Writer Andy Greenwald asks a compelling question in a new piece at Grandland: what does Christopher Nolan have against buildings, anyway? Greenwald points out numerous instances of the director's inescapable hostility towards urban structures in many of his films and, perhaps even more memorably, on their posters. It's an obviously tongue-in-cheek read, but great food for thought nonetheless and definitely worth your time.

Compelled by Greenwald's theory, we decided to put several of Nolan's film posters together and writhe within his terrible fear of skyscrapers: which, no joke, is called Batophobia. Is this the secret theme of Nolan's work? Read on.For Batman Begins, Nolan presumably authorized a whole series of images in which beautiful metropolises were overrun with frightening bats, demonstrating his palpable fear of these beautiful structures.

Considerable urban destruction occurs in the forefront or corners of all of Nolan's posters for The Dark Knight -- except for one, which itself depicts a building's wall that's been disturbingly defaced.



With Inception, Nolan didn't just destroy skyscrapers, he made them the actual villains of the piece. Behold how the broken buildings and flooded city seem to pursue and attack the human characters in this series of terrifying images.

And of course, The Dark Knight Rises, where Nolan lays his soul bare: "I hate skyscrapers and I want them to die -- also, Batman."

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