Summary

AlthoughChristopher Nolan ’s next movie has the potential to be a nifty remake , the director ’s love life of intricate worldbuilding may ironically work against him in this instance . Christopher Nolan ’s movies are nothing if not perfectly crafted . Nolan ’s best and worst moviesall run like clockwork , with their twisty plots becoming clearer as the story progresses . The director ’s breakout hitMementoinfamously told its tale backwards , an ingenious twist that reinvent the tired whodunit expression . Since then , hits likeInception , Interstellar , andThe Prestigeall succeeded in making their complex , labyrinthine stories accessible for a mainstream hearing .

However , Nolan ’s rumored next moviemay escape into trouble . Nolan is reportedly redo the cult classic British TV seriesThe Prisoner , which to begin with aired in 1967 . make by and starring Patrick McGoohan , The Prisonerfollowed the report of Number Six . A British undercover agent imprisoned in an idyllic village , Number Six spend the entirety of the frantic , quirky miniseries hear to uncover who was behind his captivity and what their need were . The Prisoner ’s infamously obscure end is deservedly iconic , but keeping the finale ’s equivocal mystery inviolate would mean ending alengthy career trend for Nolan .

The Prisoner’s Original Ending Didn’t Explain Anything

Number Six’s Story Ended With A Surreal Twist

The Prisoner ’s ambiguous ending was extremely divisive and the backlash to the show ’s lack of answers was monumental . Series creator / star Patrick McGoohan famously left Britain for a while to lie low after the final episode aired sinceThe Prisoner ’s finale did n’t explain who kidnap Number Six , why they did it , or what the village was . Instead , sequence 17 , “ descend Out , ” took Number Six on a surreal odyssey that revealed Number Six ’s scourge , Number Two , was also a victim of the Village . Number One was finally unmasked , only for his facial expression to be a Gorilla gorilla mask .

Beneath this mask was what front like a clone of Number Six but , before viewers could be certain , the episode ’s wild concluding Salmon P. Chase began . There were rocket launch , constabulary chase , and a foxy implication that Number Six never escape the confines of the village at all . As an finish to a self - hold in enigma miniseries , the ending left a lot to be desired . As a psychedelic piece of seditious tv set history , it was pure . Now , Nolan ’s proposedThe Prisonerremakecould risk of exposure failure if the movie feel the pauperism to explain the helter-skelter anarchy of this infamously unknown ending .

Christopher Nolan’s Movies Revel In Complex Worldbuilding

Even Tenet and Inception Are Much More Straightforward Than The Prisoner

Despite ( or perhaps because of ) their complexity , Nolan ’s motion-picture show know explaining themselves . While they have their ambiguities , the stakes of the story and the rule of their earth are always clear . For object lesson , when Cobb leaves the top spinning at the end ofInception , viewers realize the significance of this image . Inceptionthoroughly explains the world of dream and reality to the audienceso that , even when the ending does n’t depict the spinning top falling , it is readable that Cobb may or may not still be in a dream . In contrast , The Prisonerwas a fate less generous .

It is tough to see the creators of meticulously crafted mysteries likeThe PrestigeandMementoending a movie with an open - over “ Who knows what was going on/ what it all stand for ” turn , but this is just what madeThe Prisonerso historically significant .

The miniseries did n’t clarify who its villains were , what its stake were , or why anything depict in the serial happened . It is elusive to see the Divine of meticulously crafted mysteries likeThe PrestigeandMementoending a motion picture with an open - ended “ Who knows what was going on/ what it all have in mind ” pull , but this is exactly what madeThe Prisonerso historically meaning . Nolan ’s proposed remake ofThe Prisonercould proffer any number of explanations for the show ’s mysterious setting , unseen villains , and mysterious booster , and these would probably be compelling and canny in their own right .

Ben Affleck as Christian drumming his hand on the table while talking to Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s Marybeth in The Accountant 2

Nolan’s The Prisoner Remake Needs To Keep The Original’s Ambiguity

The Prisoner’s Ending Audaciously Avoided Explaining Itself

However , by losingThe Prisoner ’s original ambiguity , Nolan ’s movie would snitch what made the series important in the first office . Even though the music director ’s movies have their ambiguity , the rules of Nolan ’s fictional humanity are always clearly lay out and internally consistent . In contrast , The Prisonermade a point of defying traditional worldbuilding . The nature of the Village is no clearer at the end of the show than it was in the rootage and , as such , the miniseries has spawn countless fan theories and rendering that excuse its many unsolved secret .

make a faithful remaking ofThe Prisonermeans thatNolan ’s out - of - order filmmaking stylewould be pushed to its limitation . The manager would need to tell a story that not only fails to explain itself to the viewers but actively defies explanation . His movies have a hang for read endlessly complicated bailiwick and making them digestible and entertaining , butThe Prisonerchallenge Nolan ’s sensibilities . To succeed with this remaking , Christopher Nolanwill ask to tell a narration that offers no open answers and annul any tidy account .

Josh Hartnett looking shocked in Fight or Flight

Sidious, Tyranus, Maul, and Vader.

Patrick McGoohan’s Number Six frowns in a stone walkway in The Prisoner 1967

Christopher Nolan with an IMAX camera

Christopher Nolan