Top 10 Behind The Scenes Secrets of Christopher Nolan Movies

“Tenet” (2020)

“Crashing this plane” is a quote from “The Dark Knight Rises,” but it also applies to “Tenet.” Christopher Nolan prefers to use practical effects over CGI - even if a scene involves constructing an entire abandoned town or crashing an airplane through a building. (xref) Nolan told Total Film that he originally planned to utilize miniatures and “a combination of visual effects” to film the scene from the sci-fi action-thriller, but later realized that it would be cheaper to just buy a 747 and do it for real. So that’s exactly what they did. “Tenet”’s plane crash sequence is 100% real, and as Robert Pattinson hilariously claims, “It’s so bold to the point of ridiculousness.” That could be Christopher Nolan’s motto.

“Memento” (2000)

This is arguably Christopher Nolan’s most reserved and grounded movie, but it’s still filled with a lot of Nolan-esque flourishes - like non-chronological storytelling and reversed playback. One of the most brilliant examples of the former comes in the film’s opening sequence, as “Memento” shows the result of Teddy’s murder before rewinding to the shooting itself. During the rewinding, a bullet case spins, rises from the ground, and goes back inside Leonard’s gun. In Nolan’s own words, in terms of the film, that “was the height of complexity… an optical to make a backward running shot forwards, and the forwards shot… a simulation of a backward shot.”

“The Dark Knight Rises” (2012)

Regardless of how much Nolan loves his practical effects, sometimes he is forced to utilize CGI. And one of the biggest uses of CGI in his filmography can be found in the football field explosion of “The Dark Knight Rises.” The scene was shot in a real stadium - Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field to be exact - and employed a mix of practical effects and CGI. The real stuff included pyrotechnics and a raised turf, allowing stuntmen to “fall” through the field. Obviously the complete destruction of the field itself was done in post using CGI. We know Nolan is a fantastic filmmaker, but he’s not about to blow up a football stadium. Right?

“The Prestige” (2006)

This is one of Nolan’s most underappreciated efforts, grossing just $109 million at the worldwide box office. The story takes place in London at the end of the 19th century and concerns two stage magicians - one of the working class, the other an aristocrat. So how did Nolan and his team achieve such a believable and authentic Victorian London? By filming in Los Angeles. The theater stuff was filmed in the city’s Broadway district due to its unique Victorian architecture, and other L.A. locations were simply “dressed up” in period detail. Other than that, the film was shot on sound stages and even the parking lot of the Mount Wilson Observatory. Sometimes the most convincing effects are the most simple.

“Batman Begins” (2005)

This was Christopher Nolan’s first big blockbuster, complete with a $150 million budget. He certainly put the money to good use. Like building a real Batmobile. Officially known as The Tumbler, the Batmobile took nine months to make and included things like a racing truck suspension system, hydraulics, and a 5.7-liter Chevy V8 engine. The visual effects team built four separate Tumblers at a combined cost of $1 million - one with a fully functioning jet engine. These Tumblers were then actually driven through the streets of Chicago by a team of professional stunt drivers, each of whom required six months of training.

“Inception” (2010)

While it may seem like “Inception” is filled with CGI, most of the effects were done practically (as is often Nolan’s way). For example, the train in the middle of a Los Angeles street was actually a train in the middle of a Los Angeles street. Well, a train engine on top of a tractor trailer, but still. But one of the most impressive effects is the café explosion that convinces Ariadne that she is dreaming. To film the sequence, Nolan and his team blew the set with high-pressure nitrogen and caught the destruction on six separate high speed cameras. Some supplemental debris was added in post through the use of CGI.

“Interstellar” (2014)

Even “Interstellar,” a movie about space travel, black holes, and dimension-hopping tesseracts, was mostly made through the use of practical effects - including the tesseract itself. The tesseract was built on a massive soundstage, and it reportedly took months of planning, procrastinating, brainstorming, and building. Cables were then attached to Matthew McConaughey, who was able to float and glide through the set and interact with its numerous elements - including the bookshelf he peers through to watch Murphy. This is the sort of stuff movie lovers get with a genius and ambitious filmmaker with a $165 million budget.

“The Dark Knight” (2008)

One of the most famous scenes in “The Dark Knight” sees Batman flipping Joker’s truck upside down with the use of some cables. And how exactly does a filmmaker make this convincing? By actually flipping a truck, of course! The stunt truck was equipped with TNT and a giant steel piston. The TNT would trigger the heavy piston with a small explosion, which in turn pushed the truck onto its back. All of this was filmed on Chicago’s La Salle street, and the piston was bravely triggered by stunt driver Jim Wilkey, who was actually inside the truck when it flipped.

“The Dark Knight Rises” (2012)

The concluding film to Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy contains one of the greatest opening sequences in action movie history. It sees Bane and his henchmen hijacking a plane, kidnapping a nuclear physicist, and subsequently dumping the plane over Uzbekistan. The image of the wingless airplane dangling from the bigger aircraft is now iconic, and it looks absolutely spectacular (especially on the big screen!). And that’s because it’s all real. The entire scene was accomplished using stuntmen and a real dangling aircraft, and Nolan has admitted that successfully pulling it off in just two days was a high point in his filmmaking career.

“Inception” (2010)

The plane stunt is undoubtedly impressive, but the rotating hallway from “Inception” just has a certain beauty and filmmaking majesty to it. To film the iconic sequence in which Arthur fights henchmen in a zero-gravity hallway, the production team built a massive 100-foot-long hotel corridor on eight spinning concentric rings. The rings then spun the constructed hallway, resulting in the scene’s disorienting zero-gravity effect. Joseph Gordon-Levitt also did his own stunts inside the hallway contraption - stunts that required weeks of planning, training, and getting bruised. The result was well worth it, as he’s now part of what’s arguably Nolan’s most iconic action sequence. This scene, and its construction, are pure filmmaking wizardry.