FILM · 1998
Following
32 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (32)
- #001
Christopher Nolan came up with the idea for the film because his home had been burgled, and he wondered what people who walked around looking at his belongings were thinking.
- #002
Christopher Nolan never studied film production at university. He studied English Literature at University College London, and he used the university's film society to shoot the opening dialogue scene between Bill and the police officer.
- #003
The entire film was shot almost entirely handheld with a single camera.
- #004
Principal photography on this film lasted more than a year. Because all the cast and crew members had other full-time jobs, they could only shoot on Saturdays, and roughly 15 minutes of footage was shot per session until filming was completed.
- #005
The watch Cobb steals is the same watch featured in Christopher Nolan's Memento (2000).
- #006
Among Bill's posters are Reservoir Dogs (1992), Casablanca (1942), Sunset Boulevard (1950), The Shining (1980) and Marilyn Monroe.
- #007
The surname Cobb is also used by Dom Cobb (another thief), the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio in Christopher Nolan's 2010 film Inception (2010).
- #008
When shooting scenes in public places, Christopher Nolan used a smaller, hand-wound film camera to keep passersby from looking at the camera.
- #009
This is Christopher Nolan's first feature film and his first directing effort.
- #010
The alias Bill uses at the bar is Danny Lloyd. Danny Lloyd is the name of the child lead actor in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). Christopher Nolan is a fan of Kubrick and regards him as one of his main sources of inspiration.
- #011
The film's production budget was only six thousand dollars, making it one of the cheapest feature films in history.
- #012
This is the only Christopher Nolan film in which his wife, Dame Emma Thomas, appears.
- #013
Cobb tries to enter an apartment using a credit card. The same method is used in Memento (2000) and Insomnia (2002).
- #014
One of the things Bill steals is the soundtrack of Trainspotting (1996).
- #015
This is Alex Haw's only film.
- #016
The narrative jumps between different time periods of the story 31 times, which makes Following confusing.
- #017
To keep costs down, the actors used mostly their own sets and costumes. For locations, Christopher Nolan shot in his own and his friends' apartments.
- #018
This is the first collaboration between Christopher Nolan and his uncle John Nolan (police), who would later play a morally virtuous Wayne Industries board member in Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and a blind aid worker in Dunkirk (2017).
- #019
In the scene where Bill and Cobb first break into the Young Blonde's apartment, Bill looks into the living room while Cobb goes upstairs. When Cobb calls Bill upstairs, the voice was not Alex Haw's but that of writer-director Christopher Nolan.
- #020
The famous "Here's Johnny" photograph from The Shining (1980) is shown in Bill's apartment.
- #021
As of 2026, Following is the only film directed by Christopher Nolan that Warner Bros. did not produce, alongside Memento (2000), Oppenheimer (2023) and The Odyssey (2026).
- #022
Jeremy Theobald, Lucy Russell and John Nolan also appear in Batman Begins (2005), again directed by Sir Christopher Nolan.
- #023
Following is part of spine number 638 in the Criterion Collection.
- #024
Cobb is a thief in Following, or at least a thief as Bill understands the term. Cobb is also the surname of Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Inception, a thief who enters people's dreams and steals ideas. Following follows Cobb as he enters Bill's life and plants false evidence on Bill, deceiving the police's understanding. Inception concerns planting an idea in a mind by entering Fisher's dream. Inception opens with a dream in which Cobb tries to steal secrets from a safe but is deceived by Saito in a dream. Following ends with a situation in which Bill is forced to steal the photo envelopes from a safe but is deceived by Cobb.
- #025
Following is Lucy Russell's first film.
- #026
When Cobb steps out in the middle of the burglary and says "No offense, it's a funny ambiguity," it can be interpreted as Cobb indicating that he is aware this is the Young Man's place and that his power of deduction about his psychology is being tested.
- #027
A painting by Mark Rothko hangs on the wall of the Young Man's room and can be seen when he visits the place with Cobb.
- #028
Along with Insomnia (2002) and Dunkirk (2017), Following is the only film made by Sir Christopher Nolan that does not feature non-American actors playing American characters.
- #029
Because of its limited budget, Christopher Nolan shot Following over many weekends, scheduling around the availability of the actors, the crew and the locations.
- #030
Shooting the film in black and white on a very modest budget allowed Nolan to focus on storytelling rather than expensive production techniques.
- #031
Christopher Nolan reportedly shot the film only on weekends, because the actors and crew all had full-time jobs during the week. This production method explains why the film took months to complete despite its short running time.
- #032
The film's cast includes two Oscar winners: Sir Christopher Nolan and Dame Emma Thomas.
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