By The Update (spinning top still spinning)
5. “He’s the Hero Gotham Deserves” – The Dark Knight (2008)
Why It Slaps:
Batman, on a Batbike, in a Batmood, taking the fall for Harvey Dent because *checks notes* he’s too good?
The monologue. The music. Gordon looking like he’s about to ugly cry mid-sentence.
Meanwhile, you’re on the couch Googling, “What does ‘not the one it needs’ actually mean?”
Pop Culture Energy:
It’s giving Taylor Swift at the VMAs energy. Self-sacrificing, misunderstood, and somehow blamed for everything.
4. “Love is the One Thing…” – Interstellar (2014)
Why It Slaps:
Murph slams the books, Coop’s crying into a GoPro, and Anne Hathaway is giving a TED Talk about how love transcends space-time.
It should be cheesy. It’s actually poetry.
Meanwhile, Nolan’s like, “Gravity? Quantum physics? Nah. Have some feelings.”
Pop Culture Energy:
It’s like if Einstein wrote The Notebook while on a spaceship sponsored by IKEA.
3. The Plane Heist – Tenet (2020)
Why It Slaps:
Nolan crashed a real 747 into a building and called it “cost-effective.”
This wasn’t CGI. This was “We can’t afford to mess this up.”
Also, the scene makes slightly more sense the fourth time you watch it, backward, with subtitles.
Pop Culture Energy:
Imagine Ocean’s Eleven had a baby with a Rubik’s Cube and raised it in a time loop. That’s this scene.
2. “Do You Feel in Charge?” – The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Why It Slaps:
Bane walks into a room like he’s about to drop the hardest mixtape of 2012, and then absolutely sunsets a billionaire in one line.
Tom Hardy’s muffled ASMR voice made a generation of dudes say “I was born in the darkness” unironically for years.
Pop Culture Energy:
It’s the verbal version of someone unplugging your charger mid-2%. Iconic villain energy.
1. The Spinning Top – Inception (2010)
Why It Slaps:
Is he dreaming? Is he awake? Is Christopher Nolan just trolling us?
The camera lingers. The top wobbles. It’s about to fall, cut to black.
Cinema hasn’t known peace since.
Pop Culture Energy:
The original cliffhanger. Game of Thrones before Game of Thrones.
People are still arguing about it on Reddit at 3 a.m.
The Update’s group chat has been fighting over it since 2010. And we’re not stopping.
The Update Verdict:
Christopher Nolan doesn’t make films. He makes anxiety puzzles wrapped in IMAX.
Whether he’s blowing up planes, bending time, or traumatising us with spinning tops, one thing’s clear: the man lives for chaos.
And so do we.
(One star for each dimension he’s operating in.)
