12 Best Christopher Nolan Movies

A superhero film that transcends the genre. Christian Bale is strong as Batman, but Heath Ledger's Joker steals the show with an iconic, terrifying performance. Thrilling, morally complex and unmatched in its impact. This is Nolan's absolute peak.

Dreams within dreams, a top-tier cast and action that outsmarts your logic. Inception keeps you thinking about reality and illusion for days afterward. Nolan at his most creative and spectacular.

A father travels through wormholes to save humanity, but above all wants to see his daughter again. Nolan combines astrophysics with heartbreaking emotion. The result feels both grand and intimate.

The story of a man with no short-term memory searching for his wife's killer. Told in reverse order, leaving you as confused as the protagonist. Original and still stunning.

A modern classic. Cillian Murphy shines as the father of the atomic bomb in a film that pairs scientific genius with moral nightmares. Impressive, grand and personal at the same time.

Two rival magicians (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) become entangled in a deadly obsession. Nolan plays his own game with illusion and truth, and the finale still astonishes. An elegant mix of mystery and tragedy.

Not a traditional war film but a sensory experience. With three storylines, land, sea and air, and hardly any dialogue, Nolan depicts the Dunkirk evacuation as a nerve-racking thriller. Tense from start to finish.

A spy epic in which time literally moves backward. Tenet may be Nolan's most challenging film, with action scenes that make your head spin. Not everyone could follow the plot, but visually and conceptually it's pure ambition on the big screen.

After years of campy Batman films, Nolan gave us a dark, realistic reinterpretation of the Caped Crusader's origin. Christian Bale convinces as Bruce Wayne, and the tone set here has had a lasting influence on the superhero genre.

The finale of the Batman trilogy. Tom Hardy's Bane is a threat that pushes Gotham to the brink and forces Bruce Wayne to reinvent himself. Perhaps not as groundbreaking as its predecessor, but a grand and gripping farewell to a hero.

In this remake of the Norwegian thriller, Al Pacino plays a detective investigating a murder in Alaska. The constant daylight and his growing sleeplessness make the film oppressive. Nolan shows he can bring tension and psychological depth to a more conventional script.

Nolan's debut is small, black and white and made on almost no budget. Yet you can already see his trademarks: a fascination with deception, time and identity. Not a film you'll rewatch a thousand times, but the blueprint for what was to come.