The Right Order To Watch Each Christopher Nolan Film

26 years into his profession, Christopher Nolan is charging alongside on probably the most outstanding artistic and industrial runs the movie trade has ever seen. Since he burst onto the scene with his breakthrough second function “Memento” in 2001, all he is finished is make one critically acclaimed field workplace hit after one other. Contemplating the sizable budgets he is grow to be accustomed to working with, it is a successful streak that any of our big-swing maestros cannot match. Even Steven Spielberg skilled vital and/or industrial turbulence at this level in his profession, with movies like “1941,” “Empire of the Solar,” “At all times,” and “Hook.” However except for “Tenet” (which might’ve been a blockbuster had the Covid pandemic not stored the overwhelming majority of moviegoers out of theaters over the summer time of 2020), all of Nolan’s movies have doubled their manufacturing budgets on the international field workplace, and are at present rated contemporary at Rotten Tomatoes.

How greatest to understand what Nolan has completed since 1998? You may’t do significantly better than an entire revisit of all his motion pictures — or, when you’ve by some means denied your self the pleasure, a first-time journey by way of his cinema. In what order do you have to view his 12 accomplished options? You may determine chronologically is the best way to go, however there’s a extra attention-grabbing and maybe edifying strategy.

If you wish to maximize your Christopher Nolan viewing expertise, you must select this path:

“Memento” (2000)

“Following” (1998)

“Insomnia” (2002)

“Batman Begins” (2005)

“The Darkish Knight” (2008)

“The Darkish Knight Rises” (2012)

“The Status” (2006)

“Inception” (2010)

“Interstellar” (2014)

“Dunkirk” (2017)

“Tenet” (2020)

“Oppenheimer” (2023)

Although there are way more prolific filmmakers on the market (like Steven Soderbergh, who has two options hitting theaters inside months of one another in 2025), Nolan has labored steadily all through his profession. He is by no means gone greater than three years between motion pictures, which is concerning the span of time it takes to develop and mount movies on the huge bodily scale of “Dunkirk” and “Tenet.” On the age of 54, he is exhibiting no indicators of slowing or cutting down, as evidenced by his just-announced 2026 epic adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

So why not simply go in chronological order like a sane individual?

The primary four-film leg of the above order is supposed to duplicate how moviegoers found and got here to know Nolan’s visible storytelling aesthetic. You may by no means be capable of absolutely recapture the utter shock and awe of “Memento” quietly turning up in theaters throughout the spring of 2001, however if you throw it on simply think about that you just walked into some modestly funds neo-noir starring Man Pearce (greatest recognized on the time for “L.A. Confidential”) and Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity from “The Matrix), and having it slowly daybreak on you that you just’re watching a superbly constructed puzzle of a film. Nolan was a no one at this level. So once we discovered that this was his second function, all of us went wild attempting to trace down the then hard-to-find “Following” — which, whereas a a lot smaller, much less narratively formidable movie, was nonetheless spectacular. 

Then got here Nolan’s first crack at a Hollywood image with an easy, but beautifully crafted remake of the Norwegian thriller “Insomnia,” at which level we realized this man had the command of craft to thrive on the studio degree — and, through “Batman Begins,” the smarts and ability to play within the franchise sandbox with out dropping his artistic id.

At this level, you may wish to knock out Nolan’s subsequent two Batman motion pictures as a result of, whereas visually gorgeous and nicely above common for superhero motion pictures, this trilogy is the least attention-grabbing portion of his profession. So after “The Darkish Knight Rises,” you may backtrack to 2006’s “The Status,” his intricately plotted magician thriller that some Nolan-philes think about to be his most interesting work to this point. Then you definately’ll transfer on to his different Batman-break film, “Inception,” which emphatically proved Nolan was a brand-name filmmaker who may ship blockbuster crowds with out the comedian e-book hook.

Lastly, you may proceed chronologically with “Interstellar” (my decide for his greatest at current), “Dunkirk” (which ought to’ve been his first Oscar), “Tenet” and the conscience-pricking, Academy Award-winning biopic “Oppenheimer.” If Nolan is not your favourite filmmaker by this level, you may no less than be capable of admire the gorgeous assurance with which he strikes from epic to epic. David Lean could not do it any higher. And it appears like “The Odyssey” simply is perhaps his most large enterprise but. Critical moviegoers are fortunate to have him.