Although it’ll be a while before we get to see his latest film, Tenet, on the big screen, Christopher Nolan is one of the most revered directors working today. Whenever he’s got a new project in the pipeline, movie buffs start foaming at the mouth. Nolan’s films are more beloved for their technical achievements than their characters.
The people who populate the worlds of Nolan’s films aren’t as renowned the characters of directors like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, but Nolan has still brought plenty of memorable characters to the screen. So, here are the best characters from IMDb’s 10 top-rated Christopher Nolan movies.
Insomnia (7.2) – Walter Finch
Between Memento and Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan directed Insomnia, a Hollywood remake of the Norwegian thriller of the same name. Al Pacino and Hilary Swank star as cops on the trail of a serial killer. But it’s Robin Williams’ uncharacteristically haunting performance as that killer, Walter Finch, that steals the show.
Nolan would go on to commend Williams’ acting, saying he watches performances over and over again in the editing bay, and Williams’ performance in Insomnia was the only one where the seams of the performance never began to show.
Following (7.5) – The Young Man
Christopher Nolan’s low-budget directorial debut, Following, told the story of a writer who started following strangers around to gather material for stories. Along the way, he meets a thief who takes a shine to him.
The thief, Cobb (a name that Nolan would later reuse in Inception), is a charming, interesting character. But the most compelling figure in the movie is the unnamed lead, referred to simply as “the Young Man.”
Dunkirk (7.9) – Mr. Dawson
Nolan has said that when he was writing Dunkirk, he made a concerted effort not to focus too much on the characters. There’s minimal dialogue in the film, because he didn’t want to raise any questions about the characters’ personalities; he just wanted to focus on their quest for survival.
But Mr. Dawson, played by Mark Rylance, is a fascinating character, purely due to his place in the story. He’s not a soldier; he’s a regular guy with a yacht who wants to do what he can to help out with the Dunkirk evacuation.
Batman Begins (8.2) – Bruce Wayne
Superhero origin stories aren’t often rewatchable, because they tend to just go through the motions and their sequels are the ones that can just spring into action, but Batman Begins is an exception to that rule. Throughout the film, Bruce Wayne goes on a classical hero’s journey as he trains with the League of Shadows to become a masked crimefighter.
Christian Bale played Batman as four separate characters: Bruce’s playboy facade, Batman’s angry persona, a young man who wants revenge, and an older man who wants to find meaning in life.
Memento (8.4) – Leonard Shelby
Christopher Nolan has called Memento a “strange cousin” of Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “Funes the Memorious,” which told the story of a man who couldn’t forget anything. On the contrary, Nolan’s film is about Leonard Shelby, a man who can’t remember anything.
As he tracks down an elusive killer, he covers his skin in information and builds up a library of annotated Polaroids. He’s a fascinating protagonist for a noir-ish mystery tale.
The Dark Knight Rises (8.4) – Bane
After Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight led to a posthumous Oscar win, there was no way that the villain in The Dark Knight Rises would live up to the impossibly high benchmark that Ledger set.
But Tom Hardy did as fine a job as anyone could’ve expected when he took on the unenviable task of following up The Dark Knight’s Joker with an articulate Bane bent on taking over Gotham. Bane’s social upheaval was heavily inspired by the French Revolution, and it has that epic scale, even if Hardy’s voice is barely comprehensible under the mask.
The Prestige (8.5) – Alfred Borden
Arguably Nolan’s most underrated film, The Prestige revolves around a rivalry between two magicians, one of them an aristocrat (played by Hugh Jackman) and the other working-class (played by Christian Bale).
The working-class magician played by Bale, Alfred Borden, is the most interesting character in the movie, as he’s the one with the mysterious air that we follow to the big twist with the most caution.
Interstellar (8.6) – Murphy Cooper
Matthew McConaughey is the star of Interstellar, as a farmer who is deemed humanity’s last hope and sent through a wormhole to find us a new home, but the beating heart of the movie is his daughter, Murph.
Initially, Murph is played by Mackenzie Foy as a rebellious kid whose rebellious streak is encouraged by her father. Then, after her dad leaves and doesn’t come back when he said he would, she grows up to become a NASA scientist, played by Jessica Chastain.
Inception (8.8) – Dom Cobb
The characters in Inception live in a world we can’t even imagine. They’re a classic heist movie ensemble, but they don’t rob banks or jewelry stores; they steal ideas from people’s minds by infiltrating their dreams.
Since this is so far out there, it’s tough to identify with some of the characters. But Dom Cobb, the lead protagonist played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is easy to root for, because he just wants to get home and spend time with his kids.
The Dark Knight (9.0) – The Joker
Without a doubt, the best character in The Dark Knight – and the best character in Christopher Nolan’s filmography – is the Joker. He isn’t just an agent of chaos, as he claims; he is the embodiment of chaos. He represents humanity’s fear of uncertainty and terror and abrupt changes to the social order.
Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance in the role is truly chilling as he commands the spotlight in every scene. As every good villain should be, the Joker is the antithesis of Batman, and presents him with the perfect challenge.