turns a cops-and-robbers story into a feature-length argument about chaos versus order. Still the high water mark.
About The Dark Knight
The second entry in the Dark Knight Trilogy, pitting Batman against the Joker in a story about chaos and moral compromise. Heath Ledger won a posthumous Oscar for his role.
- Released
- 2008
- Award
- Oscar, Best Supporting Actor (Ledger)
Memento
Told backwards, and not as a gimmick, the structure is the point. Leonard's condition becomes the audience's condition too, you're piecing together the truth at the exact same pace he is. Low budget, airtight script, and still one of the smartest thrillers of its decade.
About Memento
A neo-noir told in reverse chronological order, following a man with short-term memory loss hunting his wife's killer. Based on a short story by Nolan's brother Jonathan.
- Released
- 2000
- Lead
- Guy Pearce
Inception
A heist movie set inside dreams that somehow never collapses under its own rules. The spinning top ending is still argued about, which tells you everything about how well this one sticks in people's heads. Hans Zimmer's BRAAAM alone spawned a decade of trailer imitators.
About Inception
An original sci-fi heist film about thieves who steal secrets by entering people's dreams. Known for its layered dream levels and ambiguous ending.
- Released
- 2010
- Lead
- Leonardo DiCaprio
AA Tier: Excellent, no real argument
Oppenheimer
Three hours of mostly men talking in rooms, and it's riveting the whole way through. The Trinity test sequence is the quietest loud scene Nolan has ever shot, no score, just dread. Cillian Murphy finally gets the lead role his whole Nolan career was building toward.
About Oppenheimer
A biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who led the Manhattan Project. Swept major awards including Best Picture.
- Released
- 2023
- Lead
- Cillian Murphy
- Award
- Oscar, Best Picture
The Prestige
Two magicians destroy each other over a trick, and the movie plays fair with its own twist the entire time if you're paying attention. Bale and Jackman are both doing career-best obsessive-rival work here. Rewatch it once you know the ending and it's a completely different movie.
About The Prestige
A rivalry between two magicians in Victorian London that escalates into obsession and sabotage. Based on the novel by Christopher Priest.
- Released
- 2006
- Leads
- Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman
Batman Begins
The origin story that made grounded superhero movies the default for the next fifteen years. It takes its time with Bruce Wayne's training and his fear, which is exactly why the payoff lands. Still has one of the better Scarecrow performances in the whole genre, fear gas and all.
About Batman Begins
A ground-up reboot of the Batman origin story, focusing on Bruce Wayne's training and fear of bats. Kicked off Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy.
- Released
- 2005
- Lead
- Christian Bale
Interstellar
Reaches for something genuinely huge, love and gravity as the only things that cross dimensions, and mostly earns it. The docking sequence set to Zimmer's organ score is pure white-knuckle filmmaking. Yes, the ending gets a little mushy, but by then it's earned some mush.
About Interstellar
A space epic about astronauts searching for a habitable planet as Earth dies, built around themes of time, gravity and love across dimensions.
- Released
- 2014
- Lead
- Matthew McConaughey
BB Tier: Very good, with caveats
Dunkirk
Three timelines, three speeds, cut together into something closer to pure sensation than a traditional war film. No real dialogue-driven character arcs, which is exactly why some viewers bounce off it. Hans Zimmer's ticking-clock score does more narrative work than most screenplays.
About Dunkirk
A World War II film depicting the Dunkirk evacuation across three intercut timelines: land, sea and air. Praised for its minimal dialogue and immersive sound design.
- Released
- 2017
- Runtime
- 106 minutes
Insomnia
Nolan's one true remake, and the most overlooked film on his resume. Al Pacino sleepwalking (literally, he can't sleep) through guilt in the Alaskan sun is a quietly great performance. It doesn't swing for the fences like his other work, and that restraint is actually refreshing.
About Insomnia
A remake of a Norwegian thriller, starring Al Pacino as a detective investigating a murder in Alaska while sleep-deprived by the midnight sun. Nolan's first studio film.
- Released
- 2002
- Leads
- Al Pacino, Robin Williams
Tenet
Fans are genuinely split on this one, some call it his most purely cinematic experiment, others call it an incomprehensible mess with muffled dialogue. We land somewhere in the middle: the inverted car chase is one of the best action sequences he's filmed, but you need a flowchart to explain the plot to a friend afterward.
About Tenet
A spy thriller involving time inversion, where objects and people can move backward through time. One of Nolan's most divisive films among fans.
- Released
- 2020
- Lead
- John David Washington
CC Tier: Solid but flawed
The Dark Knight Rises
The most argued-about Batman film in the trilogy. Bane's voice, the stock exchange heist, Bruce climbing out of the pit, there's a lot to love, but the plot holes (how did he get back to Gotham so fast?) are harder to wave away than in the first two. Still delivers a genuinely emotional sendoff for Alfred and Bruce.
About The Dark Knight Rises
The final film in the Dark Knight Trilogy, with Batman coming out of retirement to face Bane. Closes out Bruce Wayne's arc from the first two films.
- Released
- 2012
- Lead
- Christian Bale
DD Tier: Lesser Nolan, still watchable
Following
Shot on weekends with a cast of friends and a budget that barely existed, and you can feel every dollar of it. But the bones of everything Nolan would become, the nonlinear structure, the obsession with identity and control, are already here in miniature. Worth seeing once as a curiosity more than as a great film on its own.
About Following
Nolan's debut feature, a black-and-white noir about a writer who follows strangers around London. Made on a minuscule budget with a cast of non-professional actors.
- Released
- 1998
- Runtime
- ~70 minutes
FF Tier: The one that doesn't belong here yet
The Odyssey
Unreleased as of this writing, so there's no film here to actually judge yet. It lands at the bottom only because everything else on this list has earned its spot and this one hasn't had the chance to. Expect it to move fast once it's actually in theaters.
About The Odyssey
Nolan's upcoming adaptation of Homer's epic poem, with an ensemble cast. Not yet released at time of writing.
How we ranked them
We weighed critical reception, how these films are talked about years later, rewatchability, and where fan consensus actually lands versus where it's split. Box office and awards count for something but don't decide placement on their own, plenty of great Nolan work underperformed on first release. Where the fanbase genuinely disagrees (we're looking at you, Dark Knight Rises and Tenet), we say so and explain which side we land on.
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Rank these yourselfFAQ
What is Christopher Nolan's best movie?
Most critics and fans point to The Dark Knight, though Inception and Memento get serious votes too. It comes down to whether you value cultural impact or structural ambition more.
What is Christopher Nolan's worst movie?
Among finished, released films, Following tends to rank lowest, mostly because of its tiny budget and rough edges, not because the ideas are bad.
Is Tenet underrated or overrated?
Depends who you ask. It's one of the most divisive Nolan films: some see a bold experiment in time inversion, others see a confusing slog. We rank it in the middle for exactly that reason.
Is The Dark Knight Rises as good as The Dark Knight?
Most consensus says no. It closes out the trilogy with real emotional weight but has more plot logic problems than its predecessor.
When is The Odyssey coming out?
It's an upcoming Nolan project based on Homer's epic [CHECK release date], so it hasn't been reviewed or ranked on merit yet.
More rankings
Image credits
- The Dark KnightCover: Wikipedia · Source
- MementoCover: Wikipedia · Source
- InceptionCover: Wikipedia · Source
- OppenheimerPhoto: DatBot, CC0 (Wikimedia Commons) · License · Source
- The PrestigeCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Batman BeginsCover: Wikipedia · Source
- InterstellarCover: Wikipedia · Source
- DunkirkCover: Wikipedia · Source
- InsomniaCover: Wikipedia · Source
- TenetCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Dark Knight RisesCover: Wikipedia · Source
- FollowingCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The OdysseyCover: Wikipedia · Source