The best Cillian Murphy movies and TV shows feature a strong mix of work with acclaimed niche directors and one of the best historical crime TV shows of this century. Murphy is an Irish actor who got his start working in stage plays before he finally enjoyed his breakout role in the post-apocalyptic horror movie 28 Days Later (2002). Working with director Danny Boyle on that project opened the door for them to reunite a few years later for the psychological sci-fi film Sunshine.
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However, while his work with Boyle was a good way to get his foot in the door, what came later defined his career. He worked with Christopher Nolan for the first time in Batman Begins, which started a collaboration between the two that led to Murphy’s Best Actor Oscar win years later for Oppenheimer. Murphy also moved to television for his critically acclaimed role of Thomas Shelby in the gangster drama series Peaky Blinders, which earned awards recognition throughout its six-season run.
10 Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003)
Pieter
Based on the 1999 Tracy Chevalier novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring stars Scarlett Johansson as a young household servant of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth). Vermeer is the real-life figure who painted the Girl with the Pearl Earring painting in 1665 and Johansson’s Griet is on whom the painting was reportedly based. Joining these two stars in the cast are Tom Wilkinson, Essie Davis, Judy Parfitt, and Cillian Murphy.
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Murphy stars as Pieter, the butcher’s son whom Griet falls in love with. At its core, Girl with a Pearl Earring is about art, power, social status, and love. The film focuses on Griet’s sexual awakening and while Pieter is part of that, he only plays a small role in the story. Reviews were mostly positive, with praise going to the cast, and it also received three Academy Award nominations, although all three were technical awards.
9 A Quiet Place Part II (2020)
Emmett
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A Quiet Place Part II PG-13Science FictionThrillerHorror
A Quiet Place Part II continues the story of the Abbott family as they navigate a perilous world threatened by creatures that hunt by sound. Surviving outside their safe haven, they encounter new challenges and discover that the post-apocalyptic landscape harbors menaces beyond the familiar horrors.
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*Availability in US Release Date May 21, 2021 Runtime 96 minutes Cast John Krasinski , Emily Blunt , Millicent Simmonds , Noah Jupe , Cillian Murphy , Djimon Hounsou , Okieriete Onaodowan , Scoot McNairy , Zachary Golinger , Blake DeLong , Silas Pereira-Olson , Alice Sophie Malyukova , Ashley Dyke , Barbara Singer , David Lundy , Wayne Duvall , Lauren-Ashley Cristiano , Robert A. Coldicott , Sheri Fairchild , Kyle Licht , Scott Matheny , Gary Sundown , Bill Smith Director John Krasinski Expand
After A Quiet Place focused solely on one small family surviving the alien attacks, A Quiet Place II opens things up and has the mother from the first movie (Emily Blunt) and her three kids finding other survivors and seeking a way to continue to survive the post-apocalyptic world. One of the new survivors they find is Emmett, a friend of her late husband Lee (John Krasinski), who has become hardened since the alien attacks. Cillian Murphy plays Emmett in the sequel.
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Related A Quiet Place Complete Timeline Explained
As the franchise continues to expand, A Quiet Place’s timeline becomes more explored. We break down the movie’s complete, chronological timeline.
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Emmett plays a huge role in the sequel, agreeing to work with Evelyn and her daughter Regan to learn if there are survivors on an island and he is there to help them find a way to take the battle to the aliens. Murphy pretty much takes over the role that Krasinski assumed in the first movie and delivers a solid performance as a character who isn’t too much unlike his breakout role in 28 Days Later.
8 Cold Mountain (2003)
Bardolph
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Cold Mountain R
In the final days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back to Cold Mountain, North Carolina, to find his girlfriend.
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*Availability in US Release Date December 24, 2003 Runtime 153 minutes Main Genre Drama Cast Jude Law , Nicole Kidman , Renée Zellweger , Eileen Atkins , Brendan Gleeson , Philip Seymour Hoffman Director Anthony Minghella
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Anthony Minghella released his Oscar-nominated epic period war drama Cold Mountain in 2003. The release was based toward the end of the American Civil War and followed a wounded deserter from the Confederate army who has ventured home to be with the woman he loves. Jude Law plays the former soldier, W.P. Inman, and the woman he desperately wants to get back to is the preacher’s daughter who promised to wait for him, Ada (Nicole Kidman).
Cillian Murphy has a small role in the film, as this was still early in his acting career. Murphy plays Bardolph, a soldier. He only appears in the film for one scene, but he left a memorable impression thanks to his emotional work. He ends up shot in the back by Natalie Portman’s Sara after the soldiers he was with attempted to sexually assault her in front of her baby. Renée Zellweger won an Oscar for her performance in Cold Mountain.
7 Sunshine (2007)
Robert Capa
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Sunshine RThriller Sci-Fi
Sunshine, directed by Danny Boyle, follows a team of astronauts on a mission to reignite a dying sun with a massive nuclear bomb. Set in 2057, the film stars Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, and Michelle Yeoh, encapsulating their struggle against both physical and psychological challenges. As the crew ventures deeper into space, they confront unexpected dangers that threaten the mission and their survival.
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*Availability in US Release Date July 27, 2007 Runtime 107 minutes Cast Cillian Murphy , Rose Byrne , Michelle Yeoh , Chris Evans , Cliff Curtis Director Danny Boyle
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After impressing audiences with his performance in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, Cillian Murphy re-teamed with the director for the 2007 science fiction psychological thriller Sunshine. The movie follows a team of astronauts as they try to reignite a dying sun. Thanks to the fact this was a long space mission movie, there is a large ensemble cast with names like Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Mark Strong, and more. However, Murphy had one of the film’s lead roles.
Murphy is Robert Capa, a physicist who operates the massive stellar-bomb device that the people of Earth hope will help reignite the sun. However, the entire mission is not the point of this story. Instead, Sunshine is a psychological thriller dealing with how the mission affects the psyche of the people onboard the spacecraft, especially when one of them reveals themselves as a member of a cult who believes the Earth needs to die. The film received critical praise, has become a cult classic, and earned Murphy a British Independent Film Award nomination.
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6 Dunkirk (2017)
Shivering Soldier
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7.6/10 Dunkirk PG-13HistoryDramaAction
This epic tale of World War II tells the story of soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who are surrounded by the German army, and the dangerous operation that evacuated and saved the lives of thousands.
Release Date July 21, 2017 Runtime 106 minutes Cast Kenneth Branagh , Aneurin Barnard , Mark Rylance , Tom Hardy , James D’Arcy , Jack Lowden , Cillian Murphy , Harry Styles , Fionn Whitehead , Barry Keoghan Director Christopher Nolan Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures
Cillian Murphy has teamed with director Christopher Nolan several times. He has played the lead in one of his movies (and won an Oscar for it) and took on a villain role in another franchise (The Dark Knight trilogy). In 2017, he worked on the director’s war epic Dunkirk. The film follows the evacuation of Dunkirk during World War II from the air, land, and sea. The cast was huge, and Murphy’s character didn’t even get an actual name, known in the credits as only “Shivering Soldier.”
Related The Real History Behind Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk
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However, while he has no name, Murphy’s soldier is still a very important part of the movie and appears throughout while never revealing his name. The Royal Navy saved his life in the English Channel after his ship was destroyed. He then remains with them and helps save several other people before he ends up as one of the final survivors alongside Dawson (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Collins (Jack Lowden). Dunkirk finished with eight Oscar nominations, winning three for its technical accomplishments.
5 Batman Begins (2005)
Dr. Jonathan Crane / The Scarecrow
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29 8.8/10 Batman Begins PG-13ActionAdventureCrimeDocumentaryDrama
Christopher Nolan’s take on Batman’s origin story sees Christian Bale take up the mantle of the Caped Crusader. Batman Begins follows young Bruce Wayne who, reeling from the murder of his wealthy parents, decides to become a vigilante in order to save Gotham City. This pits him against the mysterious League of Shadows, an organization intent on destroying Gotham with the help of the villainous Scarecrow and his powerful fear toxin.
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*Availability in US Release Date June 15, 2005 Runtime 140 Minutes Cast Ken Watanabe , Liam Neeson , Gary Oldman , Tom Wilkinson , Linus Roache , Christian Bale , Katie Holmes , Mark Boone Junior , Michael Caine , Rutger Hauer , Cillian Murphy , Morgan Freeman Director Christopher Nolan Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures
In 2005, Cillian Murphy worked with Christopher Nolan for the first time in the superhero movie Batman Begins. Nolan plays one of the villains in that film, a psychiatrist also known as The Scarecrow. He has developed a drug that causes people to see their worst fears and plans to use it to plunge Gotham City into madness while the terrorist Ra’s al Ghul sets out to bring the entire city to its knees for his League of Assassins group.
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Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy:
|
Movie |
Release Date |
|---|---|
|
Batman Begins |
June 25, 2005 |
|
The Dark Knight |
July 18, 2008 |
|
The Dark Knight Rises |
July 20, 2012 |
While the second movie picked up all the critical acclaim (with Heath Ledger winning an Oscar for his role as Joker), Murphy was a solid first villain. Scarecrow was also the only villain who appeared in all three of Nolan’s Batman movies, although his roles in The Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises were minor in comparison to his major villain role in this first movie. Batman Begins received positive reviews, and Murphy even earned an MTV Movie Award nomination for Best Villain over Liam Neeson’s Ra’s al Ghul.
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4 28 Days Later (2002)
Jim
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7.9/10 28 Days Later RDramaHorror Sci-Fi
28 Days Later is a horror movie about the zombie apocalypse directed by Danny Boyle. After Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma in a deserted hospital in London, he discovers that the city is overrun by the undead, so he joins forces with other survivors to try and make it out alive.
Release Date June 27, 2003 Runtime 113 minutes Cast Megan Burns , Cillian Murphy , Christopher Eccleston , Brendan Gleeson , Naomie Harris Director Danny Boyle Distributor(s) Searchlight Pictures See at AmazonSee at Walmart
Cillian Murphy’s true breakout role came in the 2002 Danny Boyle horror post-apocalyptic movie 28 Days Later. While the film is often miscategorized as a zombie movie thanks to the fast-moving zombies from the Dawn of the Dead remake, this is actually a contagion movie, as none of the crazed attackers are dead – they are just people who have lost control of their minds and have become ravenous killing machines. Cillian Murphy plays Jim, the main character and a survivor who tries to find a way out of the infected city.
The movie shares much in common with The Walking Dead, with Murphy waking up in a hospital after falling into a coma and wandering out to find London empty save the aggressive people infected with the Rage Virus. He then sets out to find out if there are other survivors and escape the madness of the infected city. 28 Days Later was a critical success and actually helped the zombie genre enjoy a resurgence, even though it wasn’t a zombie movie. It also spawned a sequel with a third movie coming out in 2025.
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3 Peaky Blinders (2013-2022)
Thomas Shelby
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23 9.3/10 Peaky Blinders TV-MACrimeDramaHistoryThriller
Peaky Blinders is a historical crime drama created and written by Steven Knight and starring Cillian Murphy, Sam Neill, and Helen McCrory. The television show is based on the gang, Peaky Blinders, a group that banded together after the end of World War I.
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*Availability in US Release Date September 12, 2013 Cast Annabelle Wallis , Ian Peck , Helen McCrory , Paul Anderson , Cillian Murphy , Ned Dennehy , Aimee-Ffion Edwards , Sam Neill , Sophie Rundle , Tony Pitts , Joe Cole Seasons 6 Showrunner Steven Knight
Many people don’t know Cillian Murphy from his movie roles. Instead, they fell in love with the actor thanks to his performance as Thomas Shelby in the period crime drama Peaky Blinders. This BBC series is based on the real-life Peaky Blinders, an urban youth gang in London after World War I that remained active until the 1920s. Cillian Murphy takes on the lead role of Thomas, the leader of the family and the head of the gang itself.
The series ran for six seasons and 36 episodes. It also included an ensemble cast that featured appearances by Sam Neill, Tom Hardy, Paddy Considine, Adrien Brody, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sam Claflin, and Stephen Graham. The series earned several Awards over its run, including wins for Murphy from the FIPA Awards, Irish Film & Television Awards, and National Television Awards for his performance. There is also a Peaky Blinders movie arriving in the near future that will wrap up the show’s story.
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2 Inception (2010)
Robert Fischer
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15 8.5/10 Inception PG-13
Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan, features a skilled thief who uses dream-sharing technology to steal corporate secrets. He is tasked with planting an idea into a CEO’s mind, while confronting his troubled past, which threatens the mission and his team.
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*Availability in US Release Date July 16, 2010 Runtime 148 minutes Main Genre Action Cast Leonardo DiCaprio , Joseph Gordon-Levitt , Elliot Page , Tom Hardy , Ken Watanabe , Dileep Rao , Cillian Murphy , Tom Berenger , Marion Cotillard , Pete Postlethwaite , Michael Caine , Lukas Haas , Tai-Li Lee , Claire Geare , Magnus Nolan , Taylor Geare , Johnathan Geare , Tohoru Masamune , Yuji Okumoto , Earl Cameron , Ryan Hayward , Miranda Nolan , Russ Fega , Tim Kelleher Director Christopher Nolan Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures Expand
Cillian Murphy teamed up with Christopher Nolan again in 2010 for the science fiction heist movie Inception. The film was led by Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a professional thief who specializes in conning secrets from people by entering into their dreams and planting his own details. He has a team that includes people who have mastered a specific part of the planned heists, played by Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Elliot Page.
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As for Murphy, he actually plays the team’s main target, Robert Fischer, the heir to a business empire that they need to manipulate to get what they need for the man who hired them. The film was a massive success, making over $839 million at the box office and holding an 87% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Inception earned eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and won four technical awards.
1 Oppenheimer (2023)
J. Robert Oppenheimer
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13 9.4/10 Oppenheimer RDramaHistoryBiography
Oppenheimer is a film by Christopher Nolan, which follows the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man behind the atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy will play the titular role, with the story based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
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*Availability in US Release Date July 21, 2023 Runtime 150 Minutes Cast Cillian Murphy , Emily Blunt , Matt Damon , Robert Downey Jr. , Rami Malek , Florence Pugh Director Christopher Nolan Distributor(s) Universal Pictures
It was another Christopher Nolan partnership that finally earned Cillian Murphy his first Oscar win for Best Actor. In 2023, Murphy took on the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the scientists who helped develop the atomic bomb that ended World War II, only to find himself ostracized by the same United States government who previously placed their trust in him. The film was an ensemble effort and ended up as one of the year’s most successful and critically acclaimed movie releases.
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The movie was a massive success, making $976.8 million at the box office on a $100 million budget while also picking up 23 Academy Award nominations, winning seven of the awards. Oppenheimer won Best Picture with Christopher Nolan winning Best Director, Cillian Murphy winning Best Actor, and Robert Downey Jr. winning Best Supporting Actor. Murphy also won a BAFTA and Golden Globe for his performance.