Timothée Chalamet’s New Favorite Movie Is the Classic That Shaped The Dark Knight

Timothee Chalamet just added a new favorite to the rotation, and it loops right back to the movie that made him want to act in the first place. It is a very neat circle: the film that inspired The Dark Knight is now the one he cannot stop watching.

Chalamet is hooked on 'Heat' (but 'The Dark Knight' still wears the crown)

During a recent chat with Believe the Awards, the 'Dune' star said his forever number one is still Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight'. But this year, the movie he has been obsessed with is Michael Mann's 1995 crime epic 'Heat'. He admitted he came to it late, called it a classic, and shouted out the Pacino/De Niro one-two punch. Honestly, fair.

The 'Heat' DNA inside 'The Dark Knight'

Here is where it gets fun: Nolan has long said 'Heat' helped shape 'The Dark Knight'. He did not copy plot, but he borrowed its vibe and visual language. Per The Nolan Variations (via No Film School), he rethought scale after 'Batman Begins' and leaned into a grounded, city-first approach — the way Mann lets Los Angeles do half the storytelling. Nolan wanted Gotham to feel real, complicated, and alive in the same way.

You can see it right away: the surgical, daylight bank heist openings; the obsession with procedure and consequence; and the moral crossfire between men on opposite sides of the law — Pacino's detective and De Niro's thief in 'Heat', Batman and the Joker in 'The Dark Knight'. It is not subtle, and that is the point. The influence helped Nolan turn in a superhero movie that plays like a muscular crime drama.

'The Dark Knight' is why Chalamet wanted to act

Chalamet has said Nolan's 2008 film did more than entertain him — it flipped a switch. In The New York Times, he explained that it made him see movies differently and set his bar for even considering a cape-and-cowl gig: the script has to be excellent, and the director has to be the real deal.

'But the movie that made me want to act is a superhero movie, The Dark Knight. If the script was great, if the director was great, I would have to consider it.'

Not exactly shocking. The intensity, the character work, and Heath Ledger's all-timer of a Joker performance rewired a lot of teenagers in 2008. Chalamet was one of them.

Quick stats, because numbers tell a story too

• 'Heat' (1995) — Rotten Tomatoes: 84% — Box office: $187.4 million worldwide
• 'The Dark Knight' (2008) — Rotten Tomatoes: 94% — Box office: $1 billion worldwide

So yes: Chalamet's current favorite was the blueprint for his all-time favorite, which in turn nudged him toward acting. Neat little lineage.

'The Dark Knight' is currently streaming in the US on HBO Max.