The first thing you notice about Cillian Murphy is his eyes. As a young moviegoer, I watched them in the historical drama Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003) when he was romantically involved with Scarlett Johansson. But over the years I began to find myself more and more at a loss for Murphy’s variable talent as he dabbled in everything from horror films to comics to war pictures.
Even as he gained popularity as one of Christopher Nolan’s favorite actors and as the star of the TV drama ‘Peaky Blinders’, Murphy somehow felt underappreciated. Well, that was until last year when “Oppenheimer” came out. In recent months, more and more people have become fascinated with Murphy thanks to his Oscar-winning performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb and the central force behind Nolan’s best film.
“Oppenheimer” serves as a great overview of what Murphy can do on screen — his take on the scientist is by turns seductive, cerebral and tortured. However, it’s just his latest triumph. If you’re now looking to expand your knowledge of Murphy’s work, here are some great options.
It’s disappointing to many cinephiles that Danny Boyle’s zombie masterpiece 28 Days Later isn’t more readily available to stream. (For now, it’s only on Sling.) Not only is this film one of the most compelling depictions of how society quickly crumbles when faced with an apocalyptic scenario, but it also offers a glimpse into Murphy’s breakout moment, who wanders the ruined streets of London with nothing. but bad application rubs, a big scar on his head. Nolan uses the natural sunken quality of Murphy’s cheeks to great effect in “Oppenheimer,” where his swoon also conveys a mind that can’t stop racing as it considers all the terrifying consequences of its actions. But Boyle used Murphy’s physicality much earlier, casting him as Jim, a man who wakes up naked in a hospital bed 28 days after contracting a monstrous virus known as rabies. Jim is not someone special, someone who survived by mere luck, but he wears it like a burden. Early on, you watch his newly revitalized brain process the horrors he sees. Later, you see him fully embrace the fury this world demands. This is the movie that showed why Murphy is the actor to play when you want someone to play haunted. There is no one who does it like him.
2007
‘Sunshine’
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When it came to casting Murphy as a physicist, Boyle also got there first, casting him as Robert Capa, a scientist on a mission to rekindle the dying sun with a bomb, in “Sunshine.” (Yes, the ‘Oppenheimer’ parallels continue.) Perhaps one of the best and most underrated sci-fi texts of the 21st century, the film – written, like Alex Garland’s ’28 Days Later’ – features an incredible cast alongside Murphy that includes fellow Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans and Rose Byrne. Outstanding performances enhance this difficult tale of faith and survival in deep space. According to an interview with Boyle on RogerEbert.com, Murphy met with physicist Brian Cox and visited the CERN particle accelerator. He brings this meticulousness to his portrayal of Capa, who continues to struggle against the forces that want him to abandon his humanity on a small scale in order to save humanity on a large scale. It imbues Capa with a sense of doubt when a clear, logical answer eludes him, but he eventually shifts to the role of hero. Without spoiling it, the climax rests entirely on how it plays on Murphy’s face, which looks like something between euphoria and terror.
In 2024, it’s unlikely that Murphy will star in this Neil Jordan movie. He is a cisgender man playing a trans woman in this comedy-drama, based on the novel by Patrick McCabe. And yet Murphy’s performance as Patrick “Kitten” Braden shouldn’t be completely discounted as an example of an earlier, less progressive era. Murphy gives Kitten a fury that imbues her every move. She relies on her invented stories to escape the wretchedness of life, denouncing the “serious” in favor of the fanciful. You can see the heartbreaking imagination play out in Murphy’s searching eyes as Kitten anxiously imagines the story of her long-lost mother. It’s also proof that in another life Murphy would have made a pretty great glam rocker.
2005
‘Red Eye’
Streaming Paramount+
Murphy’s strong features can make him appear ethereally beautiful or terrifyingly evil, depending on how he uses them. “Red Eye” by Wes Craven uses both of these functions to great effect. The trick to this silly but deliriously entertaining thriller is to make you believe that its character, Jackson Ripner, might be a potential love interest for Rachel McAdams’ Lisa when they meet at the airport. Well, you don’t, because this is a film directed by horror master Craven, but Murphy sells it enough to keep you distracted from the moment he’s revealed to be a maniacal terrorist ensnaring McAdams in his scheme. He turns into a Terminator of sorts as he pursues her, but with a surprisingly human menace.
It seems odd to make this list without including another Christopher Nolan film. After all, Murphy has long been one of Nolan’s muses, even if he never gave him the leading role until “Oppenheimer.” So which one do you choose? The smug horror of the Scarecrow villain in ‘Batman Begins’? The handy target in ‘Inception’? All are worth watching, but I have a soft spot for his work in “Dunkirk” as a wounded soldier who is rescued and boarded a boat piloted by Mark Rylance. When Murphy’s soldier learns that Rylance’s Dawson and his tiny crew (which includes a young Barry Keoghan) plan to go to Dunkirk in battle instead of returning to England, he is furious, still reeling from the hellish experience he has just had. he lived. His anger spirals out of control, costing another life in the process. Murphy’s story is ultimately one of the most heartbreaking and human of all “Dunkirk,” and it’s the fear on Murphy’s face that sells it.
2007
“The Wind That Shakes the Barley”
Streaming AMC+
There is a romance that Murphy brings to his portrayal of Damien O’Donovan in the Palme d’Or-winning drama “The wind that stirs the barley,” by social realist filmmaker Ken Loach. At first, Damien is set to go to London to work as a doctor, but he witnesses atrocities by English forces that force him to join his brother Teddy (Padraic Delaney) in the IRA Murphy transforms Damien from a recruit to a staunch fighter of freedom—eventually surpassing even his brother in devotion to the cause. The passion he brings to Damien is intoxicating. It is the heart of Loach’s intensely political work, giving a face and a voice to a man whose radicalization becomes his calling.
Murphy took on his first and so far only regular television role in “Peaky Blinders,” a BBC series released in the United States on Netflix. In the crime saga from Stephen Knight, Murphy trades his Irish brogue for a Birmingham accent to play Tommy Shelby, a World War I veteran and head of the eponymous gang. From the very first time he appears on screen, riding a horse, Murphy exudes a complex composure. Over six seasons, various stars appear as Tommy’s rivals and allies, including Sam Neill, Adrien Brody, Anya Taylor-Joy and Tom Hardy, but it’s Murphy who remains the focus throughout. No one has made a flat cap look better.