How To Save Christopher Nolan From Himself

By Robert Scucci
| Published 25 seconds ago

Christopher Nolan has spent the last 30 years going bigger and better, and I’m starting to wonder how much further he can push the medium of filmmaking. Having followed his career from Memento (2000) all the way through 2023’s Oppenheimer, there’s one pattern that’s become crystal clear: each production has to outdo the last. His first film, 1998’s Following, was produced for a modest $6,000, and it shows on screen. Meanwhile, his upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey tops out at $250 million.

Knowing how Christopher Nolan makes films, it’s safe to say not a single cent is wasted. When he wants to go epic, he goes epic. He’s so committed to scale and scope that I’m surprised he didn’t actually shoot Matthew McConaughey into space on an unsanctioned mission in order to prepare him for Interstellar (2014).

What goes up must come down, though, and I wonder how much bigger Christopher Nolan can realistically make another Christopher Nolan film. Like every privately owned company that demands to see a consistent increase in revenue and shareholder value quarter after quarter, Nolan keeps upping the ante. Most people would probably say the logical next step is to continue pushing the envelope and going even bigger.

Maybe after The Odyssey, Nolan decides he wants to make a film about Old Faithful and will only consider his vision fully realized once he causes the geyser to erupt prematurely, ushering in a new ice age. Or maybe, and feel free to call me crazy here, Nolan could go back to his roots, take a breather, and belt out another generation-defining thriller like Memento or Insomnia.

I’m Not Trying To Give Christopher Nolan Advice, He’s Much Smarter Than Me

While it would be easy to frame a piece like this as “Christopher Nolan Needs To Do This One Thing To Save His Career,” that’s not what I’m trying to do here. Christopher Nolan has made a career out of being Christopher Nolan, and I have not. I’ve been a fan of his filmmaking since his second film. While I can’t in good conscience say anybody can play Batman better than Michael Keaton, his Dark Knight trilogy is still the most cohesive Batman saga we’ve gotten so far, and often cited as responsible for redefining the superhero genre. Christopher Nolan has proven himself as an auteur and filmmaker who doesn’t need advice from anyone (especially me), and he has the clout and freedom to do whatever he wants, probably for the rest of his life.

What I keep thinking about, though, is what would happen if instead of scaling up again, he scaled back. The Odyssey will go down in history as the first major studio film shot entirely on IMAX film cameras. That’s cool and impressive. You know what else is impressive? Memento, one of the greatest psychological thrillers of all time, which was made possible with a $9 million production budget. It’s a perfect movie.

Insomnia takes that same energy and adds some serious star power to the mix in the form of Al Pacino and Robin Williams. It also had five times the budget, but given the talent roster, I’d imagine a healthy chunk of that went toward securing the cast. Even if you take a quick look at his first film, Following, it’s rough around the edges, but it’s still a tight thriller that holds up today despite being made with virtually no budget while Nolan still had to work various day jobs between shoots. 

Christopher Nolan thrives in the psychological thriller space. He’s an expert at showing how troubled and conflicting personalities interact when they’re together, and how they act when they’re alone and ruminating. He also knows how to turn those character moments into tension once motives become clearer and the characters are forced to confront not only their demons, but their antagonists. He understands how to pace a man’s fall from grace as external forces beyond his control clash with the circumstances he can control. And he can do all of this for less than $50 million.

Not Asking For A Career Pivot, But Rather A Side Quest

Recently I’ve been thinking about how movie studios could benefit from putting out more titles with shorter runtimes and smaller budgets. My argument is that a movie like Zach Cregger’s Weapons (2025) cost $38 million to make and has already pulled in more than $270 million worldwide. It’s just over two hours long, and it’s a self-contained story. You don’t need to do homework or study history to enjoy what Weapons has to offer. Weapons just happens to you, and you either get it or you don’t.

Memento and Insomnia are cut from a similar cloth. They both clock in under 120 minutes and, in the grand scheme of things, didn’t cost a hell of a lot to make. Imagine the kind of film Christopher Nolan could make today with, say, $100 million. Strip the whole thing down so it’s shot through more conventional, readily available means, and use the budget to secure the appropriate A-list talent, if needed, for the project.

Meanwhile, films like 2023’s The Flash, which cost more than $200 million to produce, didn’t even break even once marketing and distribution costs were factored in.

The problem Christopher Nolan has, and it’s a good problem to have, is that he’s been in the freakin’ zone for nearly 30 years. He takes massive creative risks, and they’ve all paid off up to this point. He can literally do anything he wants. If he wanted to bring back LaserDisc for a one-off feature, he could probably secure an investor willing to make it happen. If he wanted to make a time travel flick, he could probably snap his fingers and somebody would materialize out of thin air to help him track down an entire lot of functional DeLorean DMC-12s.

I’m a dreamer, though, and I’d love nothing more than to see Christopher Nolan take everything he’s learned and perfected since bursting onto the scene, scale things back, and go smaller instead of bigger after The Odyssey. This isn’t an indictment of his filmmaking or creative direction, but rather a celebration of it. I can’t say Nolan has ever missed. What I can say is that I’d love to see him make something more reminiscent of his roots now that he’s older, wiser, and influential enough to do whatever he wants whenever he wants, and see what that kind of wisdom could do for the genre that launched his career.

And no, I’m not asking for Memento 3D. But a tight, lean, dark, gritty thriller made today with Christopher Nolan’s talent and passion for the craft would absolutely pop off if he ever decided to give it a shot. He’s already done so much more with less, so just imagine the kind of thriller he could make now with the resources currently at his disposal.