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Cillian Murphy · Filmography Ranked

Best Cillian Murphy Films, Ranked by IQ Score

Two decades of one of contemporary cinema's most-disciplined leading men. Every Murphy film, ranked.

Cillian Murphy's filmography is one of the most-disciplined post-2002 leading-man catalogs. Best Actor Oscar for Oppenheimer (2023). Six-season Emmy-nominated lead on Peaky Blinders.

Anchor picks: Oppenheimer (2023). Peaky Blinders. 28 Days Later (2002).

9 titles · ranked by IQ Score

  1. 1
    Oppenheimer poster, IQ Score 188/200, Masterclass tier

    Oppenheimer

    Masterclass historical, biography, drama

    The physicist Robert Oppenheimer leads the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, then faces political persecution during the McCarthy era. Educational value from the physics, the historical context, and the moral…

    188/200
  2. 2
    The Wind That Shakes the Barley poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    The Wind That Shakes the Barley

    Masterclass drama, historical, war

    2006 Palme d'Or winner. Ken Loach's account of the Irish War of Independence and Civil War through two brothers who end up on opposite sides. Moderate cognitive demands. Exceptional educational value from the Irish indep…

    164/200
  3. 3
    Dunkirk poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    Dunkirk

    Masterclass drama, war, history

    Christopher Nolan's non-linear account of the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation from three temporal perspectives. Exceptional craft and educational about a defining WWII moment. The sound design and practical effects represent the…

    164/200
  4. 4
    Inception poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    Inception

    Masterclass sci-fi, action

    A thief who specializes in extracting secrets from dreams is offered a chance at redemption through 'inception', implanting an idea. Cognitive demands are high from tracking multiple dream layers and the shifting rules o…

    164/200
  5. 5
    Small Things Like These poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    Small Things Like These

    Masterclass drama

    Tim Mielants's 2024 Claire Keegan adaptation anchored by Cillian Murphy as a Wexford coal merchant in 1985 Ireland discovering the abuse at a Magdalene-laundry convent. The structural commitment to letting Murphy's conta…

    164/200
  6. 6
    Sunshine poster, IQ Score 161/200, Masterclass tier

    Sunshine

    Masterclass sci-fi, thriller

    Danny Boyle's 2007 deep-space-sun-mission film anchored by Cillian Murphy. The structural commitment to letting first-act physics-and-mission-procedural material be the actual subject, and the canonical John Murphy score…

    161/200
  7. 7
    28 Days Later poster, IQ Score 157/200, Stimulating tier

    28 Days Later

    Stimulating horror, thriller, sci-fi

    Danny Boyle's 2002 post-apocalyptic horror film anchored by Cillian Murphy in his breakthrough role as a bike-courier who wakes up in an empty London. The structural commitment to letting fast-zombie genre conventions op…

    157/200
  8. 8
    Peaky Blinders poster, IQ Score 141/200, Stimulating tier

    Peaky Blinders

    Stimulating crime, drama

    Weaves post-WWI political upheaval with crime family dynamics, requiring sustained attention to coded dialogue, historical context, and intricate power plays between British fascism, labor unions, and Irish independence.

    141/200
  9. 9
    A Quiet Place Part II poster, IQ Score 129/200, Competent tier

    A Quiet Place Part II

    Competent drama, horror, sci-fi

    Expands world-building beyond central family to multiple communities surviving in silence, examining how different groups navigate sound-based extinction threat.

    129/200
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