Christopher Nolan's nuclear biopic Oppenheimer is set to premiere in July, and anticipation is steadily building. It looks like the perfect project for Nolan (especially after the somewhat lackluster Tenet), combining science, war, and a flawed, compelling hero. It'll also see the director reuniting with star Cillian Murphy and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, alongside first-time collaborators Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr.

To prepare for Oppenheimer, Nolan's fans can take a deep dive into the ever-increasing stack of movies he's recommended over the years (via IndieWire and other sources noted below). Like his own filmography, Nolan's favorites tend to deal with complex ideas, non-linear storytelling, and mind-bending visuals, usually made with practical effects. They range from horror to anime to foreign drama, including box-office flops and forgotten gems.

Updated on October 18, 2023, by Hannah Saab:

Nolan's latest film, Oppenheimer, was a critical and commercial success. As fans look through the director's filmography, it's the perfect time to revisit some of his highly recommended films.

15 'The Black Hole' (1979)

Disney's The Black Hole (1979)
Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The Black Hole is a sci-fi about a crew that discovers a missing spaceship near a black hole. It was essentially Disney's attempt to jump on the Star Wars hype with a space opera of their own, although it doesn't come close to George Lucas' work. Nevertheless, Nolan remains a big fan.

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"Even to a nine-year-old Star Wars fanatic this seemed pretty uneven, but some of the special effects still impress, and it boasts one of the most unexpectedly weird climaxes in cinema history," Nolan has said. "I actually had to rent it as an adult just to check that I hadn't made up the whole ending."

Watch on Disney+

14 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence' (1983)

merry christmas mr lawaence
Image via Shochiku Fuji

David Bowie stars in this WWII drama movie from director Nagisa Ōshima about a British soldier held captive in a Japanese POW camp. Ryuichi Sakamoto, also a musician, plays the camp's commander. Through the main characters, the film explores issues of culture clash and contrasting views about honor.

Ōshima was a leading figure in the Japanese New Wave, responsible for films including In the Realm of the Senses and The Ceremony. Nolan praised Ōshima for fully utilizing Bowie's charisma in this film, which inspired him to cast Bowie in The Prestige.

Watch on The Criterion Channel

13 'Bad Timing' (1980)

Art Garfunkel and Harvey Keitel as Alec and Inspector Netusil in Bad Timing
Image via Rank Film Distributors

Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell and Harvey Keitel star in this psychological thriller. It documents the tempestuous relationship between Milena and Alex, two young Americans in Vienna. A detective pieces together the events following Milena's suicide attempt.

Bad Timing is directed by Nicolas Roeg, who also made the horror Don't Look Now, starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. Roeg's work, particularly its jarring, impactful editing, has been cited as an influence by not just Nolan, but also directors Steven Soderbergh, Danny Boyle and Edgar Wright.

Watch on The Criterion Channel

12 'Topkapi' (1964)

Topkapi

This must-see heist film centers on a plot to steal an emerald-encrusted dagger from an old palace in Istanbul. Seemingly-ordinary woman Elizabeth (Melina Mercouri) enlists her criminal former lover Walter (Maximillian Schell) for the scam, and gets mixed up with a gang of thieves.

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Topkapi is not as good as director Jules Dassin's noir classic Rififi, but it'll appeal to fans of crime capers, or someone looking for a '60s nostalgia trip. Nolan has said that he's a fan of Peter Ustinov's performance as small-time hustler Arthur Simpson, for which Ustinov won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Watch on Pluto

11 'The Hit' (1984)

The Hit

Two hitmen transport a criminal (Terence Stamp) to his execution ten years after he ratted out the mob. But things do not go as planned. The Hit is a crime road film from director Stephen Frears, who made the social thriller Dirty Pretty Things and the comedy-drama Philomena starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan.

Nolan praised The Hit as a story about what desperate men are capable of. John Hurt is great as hitman Braddock, as is Tim Roth as his sidekick Myron, in his film debut. The cinematography by Mike Molloy, all bleak landscapes and catastrophic interiors, adds to the intensity.

Watch on The Criterion Channel

10 'Mr. Arkadin' (1955)

Mr arkadin

Mr. Arkadin is one of Orson Welles' lesser-known films. Like Citizen Kane, it revolves around an enigmatic tycoon, played by Welles (with epic facial hair) who blackmails an American businessman called Zouk (Akim Tamiroff). A small-time smuggler (Robert Arden) warns Zouk about a plot against him, which unfolds into a larger Cold War tale. While decidedly uneven, Nolan has said that the film contains "heartbreaking glimpses of the great man’s genius." There are various versions of Mr. Arkadin floating around, but the Criterion edit released in 2006 is probably the best.

Interesting bit of trivia: this was the film that made the parable of the scorpion and the frog famous in the English-speaking world. Prior to this, the story was known only in Russia. In the story, a scorpion asks a frog for a ride across a stream, promising not to sting him. During the journey, the scorpion stings the frog. When the frog asks why, the scorpion replies that it is in his nature.

Watch on Max

9 'Insomnia' (1997)

A detective, and several police stand at a crime scene in the mountains
Image via Warner Bros

Insomnia is a Norwegian psychological thriller about a detective (Stellan Skarsgård) attempting to solve a murder while suffering from insomnia. His sanity rapidly frays as he wades deeper into the case. The film deals with themes of guilt, redemption, and the blurred line between right and wrong. It's like a late 20th-century Crime and Punishment, set in the Arctic Circle.

It was the basis for Nolan's English remake, released in 2002, the only instance where he's reworked an existing film. "It was liberating in a lot of ways because you're able to just engage with the material as a director," Nolan said. "You're coming into it at a later stage, so you're given a quite effective, objective view of the material before you dive in. On the other hand, you inherit a lot of problems from somebody else’s brain."

Watch on The Criterion Channel

8 'The Comb' (1991)

the comb0

The Comb is an exquisitely dark stop-motion short by animators Stephen and Timothy Quay. It's more of a tone poem than a conventional narrative, with a premium on unsettling imagery. Nolan is a massive fan of the Quays. He made a documentary short exploring their creative process, and in 2015, he curated a screening of The Comb alongside two of the Quays' most well-known films, Street of Crocodiles and In Absentia.

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"What I love about these three films and the reason I chose these three in particular out of all of [the Quays'] work, is that they have a particular organic quality," Nolan said. "They don’t feel accidental, but they feel like they were informed by accident."

7 'The Hitcher' (1986)

the hitcher0

The Hitcher is a horror directed by Robert Harmon. While driving cross-country, Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) picks up a hitchhiker named John Ryder (Rutger Hauer). Ryder turns out to be a sadistic killer, and Jim becomes the target of his twisted games. It's kind of like a response to Steven Spielberg's Duel.

"As a teenager, I never questioned the logic of this 80's chiller, but now it seems mind-bendingly arbitrary plot-wise," Nolan says. "However, it does feature the criminally underappreciated Rutger Hauer in his finest and most influential Euro-psycho performance this side of Blade Runner."

6 'Woman in the Moon' (1929)

woman in the moon0

Woman in the Moon is an early sci-fi by legendary Austrian director Fritz Lang. It follows a group of scientists who journey to the moon in search of gold. The film is notable for its more realistic portrayal of space travel, especially in contrast to other sci-fi of that area, like Georges Méliès' Trip to the Moon.

The film also introduced ideas like a multi-stage rocket, a rocket launchpad, and a countdown clock ticking toward launch. Nolan has said that Lang's work was an influence on Interstellar. He's also a big admirer of Lang's other films Metropolis and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Nolan has said that he forced his brother to watch the latter before writing the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Watch on Kanopy

5 'Foreign Correspondent' (1940)

Foreign Correspondent

In this classic spy thriller movie, an American journalist (John McCrea) in London races to expose a conspiracy in the months leading up to World War II. The story was aimed at American audiences at a time when the United Kingdom was trying to get the USA to enter the war.

Foreign Correspondent was Alfred Hitchcock's second Hollywood film after relocating from the UK. It's one of the thriller master's less iconic works, but it's definitely worth watching. Nolan said that Dunkirk was particularly influenced by a scene in Foreign Correspondent where a plane crashes into the ocean.

Watch on Max

4 'Ryan's Daughter' (1970)

ryan large0

Set during WWI, Ryan's Daughter follows the romance between a married Irish woman (Sarah Miles) and a British officer (Robert Mitchum), and the community's fierce opposition to their relationship. It's a loose retelling of the classic novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. At over three hours long, it's a true epic.

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Some have criticized the film's historical accuracy, especially the depiction of Irish nationalism, but it's worth it for the impressive performances and the directorial flair of David Lean, most famous for Doctor Zhivago. Nolan praised Ryan's Daughter for its landscape visuals, especially its shots of Irish beaches and the sea. Its opening shot, in particular, is memorable, showing a tiny figure running along a colossal cliff.

3 'Street of Crocodiles' (1986)

street of crocodiles

Street of Crocodiles is a stop-motion short film from the Brothers Quay. It follows a puppet who is freed from his strings and sets out to explore his environment but finds it desolate and lonely. It's a bleak tale, but boasts plenty of intriguing visuals. The filmmakers use various props, objects, and toys to populate the puppet's world.

The camerawork and editing are also skillful and stylish, with lots of interesting use of focus and depth of field. The creepy visuals are held together by an evocative score, making for a dark and meditative vision. Street of Crocodiles is also a favorite of filmmaker Terry Gilliam and the band Nine Inch Nails, who reference the film in their "Closure" music video.

2 'Koyaanisqatsi' (1982)

Koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi is a stunning experimental documentary with no narrative, no dialogue, and no narration. It simply depicts cities and landscapes in the United States, alongside a score by minimalist composer Philip Glass. It has been called a visual tone poem, and makes extensive use of time-lapse and slow motion. Its title means 'life out of balance' in the Hopi language.

The film certainly packs powerful visuals, and many critics have interpreted it as a warning about environmental disasters. Nolan praised Koyaanisqatsi for not being didactic, and instead allowing the audience to meditate on the imagery and come to their own conclusions.

Watch on Prime Video

1 'For All Mankind' (1989)

for all mankind

This documentary draws on original footage from the Apollo program to tell the story of the moon landing and the technology that went into it. Director Al Reinert combed through 80 hours of interviews and absurd amounts of footage. He splices together shots from various trips to appear like one journey, and succeeds in distilling the source material into an effective story.

The documentary is not even 90 minutes long, but manages to provide a great overview of one of humanity's greatest technical feats. The visuals of space and the moon are beautiful and otherworldly. It highlights the massive challenges of distance and gravity that the engineers and crew had to overcome. The imagery is complemented by the soundtrack from veteran producer Brian Eno. It's clear that the moon landing was a big inspiration on Nolan, particularly on his film Interstellar.

Watch on Max

NEXT: Christopher Nolan Films, Ranked from Worst to Best