“All four use death as the moment a character finally tells the truth.”
“All four have a hero.”
“All four present the hero’s greatest strength as the thing that destroys them.”
“All four are about family.”
“All four show family loyalty being weaponised to keep someone silent.”
“All four use symbolism.”
“All four use a confined physical space to externalise a character’s psychological trap.”
The test for a strong connection
Can you state it in one sentence with a verb? (“X does Y to Z.”) Topic-only connections (“family”, “war”) are too flat.
Does it let texts disagree with each other? The best connections have at least one text that complicates the pattern.
Does it point at purpose? Can you say why writers keep returning to this?
Can you find real evidence in every text, not one strong text and three stretches?
✓
Nolan is on the table here
If you’re already studying Inception and Interstellar for 3.8, they can anchor this internal too: e.g. “both use a distorted experience of time to dramatise grief and the cost of obsession.” Reusing texts you know deeply is efficient, provided the connection is genuinely significant.