Research into an iconic Thriller Director

Christopher Nolan

Nolan, born in London in 1970, is famous for his work with the 2005 Batman triology staring Christian Bale, Gary Oldman and Michael Cane, also for his Blockbuster film Inception, staring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page.

He studied English Literature at Unversity College London which he choose because of the film making facilities it offered him. The first film he directed was 'Doodlebug' (1997)
The synopsis is 'In a ratty flat, a man is on his hands and knees, holding a shoe by its toe, trying to kill a bug of some sort that so far has managed to evade him. He keeps up the chase and whacks at it a few times. Then, we get a look at what he's been trying to flatten. In what sort of universe have we found ourselves? Who's in danger?'- from IMDB. This film was a short film (lasting just over two minutes) where a man is trying to squash a strange creature in a small room. The creature is a smaller version of him and when he succeeds with his task he then gets squashed by a bigger version of himself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WhKt_CkXD0

The Dark Knight

- Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent are forced to deal with the chaos unleashed by a terrorist mastermind known only as the Joker, as he drives each of them to their limits.- IMDB

This film stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Heath Ledger as the Joker, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two Face. This was a massive success for Nolan, gaining over $1,000,000,000 in the box office, this is compare to Batman Begins, which came before the dark knight which grossed only $371,853,783 in the box office. Also it is voted on IMDB.com as the 8th highest rated film ever, this is below films like 'The Godfather' and above 'Lord of the Rings'. The film also won two Oscars for; Best Achievement in Sound Editing and Best Supporting Actor, also it won Empires best film award.

Why is it a thriller?

In The Dark Knight there is a scene when The Joker has ridged two ferries, that are transporting people to safety, with explosives; one boat is holding prisoners from a high security prison and the other a group of ordinary people. The twist is that the he gives a detonator to each boat, but this detonator will blow up the other boat and if they detonate the other boat they get to live, if they try to escape they both get blown up and if no one detonates by 12 then they both blow up. During this time The Joker has guarding himself in a tall building over looking the ferries as they cross the river, he is guarded by armed thugs who have hostages. Batman and the Gotham Sweat team have to get to the top of the building before 12, while saving the hostages and stopping the armed thugs. This is a complicated situation. But Gordon is looking for Dent, who he believes has been kidnapped by The Joker after he blow up a hospital. Gordon must find Dent, but he allows Batman to go in first. Batman almost instantly realises that the hostages are only pretending and the armored thugs are the innocent people who hands are tied around a gun and a clown mask over their face. The swat team enter, targeting the tied hostages. Now Batman must stop the swat from taking out innocent people, while stopping the real the armed thugs, while trying to bring down The Joker. Batman faces of with Joker, but gets pinned down by a metal pole and they both watch the two ferries as the clock hits twelve. No one detonates, meaning The Joker has to blow them both up. Before he can Batman over comes him and sends him flying over the rooftop, he then uses his grapple gadget to save him and leave him dangling for the police. This is when The Joker reveals that this was only a distraction, while he allowed Harvey Dent (who was driven insane by the loss of his love) to start killing all the people he thinks are responsible. Harvey Dent is responsible for a lot of the crime lords being behind bars and with this killing spree he has undone everything he worked against and tore up Gotham's spirit, meaning that chaos will descend over Gotham City.     

Memento

-A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.-IMDB

Memento is a film where a man can not hold short term memory, meaning he cannot remember things that have just happened too him. He can remember everything up until the incident, where his wife was killed, but can only hold information for a short while. He is hunting the man who killed his wife, using tattos and letters to himself too reminding him of things.
IMDB's top 250 - number 33