I Like Movies Get the app

Every Christopher Nolan film, ranked by viewer score

This list ranks all 13 Christopher Nolan feature films by their TMDB user score, the community rating on The Movie Database, as of August 2026. TMDB is the same database the I Like Movies app runs on, the scores are checkable on any film's TMDB page, and ties are broken by release year, older first. A 0.1 gap is a coin flip; a bigger one is a real signal.

Nearly everything here stands alone. The one internal order that matters: the three Batman films (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises) are a trilogy and should be watched in that order, wherever they sit in the ranking.

The ranking

  1. The Dark Knight (2008) TMDB 8.5 The middle Batman film and the reason superhero films get compared to crime epics; Heath Ledger's Joker is the pull, the ferry dilemma is the keeper.
  2. Interstellar (2014) TMDB 8.5 A father flies through a wormhole to outrun a dying Earth; the most emotional film Nolan has made, scored by Zimmer's church organ.
  3. Inception (2010) TMDB 8.4 A heist inside layered dreams, and the rare blockbuster whose structure is the spectacle.
  4. Memento (2000) TMDB 8.2 A man with no short-term memory hunts his wife's killer, told backwards; the breakthrough, still the tightest script.
  5. The Prestige (2006) TMDB 8.2 Two rival magicians destroy themselves over one trick; the Nolan film that rewards a second watch most.
  6. Oppenheimer (2023) TMDB 8.0 Three hours inside the head of the man who built the bomb; Best Picture winner and the biggest biopic ever made.
  7. The Odyssey (2026) TMDB 8.0 Homer's epic shot on IMAX film with Matt Damon as Odysseus; the newest entry, and its score is still settling.
  8. The Dark Knight Rises (2012) TMDB 7.8 The trilogy's heaviest and most operatic chapter; closes the Batman story properly, which almost no trilogy manages.
  9. Batman Begins (2005) TMDB 7.7 The film that rebuilt Batman as crime drama; the origin story later films are still measured against.
  10. Dunkirk (2017) TMDB 7.4 The evacuation told on three interlocking clocks: an hour, a day, a week; war as pure suspense engineering, almost wordless.
  11. Tenet (2020) TMDB 7.2 Espionage with time flowing both ways; the most demanding watch here, and it knows it.
  12. Following (1998) TMDB 7.1 A no-budget black-and-white debut about a writer who follows strangers; 69 minutes, and the obsessions are already all there.
  13. Insomnia (2002) TMDB 7.0 A sleepless detective unravels under the midnight sun; the only Nolan film from someone else's script, and Pacino's last great lead.

Keep your place

Working through a filmography is exactly what I Like Movies, the free Android app behind this page, is for: put the ones you have not seen on your watchlist, rate as you go, and see where each film streams in your country before you press play.

Questions people ask

How is this list ranked?

By TMDB user score as of August 2026, the community rating on The Movie Database, with ties broken by release year, older first. The scores are printed next to each film and checkable on TMDB; nothing here is the author's personal ordering.

What is Christopher Nolan's best film?

By viewer score it is a tie at 8.5 between The Dark Knight and Interstellar, with Inception just behind at 8.4. Which of the three someone names usually says more about them than about the films.

Do Christopher Nolan's films need to be watched in order?

No, with one exception: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises are a trilogy and belong in that order. Everything else is standalone, so a score-order or mood-order run works fine.

What is Christopher Nolan's newest film?

The Odyssey, released in July 2026: Homer's epic shot on IMAX cameras, with Matt Damon as Odysseus. Its score is newer than the rest and may drift more than the others as ratings accumulate.

More lists

Or browse every guide, watch order and comparison.

Get I Like Movies on Google Play More about the app