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1.There is an elaborate, flashback-heavy narrative structure.

Christopher Nolan's breakthrough film was Memento, a neo-noirish revenge tale with a plot that freely crisscrossed time. Nolan had already experimented with a time-jumping structure in his first feature film, Following. (Like Memento, Following helps you keep track of time by noting differences in the protagonist's haircut and clothing.) Insomnia, Batman Begins, and Inception all dovetail on flashbacks to bad memories from their protagonists' pasts, but Nolan's narrative gamesmanship reached its apex with The Prestige. The 2006 tale of the duel between two magicians is constructed along two separate flashback narratives: Christian Bale reads Hugh Jackman's journal and in Hugh Jackman's journal he talks about reading Christian Bale's journal, and there are journals within journals and dreams within dreams. Plot complexity: Accomplished!

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Image Credit: Stephen Vaughan