“It kills me”: the sibling rivalry responsible for Christopher Nolan’s biggest career regret
No offence to Jonathan, who’s made a stellar career for himself, but you’d have to travel pretty far to find someone willing to go out on a limb and say he’s been more successful than Christopher Nolan.
He’s collaborated with his brother on several scripts, created the underrated Person of Interest, co-created the once-great Westworld before it disappeared up its arse, and was instrumental in bringing Prime Video’s hit series, Fallout, to the small screen, so he’s definitely done more than alright for himself.
The debate over which Nolan sibling flew the highest definitely does not involve the oldest of the three, Matthew, who was arrested by the FBI and charged with being contracted to kill accountant Robert Cohen. He wasn’t convicted, but he did try to escape prison while being held, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
As one of the industry’s foremost auteurs, a box office entity unto himself, an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, and one of the few names in Hollywood who can make whatever they want for however much they need it to cost without being asked any questions about it, Nolan has been operating at the elite level for years, and almost every movie he’s directed has won widespread acclaim.
You wouldn’t think he’d have too many regrets, but the biggest one of them all is rooted in one of history’s oldest and proudest traditions: the sibling rivalry. One of the most iconic lines of dialogue spoken in any of his films was Jonathan’s idea, and Christopher still can’t seem to get over it.
“I’m plagued by a line from The Dark Knight, and I’m plagued because I didn’t write it,” he confessed. “My brother wrote it. It kills me, because it’s the line that most resonates. And, at the time, I didn’t even understand it.” As for the line, it’s become arguably the most-quoted of his filmography, and it’s long since seeped into the lexicon.
When Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent says, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to become the villain,” the older of the two Nolans wasn’t quite sure about it, but after seeing the way it was embraced and repurposed for the next two decades, he was seething that he didn’t come up with it himself.
“I read it in his draft, and I was like, ‘Alright, I’ll keep it in there, but I don’t really know what it means. Is that really a thing?'” he explained. “And then, over the years since that film’s come out, it just seems truer and truer.” Even after all these years, Nolan is still jealous of his younger brother, who pitched The Dark Knight‘s most famous soundbite, which initially went right over his head.
Could he have come up with something better? You never know, but probably not. It’s become baked into pop culture, and every time he hears it quoted back at him, which is probably a lot, he’ll be fuming at being reminded once again that it didn’t come from him.
