Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Physicists often cite Interstellar (left, with Matthew McConaughey) and The Prestige (right, with David Bowie) as their top science-fiction films. Credit: Christophel/Warner Bros/Paramount Pictures/Alamy; Cinematic/Alamy Nature has interviewed a multitude of physicists this year in celebration of the 100th birthday of quantum mechanics. Although many of them disagree wildly about how the century-old theory describes reality, something they seem to agree on is their favourite science-fiction films. Throughout several interviews, two were consistently highlighted for their depictions of science: 2014’s Interstellar and 2006’s The Prestige — both of which were directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Happy birthday quantum mechanics! I got a ticket to the ultimate physics party Happy birthday quantum mechanics! I got a ticket to the ultimate physics party Nolan, who won an Academy Award for directing 2023’s Oppenheimer — a deep dive into the scientists behind the atomic bomb — credits his initial interest in physics to being introduced to science fiction as a child by watching the Star Wars films and television programmes such as Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. “It was something that stuck with me, and it was something I applied very much to films like Interstellar,” he told online interview website The Talks in 2023. “It showed us the dramatic possibilities, that looking at the universe from a scientific perspective could be very, very engaging.” Nolan declined to be interviewed for this story; we can assume that’s because he’s busy filming The Odyssey, a retelling of the Greek epic, slated for a 17 July 2026 release. Here, we delve into why physicists love his work. (Warning: spoilers ahead.) The plot: Robert Angier (played by Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) are rival magicians in late 1890s London, who each dazzle audiences with a ‘teleportation’ trick. Borden pulls his off by hiding the fact that he has an identical twin, with whom he shares the same identity. Angier, however, gets help from famed scientist Nicola Tesla (David Bowie) to build a teleportation machine, which creates a new version of Angier every time he does the trick. The science of Oppenheimer: meet the Oscar-winning movie’s specialist advisers The science of Oppenheimer: meet the Oscar-winning movie’s specialist advisers