Ranking Every Christopher Nolan Protagonist From Worst To Best

4. Will Dormer - Insomnia

If you can get past his rather on-the-nose surname, Al Pacino's morally dubious detective is one of the more multi-faceted Nolan protagonists.

First off, he's not a nice guy despite the badge: he framed a man he was sure to be a child murderer because he couldn't acquire sufficient evidence, and has a pending Internal Affairs investigation to deal with.

In addition, as he investigates the murder of a young woman in a sleepy Alaskan town, he "accidentally" kills his partner by shooting blindly in the fog, a partner who was going to testify against him.

Dormer's a fascinatingly tortured character because, he could so easily have been a generic corrupt cop, but his internal torture, not knowing whether he killed his partner deliberately due to his intense insomnia brought about by Alaska's perpetual daylight, while also having to deal with Robin Williams' murderer, makes him much more than that.

Pacino gives one of his best performances of the last two decades, and his dynamic with Williams' antagonist is as expectation-defying as it is entertaining.