As we await the arrival of The Odyssey this summer, here are all 12 Christopher Nolan movies ranked. The Homeric adaptation The Odyssey, starring Matt Damon, will be released July 17 — like many of Nolan's past films to make big premieres in July, including the Best Picture winner Oppenheimer. Disagree with our rankings?

That's fine. Let us know why in the comments. Here are all 12 Christopher Nolan movies ranked. By the Way Nolan on the set of The Dark Knight.

Warner Bros. - Credit: C/O There are, in our careful judgement, no bad Christopher Nolan movies. Some are good, and some are better. So if you're looking for someone to complain about Nolan, this isn't the place.

We're sorry. Now on with our list, starting with No. 12... Following (1999) Credit: C/O Following is a relatively small movie about an aspiring writer (Jeremy Theobald, above) who follows people for fun, and ends up aligned with a daylight burglar named Cobb (Alex Haw) — the only named character.

Now on the Criterion Channel, it's a fascinating watch because of how many of its elements end up in later Nolan films. The Blonde (Lucy Russell) feels like an early influence on Tenet's Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), though both recall Hitchcock's icy blondes. The black and white of Following will return in Oppenheimer, and the time-manipulating elements appear in almost every Nolan film that isn't about Batman.

Most amusingly, the main character has a Batman sticker on his door — six years before Nolan's Batman Begins. Insomnia Warner Bros. - Credit: C/O The major flaw of Insomnia is that it's the only Christopher Nolan movie not written by Christopher Nolan. It's a remake of the 1997 Norwegian thriller Insomnia, and it unravels in the midnight sun of Alaska (the inverse setup of 2024's True Detective: Night Country).

It's an examination of guilt cloaked as a daylight noir, and while Nolan films can be too complicated, we wish this one were a little more complicated. It's atmospheric and cool, but not Nolan's best. Still, it did demonstrate his propensity for working with A-list actors: The stacked cast includes Robin Williams, Al Pacino, and Hilary Swank (above).

Nolan has called it the most underrated of his films. Interstellar Warner Bros. We love Nolan for the density of his plots, and how he constantly raises the stakes and tension while asking moral and metaphysical questions.

But as beautiful as Interstellar looks, we felt like the simple story of a father (Matthew McConaughey) and daughter (Jessica Chastain) got overwhelmed in all the hard science. Still, we love the ambition. And it's interesting how the physics in the film arise again in Oppenheimer.

The Prestige Warner Bros. - Credit: C/O The Prestige is undeniably cool, especially as the rivarly ramps up between Victorian magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). And yes, in addition to Wolverine and Batman, we also have the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in the uniformly stellar cast. It's an awe-inspiring movie, but the reveals maybe get a little excessive, starting when we find out what Nicholas Tesla's machine does.

Still: Are we really complaining about a movie that features David Bowie as Tesla? Honestly, no. Just explaining why this one isn't higher on our list of Christopher Nolan movies ranked.

Tenet Elizabeth Debicki in Tenet. Warner Bros. - Credit: C/O This is without a doubt the most dense and messy of all Nolan movies, and it's thundering soundtrack — which makes much of the dialogue tough to decipher — doesn't help. And that's before Nolan starts all the head-spinning games with time.

But you know what? Tenet is so unabashedly ambitious and filled with spectacle that we're willing to ignore the incoherent elements and just go along with the ride. When it works it just soars, and it seems pedantic to get tripped up on the confusing parts when the purely emotional elements work so well.

It was also incredibly cathartic to be welcome back to theaters by Tenet after the long pandemic lockdowns, and that factors into our affection for the film. Memento Newmarket - Credit: C/O Nolan's commercial breakthrough was this murder mystery noir thriller about a man with no short term memory (Guy Pearce) that unfolds backwards. Could anyone but Christopher Nolan make a movie like Memento?

It was a perfect calling card anticipating the brilliance to come. The Dark Knight Rises Warner Bros. Like all Nolan movies, this one gets better on repeat viewings.

Yes, it's a little hard to follow at times. But it all makes sense when you pay close attention. And it does much cooler Nolanesque reveals than 99 percent of superhero movies.

In fact, Nolan doesn't treat his Dark Knight trilogy as a superhero saga — which makes it feel all the more grounded and resonant. And Tom Hardy turns in a masterful performance as Bane, whether you can hear him through the mask or not. We also love Nolan's collaborations with Marion Cotillard, whose mystique pairs perfectly with Nolan's