Following his Best Actor Oscar win, The Focus takes a look back at the career of Cillian Murphy to recommend 10 movies and a jaw-droppingly good TV show you need to watch.
In an announcement that shocked absolutely no one, Cillian Murphy has won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as the titular physicist in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. The award comes as the crowning achievement of a remarkable career that began in the late 1990s and has seen the Irish actor embody a range of characters from a British soldier and an Irish revolutionary to the survivor of a zombie apocalypse and a terrifying supervillain.
The Trench (1999)
Where to watch: YouTube
We begin our look back at the movies in the career of Cillian Murphy with one of his first-ever roles, coming in the 1999 First World War film, The Trench.
Starring alongside future Bond movie actors Daniel Craig and Ben Whishaw, Murphy plays an Irish solider stationed on the front lines in the days before the devastating Battle of the Somme in 1916.
28 Days Later (2002)
Where to watch: Sling
Directed by Danny Boyle, 2002’s 28 Days Later served as Cillian Murphy’s breakout movie role as he stars as bicycle courier Jim who wakes from a coma to discover that society has completely collapsed following the outbreak of a deadly virus.
Batman Begins (2005)
Where to watch: Hulu, Max
Cillian Murphy’s first collaboration with Christopher Nolan came a whopping 19 years ago when he appeared as the villainous Scarecrow in 2005’s Batman Begins.
Since this project, Cillian Murphy and Christopher Nolan have worked together on six movies in total.
Red Eye (2005)
Where to watch: Paramount+, MGM+
In the same year, Murphy starred alongside Rachel McAdams in Red Eye. The movie initially seems to begin as an endearing rom-com as McAdam’s Lisa and Murphy’s Jackson cross paths at the airport and discover that they’re sitting next to each other on their flight.
However, it’s soon revealed that Jackson is an assassin and is hoping to use Lisa’s position as a hotel manager to get to his target, revealing that he has kidnapped her father as insurance.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
Where to watch: AMC+, Sling, PLEX
Cillian Murphy leads the cast in Ken Loach’s acclaimed The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a film that won the prestigious Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival.
The movie tells the story of two brothers who find themselves on opposite sides of the divide during the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Irish Civil War.
Sunshine (2007)
Where to watch: Buy/rent on digital stores
Murphy reunited with Danny Boyle for 2007’s Sunshine, a sci-fi thriller that follows a team of astronauts – including Chris Evans, Rose Bryne and Michelle Yeoh – who are sent on a dangerous mission to try and reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb. A nice little connection to Oppenheimer there.
- WHAT TO WATCH: 12 movies you need to watch if you loved Dune: Part Two
Inception (2010)
Where to watch: Hulu
Cillian Murphy’s second collaboration with Christopher Nolan saw him take on the role of Robert Fischer Jr, the heir to an immense business empire and the target of a daring heist led by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Dom Cobb to ‘incept’ an idea into his head while dreaming.
Free Fire (2016)
Where to watch: Max
Released in 2016, the action-comedy Free Fire sees Murphy play a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) as he and several associates meet at a Boston warehouse for an arms deal. Chaos ensues when the deal goes awry.
Dunkirk (2017)
Where to watch: Hulu
Cillian Murphy linked up with Christopher Nolan once again in 2017’s Dunkirk where he played a shell-shocked British soldier.
The Oscar-winning movie tells the story of the Dunkirk evacuation during the Second World War that saw 300,000 troops escape annihilation at the hands of the Germans.
A Quiet Place Part II (2021)
Where to watch: Hulu, Paramount+
Cillian Murphy plays the hardened and distrusting Emmett who reluctantly joins forces with the remaining members of the Abbott family following the events of 2018’s first film.
After narrowly surviving an encounter with the sound-hunting aliens, the Abbotts quickly realize that the creatures are not the only threats that lurk in the ruins of civilization.
Peaky Blinders (2013-2022)
Where to watch: Netflix
And finally, we end with a role that is just as synonymous with Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer, and another that saw him win multiple awards.
Originally shown on the BBC in the UK, the TV series Peaky Blinders follows a notorious gang that rises to power in Birmingham in the wake of the First World, led by the battle-hardened Tommy Shelby.
