Following · reception & legacy

1999 · Christopher Nolan

How Following has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A blip on the late-90s festival circuit that almost nobody saw on release, it's since been retro-canonised as the ultimate 'before they were famous' debut — every Nolan blockbuster sends a new wave of viewers back to it.

What's debated

The perennial debate: is Following a fully-formed thriller that stands on its own, or just a fascinating rough sketch for Memento that only gets attention because of the name attached?

Its footprint

Its most screenshotted moment is the Batman logo on a flat's front door — a blink-and-miss detail that film Twitter and Letterboxd reviews endlessly flag as accidental prophecy, six years before Batman Begins.

Where it stands

The completionist's badge of honour — the film Letterboxd users log last when working backwards through Nolan's filmography, and the go-to exhibit in any 'great directors' micro-budget debuts' list.

★ Did you know? Nolan made it for around $6,000, shooting on weekends over about a year because the cast and crew all had day jobs — and the actors rehearsed extensively so scenes could be captured in one or two takes to save expensive 16mm film stock.

Named by the director

Influences Christopher Nolan has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

Nicolas Roeg — Nolan has repeatedly cited Roeg's fractured, nonlinear editing as a formative influence on the time-shuffled structure of his early films, including Following.