Bruce Wayne, Dom Cobb and Joseph Cooper. Three men on three radically different journeys. Be it on the rooftops of Gotham as a masked vigilante, through the infiltration of the subconscious in dreams or even piloting an intergalactic mission to save the future of humanity each man has one common goal; to make it back home. Throughout his career, Christopher Nolan has been synonymous with making grandiose blockbusters that maintain art house sensibilities.
Constantly drawing comparisons with the likes of Kubrick he makes visually striking and powerful films that rely heavily on practical techniques delivering the most authentic experience possible for audiences.
When looking at his films, most of them can be summed up with one word or theme. One such theme that has featured heavily throughout his entire filmography is that of homecoming. Even in his most recent film, Dunkirk the central conceit is about a group of soldiers trying to survive long enough to make it home. Three films that particularly stand out in Nolan’s work when looking at the theme of homecoming are Batman Begins, Inception and Interstellar.
The chief motivation for the main character in these three films is to make it home at some stage in their story, but not without embarking on an epic journey first in the vein of The Odyssey.
A Caped Crusader Protecting his Home
With Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan has said many times that the film is all about fear (with the two subsequent sequels in the Dark Knight trilogy being about chaos and pain). It is this fear that Bruce Wayne must overcome in order to save and protect his home of Gotham City under the guise of Batman.
Utilising a disjointed narrative (a storytelling tool used in many other of his films such as The Prestige and Dunkirk) Nolan tells the story of a young disillusioned Bruce Wayne who travels to the far side of the world to seek the means to fight injustice in the city he calls home. In this his first major blockbuster, it is also the first time where Nolan plays around with the theme of homecoming.
The opening sequence sees Bruce fall down an abandoned well on the grounds of his family home where he has a traumatic experience with some bats. It is here where Nolan establishes a link between fear and home. This is emphasised through the murder of Bruce’s parents.
Bruce blames himself for their death leaving himself riddled with guilt. In his travels, he encounters a man by the name of Ducard who offers him the chance to redeem himself and conquer injustice through training with the nefarious League of Shadows, an organisation whose goal is to bring balance and justice to the world. Throughout the course of his training Bruce’s, anger outweighs his guilt as he learns to overcome his fears to return home to bring justice to Gotham.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTIsIi8_w0Q
Upon his return home, one of the first things that he does is to go to the darkest part of his home (the foundations of Wayne Manor) where he surrounds himself with the one thing he fears most, bats. A symbol of weakness to him. He uses this symbol to strike fear into those who would try to corrupt his home. From this point, Bruce sets on a mission to clean up the city striking at the most corrupt individuals first.
One particular shot of his alter-ego Batman standing atop a skyscraper overlooking Gotham shows how he is now a watchful protector of his troubled city. However, the figure of Ducard who reveals himself to be the true head of the League of Shadows, Ra’s Al Ghul. He threatens to destroy Gotham believing that it is beyond saving, even burning down Bruce’s family home in the process.
After defeating Ra’s, one of the closing scenes of the film sees Bruce standing in the rubble of his family home stating how he rebuild it brick by brick which is symbolic not only of how he will rebuild his families legacy but of how he will restore justice in Gotham from the ground up.
After the phenomenal success of The Dark Knight, Nolan was afforded the opportunity to make his passion project, Inception. The film itself is a mind-bending journey of questioning one’s reality in the world of corporate espionage through various dream states but at its core, it is the story of a guilt-ridden man who wants to return home to his children.
The Man who Dreams of Home
The film opens with the main character Cobb, waking up washed up on a beach far from home. In his delirium, he has visions of seeing his children but not their faces which is a recurring idea throughout the film. This is to constantly remind the audience that anytime Cobb’s children appear on screen with their faces obscured it is a part of his dream. Cobb even goes as far as to say that he will never be truly home until he sees the face of his children again.
The reason he can’t return home is that he would face murder charges for the death of his wife Mal. When a Japanese businessman, Mr Saito employs Cobb and his team to try inception (planting an idea in someone’s head) on a business rival in exchange for providing the means to allow Cobb to return home. Cobb accepts the offer despite his difficult past with inception and having his deceased wife haunt his dream state.
In the past, he tried inception with Mal but it merely leads her to go mad questioning her reality after spending the equivalent of a lifetime in the dream world. It eventually leads to her suicide as she felt it was the only way to return to the dream world she created with her husband.
As Cobb’s team try to complete their mission, Mal is constantly stalking them, interfering at every turn which eventually leads Cobb to confront his past by letting go of his wife as the version of her in his subconscious will never come close to the real thing. By doing so he can successfully complete the job and go home. In the end, Cobb successfully completes the job.
Nolan masterfully utilises Hans Zimmer’s score as it paves the way for an emotionally resonant finale. As Cobb passes through customs, the security guard passes Cobb back his passport saying, “Welcome home, Mr Cobb”, but the final shot of Cobb seeing the face of his children again is the affirmation that he is well and truly home again.
After completing his Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan turned his attention to the stars with Interstellar. A film whose title alone just screams spectacle (which Nolan delivers in abundance) it is a piece which Nolan describes as being one of his most emotional works to date, as it is about a father’s love for his children (particularly his daughter).
Mankind Looking to the Stars for a New Home
In a near future where the earth is dying, former air force pilot and engineer Joseph “Coop” Cooper a man yearning for adventure fueled by curiosity has to come to terms with the realities of his dying world. When chance strikes a meeting with the now secretive NASA, Coop agrees to pilot a mission to find a new home for mankind.
The uncertainty in his mission, as well as the potential length of it based on relativity, leads to a heart-wrenching goodbye with his daughter, Murph. She begs him to stay based on a message from a “ghost” but Coop leaves without realising how important this will become later. Leaving on bad terms Coop sets out on his mission to save mankind but not without promising to return to his daughter.
Despite all the grandeur through the visuals (such as the journey through the wormhole) and the bombast from Hans Zimmer’s organ filled score, it is the up-close moments with the actors, (be it a goodbye or receiving a video call light years from home) that give weight to the actual task at hand that the characters are doing. The passage of time-based on relativity is used brilliantly by Nolan too as it highlights the sacrifice the characters are making.
Throughout the mission, the potential new homes in the film are placed fraught with danger and desolation. The first features a planet where the waves are the size of mountains and another has clouds which are frozen over with harsh terrain below. A far cry from the green cornfields of Coop’s home.
There are constant doubts over not only its potential for success but what the actual mission is; ie: saving the human race or colonising a new world to start over again. This doubt puts a severe strain on the relationship between those on the mission and those at home.
When it seems like all hope is lost, Coop enters the tesseract which propels him to the fifth dimension. This takes him to a place that seems so close and yet so far from home as he is able to send messages back home in time to his daughter through gravity.
In effect completing a loop and fulfilling his destiny to save the world. On a transport vessel, Coop having made it home to his daughter sees her again only she is now an old woman on her death bed due to the time that has passed from relativity. He fulfills a promise made to her as a child in the most emotionally impactful scene in the film.
Despite being criticised as to having an almost sterile approach to his films, Nolan’s projects maintain an emotional core in spite of their increase in scale. With these three films, each character goes through a redemptive journey where the reward is to return home. It is this idea of home or homecoming that gives each of these films a beating heart.
