EVERY CHRISTOPHER NOLAN MOVIE RANKED

Published 7/24/2026 

Written by: Braylon Mitchell 

With the recent release of "The Odyssey", here is my ranking of all thrirteen films in Christopher Nolan's filmography. 

#13

Following 

(1998)

This is an interesting, well-crafted directorial debut where you can clearly tell that Nolan has the juice. A great debut, however obviously (and somewhat unfairly) a league below the rest of his filmography. 

#12

Insomnia 

(2002) 

I haven't seen this film in six years. Out of all of Nolan's films it's the one that I remember the least about, but what I do remember, I recall really liking. When I first watched it, I had this film ranked higher. Seeing two major movie stars such as Al Pacino and Robin Williams, playing a serial killer role nonetheless, in a cat-and-mouse dynamic is great. Nolan does a skillful job at directing a detective mystery. Far from one of his most memorable films, but it's good. 

#11

Tenet

(2020)

Releasing smack dab in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, "Tenet" is a film best summarized by one of its best lines: "Don't try to understand it. Feel it." and whether or not you love the film or hate it, that's should be an agreeably fair assessment. This was the first newly released Christopher Nolan film that I got to see in the theater and the one that in the months leading up to its release durning quarantine prompted me to watch the entirety of his filmography, I really like some of the ideas its going for, and its craft is undeniable—but ultimately, this rarely comes to mind as one of Nolan's best. A good film, but not one of his best. 

#10

The Dark Knight Rises 

(2012) 

I think this film gets a worse wrap online than it deserves. This is a great blockbuster, it has some very riveting moments, and in many ways is a very solid conclusion to this trilogy—it just takes a few missteps, and ultimately its biggest "sin" is paling in comparison to its predecessor "The Dark Knight". 

#9

Dunkirk 

(2017)

This is an excellent war film, one of the best of the 2010s. What Nolan does here by approaching this event with a bird's eye view of having the ticking down of time as the main character of the film as opposed to a single character has significantly grown on me as the years have gone by and with subsequent rewatches. A signature of Nolan films is amazing editing, and this film has some of the most brilliant editing of any of his films. Hans Zimmer's score is top-tier as well. 

#8

Batman Begins

(2005)

"The Dark Knight" is so monumental that it eclipses the greatness of the film that preceded it, although as of the past couple years the lovers of "Batman Begins" have certainly became more vocal. It's almost no longer underrated, and I think that's a good thing. It's a fantastic superhero origin story. This film is awesome, what else can I say? 

#7

Memento

(2000)

Crazy to think that this is Nolan's sophomore feature, a two-time Academy Award nominated film (Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing) and instantly iconic mystery thriller that's pure originality and boldness in its non-linear structural still feels revolutionary. It's an excellent film, and up there as Nolan's best screenplay. 

#6

The Prestige 

(2006)

This is perhaps Christopher Nolan's most underrated film, a statement only countered by the fact that over the years many people have already caught on to that fact and think of this as one of his best. This was a film so underrated that it shifted into becoming properly rated as more and more people discovered it or came around to its greatness. This is the type of film I wish we would've gotten more of from Nolan—smaller in scale than what he'd suit himself to in the future yet still ambitious in its ideas and execution. It's got one of the very best, most shocking plot twists I've ever seen too. The power and brilliance of that twist kind of makes the entire movie. See ma, magicians can be cool! 

#5

Inception

(2010)

I feel like for as massive of a success "The Dark Knight" was in 2008, it wasn't until this film that the name Christopher Nolan was fully propelled into the cinematic stratosphere of becoming a household name and one of the most popular filmmakers in Hollywood—a vine of popularity that's been on a consistent upward growth since. This film is brilliant. Bold, original, intricate in structure and visual storytelling, and most of all it's a purely exciting cinematic snack. 

#4

The Odyssey 

(2026)

Am I a bit precocious in ranking Nolan's newest film so high only having seen it once (that'll change very soon) and only mere days after watching it? Sure, you could say that, but recency bias aside I truly do think that "The Odyssey" has already established itself as one of Nolan's finest accomplishments. It's one of the largest scale, cinematically epic films I've ever seen—staggering in craft, production, and visuals as well as thematically poignant in a way where I don't think anyone expected it to be as powerful as it is. As of now, I'm both predicting and rooting for Nolan to win his second Best Director Oscar. This is the type of film that'll only grow richer in my mind with time, years from now I could see myself and many others ranking this even higher on lists such as these. "The Odyssey" is a beast of a film. 

#3

The Dark Knight

(2008)

What can one say about "The Dark Knight" that hasn't been said a billion times over. This is a damn near perfect film, a film that's so popular, so beloved, so acclaimed that when the age old question "what's your favorite movie?" is asked, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if this was the most common/widespread answer—especially for gen z. Six years ago, this would've topped my ranking of Nolan's filmography. Placing it two slots lower doesn't mean I love it any less or think any less of it, it's just that my love of the two films above it manage to grow slightly stronger with time. This is the greatest superhero film of all time and one of the greatest blockbusters of all time. 

#2

Interstellar

(2014)

"Interstellar" is about as moving, thrilling, and expertly constructed as sci-fi film can get. With an arsenal of some of the most stunning visual effects you'll ever see, an absolutely gut-wrenching performance from Matthew McConaughey, and an all-time great film score from Hans Zimmer (his very best score, in my opinion) Nolan made this a true sci-fi epic, an epic that's vital grandness in large part comes from unapologetic sentimentality. This is literally a film about love transcending the bounds of time and space, a film that'd get tears to fall down the face of even the coldest of hearts—this film displays pure cinematic sentimentality, and when done right that's one of the most attractive and engrossing cinematic qualities to me. This is an incredible feat of filmmaking and sci-fi storytelling. 

#1

Oppenheimer

(2023)

Christopher Nolan's magnum opus. One of only two films of the 2020s decade so far that I've given one of my rare 10/10 ratings to. "Oppenheimer" shook me to my core, and continues to do so. I've seen this film five times, each time in IMAX, and with every rewatch my pure awe has only been enhanced. I find it hard to find the right words to express how impactful of a film this is. More so than any other film on this ranking, or most any other film I've ever seen in general, "Oppenheimer" is a three-hour straight rush of cinematic adrenaline. Harmoniously with some of the most skillful, incomparable editing in film history by the wonderful Jennifer Lame, a bone-chilling masterwork score by (the next John Williams) Ludwig Göransson, career-best cinematography from Hoyte van Hoytema, and a massive cast of celebrities and character actors alike—Christopher Nolan crafted this three-hour historical epic with the utmost understanding of how to provoke feeling out of his audience, an ability that makes your heart rate pulsate faster by watching a conversation or courtroom testimony more than you would watching an action or horror film. 

The tensity and fusion baked into this film is explosive. No film is perfect, this film isn't perfect—similar to the rest of Nolan's filmography, he has a problem with underwriting his female characters and unlike film-bro Nolan-heads I'm not afraid to acknowledge that—but overall, this is about as close as a film can get to being a "modern masterpiece". To me, this is the pinnacle of modern day filmmaking. 

"Oppenheimer" is by far my favorite film of Christopher Nolan's filmography, the best film of this decade so far, and up there as one of my all-time favorite films.