SYNCOPY INC: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN MOVIES
SYNCOPY INC: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN MOVIES
Arranged by Ilham Akmal Faldhian
Christopher Nolan Feature Movie
1. Following (1998)
Following is a 1998 British independent neo-noir crime thriller film written, produced, directed, photographed, and edited by Christopher Nolan. It tells the story of a young man who follows strangers around the streets of London and is drawn into a criminal underworld when he fails to keep his distance.
The film was designed to be as inexpensive as possible to make. Scenes were heavily rehearsed so just one or two takes were needed to economise on 16mm film stock, the production's greatest expense, and for which Nolan was paying from his salary. Unable to afford expensive professional lighting equipment, Nolan mostly used available light. Along with writing, directing, and photographing the film, Nolan helped in editing and production.
Plot
A struggling, unemployed young writer (credited as "The Young Man") takes to following strangers around the streets of London, ostensibly to find inspiration for his first novel. Initially, he sets strict rules for himself regarding whom he should follow and for how long, but he soon discards them as he focuses on a well-groomed, handsome man in a dark suit. The man in the suit, having noticed he is being followed, quickly confronts the Young Man and introduces himself as "Cobb". Cobb reveals he is a serial burglar and invites the Young Man (who tells Cobb his name is "Bill") to accompany him on burglaries. The material gains from these crimes seem to be of secondary importance to Cobb. He takes pleasure in rifling through the personal items in his targets' flats and drinking their wine. He explains his true passion is using the shock of robbery, and violation of property, to make his victims re-examine their lives. He sums up his attitude thus: "You take it away, and show them what they had."
2. Memento (2000)
Memento is a 2000 American neo-noir psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, based on the short story "Memento Mori" by his brother Jonathan Nolan, which was later published in 2001.[6] The film stars Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. The film follows Leonard Shelby (Pearce), a man who suffers from anterograde amnesia—resulting in short-term memory loss and the inability to form new memories—who uses an elaborate system of photographs, handwritten notes, and tattoos in an attempt to uncover the perpetrator who killed his wife and caused him to sustain the condition.
The film's non-linear narrative is presented as two different sequences of scenes interspersed during the film: a series in black-and-white that is shown chronologically, and a series of color sequences shown in reverse order (simulating for the audience the mental state of the protagonist). The two sequences meet at the end of the film, producing one complete and cohesive narrative.
Plot
The film starts with a Polaroid photograph of a dead man. As the sequence plays backward, the photo reverts to its undeveloped state, entering the camera before the man is shot in the head. The film then continues, alternating between black-and-white and color sequences.
The black-and-white sequences begin with Leonard Shelby, a former insurance investigator, in a motel room speaking to an unseen and unknown caller. Leonard has anterograde amnesia and is unable to store recent memories, the result of an attack by two men. Leonard explains that he killed the attacker who raped and strangled his wife Catherine, but a second clubbed him and escaped. The police did not accept that there was a second attacker, but Leonard believes the attacker's name is "John G" or "James G". Leonard investigates using notes, Polaroid photos, and tattoos to keep track of the information he discovers. Leonard recalls Sammy Jankis, another anterograde amnesiac, from his insurance industry days. After tests confirmed Sammy's inability to learn tasks through repetition, Leonard believed that his condition was at best psychological and turned down his insurance claim. Sammy's distraught wife repeatedly asked Sammy to administer her insulin shots for her diabetes, hoping he would remember having recently given her a shot and avoid giving her a fatal overdose. However, Sammy administered each injection, and his wife died.
The color sequences are shown reverse-chronologically. In the story's chronology, Leonard self-directively gets a tattoo of John G's license plate. Finding a note in his clothes, he meets Natalie, a bartender who resents Leonard because he wears the clothes and drives the car of her boyfriend, Jimmy Grantz. After understanding Leonard's condition, she uses it to get Leonard to drive a man named Dodd out of town and offers to run the license plate as a favor through the Department of Motor Vehicle's database. Meanwhile, Leonard meets with a contact, Teddy, who helps with Dodd, but warns about Natalie. Leonard finds that he had previously annotated his Polaroid of Teddy, warning himself not to trust Teddy. Natalie provides Leonard with the driver's license for a John Edward Gammell, Teddy's full name. Confirming Leonard's information on "John G" and his warnings, Leonard drives Teddy to an abandoned building, leading to the opening where he shoots him.
In the final black-and-white sequence, prompted by the caller, Leonard meets with Teddy, an undercover officer, who has found Leonard's "John G", Jimmy, and directs Leonard to the abandoned building. When Jimmy arrives, Leonard strangles him fatally and takes a Polaroid photo of the body. As the photo develops, the black-and-white transitions to the final color sequence. Leonard swaps clothes with Jimmy, hearing him whisper "Sammy". As Leonard has only told Sammy's story to those he has met, he suddenly doubts Jimmy's role in his wife's murder. Teddy arrives and asserts that Jimmy was John G, but when Leonard is undeterred, Teddy reveals that he helped him kill the real attacker a year ago, and Teddy has been using Leonard ever since. Teddy points out that since the name "John G" is common, Leonard will cyclically forget and begin his search again and that even Teddy himself has a "John G" name. Further, Teddy reveals that Sammy's story is Leonard's own story, a memory Leonard has repressed to escape feelings of guilt.
After hearing Teddy confess all of this, Leonard burns the photograph of the dead Jimmy and the photo of himself right after killing the real attacker a year ago, pointing to his chest where he would get a tattoo to document his successful revenge. In a monologue, Leonard explains that he is willing to lie to himself in order to get justice against anyone who has wronged him. He, therefore, targets Teddy by ordering a tattoo of Teddy's license plate number and writing a note to himself that Teddy is not to be trusted so that he will mistake Teddy for John G and kill him. Leonard drives off in Jimmy's car, confident that, despite this lie, he will retain enough awareness of the world to know that his actions have consequences.
3. Insomnia (2002)
Insomnia is a 2002 American psychological thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Hillary Seitz. It is the only film directed by Nolan that he is not credited with writing.[5] A remake of the 1997 Norwegian film, it stars Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank, with Maura Tierney, Martin Donovan, Nicky Katt, and Paul Dooley in supporting roles.
The film follows two Los Angeles homicide detectives investigating a murder in Nightmute, Alaska. After the killer witnesses an accidental shooting committed by one of the detectives, they create a plan for both parties to mutually avoid prosecution.
Insomnia premiered at the Tribeca Festival on May 3, 2002, and was theatrically released in the United States and Canada on May 24, 2002. It grossed $114 million worldwide against a production budget of $46 million. The film received critical praise, particularly for Pacino's and Williams's performances. At the 29th Saturn Awards, Williams was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and Seitz was nominated for Best Writing.
Plot
In Nightmute, Alaska, teenager Kay Connell is found murdered. LAPD detectives Will Dormer and Hap Eckhart are sent to assist the local police with their investigation. An LAPD Internal Affairs investigation is about to focus on Dormer, and Eckhart reveals that he is going to provide testimony against Dormer in exchange for immunity. Ellie Burr, a young local detective, picks them up when they arrive.
Dormer lures the murderer to the scene of the crime, but the suspect flees in the fog, shooting a police officer through the leg. Dormer fires at a figure in the fog with his 9mm gun. Rushing to the fallen figure, Dormer picks up a .38 pistol that the suspect has dropped. He discovers that he has shot and killed Eckhart. Because of Eckhart's pending testimony, Dormer knows that Internal Affairs will never believe the shooting was an accident, so he claims that Eckhart was shot by the suspect, and conceals the .38 pistol.
Burr is put in charge of the shooting investigation, and her team finds the .38 caliber bullet that pierced the officer's leg. That night, Dormer walks to an alley and fires the .38 pistol into an animal carcass, then retrieves and cleans the bullet. At the morgue, the staffer hands him the bagged bullet retrieved from Eckhart's body, but she is unfamiliar with its type. He switches the .38 bullet for the 9mm slug from Eckhart's body.
Dormer is plagued by insomnia, brought on by his guilt for killing Eckhart and further exacerbated by the perpetual daylight.
He receives anonymous phone calls from the killer, who witnessed Dormer kill his partner. When the police learn that Kay was a fan of local crime writer Walter Finch, Dormer breaks into Finch's apartment in a nearby village. Finch realizes that the police are present, and evades Dormer. Dormer returns to Finch's apartment and plants the .38 to frame Finch.
Finch contacts Dormer and arranges a public meeting on a ferry. Finch wants help shifting suspicion to Kay's abusive boyfriend Randy Stetz and, in return, will stay silent about the Eckhart shooting. Dormer gives advice on handling police questioning. As Finch leaves Dormer on the ferry, he shows that he has recorded the conversation.
Finch calls Dormer and tells him that Kay's death was "an accident" — he beat her to death in a fit of rage. The next day, Finch gives false testimony at the police station. When Finch claims that Randy has a gun, Dormer realizes that Finch has discovered his plant, and has hidden it at Randy's home. Randy is arrested when the gun is found at his house. Finch asks Burr to come to his lake house the next day to collect letters indicating that Randy abused Kay.
Burr finds a 9mm shell casing at the shooting scene, which conflicts with the bullet type from Eckhart's body. She reads old case files from investigations that Dormer was involved in and learns that he has carried a 9mm, leading her to suspect that he shot Eckhart. Meanwhile, Dormer confides in the hotel owner, Rachel Clement, about the Internal Affairs investigation; he fabricated evidence to help convict a pedophile who he was certain was guilty of murdering a child.
Dormer learns that Burr has gone to Finch's apartment. He finds Kay's letters and realizes that Finch intends to kill Burr. He rushes to Finch's lake house, where Finch knocks Burr unconscious as Dormer arrives. Dormer is too disoriented from lack of sleep to fight off Finch. Burr revives and saves Dormer while Finch escapes. Burr reveals that she knows that Dormer shot Eckhart, and he admits that he is no longer certain that it was an accident. Finch shoots at them with a shotgun, and Burr returns fire while Dormer sneaks to Finch's location. Finch shoots Dormer, who shoots and kills Finch. Burr rushes to the fatally wounded Dormer's aid and comforts him by affirming that Eckhart's shooting was accidental. She moves to throw away the shell casing to preserve Dormer's secret, but Dormer stops her as he dies, telling her not to lose her way and to let him sleep.
4. Batman Begins (2005)
Batman Begins is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, with Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, and Morgan Freeman in supporting roles. The film reboots the Batman film series, telling the origin story of Bruce Wayne from the death of his parents to his journey to become Batman and his fight to stop Ra's al Ghul (Neeson) and the Scarecrow (Murphy) from plunging Gotham City into chaos.
After Batman & Robin was panned by critics and underperformed at the box office, Warner Bros. Pictures cancelled future Batman films, including Joel Schumacher's planned Batman Unchained. Between 1998 and 2003, several filmmakers collaborated with Warner Bros. in attempting to reboot the franchise. After the studio rejected a Batman origin story reboot Joss Whedon pitched in December 2002, Warner Bros. hired Nolan in January 2003 to direct a new film. Nolan and Goyer began development on the film in early 2003. Aiming for a darker, more realistic tone compared to the previous films, a primary goal for their vision was to engage the audience's emotional investment in both the Batman and Bruce Wayne identities of the lead character. The film, which was principally shot in the United Kingdom, Iceland and Chicago, relied heavily on traditional stunts and miniature effects, with computer-generated imagery being used in a minimal capacity compared to other action films. Comic book storylines such as The Man Who Falls, Batman: Year One, and Batman: The Long Halloween served as inspiration.
Expectations for Batman Begins ranged from moderate to low, which originated from the poor reception of Batman & Robin that was credited with stalling the Batman film series in 1997. After premiering in Tokyo on May 31, 2005, the film was released on June 15, 2005. It received positive reviews from critics, who deemed the film an improvement over the Burton/Schumacher films. The film grossed over $371.9 million worldwide, becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2005 and was the second highest grossing Batman film at the time behind Tim Burton's Batman (1989). Receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, the film elevated Bale to leading man status while it made Nolan a high-profile director.
Since its release, Batman Begins has often been cited as one of the most influential films of the 2000s. It was credited for revitalizing the Batman character in popular culture, shifting its tone towards a darker and more serious tone and style. The film helped popularise the term reboot in Hollywood, inspiring studios and filmmakers to revive franchises with realistic and serious tones. It was followed by The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), with the three films constituting The Dark Knight Trilogy.
Plot
In Gotham City, after falling down a well and getting swarmed by bats, a young Bruce Wayne develops a fear of them. At the opera with his parents, Bruce becomes unsettled by performers masquerading as bats and asks to leave. Outside, mugger Joe Chill murders Bruce's parents in front of him. Bruce is raised by the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth.
Fourteen years later, Chill testifies against the mafia crime boss, Carmine Falcone, and is paroled. Bruce intends to murder Chill to avenge his parents, but one of Falcone's hitmen does so first. Bruce's childhood friend, Rachel Dawes, berates him for acting outside the justice system. After confronting Falcone, who says real power comes from being feared, Bruce spends the next seven years traveling the world, training in combat, and immersing himself in the criminal underworld.
In a Bhutan prison, he is approached by Henri Ducard, who recruits him to the League of Shadows, led by Ra's al Ghul. The League believes Gotham is beyond saving and intends to destroy it. After completing his training, Bruce rejects the League and its mandate that killing is necessary. He escapes, burning down their temple in the process. Ra's is killed by falling debris, while Bruce saves the unconscious Ducard. Intent on fighting crime, Bruce returns to Gotham and takes an interest in his family's company, Wayne Enterprises, which is being taken public by businessman William Earle. Company archivist Lucius Fox, a friend of Bruce's father, allows him access to prototype defense technologies, including a protective bodysuit and the Tumbler, an armored vehicle. Bruce poses publicly as a shallow playboy while setting up a base in the caves beneath Wayne Manor and taking up the vigilante identity of "Batman," inspired by his childhood fear, which he has now conquered.
Intercepting a drug shipment, Batman provides Rachel, now a Gotham Assistant District Attorney, with evidence against Falcone and enlists Sergeant James Gordon, one of Gotham's few honest police officers, to arrest him. In prison, Falcone meets Dr. Jonathan Crane, a corrupt psychologist who smuggled drugs into Gotham with his help. Donning a scarecrow mask, Crane sprays Falcone with a fear-inducing hallucinogen, driving him insane and transferring him to Arkham Asylum. While investigating Crane, Batman is ambushed by him and sprayed with the hallucinogen. Batman barely escapes and is saved by Alfred and Fox, who develop an antidote for the hallucinogen.
When Rachel accuses Crane of corruption, he reveals he has introduced his drug into Gotham's water supply and drugs her with the hallucinogen. Batman later subdues Crane and sprays him with his own chemical. While being interrogated, Crane claims to work for Ra's al Ghul. Batman evades the police to get Rachel to safety and administers the antidote. He gives her two vials: one for Gordon and the other for mass production. At Bruce's birthday party, Ducard reappears and reveals himself to be the true Ra's al Ghul. Having stolen a powerful microwave emitter from Wayne Enterprises, he plans to vaporize Gotham's water supply, rendering Crane's drug airborne and causing mass hysteria that will destroy the city. He sets Wayne Manor aflame and leaves Bruce to die, but Alfred rescues him. Ra's loads the emitter onto Gotham's monorail train to release the drug at the city's central water source. Batman rescues Rachel from a drugged mob and reveals his identity to her. He confronts Ra's on the train as Gordon uses the Tumbler's cannons to destroy a section of the track. Batman escapes the train and leaves Ra's to die as it crashes.
Bruce gains Rachel's respect. However, she refuses to be with him, promising they can be together when Gotham no longer needs Batman. Batman becomes a public hero. After purchasing a controlling stake in Wayne Enterprises, Bruce fires Earle and replaces him with Fox. Sergeant Gordon is promoted to Lieutenant, shows Batman the Bat-Signal, and tells him about a criminal who leaves behind Joker playing cards.[a] Batman promises to look into it and disappears into the night.
5. The Prestige (2006)
The Prestige is a 2006 psychological thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jonathan Nolan and is based on the 1995 novel by Christopher Priest. It stars Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier and Christian Bale as Alfred Borden, rival stage magicians in Victorian London who feud over a perfect teleportation illusion.
The cast also features Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, and David Bowie as Nikola Tesla. The film reunites Nolan with actors Bale and Caine from Batman Begins and returning cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, and editor Lee Smith.
The Prestige was released on October 20, 2006 by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution through Touchstone Pictures in North America and internationally by Warner Bros. Pictures, to positive reviews and grossed $109 million worldwide against a production budget of $40 million. It received Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography.
Plot
In 1890s London, upcoming magicians Angier and Borden become bitter rivals after Angier's wife dies during an onstage incident. Borden, who was responsible for tying the knots in the water tank trick, claims to not know which knot he tied, infuriating Angier. They go solo, and Angier re-hires the engineer, Cutter, to help with his act. Meanwhile, Borden hires a previously unknown engineer called Fallon.
While developing their own shows, Angier and Borden also take turns sabotaging each other. Angier loses his stage contract after Borden's distraction, while Borden loses two fingers when Angier becomes a volunteer for his bullet catch trick. Angier visits Borden's show again, but comes away surprised by Borden's debut of a new trick called the Transported Man, in which he appears to teleport. Angier is convinced the trick involves only one person, but recreates it for his act using a lookalike double, as suggested by Cutter. Despite his version being better received, Angier obsesses with Borden's secret. Borden exposes Angier's lookalike to the audience, further infuriating him.
Following supposed clues from Borden's stolen diary, Angier arrives at Colorado Springs to meet the scientist Nikola Tesla, himself engaged in a bitter rivalry with scientist Thomas Edison. Tesla builds Angier a machine that creates a clone of its subject, but warns against its use. Nevertheless, Angier uses it for the Real Transported Man, a refined trick that brings him unprecedented recognition. Since Tesla's machine only 'clones' and does not 'transport', Angier replaces himself with a clone each night, sacrificing the original in the water tank below stage.
Borden's wife, Sarah, commits suicide, while his mistress, Olivia, leaves him. Borden is left with a daughter, Jess. He sneaks under the stage at Angier's next show to learn his new secret, but is shocked to see Angier drown inside a water tank. Since Angier does not reappear, Borden is arrested for his murder. He is found guilty and sentenced to death, meeting Fallon for the last time in prison. Angier, who did not reappear that night to frame Borden, poses as an aristocrat, Lord Caldlow, to adopt Jess. Borden realizes this, but is hanged nevertheless for Angier's death.
Angier reveals himself to Cutter, and asks his help to destroy Tesla's machine. After the meeting, Angier returns to his theater and is fatally shot by a mysterious figure. The figure is Borden, and Angier realizes the truth: "Borden" was an identity shared by twin brothers; while one performed, the other hid in plain sight as "Fallon". They both lived one half of Borden's life, never appearing in public as twins, except during the Transported Man. One brother married Sarah, while the other loved Olivia. As he dies, Angier drops an oil lamp, starting a fire in the theater.
At Angier's house, Cutter explains that the hardest and final part of any magic trick is the re-appearance, also called the 'prestige', where the magician brings back the object he made to vanish. As he demonstrates this, Borden reappears at Angier's house to take back Jess. The film ends with a shot of Angier's burning theater, the walls lined with water tanks containing the corpses of his clones.
6. The Dark Knight (2008)
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The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, from a screenplay co-written with his brother Jonathan. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman, it is the sequel to Batman Begins (2005), and the second installment in The Dark Knight trilogy. The plot follows the vigilante Batman, police lieutenant James Gordon, and district attorney Harvey Dent, who form an alliance to dismantle organized crime in Gotham City. Their efforts are derailed by the Joker, an anarchistic mastermind who seeks to test how far Batman will go to save the city from chaos. The ensemble cast includes Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman.
Warner Bros. Pictures prioritized a sequel following the successful reinvention of the Batman film series with Batman Begins. Christopher and Batman Begins co-writer David S. Goyer developed the story elements, making Dent the central protagonist caught up in the battle between Batman and the Joker. In writing the screenplay, the Nolans were influenced by 1980s Batman comics and crime drama films, and sought to continue Batman Begins' heightened sense of realism. From April to November 2007, filming took place with a $185 million budget in Chicago and Hong Kong, and on sets in England. The Dark Knight was the first major motion picture to be filmed with high-resolution IMAX cameras. Christopher avoided using computer-generated imagery unless necessary, insisting on practical stunts such as flipping an 18-wheel truck and blowing up a factory.
The Dark Knight was marketed with an innovative interactive viral campaign that initially focused on countering criticism of Ledger's casting by those who believed he was a poor choice to portray the Joker. Ledger died from an accidental prescription drug overdose in January 2008, leading to widespread interest from the press and public regarding his performance. When it was released in July, The Dark Knight received acclaim for its mature tone and themes, visual style, and performances—particularly that of Ledger, who received many posthumous awards including Academy, BAFTA, and Golden Globe awards for Best Supporting Actor, making The Dark Knight the first comic-book film to receive major industry awards. It broke several box-office records and became the highest-grossing 2008 film, the fourth-highest-grossing film to that time, and the highest-grossing superhero film.
Since its release, The Dark Knight has been assessed as one of the greatest superhero films ever, one of the best movies of the 2000s, and one of the best films ever made. It is considered the "blueprint" for many modern superhero films, particularly for its rejection of a typical comic-book movie style in favor of a crime film that features comic-book characters. Many filmmakers sought to repeat its success by emulating its gritty, realistic tone to varying degrees of success. The Dark Knight has been analyzed for its themes of terrorism and the limitations of morality and ethics. The United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2020. A sequel, The Dark Knight Rises, concluded The Dark Knight trilogy in 2012.
Plot
A gang of masked criminals rob a mafia-owned bank in Gotham City, betraying and killing each other until the sole survivor, the Joker, reveals himself as the mastermind and escapes with the money. The vigilante Batman, district attorney Harvey Dent, and police lieutenant Jim Gordon ally to eliminate Gotham's organized crime. Batman's true identity, the billionaire Bruce Wayne, publicly supports Dent as Gotham's legitimate protector, as Wayne believes Dent's success will allow Batman to retire, allowing him to romantically pursue his childhood friend Rachel Dawes, despite her relationship with Dent.
Gotham's mafia bosses gather to discuss protecting their organizations from the Joker, the police, and Batman. The Joker interrupts the meeting and offers to kill Batman for half of the fortune their accountant, Lau, concealed before fleeing to Hong Kong to avoid extradition. With the help of Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox, Batman finds Lau in Hong Kong and returns him to the custody of Gotham police. His testimony enables Dent to apprehend the crime families. The bosses accept the Joker's offer, and he kills high-profile targets involved in the trial, including the judge and police commissioner. Although Gordon saves the mayor, the Joker threatens that his attacks will continue until Batman reveals his identity. He targets Dent at a fundraising dinner and throws Rachel out of a window, but Batman rescues her.
Wayne struggles to understand the Joker's motives, to which his butler Alfred Pennyworth says "some men just want to watch the world burn." Dent claims he is Batman to lure out the Joker, who attacks the police convoy transporting him. Batman and Gordon apprehend the Joker, and Gordon is promoted to commissioner. At the police station, Batman interrogates the Joker, who says he finds Batman entertaining and has no intention of killing him. Having deduced Batman's feelings for Rachel, the Joker reveals she and Dent are being held separately in buildings rigged to explode. Batman races to rescue Rachel while Gordon and the other officers go after Dent, but they discover the Joker gave their positions in reverse. The explosives detonate, killing Rachel and severely burning Dent's face on one side. The Joker escapes custody, extracts the fortune's location from Lau, and burns it, killing Lau in the process.
Wayne Enterprises accountant Coleman Reese deduces and tries to expose Batman's identity, but the Joker threatens to blow up a hospital unless Reese is killed. While the police evacuate hospitals and Gordon struggles to keep Reese alive, the Joker meets with a disillusioned Dent, persuading him to take the law into his own hands and avenge Rachel. Dent defers his decision-making to his now half-scarred, two-headed coin, killing the corrupt officers and the mafia involved in Rachel's death. As panic grips the city, the Joker reveals two evacuation ferries, one carrying civilians and the other prisoners, are rigged to explode at midnight unless one group sacrifices the other. To the Joker's disbelief, the passengers refuse to kill one another. Batman subdues the Joker but refuses to kill him. Before the police arrest the Joker, he says although Batman proved incorruptible, his plan to corrupt Dent has succeeded.
Dent takes Gordon's family hostage, blaming his negligence for Rachel's death. He flips his coin to decide their fates, but Batman tackles him to save Gordon's son, and Dent falls to his death. Believing Dent is the hero the city needs and the truth of his corruption will harm Gotham, Batman takes the blame for his death and actions and persuades Gordon to conceal the truth. Pennyworth burns an undelivered letter from Rachel to Wayne that says she chose Dent, and Fox destroys the invasive surveillance network that helped Batman find the Joker. The city mourns Dent as a hero, and the police launch a manhunt for Batman.
7. Inception (2010)
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Inception is a 2010 science fiction action heist film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced it with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets. He is offered a chance to have his criminal history erased as payment for the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious. The ensemble cast includes Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page,[a] Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Dileep Rao, and Michael Caine.
After the 2002 completion of Insomnia, Nolan presented to Warner Bros. a written 80-page treatment for a horror film envisioning "dream stealers," based on lucid dreaming. Deciding he needed more experience before tackling a production of this magnitude and complexity, Nolan shelved the project and instead worked on 2005's Batman Begins, 2006's The Prestige, and 2008's The Dark Knight. The treatment was revised over six months and was purchased by Warner in February 2009. Inception was filmed in six countries, beginning in Tokyo on June 19 and ending in Canada on November 22. Its official budget was $160 million, split between Warner Bros. and Legendary. Nolan's reputation and success with The Dark Knight helped secure the film's US$100 million in advertising expenditure.
Inception's premiere was held in London on July 8, 2010; it was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters beginning on July 16, 2010. Inception grossed over $837 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2010. Among its numerous accolades, Inception won four Oscars (Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects) and was nominated for four more (Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score) at the 83rd Academy Awards. It is considered one of the best films of the 2010s.
PlotDom Cobb and Arthur are "extractors" who perform corporate espionage using experimental dream-sharing technology to infiltrate their targets' subconscious and extract information. Their latest target, Saito, is impressed with Cobb's ability to layer multiple dreams within each other. He offers to hire Cobb for the ostensibly impossible job of implanting an idea into a person's subconscious; performing "inception" on Robert Fischer, the son of Saito's competitor Maurice Fischer, with the idea to dissolve his father's company. In return, Saito promises to clear Cobb's criminal status, allowing him to return home to his children.
Cobb accepts the offer and assembles his team: a forger named Eames, a chemist named Yusuf, and a college student named Ariadne. Ariadne is tasked with designing the dream's architecture, something Cobb himself cannot do for fear of being sabotaged by his mind's projection of his late wife, Mal. Maurice Fischer dies, and the team sedates Robert Fischer into a three-layer shared dream on an airplane to America bought by Saito. Time on each layer runs slower than the layer above, with one member staying behind on each to perform a music-synchronized "kick" (using the French song "Non, je ne regrette rien") to awaken dreamers on all three levels simultaneously.
The team abducts Robert in a city on the first level, but his trained subconscious projections attack them. After Saito is wounded, Cobb reveals that while dying in the dream would usually awaken dreamers, Yusuf's sedatives will instead send them into "Limbo": a world of infinite subconscious. Eames impersonates Robert's godfather, Peter Browning, to introduce the idea of an alternate will to dissolve the company.
Cobb tells Ariadne that he and Mal entered Limbo while experimenting with dream-sharing, experiencing fifty years in one night due to the time dilation with reality. After waking up, Mal still believed she was dreaming. Attempting to "wake up," she committed suicide and framed Cobb for her murder to force him to do the same. Cobb fled the U.S., leaving his children behind.
Yusuf drives the team around the first level as they are sedated into the second level, a hotel dreamed by Arthur. Cobb persuades Robert that Browning has kidnapped him to stop the dissolution and that Cobb is a defensive projection, leading Robert to another third level deeper as part of a ruse to enter Robert's subconscious.
In the third level, the team infiltrates an alpine fortress with a projection of Maurice inside, where the inception itself can be performed. However, Yusuf performs his kick too soon by driving off a bridge, forcing Arthur and Eames to improvise a new set of kicks synchronized with them hitting the water by rigging an elevator and the fortress, respectively, with explosives. Mal then appears and kills Robert before he can be subjected to the inception, and he and Saito are lost in Limbo, forcing Cobb and Ariadne to rescue them in time for Robert's inception and Eames's kick. Cobb reveals that during their time in Limbo, Mal refused to return to reality; Cobb had to convince her it was only a dream, accidentally incepting in her the belief that the real world was still a dream. Cobb makes peace with his part in Mal's death. Ariadne kills Mal's projection and wakes Robert up with a kick.
Revived into the third level, he discovers the planted idea: his dying father telling him to create something for himself. While Cobb searches for Saito in Limbo, the others ride the synced kicks back to reality. Cobb finds an aged Saito and reminds him of their agreement. The dreamers all awaken on the plane, and Saito makes a phone call. Arriving in Los Angeles, Cobb passes the immigration checkpoint, and his father-in-law accompanies him to his home. Cobb uses Mal's "totem" – a top that spins indefinitely in a dream – to test if he is indeed in the real world, but he chooses not to observe the result and instead joins his children.
8. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
The Dark Knight Rises is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, and the story with David S. Goyer.[5] Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the final installment in Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, and the sequel to The Dark Knight (2008). The film stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, alongside Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Michael Caine. The film, set eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, follows a retired Wayne being forced to resume his role as Batman to save Gotham City from nuclear destruction at the hands of the terrorist Bane (Hardy).
Christopher Nolan was hesitant about returning to the series for a third film, but agreed after developing a story with his brother and Goyer that he felt would conclude the series on a satisfactory note. Nolan drew inspiration from Bane's comic book debut in the 1993 "Knightfall" storyline, the 1986 series The Dark Knight Returns, and the 1999 storyline "No Man's Land". Filming took place from May to November 2011 in locations including Jodhpur, London, Nottingham, Glasgow, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, and Pittsburgh. Nolan used IMAX 70 mm film cameras for much of the filming, including the first six minutes of the film, to optimize the quality of the picture. A vehicle variation of the Batplane and Batcopter termed the "Bat", an underground prison set, and a new Batcave set were created specially for the film. As with The Dark Knight, viral marketing campaigns began early during production. When filming concluded, Warner Bros. refocused its campaign, developing promotional websites, releasing the first six minutes of the film, screening theatrical trailers, and sending out information regarding the film's plot.
The Dark Knight Rises premiered in New York City on July 16, 2012. The film was released in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2012. The film received positive reviews from critics who deemed it a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. The film grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making it the second film in the Batman film series to earn $1 billion, and the highest-grossing Batman film to date.[6] In addition to being Nolan's highest-grossing film, it became the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release, as well as the third-highest-grossing film of 2012. It was named one of the top 10 films of 2012 by the American Film Institute.
Plot
Bane, a former member of the League of Shadows, leads an attack on a CIA plane over Uzbekistan to abduct nuclear physicist Dr. Leonid Pavel and fake Pavel's death in the crash. Meanwhile, eight years after the death of Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent and the arrest of the Joker,[a] organized crime has been eradicated in Gotham by the Dent Act, legislation that gives expanded powers to the police. Police commissioner James Gordon has kept Dent's killing spree a secret and allowed the blame for his crimes to fall on Batman. Bruce Wayne, still mourning the death of Rachel Dawes, has become a recluse, and Wayne Enterprises has stagnated.
Bane conspires to help Wayne Enterprises board member John Daggett take over the company, and they begin by trying to buy Bruce's fingerprints. Burglar Selina "Catwoman" Kyle steals Bruce's prints from Wayne Manor for Daggett, but he double-crosses her, and she alerts the police, who pursue Bane and Daggett's henchmen into the sewers while Catwoman flees. The henchmen capture Gordon and take him to Bane, but he escapes and is found by Gotham City police officer John Blake, an orphan who has deduced Bruce's secret identity and persuades him to resume his vigilantism. Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange and uses Bruce's fingerprints to verify a series of fraudulent transactions, leaving Bruce ousted from his company and bankrupt. Batman resurfaces to pursue Bane's henchmen. Fearing Bruce will get himself killed fighting Bane, his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, resigns in the hope of saving him after admitting to burning a letter that Rachel left for him saying she was going to marry Dent. Bane expands his operations and kills Daggett while Bruce and Wayne Enterprises' new CEO, Miranda Tate, become lovers.
Catwoman agrees to take Batman to Bane but instead leads him into a trap under Wayne Tower. Bane gloats that he intends to fulfill Ra's al Ghul's mission to destroy Gotham City before he brutally cripples Batman in combat. He then takes Bruce to an ancient underground prison in the Middle East, where Bruce learns that Ra's al Ghul's child was born and raised in the prison but had a protector that aided the child in escaping, thought to be impossible. Back in Gotham, Bane detonates to trap the police forces in the sewers, destroys all but one bridge surrounding the city, kills Gotham mayor Anthony Garcia at the Gotham City stadium, and forces Pavel to convert the fusion reactor core owned by Wayne Enterprises into a decaying neutron bomb before publicly killing him as well. He exposes Dent's crimes to the city and releases the prisoners of Blackgate Penitentiary, taking over the city, and has Gotham's elite exiled and killed in proletarian kangaroo courts presided over by Jonathan Crane.[b]
Five months later, Bruce escapes captivity and returns to Gotham. As Batman, he frees the police, and together, they clash with Bane's army in the streets. During the battle, Batman overpowers Bane, but Tate stabs Batman in the abdomen, revealing herself as Ra's al Ghul's daughter Talia al Ghul. Talia also reveals that Bane was her protector in the pit before activating the bomb's detonator, but it fails due to Gordon blocking the signal, so Talia leaves to find the bomb while entrusting Bane to finish off Batman. However, Catwoman returns, killing Bane and helping Batman pursue Talia, hoping to return the bomb to the reactor chamber where it can be stabilized. Talia's truck crashes, but she remotely floods and destroys the reactor chamber before dying. With no way to stop the detonation, Batman, after revealing his identity to Gordon, uses his aerial craft, the Bat, to haul the bomb far over the bay, where it safely explodes.
In the aftermath, Batman is presumed dead and honored as a hero. Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage, and Bruce's estate is left to Alfred. Gordon finds the Bat-Signal repaired, while Lucius Fox discovers that Bruce had fixed the Bat's malfunctioning auto-pilot. In Florence, Alfred discovers that Bruce is alive and in a relationship with Selina, and they silently acknowledge each other before parting ways. Blake, whose legal first name is revealed as Robin, resigns from the GCPD and receives a package leading him to the Batcave.
9. Interstellar (2014)
Interstellar is a 2014 epic science fiction drama film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan. It stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, and Michael Caine. Set in a dystopian future where Earth is suffering from catastrophic blight and famine, the film follows a group of astronauts who travel through a wormhole near Saturn in search of a new home for mankind.
The screenplay had its origins in a script Jonathan developed in 2007 and was originally set to be directed by Steven Spielberg. Theoretical physicist Kip Thorne was an executive producer and scientific consultant on the film, and wrote the tie-in book The Science of Interstellar. It was Lynda Obst's final film as producer before her death. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot it on 35 mm movie film in the Panavision anamorphic format and IMAX 70 mm. Filming began in late 2013 and took place in Alberta, Klaustur, and Los Angeles. Interstellar uses extensive practical and miniature effects, and the company DNEG created additional digital effects.
Interstellar was released in theaters on November 7, 2014. In the United States, it was first released on film stock, expanding to venues using digital projectors. The film received generally positive reviews and grossed $681 million worldwide during its initial theatrical run, making it the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2014. Among its various accolades, Interstellar was nominated for five awards at the 87th Academy Awards, winning Best Visual Effects.
Plot
In the mid-21st century, humanity faces extinction due to dust storms and widespread crop blights. Joseph Cooper, a widowed former NASA test pilot, works as a farmer and raises his children, Murph and Tom, alongside his father-in-law Donald. Living in a post-truth society, Cooper is reprimanded by Murph's teachers for telling her that the Apollo missions were not fabricated. During a dust storm, the two discover that dust patterns in Murph's room, which she first attributes to a ghost, result from a gravitational anomaly, and translate into geographic coordinates. These lead them to a secret NASA facility headed by Professor John Brand, who explains that, 48 years earlier, a wormhole appeared near Saturn, leading to a system in another galaxy with twelve potentially habitable planets located near a black hole named Gargantua. Volunteers of the Lazarus expedition had previously travelled through the wormhole to evaluate the planets, with Miller, Edmunds, and Mann reporting back desirable results.
Cooper is enlisted to pilot the Endurance spacecraft through the wormhole as part of a mission to colonize a habitable planet with 5,000 frozen embryos and ensure humanity's survival. Meanwhile, Professor Brand would continue his work on solving a gravity equation whose solution would supposedly enable construction of spacecraft for an exodus from Earth. Cooper accepts against Murph's wishes and promises to return. When she refuses to see him off, he leaves her his wristwatch to compare their relative time when he returns.
The crew, consisting of Cooper, robots TARS and CASE, and scientists Dr. Amelia Brand (Professor Brand's daughter), Romilly, and Doyle, traverse the wormhole after a two-year voyage to Saturn. Cooper, Doyle and Brand use a lander to investigate Miller's planet, where time is severely dilated. After landing in knee-high water and finding only wreckage from Miller's expedition, a gigantic tidal wave kills Doyle and waterlogs the lander's engines.
By the time they leave the planet, Cooper and Brand discover that 23 years have elapsed on the Endurance. Having enough fuel left for only one of the other two planets, they vote to go to Mann's, as he is still broadcasting. En route, they receive messages from Earth and Cooper watches Tom grow up, get married, and lose his first son. An adult Murph is now a scientist working on the gravity equation with Professor Brand. On his deathbed, Brand confesses that the Endurance crew was never supposed to return, knowing that a complete solution to the equation was not feasible without observations of gravitational singularities from inside a black hole.
On Mann's planet, they awaken him from cryostasis, and he assures them that colonization is possible, despite the extreme environment. During a scouting mission, Mann attempts to kill Cooper and reveals that he falsified his data in the hope of being rescued. He steals Cooper's lander and heads for the Endurance. While a booby trap set by Mann kills Romilly, Brand rescues Cooper with the other lander and they race back to the Endurance. Mann is killed in a failed manual docking operation, severely damaging the Endurance, but Cooper is able to regain control of the station through his own docking maneuver.
With insufficient fuel, Cooper and Brand resort to a slingshot around Gargantua, which costs them 51 years due to time dilation. In the process, Cooper and TARS jettison their landers to lighten the Endurance so that Brand and CASE may reach Edmunds' planet. Falling into Gargantua's event horizon, they eject from their craft and find themselves in a tesseract made up of infinite copies of Murph's bedroom across moments in time. Cooper deduces that the tesseract was constructed by advanced humans in the far future, and realizes that he had always been Murph's "ghost". He uses Morse code to manipulate the second hand of the wristwatch he gave her before he left, giving Murphy the data that TARS collected, which enables her to complete Brand's solution.
The tesseract, its purpose fulfilled, collapses before ejecting Cooper and TARS. Cooper wakes up on a station orbiting Saturn. He reunites with Murph, now on her deathbed, who tells him to seek out Brand. Cooper and TARS take a spacecraft to rejoin Brand and CASE, who are setting up the human colony on Edmunds' habitable planet.
10. Dunkirk (2017)
Dunkirk is a 2017 historical war thriller film written, directed, and co-produced by Christopher Nolan that depicts the Dunkirk evacuation of World War II from the perspectives of the land, sea, and air. It features an ensemble cast including Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles in his feature film debut, Aneurin Barnard, James D'Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy.
The film portrays the evacuation with little dialogue, as Nolan sought instead to create suspense through cinematography and music. Filming began in May 2016 in Dunkirk and wrapped that September in Los Angeles, when post-production began. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot the film on IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large-format film stock. Dunkirk has extensive practical effects. It employed thousands of extras as well as historic boats from the evacuation, and period aeroplanes.
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Dunkirk premiered at Odeon Leicester Square in London, a few days before its release in the United Kingdom and United States on 21 July 2017. It grossed over $530 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing World War II film until it was surpassed by Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023). Dunkirk received praise for its screenplay, direction, editing, score, sound design and cinematography; some critics called it Nolan's best work, and one of the greatest war films as well as one of the greatest movies of the 2010s.[13][14][15] It received various accolades, including eight nominations at the 90th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It went on to win for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing.
Plot
In 1940, during the Battle of France, Allied soldiers retreat to Dunkirk encircled by the enemy. Tommy flees through the perimeter held by French troops to the beach, where thousands await evacuation, and helps Gibson to bury a body. After Luftwaffe dive-bombers attack, they attempt to board a hospital ship at the single, vulnerable mole available for embarking on deep-draft ships, by rushing a wounded man on a stretcher but are ordered off. They overhear Commander Bolton, Colonel Winnant and a Rear Admiral discuss the best way to get their army evacuated. The ship is sunk by dive bombers; Tommy saves a Highlanders regiment soldier, Alex. The three board a destroyer, but it is hit by a torpedo before it can depart; Gibson saves Tommy and Alex as the ship sinks, and they return to the beach.
The Royal Navy requisitions civilian vessels in England to get to Dunkirk. In Weymouth, civilian sailor Dawson, with his son Peter, set out in his boat Moonstone, rather than let the Navy commandeer her. Their teenage hand George joins them on impulse. In the English Channel, they save a shivering shell-shocked soldier from a ship destroyed by a U-boat. Realising that Dawson is going for Dunkirk, the soldier panics and Peter locks him up. The soldier escapes, urging they turn back and tries to wrest control of the boat; in the scuffle, he elbows George who suffers a head injury that blinds him; as the soldier dwells on his actions, George reveals to Peter he came hoping to do something noteworthy. Three Royal Air Force Spitfires fly towards Dunkirk, to provide cover for the evacuation, limited to one hour of operation by their fuel supply. They engage in a dogfight with an enemy fighter. One of the pilots, Farrier, has his fuel gauge smashed by another fighter. He and the second Spitfire pilot, Collins, determine that their leader has gone down and fly on. The crew of the Moonstone witness the two RAF pilots protect a minesweeper from a bomber: Collins’s Spitfire is hit by a fighter and he ditches. Although trapped in his canopy as the plane sinks, Collins is saved by Peter.
Tommy, Alex and Gibson and Highlanders soldiers hide in a grounded trawler in the intertidal zone outside the perimeter, waiting for the rising tide. After its Dutch sailor returns, Germans start shooting at the boat for target practice, and water enters through the bullet holes. Alex, attempting to lighten the boat, accuses Gibson, who has been silent, of being a German spy. Gibson reveals he is French; he took the identity of the British soldier he buried. The group abandons the sinking boat, but Gibson is entangled in a chain and drowns. Farrier chooses to continue aiding the evacuation, despite realising that he will never make it home. The destroyer is bombed and sinks, as Moonstone manoeuvres to save men in the water, including Alex, as the shivering soldier starts helping. Peter finds George is dead; asked by the shivering soldier, he says George will be fine. Farrier shoots the bomber down; its crash ignites oil on the water, but Peter saves Tommy. Farrier reaches Dunkirk just as his fuel runs out. Gliding, he shoots down a dive-bomber approaching the mole, and is cheered on by the troops. Farrier lands his Spitfire on the beach beyond the perimeter, burns it and calmly awaits capture. Dawson has the boat evade aerial attack, using a technique taught by his deceased elder son, a pilot lost at the start of the war.
With 300,000 men successfully evacuated, Commander Bolton stays to oversee the French evacuation. In Weymouth, the shivering soldier sees George's body and exchanges a glance with Dawson, as he and Collins depart. Tommy and Alex board a train with other soldiers and are heralded by the public at Woking. Tommy reads Churchill's address, encouraging Britain to fight on. Peter arranges for the media to eulogise George.
11. Tenet (2020)
Tenet is a 2020 science fiction action thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced it with his wife Emma Thomas. It stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh. The film follows a former CIA agent who is recruited into a secret organization, tasked with tracing the origin of objects that are traveling backward through time and their connection to an attack from the future to the present.
Nolan took over five years to write the screenplay after deliberating about Tenet's central ideas for more than a decade. Pre-production began in late 2018, casting took place in March 2019, and principal photography lasted six months in multiple countries. After delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tenet was released in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2020, and in the United States on September 3, 2020. It was Nolan's last film to be released by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Tenet was the first Hollywood tent-pole to open in theaters during the pandemic and grossed $365 million worldwide on a $205 million budget, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2020 despite failing to break-even. The film divided critics but won Best Visual Effects at the 93rd Academy Awards and received numerous other accolades.
On "the 14th", the Protagonist leads a covert CIA extraction during a staged terrorist siege at an Opera House in Kyiv. He is saved from KORD forces by a masked operative wearing a red trinket. The Protagonist retrieves an artifact but his team is captured and tortured. He swallows a suicide pill but wakes up to find it was a fake—a test that only he passed. He is recruited by "Tenet", a secretive organization that briefs him on objects with "inverted" entropy that move backward through time. With his handler Neil, he traces inverted munitions to Priya Singh, an arms dealer in Mumbai.
Priya reveals that she is a member of Tenet, and the man who inverted her bullets, Russian oligarch Andrei Sator, is communicating with the future. Sator's estranged wife Kat Barton is an art appraiser who authenticated a Goya forged by her friend Arepo. Sator purchased the Goya at auction believing it to be legitimate, later using it to blackmail Kat into staying with him. To earn Kat's help, the Protagonist and Neil try to steal the Goya from Sator's freeport facility at Oslo Airport but are thwarted by two masked men who emerge from either side of a machine. In Mumbai, Priya explains it was a "turnstile"—a device that inverts entropy. The two men were the same person, traveling in opposite directions through time. She reveals that Sator's henchmen sabotaged his CIA team but KORD got the artifact, 3/4 kg of weapons-grade plutonium.
Believing that the Protagonist has destroyed the forgery, Kat introduces him to Sator in Italy. Sator agrees to help steal the artifact, which the Protagonist and Neil do in Tallinn, but they are ambushed by an inverted Sator holding Kat hostage. The Protagonist hides the artifact and rescues Kat, but they are recaptured and taken to a freeport in Tallinn where the inverted Sator interrogates them for the location of the artifact, shooting Kat with an inverted bullet. Tenet troops led by Commander Ives arrive, but Sator escapes into the turnstile. To save Kat's life, they also invert themselves. The inverted Protagonist drives back to the ambush to retrieve the hidden artifact where he encounters Sator, who overpowers him and takes it.
To un-invert, the Protagonist travels back in time to the freeport in Oslo, fights his past self, and enters the turnstile, followed by Neil and Kat. In Oslo, Priya tells him Sator now has all nine pieces of the "Algorithm", a device that future antagonists need to invert the entropy of the world and destroy its past. Priya had planned for Sator to get the artifact to reveal the other eight pieces in preparing his dead drop. Recalling an earlier conversation with Michael Crosby, the Protagonist realizes it is a nuclear hypocenter detonated on the 14th in Sator's hometown, the Russian closed city of Stalsk-12.
On a Tenet ship traveling back to the 14th, Kat reveals Sator has terminal cancer and is omnicidal. They surmise that after the Kyiv opera house siege on the 14th, Sator returns to a family vacation in Vietnam to commit suicide, sending the dead drop coordinates to the future via a dead man's switch.
Arriving at the 14th, Kat poses as her past self in Vietnam as the Tenet forces in Stalsk-12 recover the Algorithm. They use a "temporal pincer movement", with inverted and non-inverted troops creating a diversion so the Protagonist and Ives can steal the Algorithm before detonation. Sator's henchman, Volkov, traps them in the hypocenter. Calling from Vietnam, Sator explains the antagonists are trying to prevent catastrophes that will be caused by climate change. As Volkov is about to execute the Protagonist, an inverted soldier with a red trinket appears and sacrifices themselves, enabling the Protagonist and Ives to escape with the Algorithm. The hypocenter detonates in Stalsk-12 as Kat kills Sator in Vietnam.
The Protagonist, Neil, and Ives arrange to separate and hide pieces of the Algorithm. The Protagonist notices the red trinket on Neil's bag. Neil reveals that he was recruited in his past by a future Protagonist and that Neil has known him for a long time. He leaves them his piece of the algorithm to invert and sacrifice himself in the hypocenter. Later, in London, Priya plans to kill Kat to maintain the secrecy of Tenet. Having realized that he is Tenet’s creator, the Protagonist kills Priya and watches Kat leave with her son.
12. Oppenheimer (2023)
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Oppenheimer is a 2023 epic biographical film written for the screen, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.[8] It follows the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist who helped develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II. Based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film dramatizes Oppenheimer's studies, his direction of the Los Alamos Laboratory and his 1954 security hearing. Cillian Murphy stars as Oppenheimer, alongside Robert Downey Jr. as the United States Atomic Energy Commission member Lewis Strauss. The ensemble supporting cast includes Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh.
Oppenheimer was announced in September 2021. It was Nolan's first film not distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures since Memento (2000), due to his conflicts regarding the studio's simultaneous theatrical and HBO Max release schedule.[9] Murphy was the first cast member to join, with the rest joining between November 2021 and April 2022. Pre-production began by January 2022, and filming took place from February to May. The cinematographer, Hoyte van Hoytema, used a combination of IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large-format film, including, for the first time, selected scenes in IMAX black-and-white film photography. As with many of his previous films, Nolan used extensive practical effects, with minimal compositing.
Oppenheimer premiered at Le Grand Rex in Paris on July 11, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 21 by Universal Pictures. Its concurrent release with Warner Bros.'s Barbie was the catalyst of the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon, encouraging audiences to see both films as a double feature. Oppenheimer received critical acclaim and grossed over $976 million worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 2023, the highest-grossing World War II-related film, the highest-grossing biographical film and the third-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time.
The recipient of many accolades, Oppenheimer was nominated for thirteen awards at the 96th Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture, Best Director (Nolan), Best Actor (Murphy), and Best Supporting Actor (Downey). It also won five Golden Globe Awards (including Best Motion Picture – Drama) and seven British Academy Film Awards (including Best Film), and was named one of the top ten films of 2023 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute.
Plot
In 1926, 22-year-old doctoral student J. Robert Oppenheimer grapples with anxiety and homesickness while studying experimental quantum physics under Patrick Blackett at the University of Cambridge in England. Oppenheimer clashes with Blackett, leaving him a poisoned apple, but he later retrieves it. Visiting scientist Niels Bohr advises Oppenheimer to study theoretical physics at the University of Göttingen in Germany.
Oppenheimer completes his PhD and meets scientist Isidor Isaac Rabi. They later meet theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg in Switzerland. Wanting to expand quantum physics research in the United States, Oppenheimer teaches at the University of California, Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology. He marries Katherine "Kitty" Puening, a biologist and ex-communist, and has an intermittent affair with Jean Tatlock, a troubled communist psychiatrist who later dies in an apparent suicide.[a]
When nuclear fission is discovered in 1938, after the Germans succeed in splitting the atom, Oppenheimer realizes it can be weaponized. In 1942, during World War II, U.S. Army Colonel Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project, recruits Oppenheimer as the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory to develop an atomic bomb. Oppenheimer fears the German nuclear research program, led by Heisenberg, might yield a fission bomb for the Nazis sooner.
Oppenheimer assembles a team consisting of Rabi, Hans Bethe, and Edward Teller, and collaborates with the scientists Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, and David L. Hill at the University of Chicago. Teller's calculations reveal an atomic detonation could destroy the world; after consulting with Albert Einstein and having Bethe do his own calculations on the matter, Oppenheimer concludes the chances are "near zero". Teller attempts to leave the project after his proposal to construct a hydrogen bomb is rejected, but Oppenheimer convinces him to stay.
After Germany's surrender in 1945, some scientists question the bomb's relevance. Oppenheimer believes it would end the ongoing Pacific War and save lives. The Trinity test is successful, and President Harry S. Truman orders the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in Japan's surrender. Though publicly praised, Oppenheimer is guilt-ridden and haunted by the destruction and mass fatalities. After Oppenheimer expresses his remorse to Truman, the president berates him and dismisses his plea to cease further atomic development.
As an advisor to the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Oppenheimer's stance generates controversy, while Teller's hydrogen bomb receives renewed interest amidst the burgeoning Cold War. AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss resents Oppenheimer for publicly dismissing Strauss's concerns about exporting radioactive isotopes and for recommending negotiations with the Soviet Union after the Soviets successfully detonate their own bomb. Strauss also believes that Oppenheimer denigrated him during a conversation Oppenheimer had with Einstein in 1947, though he had in fact expressed his belief that he had caused a chain reaction that would one day destroy the world.
In 1954, wanting to eliminate Oppenheimer's political influence, Strauss secretly orchestrates a private security hearing before a Personnel Security Board concerning the renewal of Oppenheimer's Q clearance, during which his loyalty to the United States is questioned. However, the hearing is a kangaroo court. Oppenheimer's past communist ties are raised and his associates' testimony is twisted against him, with Teller's being the most damaging. After Kitty vigorously defends herself and her husband, the board no longer suspects Oppenheimer of disloyalty but still revokes his clearance, thereby damaging his public image and limiting his influence on American nuclear policy.
In 1959, during Strauss's Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of Commerce, Hill unexpectedly testifies about Strauss's personal motives for engineering Oppenheimer's downfall. Strauss's nomination is narrowly voted down, enraging him. In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson presents Oppenheimer with the Enrico Fermi Award.
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