Summary

• Nolan includes major twists in most of his films, leading to satisfying conclusions.
• Nolan's work on The Dark Knight trilogy revolutionized Batman's story, making it dark and gripping.
• Nolan's best twist unfolds in "Tenet," revealing the Protagonist as the mastermind behind saving the world.

Christopher Nolan is one of the best directors in modern history, with a tendency to subvert expectations and include major twists in his films. Despite his incredible talents, Nolan is not a prolific director, as he takes his time with choosing the movies he works on and spends years crafting the story to get it to perfection. While this could be frustrating to eager fans who want to see more work from Nolan, it pays off with the overall quality of his projects.

In his career, Christopher Nolan has completed a total of 12 feature-length films since 1998. While this is a very small figure compared to some other directors, Nolan has also had almost every one of his films nominated for Oscars, and frequently takes home multiple wins. He is also a dedicated writer who frequently chooses to write the scripts himself or in collaboration with other creatives, such as his brother, Jonathan Nolan. With most of his films, Nolan also includes a major twist that leads to a satisfying and thought-provoking conclusion.

10 Talia al Ghul Was The Child In The Pit

The Dark Knight Rises

One of Nolan's greatest achievements that brought him into the mainstream was his work on The Dark Knight trilogy, which redefined Batman in media. Prior to Nolan's version, Batman struggled to move past the wacky and odd versions that appeared in Adam West's TV show, then the Tim Burton films. While they crawled towards a darker story, Nolan completely shattered the ideas that came before and made the story dark, gritty, and incredibly gripping.

However, within the trilogy of a superhero story, there was only so much room to add in big twists. The character of Batman is well-known, as are many of his greatest rivals, and the city which he lives in. In order to work in a twist in movies like the third entry, The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan had to get creative. The movie built up the idea of this terrible pit before ultimately revealing that Talia al Ghul was the girl in the pit, and also the woman Miranda Tate in disguise.

9 Cobb Frames The Young Man

Following

However, Nolan has done far more with some of his other films to introduce intricate twists. Nolan's first feature length film, Following, was released in 1998. The story follows a young man who gets tied up with a criminal whom he aspires to emulate for his freedom and lifestyle. However, after a short period, he becomes tied up in dangerous crimes of murder and robbery that go beyond what he initially hoped for.

The film does a great job at putting the pieces in place and revealing the twist ending where Cobb, the criminal, has been conning the other man all along in order to use him as a scapegoat. The reason this twist is placed so low, however, is simply because the reveal didn't come as much of a surprise. Nolan was still honing his craft, and there were many more projects to explore beyond this feature debut.

8 Ra's al Ghul Is Henri Ducard And In Gotham

Batman Begins

Returning to the Batman films, Nolan's initial foray into the world of Batman was with Batman Begins in 2005. The origins of Bruce Wayne are revealed, with the brutal murder of his parents and his escape from Gotham to find himself and experience other things the world had to offer. Bruce trains with a man by the name of Ra's al Ghul who teaches him how to fight, and how to control his emotions.

However, when Bruce is back in Gotham, applying the skills he learned from his mentor to become the city's greatest protector, he is stunned to learn that his old friend is behind the recent criminal activities. Ra's had been posing as a man by the name of Henri Ducard, but his true intentions were to send the city of Gotham into chaos and ruin. This twist was once again well executed, leaving a lasting impression after the movie ends.

7 Lewis Strauss Orchestrates Oppenheimer's Downfall

Oppenheimer

With a film that is rooted in historical fact, with multiple s and a stylized method of approaching storytelling, there are only so many details that can be withheld throughout. In Oppenheimer, the big reveal comes when Lewis Strauss is revealed to be the man who has initiated and orchestrated Oppenheimer's investigation and the revoking of his status and acclaim from the government.

When he reveals his true colors, there is a tonal shift for the character

The movie does an excellent job at concealing Strauss' true intentions, and portraying him to be someone with a genuine affection and affinity towards Oppenheimer, but when he reveals his true colors, there is a tonal shift for the character. The film plays with this relationship between color and black and white, and creates a strong divide between certain parts of the film, which all combine to make the final product something special.

6 The Wrong Address

The Dark Knight

The final entry from The Dark Knight trilogy, the second film, The Dark Knight, provides one of the greatest narratives and foes of the entire series. The incredible Heath Ledger plays the role of the deranged Joker who wishes to expose the rest of the citizens of Gotham as being selfish, mad, and lazy. The Joker creates various trials to prove his point, but frequently gets bested by Batman.

However, the very best twist of the film comes when the Joker provides an ultimatum to save Rachel, or save Harvey Dent. Dent is engaged to Rachel and wishes for her life, while Batman's secret alter ego also has strong feelings for her and wishes to save her too. However, when the choice is made, and Batman rushes to save Rachel, he learns the terrible truth, that the Joker has swapped the addresses for his own amusement. Dent is distraught, and no time is left, resulting in Rachel dying in a fiery explosion, and Dent being rescued.

5 The Secret Behind The Transported Man Tricks

The Prestige

The Presitge

is one of Nolan's best early works, starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as two warring magicians. The film sees these two men compete for years to pull off the bigger and better trick, and eventually, they both find a way to complete an extraordinary trick known as The Transported Man. However, both magicians employ very different methods to achieve the trick.

Borde (Bale) was actually a twin all along who kept the identity of his brother secret for years so they could share the same life and perform the trick. Angier (Jackman) on the other hadn turned to scientist and inventor, Nikola Tesla, for his answers. He acquires a teleporting machine which allows him to perform the trick, but the cost is also great. While the machine does transport his body physically, it actually creates a copy. This results in Angier needing to find a way to dispose of the otheer loose end in the trick in a shocking way.

4 The Truth Inside The Black Hole

Interstellar

In 2014s Interstellar, Matthew McConaughey stars as an astronaut sent in search of a black hole. The film was groundbreaking in more ways than one, with the actual portrayal of a black hole being significantly closer than anything that appeared before. However, Coop and his small team make it to the black hole, where they find themselves being pulled in.

It's on the other side of the black hole that things start to add up for Coop. He begins to experience time and dimensions in a way that is completely different from everything that came before. The reveal and twist are strong, but there are stronger twists still to come in Nolan movies.

3 The Story Of Sammy Jankis Was Leonard's All Along

Memento

Memento is another of Nolan's first movies, as it was released in 2000. The movie stars Guy Pearce, and it feels like the first film where Nolan begins to create his signature style. The movie follows a man who struggles to recall an incident where he lost his wife. He leaves post-it notes everywhere to act as reminders and clues, to aid in his investigation.

Leonard was actually responsible for his wife's accidental death

Throughout the film, Leonard (Pearce) attempts to recall the events of how his wife actually died, and he recounts the story of Sammy Jankis. However, the real Sammy Jankis remains alive, and his story has been mixed up with Leonard's. As it turns out, Leonard was actually responsible for his wife's accidental death as he failed to giving her medication, repeatedly did so, which ultimately led to her death by overdose.

2 Cobb Is Responsible For His Wife's Death

Inception

Following the same idea, but with a very different background, Inception also revealed a shocking twist later in the film. The whole story revolves around the main characters finding a way to access others' subconscious minds, then keeping going down levels until they can implant ideas organically. Once deep enough, things become difficult to discern as being an incepted idea, or real life.

However, the film's shocking twist comes nearer the end, when Cobb reveals that he was the one who accidentally incepted the idea that real life was a dream in his wife's head. As a result, when the pair got out of the dreams, Mal wanted desperately to return to her dreams, where she felt life was real, and not simply a drug-induced state. However, this conviction that she was not living in the real world meant that Mal chose to die in order to go back.

1 The Protagonist Founded Tenet

Tenet

However, the best twist in a Christopher Nolan movie to date is the twist that comes at the end of one of his most recent films, Tenet. Tenet came out in 2020, and the story had many cinemagoers scratching their heads as to the time going in two different directions. However, the film goes on to explain what exactly is happening with Tenet, and who is the person running the whole operation by the end of the film.

Once all is said and done, and the world has been saved from a threat that could potentially destroy the future and past, the focus shifts to unveiling the person behind Tenet. As the movie works from multiple different directions, it is only once the twist identity is revealed as the Protagonist, that things begin to fall into place. The ending does require some rewatching in order to fully grasp the scale of the story and who attacked who. However, it remains Christopher Nolan's best twist to date.