All 14 Christopher Nolan Movie Villains, Ranked

Christopher Nolan is an outstanding storyteller who has created incredible films featuring complex and layered villains that often blur the lines between what it means to be the bad guy. Nolan is an avid filmmaker who is often placed on lists of the greatest directors alive (via MovieWeb). In the last 30 years, Nolan has directed 12 feature films, with nearly every one of them earning critical acclaim, as well as recognition at the Academy Awards, and four short films.

While Nolan may not be especially prolific like some of his peers, or breaking records at the box office with each new release, his films stand apart as something significant. Nolan challenges audiences with movies that have deeper meaning and provides an engaging and visually stunning presentation with each new release. Each film explores the human condition in a new way, with blurred lines regarding who is a hero and who is a villain, and his movies require more thought and reflection to come to a deeper understanding.

14
Cobb

Following (1998)

Nolan’s directorial debut feature is an intricate piece of film, but compared to his later works, it was a clear stepping stone toward his more widely recognized projects. In Following, a young man follows strangers around London looking for inspiration for his writing. The “villain” of the story is Cobb, a man who appears to be a petty thief, but throughout the film, is revealed to be a much grander mastermind conspiring to cover his tracks. Cobb is interesting and incredibly intelligent, but the brevity of the film and the sharp twists place him at the bottom of this list.

13
Dr. Hugh Mann

Interstellar (2014)

Dr. Hugh Mann may only appear for a short time during Interstellar, but his character is treacherous and selfish in a way that makes him a clear antagonist in the story. His story is resolved with him dying in a fiery explosion, but Mann’s threat and the damage he caused have a ripple effect on the crew of the Endurance. While Cooper manages to overcome that same damage, Mann remains a compelling and intriguing villain.

12
Teddy

Memento (2000)

Memento marks the first movie where Nolan leaned more heavily into a non-linear narrative, following a man with amnesia who is investigating the murder of his wife. Throughout the course of the movie, Leonard, the “hero” is introduced to Teddy, and suspects him of having murdered his wife, so he kills him. But as the film later reveals, Teddy did not kill his wife but was using and manipulating Leonard for his own nefarious purposes.

11
Leonard Shelby

Memento (2000)

While Teddy manipulated and used Leonard, Leonard was revealed to be the true killer, having accidentally killed his wife. But what makes Leonard the greater villain in the story, is that, following his realization, he chooses to manipulate himself and his unstable memories to target and kill anyone who has wronged him. He provides clues to push him toward killing people that, at one point, he fully knows did not have anything to do with his wife’s death, and becomes the true villain of the story.

10
Walter Finch

Insomnia (2002)

Insomnia is one of the rare instances where the late and great comedy actor, Robin Williams, played a dark and seedy villain. Walter Finch is a crime novelist who befriends a young woman who is a fan of his work. Due to his lusting after the girl, and her rejecting his advances, he lashes out and kills her, and the complex narrative then sees him playing a game of cat and mouse with law enforcement. Finch is a villain on multiple levels, with multiple heinous acts under his belt.

9
Bane

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is frequently praised as one of the best superhero trilogies of all time. The movies contained antagonists who had rich backstories, creating tense conflicts, and providing Batman with the opportunity to be a hero. In the third movie, Bane (Tom Hardy), is a terrifying figure who has enhanced strength beyond any ordinary human through the use of toxic drugs. The character is intelligent, and having been raised inside a prison, he grew strong and resilient, but compared to the other villains in the trilogy, Bane was relegated to a sidekick role by Talia al Ghul.

8
Ra’s al Ghul

Batman Begins (2005)

Meanwhile, one of the first villains to challenge, Christian Bale’s Batman, had a personal connection to the hero. Ra’s al Ghul, played by Liam Neeson, first met Bruce Wayne as a young man, searching for answers following the death of his parents. Ra’s helped Wayne train in multiple styles of combat and learn discipline that shaped him into the hero he would become. However, Ra’s had darker intentions and eventually came to Gotham in hopes of taking over the city. The fight between mentor and mentee was intense and deeply emotional.

7
Talia al Ghul

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

And while the battle with Ra’s was emotionally challenging for Batman, it was even more difficult when his daughter, Talia al Ghul, infiltrated Wayne Enterprises, formed an intimate relationship with Bruce, and then turned on him. Under a false name, Talia sought revenge for her father and attempted to destroy Gotham and Bruce Wayne. Her manipulation and betrayal make her an incredibly dangerous foe, and one that almost destroyed Batman.

6
Andrei Sator

Tenet (2020)

Andrei Sator may be a pawn in someone else’s game within Tenet, but he remains one of the most cruel and dangerous villains in any Nolan film. Sator is recruited to be the man who retrieves a future weapon known as the Algorithm, which will essentially reverse time and erase the lives of everyone who has ever lived. Sator sees himself as so important and entitled, that when he learns of his own mortality due to a terminal illness, he decides to take the world down with him.

5
Jonathan “Scarecrow” Crane

Batman Begins (2005)

Cillian Murphy plays the twisted psychiatrist who seeks to control fear itself. Crane worked with Ra’s al Ghul, although his experiments and the torture he administered to vulnerable people within his care were his own doing. Crane and Ra’s planned to release his fear toxin into the water supply of Gotham, thus creating a state of panic and paranoia among the citizens which would destroy the city and everyone living within it. Scarecrow remains one of the most menacing and dangerous monsters within Batman’s rogues gallery, and came incredibly close to taking out the Dark Knight.

4
Harvey “Two-Face” Dent

The Dark Knight (2008)

Harvey Dent may have been a secondary antagonist in The Dark Knight, but he remains a terrifying and imposing presence whenever he appears. Before his accident, Dent was manipulative and powerful, with the intention of getting control over important figures in Gotham and “cleaning up the city” as he sees fit. However, when he suffers major burns on half of his body, he fully embraces his reputation as “Two-Face,” dishing out his warped ideal of justice with no restraint. He becomes an unfeeling murderous monster, willing to do anything at the flip of a coin.

3
Mal Cobb

Inception (2010)

Mal Cobb is a complicated villain, as she exists predominantly in the mind of her husband, Dom. After she and her husband had children, they discovered and explored the art of inception, traveling through dreams. Mal became convinced that the dreams were real, and Dom tried to bring her out by incepting the idea that the dream was not the real world. But Mal continued to believe reality was also false and killed herself in a manner that would implicate him and tear their family apart unless he followed her into what she thought was the real world.

Everything that plays out after that is a dream version of Mal who tries to convince her husband to leave the world behind and live with her in dreams. The character is so intimidating and terrifying, because of her ability to convince, manipulate, and emotionally destroy her husband. Mal may only exist as an idea, but the power she holds over Cobb is incredibly dangerous and makes her an intimidating, complex, and well-defined villain like no other.

2
Alfred Borden & Robert Angier

The Prestige (2006)

Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman play two competing magicians in The Prestige, who are constantly attempting to exceed the other’s abilities, and frequently sabotage their tricks with dangerous results. When Robert Angier (Jackman) loses his wife in a terrible accident during a performance, he believes that his then-partner, Alfred Borden (Bale), is responsible. Borden dedicates his life to crafting magic tricks that will see him become the greatest magician of all time, and Angier is obsessed with figuring out his tricks and improving upon them.

However, both men take things to dangerous lengths, harming everyone around them and becoming monsters in the process. Borden was a twin, and as a result of the pair’s desire to keep the show going, they destroyed both of their romantic lives. Angier, on the other hand, achieved his goal of creating the better trick, but in the process, developed a way to clone himself to produce the desired effect. With each and every performance, Angier would not simply perform a trick, but he would murder himself, or his clone, in order to maintain the prestige of his tricks.

1
The Joker

The Dark Knight (2008)

However, the most inspired and well-designed villain from any of Christopher Nolan’s films has to be the Joker. Played by the outstanding Heath Ledger, his performance as the Joker was one of the greatest deliveries of any role ever. He is monstrous, cruel, anarchistic, and incredibly compelling as Batman’s greatest foe. Combined with his undefined backstory, and frequent lies, the Joker is terrifying and imposing, with his actions feeling completely unpredictable, and his willingness to cause harm and play god seemingly endless.