Christopher Nolan Reveals the Ending He Calls His Most Unique
Christopher Nolan is a director who believes that how a story ends is just as important as how it starts. He recently told Insider that he finds it hard to pick just one favorite ending from his movies because they mean so much to him. He explained that he doesn’t really feel ready to fully commit to a film until he knows exactly where the story is going and how it will finish.
His 2023 movie Oppenheimer is a great example of this, as it ends with a very serious conversation between J. Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein. Nolan wanted to show that the world changed forever because of what happened back then. However, when people ask him which ending he feels most connected to, he often talks about the famous spinning top at the end of Inception.
Nolan shared that watching the end of Inception with a big crowd was a very unique type of ending because people would react so strongly. He used to sneak into the back of theaters just to hear the audience gasp or groan when the screen went black. He joked that he would often feel the need to get out of here before anybody notices I’m there because the crowd was so full of mixed emotions.
He also explained that he doesn’t just stumble onto these endings by accident. Before he even starts the actual business of writing the script, he spends months thinking and taking notes. For him, it is vital to know the final destination before he really starts the hard work of making a movie. He feels that he can’t give a project his all until he is sure of where the journey will lead.
As of this year, Nolan is incredibly busy finishing his next big project, The Odyssey. This new film is a massive fantasy action epic based on the ancient Greek poem by Homer. It stars Matt Damon as the hero Odysseus and features an amazing cast with names like Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, and Robert Pattinson.
The movie cost about $250 million to make and was filmed all over the world, including in Morocco and Italy, using special new IMAX cameras. Besides making movies, Nolan has also taken on a big leadership role as the president of the Directors Guild of America. He has been very vocal lately about the dangers of using AI in filmmaking and is fighting to make sure that human directors stay in control of their work.
He is also working hard to protect movie theaters so people can keep seeing films on the biggest screens possible. His new epic, The Odyssey, is set to arrive in theaters on July 17 and is already one of the most talked-about movies of the year.
Do you think Christopher Nolan’s decision to dive into the world of ancient Greek mythology with The Odyssey will be as successful as his historical and sci-fi epics? Share your thoughts in the comments.