Lights, camera, Cillian: 10 brilliant Cillian Murphy movies to watch next

The entire country is still buzzing after Cillian Murphy’s incredible Oscars success earlier this month… Rebel County will be talking about this for years to come, and can we blame them? The first Irish-born actor to win Best Actor at the Academy Awards, Murphy couldn’t be more deserving of the honour.

Making his professional in Enda Walsh’s Disco Pigs back in 1996, he’s been in countless films and plays since then, the crescendo of which was undoubtedly his role as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 epic.

If you’re one of the minority who haven’t seen Oppenheimer yet, start there – it won him the Oscar after all – otherwise, here are 10 other Cillian Murphy films to add to your watchlist.

Inception 

A mind-bending sci-fi thriller also directed by Christopher Nolan, Murphy stars alongside Leonardo Di Caprio who plays Dom Cobb, a thief with the rare ability to enter people’s dreams and steal their secrets from their subconscious. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered a seemingly impossible task: plant an idea in someone’s mind. That someone is Robert Fischer (Murphy), heir to a powerful corporation.

The Dark Knight trilogy

Comprising Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, this trilogy was instrumental in introducing Murphy to international audiences. Cast as Dr. Jonathan Crane – also known as Scarecrow – he’s a complex character considered by many to be one of the best supervillains of all time.

28 Days Later

Directed by Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later is a post-apocalyptic horror film in which Murphy stars as Jim, a survivor in the aftermath of a highly contagious virus outbreak that decimates the population of the United Kingdom. Jim awakens from a coma 28 days after the outbreak to find London deserted and overrun by the infected. Think The Last of Us without the undead mushroom zombies.

Red Eye

A 2005 American psychological thriller film directed by Wes Craven, it follows a hotel manager (Rachel McAdams) ensnared in an assassination plot by a terrorist (Murphy) while aboard a red-eye flight to Miami.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Set during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) and the Irish Civil War (1922–1923), Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley ??tells the fictional story of two brothers, Damien O’Donovan (Murphy) and Teddy O’Donovan (Pádraic Delaney), who join the Irish Republican Army to fight for Irish independence from the United Kingdom. Arguably one of Murphy’s most well-known roles, and one he admits to feeling “great responsibility” for. “[It was] a privilege as an Irishman, and as an actor to work with Ken Loach,” he told GQ of his involvement in the project.

Breakfast on Pluto

Murphy joins an all-star Irish cast in this Neil Jordan film with Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Ruth Negga and Stephen Rea all starring. Based on Patrick McCabe’s 1998 novel of the same name, the film is divided into 36 chapters and sees Murphy play a transgender woman named Patrick “Kitten” Braden. Set in the 1970s, it follows Patrick’s search for love and her long-lost mother in small-town Ireland and later London.

The Edge of Love

Set in London and Wales during World War II, The Edge of Love explores the complexities of love, friendship, jealousy, and betrayal as it delves into the lives and relationships of poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys), his wife Caitlin MacNamara (Sienna Miller), his childhood friend Vera Phillips (Keira Knightley), and soldier William Killick (Murphy). Dylan’s relationship with both Caitlin and Vera becomes strained as jealousy and passion intersect. Meanwhile, William, who is married to Vera, struggles with the effects of war and separation.

In Time

Directed by Andrew Niccol, In Time is set in a dystopian future where time has become the universal currency. People stop aging at 25 but are engineered to live only one more year unless they can “buy” more time. Time can be earned, spent, or stolen. The rich hoard centuries, while the poor are forced to negotiate for their immortality. Murphy appears as Raymond Leon, a Timekeeper pursuing Will Salas (Justin Timberlake), a working-class man falsely accused of murder.

Feature image courtesy of the Academy Awards