Nolan’s First Film Inspiration (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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Before making Inception, Interstellar, and Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan was just a filmmaker with no budget. His first movie, Following (1998), was a low-budget thriller. It was about a writer who stalks people for inspiration. But the narrative wasn’t just fiction—it was roused by a real-life crime Nolan experienced. In an interview with Mental Floss, the movie maker said:
“You’d go out of your flat and you’d be surrounded by people. I became interested in the idea of looking at individuals and saying, ‘What’s that person’s story?’ Right around that time, somebody broke into the flat.”
Nolan once revealed that the idea for Following came after someone broke into his flat. At the time, he was living in a place with a plywood door—something he hadn’t thought much about until the break-in happened.
“I realized that the door was just plywood, and that was never keeping anybody out,” Nolan stated. “What was keeping people out was the social protocols that we have that allow us to live together. I was interested in the certain types of people who would stop observing those protocols, and why that would be.”
This thought led him to explore what happens when someone ignores those protocols, which became a key theme in Following. With no studio backing, Nolan made Following with friends over weekends. The film was shot on black-and-white 16mm because it was cheaper. Every scene was rehearsed to save the film. Actors even had to bring their own costumes.
Despite the low budget, the Following got noticed at film festivals. It helped Nolan land Memento, which became a sensation. That success led to The Dark Knight and Interstellar.
Nolan’s films often dive into deep psychological themes, and Following was no different. It explored a writer pushing ethical limits, showing Nolan’s early interest in human behavior. A break-in could have been just a setback, but for Nolan, it sparked a filmmaking career.
