The Odyssey is the latest film from acclaimed director Christopher Nolan, who has been pumping cinematic classics since the late 1990s. Interest in The Odyssey is sky-high, so viewers out there may be wondering where they can see the rest of Nolan’s catalog. Some of his movies are available to watch on streaming services you probably already subscribe to, and others may require you to fork over some extra cash.
Here’s where you can stream each of the 12 movies Nolan has directed, ranked worst to best just for fun.
12. Tenet (2020)
Buy or rent it on Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV
Nolan’s 2020 spy drama Tenet is about a CIA operative (John David Washington) who must master “time inversion” — moving backwards through time — to stop a Russian oligarch from destroying the world. The movie is visually amazing and is written in a way that makes it feel like a puzzle the audience has to solve, both common tropes of Christopher Nolan movies. But Nolan takes it a bit far here, and Tenet can feel more confusing than intriguing.
Like several of the movies on this list, Tenet isn’t currently streaming on any major streaming service along with the price of a subscription; you’ll have to buy or rent it.
- Release Date
-
September 3, 2020
- Runtime
-
150 minutes
- Director
-
Christopher Nolan
-
John David Washington
Protagonist
-
-
-
11. Insomnia (2002)
Buy or rent it on Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV
A remake of the Norwegian movie of the same name, Insomnia is about a detective (Al Pacino) who plays a cat-and-mouse game with a man (Robin Williams) who may have murdered a teenaged girl in a small Alaska town. Pacino and Williams are both terrific, and the movie is an effective thriller, but it’s ranked low on this list because it doesn’t feel like a distinctly Christopher Nolan movie. This was his first time directing a big-budget Hollywood film and he was still finding his voice.
- Release Date
-
May 24, 2002
- Runtime
-
118 Minutes
- Director
-
Christopher Nolan
10. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Stream it on HBO Max
The climax to his Dark Knight trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises doesn’t quite measure up to the two Batman movies Nolan made before it. The plot is overstuffed, there are a few too many contrivances, and the movie runs long. Still, it’s handsomely made and gives the trilogy a worthy ending.
- Release Date
-
July 17, 2012
- Runtime
-
165 minutes
- Director
-
Christopher Nolan
-
Christian Bale
Bruce Wayne
-
Gary Oldman
Commissioner Gordon
-
-
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Blake
9. Interstellar (2014)
Stream it on Hulu or Paramount+
Christopher Nolan loves to make movies that have the audience questioning reality. Interstellar is one of those. It’s a sci-fi tale about a man (Matthew McConaughey) who goes on a mission into deep space to try and find a new planet for humanity to settle on after Earth suffers a catastrophic blight. The plot also engages directly with the mysteries of quantum physics, and pontificates at length about the true nature of love.
Nolan is dealing with big ideas here, and much of it works. But some of it gets away from him, which is easy to excuse. It’s difficult to be mad at a movie that swings this hard, even if it doesn’t quite hit a home run.
8. The Prestige (2006)
Stream it on Hulu
Nolan made The Prestige right before he became a household name; in some ways, it’s his forgotten masterpiece. It’s about a pair of magicians (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) who have an obsessive rivalry with each other. Full of twists and turns, it’s not quite as ambitious as some of Nolan’s later offerings, but it’s great fun.
7. Following (1998)
Stream it on AMC+
Nolan’s first movie, Following is about an aspiring writer (Jeremy Theobald) who starts following people to get ideas. One day, he follows a burglar and ends up getting caught up in a web of theft and manipulation.
At only 69 minutes, Following is a tight, riveting watch. Nolan’s fondness for jumping around in time is already present at this early stage in his career.
- Release Date
-
April 2, 1999
- Runtime
-
69 minutes
- Director
-
Christopher Nolan
- Writers
-
Christopher Nolan
6. Batman Begins (2005)
Stream it on HBO Max
The first movie in Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy brings Batman (Christian Bale) down to earth. The movie is gritty, realistic, and deadly serious, a new vision for Batman that would prove extremely popular. Sure, some of the fight scenes are cut a bit too spastically, but this movie is the start of something very special.
- Release Date
-
June 15, 2005
- Runtime
-
140 minutes
- Director
-
Christopher Nolan
-
Christian Bale
Bruce Wayne / Batman
-
-
-
Katie Holmes
Rachel Dawes
5. Dunkirk (2017)
Buy or rent it on Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV
Christopher Nolan makes a war movie, and overall it’s a smashing success. Dunkirk depicts the evacuation of Allied troops from the beaches of France in 1940. Dunkirk lacks somewhat in compelling central characters, but the point is to get swept away by the visuals and the tone, which is easy when Nolan has gone to great pains to recreate the scene in exacting detail. Dunkirk may be the most immersive of Nolan’s movies.
- Release Date
-
July 21, 2017
- Runtime
-
106 minutes
- Director
-
Christopher Nolan
-
-
-
-
Kenneth Branagh
Commander Bolton
4. Inception (2010)
Buy or rent it on Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV
Inception is one of Nolan’s better attempts at making a mind-bending movie. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a thief who specializes in stealing ideas from people by infiltrating their dreams. Nolan depicts the dream worlds in spellbinding fashion, and the story is as fast-paced and tense as any crime thriller.
- Release Date
-
July 16, 2010
- Runtime
-
148 minutes
- Director
-
Christopher Nolan
-
-
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Arthur
-
-
3. Oppenheimer (2023)
Buy or rent it on Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV
Once again, Christopher Nolan tries something different — this time a biopic — and crushes it. Oppenheimer is about nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), known as the father of the atomic bomb. The Trinity test sequence is one of the best scenes Nolan has ever filmed.
Beyond that, Nolan digs into areas of Oppenheimer’s life people may not be expecting. This movie is a talky biopic with long stretches in black and white, not usually the kind of thing you’d expect to become a blockbuster hit. But Oppenheimer made nearly $1 billion at the box office, proving that by this point in his career, Nolan had become a brand onto himself.
- Release Date
-
July 21, 2023
- Runtime
-
181 minutes
- Director
-
Christopher Nolan
-
Cillian Murphy
J. Robert Oppenheimer
-
Emily Blunt
Kitty Oppenheimer
-
-
Robert Downey Jr.
Lewis Strauss
