The eyes.
In a profession where a story can live (or die) with a stare, a glance, or a knowing gaze, Cillian Murphy has a natural resource most actors would kill for. His are the kind of icy blues that hold an audience hostage, the ones Billie Eilish writes songs about. They can terrify, unsettle, mesmerize, and madden at whim – and throughout his nearly 30-year career, the Irish export has deftly wielded them to captivate fans of both TV and film. It’s strange that only now, after years of commanding performances that made him a regular hire with directors like Danny Boyle and Christopher Nolan, Murphy is finally receiving his flowers. His talent has always been there, easily observed or, more often than not, impossible to miss, but the purist approach he takes to role choosing means he’s eschewed the expected route of big-budget blockbuster, star-studded limited series, and superhero team-up exclusivity that so many of his peers have tread. It’s why, for every Oppenheimer and Dunkirk you’ll find an Irish-made indie crime comedy or cult-favorite thriller on his IMDb page.
Murphy can be counted on to be the best part of anything he’s in, but he’s rarely been promoted to leading man status. As we embrace the Cillian Murphy Appreciation Era and welcome others to the party, let’s take a look back at his impressive filmography – some performances we loved, and some that flew under the radar for far too long.
15. Disco Pigs (2001)
As Phoebe Waller-Bridge might say, “This is a love story.” A very fucked up, bloody love story. Born on the same day, in the same hospital, and living as next-door neighbors, Pig (Murphy) and Runt (Elaine Cassidy) bring out the very worst in each other. Reckless, isolated, and often times sociopathic — the pair tear through their small Irish town as their platonic bond evolves into something more sexual, and much darker than anticipated. This marks the debut of Murphy, who stumbled into the audition and impressed playwright Enda Walsh with his raw talent and unfiltered self-confidence. As Pig, Murphy is a heaving, shouting battering ram fueled by angst, obsession, and uncontrollable rage. You’ll have a hard time turning away.
14. Intermission (2003)
Another Irish experiment, this time shot in a documentary style that flips through multiple points of view, Intermission is a black crime comedy filled with recognizable statesmen. Everyone from Colm Meaney to Colin Farrell chews up scenery in this tale of a bank robbery gone wrong, a bleakly funny bus accident, and a break-up that pushes a man to the brink. Murphy is that man, a tortured, bumbling romantic hero trying to win back his girlfriend (Kelly Macdonald) by the dumbest means necessary. Later in his career, Murphy would choose to play more refined, stoic men with conflicts more internal in nature, so it’s a joy to watch him flail and flounder his way to a happy ending here.
13. Anthropoid (2016)
This tense spy thriller recounts the real World War II mission that tasked Czech soldiers with assassinating SS General Reinhard Heydrich — the mastermind behind the Nazi’s Final Solution. Along with Jamie Dornan, Murphy plays one of the agents of chaos, a reserved and focused comrade hell-bent on contributing to the war effort, even at the cost of his life and others. The film suffers from pacing issues, and Dornan’s character isn’t given much to do, but Murphy commands the screen as Jozef, a seemingly unfeeling cog in the machine whose steel facade begins to crack when his mission goes awry.
12. Free Fire (2016)
A miscommunication and a melee of bullets thrust audiences straight into the action of this genre thriller starring Murphy, Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, and Jack Reynor. After an arms deal gone wrong and a double-cross done badly, Murphy’s IRA boss Chris finds himself in a ridiculously chaotic shootout where no one can truly win. Everyone earns some laughs thanks to a darkly comedic script and fast-paced dialogue but Murphy somehow manages to infuse some backbone into what could’ve been a paint-by-numbers last-man-standing type.
11. The Party (2017)
A social satire with sharp teeth, this British comedy traps a group of friends for a celebration that soon spirals out of control. Everyone’s hiding a secret and, before the canapes burn, shots will be fired. While Patricia Clarkson undeniably gets the best lines, it’s Murphy’s turn as a scorned lover / coke-sniffing investment banker that keeps things teetering on the high-wire between comedy and dread. The claustrophobic nature of the film’s setting makes Tom’s erratic physicality even more threatening and it’s his anarchic energy that serves as the catalyst for this dinner party disaster.
10. Dunkirk (2017)
Proving that no part is too small should Christopher Nolan come calling, Murphy’s turn as the “Shivering Soldier” in this historical drama chronicling the rescue mission of 330,000 allied soldiers from the beaches of France in 1940 is memorable, impressively so. Shell-shocked and sporting a one-thousand-yard star, Murphy’s lone survivor is all desperation, driven by the instinctual need to escape the horrors he knows await. In a film oversaturated with huge battle sequences and nail-biting stakes, the visceral emotions the actor conveys give the film the reality-grounding moments it needs.
9. A Quiet Place II (2020)
John Krasinski recruits Murphy for this sequel to his surprise horror hit, following Emily Blunt’s Evelyn and the rest of the Abbott family venture into the unknown following a terrible tragedy. Murphy’s Emmett is a hardened, reclusive survivor — and old friend of Evelyn’s husband — who reluctantly shelters them before accepting a rescue mission that has life-changing consequences for them all. Grimy and grizzled, Murphy’s almost unrecognizable under mountains of facial hair and a trucker cap. His lone wolf anti-hero is nihilistic, understandably so, but it’s the way Murphy plays his relationship with Regan (Millicent Simmons) that reminds us of this man’s suffering, and his ability to still see good in the world.
8. Batman Begins (2005)
Thank the comic book gods that Murphy didn’t nab the initial role he auditioned for in Nolan’s inspired superhero reboot because a cowl and cape would’ve only limited this destined villain. Instead, Nolan saw a madness glittering in Murphy’s glacial orbs, casting him as the gleefully deranged Dr. Jonathan Crane — a surprisingly worthy adversary to Christian Bale’s Dark Knight. A haystack of hair, a thinly-wired pair of spectacles, and a truly unhinged phonetic reading of the word “Batman” marks Murphy as one of the best baddies to ever do it in DC film lore.
7. Inception (2010)
The spoiled son of a dying billionaire, Murphy’s Robert Fischer is the mark, not the mastermind behind Nolan’s dream-within-a-dream sci-fi caper. No, that honor goes to Leonardo DiCaprio whose visionary architect leads a team of dream thieves on the biggest heist of their careers. As Fischer, Murphy could’ve easily leaned too far into the unlikable, giving us an aloof nepo baby we could easily root against. Instead, his heartbreaking realization that his estranged father held genuine love for him is the movie’s biggest payoff solely because Murphy sells the emotional epiphany as if his life depended on it.
6. Sunshine (2007)
Danny Boyle’s ode to the sci-fi classics that came before manifests as this deep space disaster starring everyone from Michelle Yeoh to Chris Evans and Rose Byrne. Along with Murphy, they play an international group of astronauts on a mission to save a dying star before the Earth freezes over. Unlike the rest of his team, Murphy’s uber-cerebral outsider is in on the secret — there’s no way home for anyone on this ship. It’s a more subdued turn from Murphy — though Boyle makes heavy use of how those endless arctic depths look against the sterile, sparse backdrop of a clunky spaceship.
5. Red Eye (2005)
Just 20 minutes into Wes Craven’s high-flying thriller you’ll come to realize you’re watching the wrong movie. What begins as a rom-com, complete with a meet-cute that feels designed by fate, quickly morphs into an agonizing hostage situation in which Murphy terrorizes poor Rachel McAdams within an inch of her sanity. Equal parts charm and menace, Murphy’s Jackson Rippner (subtle this film is not) has murderous designs that hinge on the help of McAdams’ hotel manager, Lisa. The two try to outsmart each other at every turn in a heart-pumping cat-and-mouse game filled with just enough chemistry to cause you to question whether you can have Stockholm Syndrome for a fictional character.
4. The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006)
A heartbreaking war drama centered on two brothers fighting for their country, albeit in different ways, this Ken Loach-directed period piece sports an emotionally charged performance from Murphy. As Damien, a promising young doctor eager to escape the troubles in Ireland, Murphy begins the film as a passive observer, then reluctant participant in these homegrown atrocities done in the name of freedom. Soon though, as friends dies and his brother is tortured, he’s radicalized to the call — even as it costs him everything. Murphy delivers a full-spectrum transformation here, playing Damien as a sympathetic, stubborn convert who you can’t help but root for.
3. 28 Days Later (2002)
Murphy makes one hell of a first impression in Danny Boyle’s horror franchise starter, which marks the first time a mainstream audience witnessed his talent on the big screen. As Jim, a bicycle courier who wakes up from a coma to a deserted, ravaged London infected by a virus that turns humans into mindless rage machines, Murphy is our entry point. It’s a tough job — to be both main character and plot-dumping lens — but he pulls it off, morphing from a terror-stricken young man to a by-any-means-necessary survivor with blood on his hands.
2. Peaky Blinders (2013)
Speaking of red hands, the theme song and slo-mo walks aren’t the only things that set this Steven Knight-created gangster drama apart from the rest of the prestige streaming crowd. As Tommy Shelby, a war vet suffering from PTSD who harbors insatiable ambitions and bears the weight of his family’s survival on his shoulders, Murphy mesmerizes. He’s all trimmed vests, Brummie twang, and shark-like eyes with ruthless business acumen and a tongue sharper than the razors stored in his cap. His evolution from a small-time criminal to corrupt politician is a whirlwind of double-crosses, backroom dealings, murder plots, and meticulous planning — and Murphy drives it all with a simmering rage just waiting to be triggered.
1. Oppenheimer (2023)
Surviving on a girl dinner of cigarettes and dirty martinis with haunted eyes and cheekbones so defined they’re basically a walking advert for buccal fat removal, Murphy shrinks in on himself to play the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Playing various versions of the tortured genius through time — a suicidal student, a celebrated physics professor, and the author of a world-destroying weapon — Murphy taps into the man’s mania, obsession, and self-inflated ego as he crafts a death-dealing invention with the help of his fellow scientists. But, it’s his turn as an older, more jaded, regret-riddled man reflecting on his legacy and the ethics of what he’s done that prove Murphy is practically peerless on screen.
