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Jonathan Nolan saw it this arrival. As a screenwriter, he worked with some of his brother Christopher NolanThe films, from Interstellar to the Dark Knight movies. With his wife Lisa Joy, he created HBO’s Westworld and executive produced Amazon Prime’s Fallout. But before that, he cut his teeth on TV creating Person of Interesta CBS procedural about a lonely tech billionaire who creates a piece of surveillance software aimed at stopping crime before it happens. It’s fiction, but it’s hard not to feel its presence.
With Falloutnow in its second season, Nolan also has his sights set on the future. Based on the video game series of the same name, it’s about a postapocalyptic America where everyone has to survive in any way they can. It’s also wickedly funny and full of 1950s-era retrofuturism.
So, what does Nolan see happening in the coming decades? A lot. For one, he doesn’t think AI will replace human filmmakers. In fact, he thinks it will help aspiring directors get their foot in the door. (Though, he says, he’ll never use it in his own writing.) He also wants to see the demise of (mostly) social media—but understands that’s not going to happen.
For this week’s episode of The Big Interview podcast, I asked Nolan about all those things and more. Below you’ll find his thoughts on writing the Batman movies, classic cars, and what exactly he’ll be bringing to his own bunker at the end.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KATIE DRUMMOND: Jonathan Nolan, welcome to The Big Interview.
JONATHAN NOLAN: Thanks for having me.
I’m glad you’re here in person in New York. It’s very cold. I’m from Canada so my barometer is low, but…
I’m from Chicago. I always think of New York as a cold winter.
No, no, it’s true. As I got older I got weaker and weaker. That’s why I can’t stand (it).
I’ve been in LA for 25 years. Totally pointless.
So we don’t really have both. This will be a great conversation. We always like to start these discussions with a little warm-up. In fact, it helps now of all days. But this is just a warm-up for your brain, some very quick questions. Are you ready?
The reason I became a writer is because I’m not good at answering quick questions. So I’m going to say this.
Oh good. This is the full hour.
That’s it.
What is the most used sci-fi trope?
Oh! Faster than light travel.
Why?
Because it’s a kind of convenienceof the story, and I think we use it Interstellarbut we use it in a slightly backhanded way, which is a wormhole. Which doesn’t feel quite the same, but it’s effectively the same thing. It’s just a way to skip the boring bits.
What is the book you go back to over and over again?
Later, I went back to all Iain Banks Culture books. Years ago, I looked for positive depictions of AI in science fiction.
Oh, interesting. Let’s talk about it.
Almost nothing, nothing at all. It’s kind of James Cameron on the one hand, and nobody on the other side of the roster and Iain Banks, who wrote those books for 20 years, starting in the late ’80s, I think, until his death in the early 2010s. Too young. But they are the most fully aware and best describe a hybrid civilization where you have humans and you have AI and they know it.
