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Bryan Cranston · Filmography Ranked

Best Bryan Cranston Films, Ranked by IQ Score

From Malcolm in the Middle to Walter White to Trumbo. Every Cranston film, ranked.

Bryan Cranston's career-defining work is Walter White on Breaking Bad (four Outstanding Lead Drama Actor Emmys — only the second performer to win four consecutive). Best Actor Oscar nomination for Trumbo (2015). Active across prestige film and TV at scale since Breaking Bad ended.

Anchor picks: Breaking Bad — his canonical Walter White work. Argo (2012, Best Picture). Trumbo (2015) — his Oscar nomination. Drive (2011).

5 titles · ranked by IQ Score

  1. 1
    Drive poster — IQ Score 164/200 — Masterclass tier

    Drive

    Masterclass crime, thriller, drama

    Nicolas Winding Refn's neon-soaked neo-noir; Ryan Gosling's near-silent Hollywood stuntman turned getaway driver became an instant style icon in this hypnotic thriller

    164/200
  2. 2
    Argo poster — IQ Score 164/200 — Masterclass tier

    Argo

    Masterclass thriller, drama, historical

    Ben Affleck's 2012 Best Picture-winning film about the CIA's exfiltration of six American hostages during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The structural commitment to letting Tony Mendez's actual covert-operation cognitive…

    164/200
  3. 3
    Breaking Bad poster — IQ Score 163/200 — Masterclass tier

    Breaking Bad

    Masterclass crime, drama

    Walter White's arc functions as a moral inversion: watching a respectable man's incremental compromises lead to barbarism. Extraordinarily high cognitive engagement from tracking the chess-like consequences of Walt's dec…

    163/200
  4. 4
    Trumbo poster — IQ Score 161/200 — Masterclass tier

    Trumbo

    Masterclass drama, biography, historical

    Jay Roach's 2015 Dalton Trumbo biographical film anchored by Bryan Cranston (Oscar-nominated). The structural commitment to letting the McCarthy-era Hollywood-blacklist political-cognitive material be the actual subject…

    161/200
  5. 5
    The Infiltrator poster — IQ Score 158/200 — Stimulating tier

    The Infiltrator

    Stimulating drama, crime, biography

    Brad Furman's 2016 Robert Mazur biographical film anchored by Bryan Cranston as a Customs Service agent infiltrating Pablo Escobar's banking operation. The structural commitment to letting actual covert-financial-operati…

    158/200

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