on “Insomnia” and proved he could succeed in taking an existential character drama at projecting it on a large cinematic scale, he never went back to making movies for anyone else. Clarity in movement has become the backbone of every Nolan action set piece (see the iconic Batmobile chase in “The Dark Knight” as the best example).Īmong the major contemporary filmmakers working on their own terms, Nolan is the only one who has managed to retain that autonomy in the Hollywood studio system for 20 years and counting. Nolan’s excels at sustaining tension through fluid movement: The scene isn’t a one-take and yet it seems like it moves in real time because of the precise way Nolan follows each of his characters.

The nearly four-minute set piece is a masterclass in tension as the chase starts indoors and extends through various outdoor spaces, from populated town streets to a floating log mill where Dormer nearly drowns. The second indication was the riveting cat-and-mouse chase later in “Insomnia” that finds Dormer running after the real killer, Walter Finch (Robin Williams). The fog chase provided the first indication that Nolan had the confidence to inject traditional studio “action beats” with an elevated artistic flare. The fog turns the characters into shapeshifting silhouettes, as the quick editing makes everyone’s identity a mystery. Nolan and cinematographer Wally Pfister shoot through a sea of fog and utilize an icy blue color palette to give the moment a chilling, ghostlike atmosphere. Look no further than the inciting incident where Dormer shoots his partner. He rises to the occasion with a stylistic confidence in the way he crafts moments of tension through cinematic visuals. Nolan is playing with the same kind of existential crisis at the center of “Memento,” but he’s afforded the chance to dream even bigger thanks to a studio budget. The thrill of “Insomnia” is not in the murder case at the center of the plot, but the self-inflicted mind game that puts Dormer through the moral wringer, which makes it a quintessential Nolan psychodrama. Dormer solves one problem and creates another by killing his partner, and the further down the rabbit hole he goes to catch the real killer he thought he was shooting the more he must confront his murderous action. The murder becomes a psychological maze for Dormer, as his partner was intending to testify against him in an investigation into Dormer’s use of questionable evidence in the past. Nolan takes the structure of Skjoldbjærg’s “Insomnia” and doubles down on the guilt-ridden existential downfall that plagues the protagonist, Detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino), after he mistakingly shoots his partner dead.

The project set a precedent that Nolan could infuse pre-existing material with an original filmmaking voice, thus opening the door for his “Dark Knight” trilogy. In fact, “Insomnia” was such an assured studio debut for Nolan that it laid the groundwork for his studio blockbusters.

Little did anyone know at the time that the Warner Bros.-Nolan pairing would become one of the modern studio system’s most prolific partnerships. Steven Soderbergh was such a “Memento” fan that he forced Warner Bros. executives were reluctant at first to meet with Nolan as they weren’t so eager to put a $45 million thriller in the hands of a first-time studio director. The project marked Nolan’s first foray into studio filmmaking after the breakthrough success of his 2000 indie “Memento.” Warner Bros. Released theatrically in May 2002, “Insomnia” is Nolan’s remake of Erik Skjoldbjærg’s 1997 Norwegian thriller of the same name. ‘The Idol’ Debut Was No ‘Succession’ Finale, but Was It a Success?

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