Salvation from Illusion, Salvation by Illusion

The Gospel According to Christopher Nolan

Abstract

That science fiction implicitly conveys religious world views is evident in the cinematic corpus of writer-director Christopher Nolan. The Prestige, Inception, and Nolan’s Batman trilogy represent a variation on Gnosticism, in that salvation comes from a secret way of seeing the world. Nolan’s vision, however, is a repudiation of Gnostic norms, for salvation hinges not on the truth, but on the perfect lie. Illusion is both what is being redeemed, and the means of its redemption. Contrary to traditional Western religious norms, in Nolan’s stories the truth is destructive; it is deception that is salvific. Yet, counter the mainstreams of post-modern culture, in the worlds that Nolan crafts not all constructed perspectives are equally viable. To understand Nolan’s work clearly is to have insight into popular culture, into those who consume it, and, perhaps, into reality itself.