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Puzzle #742: Jack Nicholson → Cillian Murphy

Thursday, August 27, 2026

Jack NicholsonJack Nicholson
Cillian MurphyCillian Murphy

On Thursday, August 27, 2026, the daily puzzle asked players to link Jack Nicholson and Cillian Murphy. The two have never been credited in the same movie, so there's no one-move answer. But 15 actors have worked with both of them in their best-known films, so it can be done in just 2 moves.

Want to try it before reading the answer? You can still play this exact puzzle, and it won't affect your daily streak.

Play puzzle #742

The shortest solution

Show the 2-move answer (spoiler)
  1. Jack Nicholson as Costello in The Departed (2006), which also stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy.
  2. Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb in Inception (2010), alongside Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer, Jr..

The full chain: Jack Nicholson → The Departed (2006) → Leonardo DiCaprio → Inception (2010) → Cillian Murphy.

Other ways to solve it

Show 3 more 2-move routes (spoilers)
  • Jack Nicholson → The Departed (2006) → Matt Damon → Oppenheimer (2023) → Cillian Murphy
  • Jack Nicholson → The Bucket List (2007) → Morgan Freeman → The Dark Knight (2008) → Cillian Murphy
  • Jack Nicholson → Mars Attacks! (1996) → Lukas Haas → Inception (2010) → Cillian Murphy

About Jack Nicholson

Born
April 22, 1937 in Manhattan, New York, USA
Film career
1960–2010
Widely seen films
50 (films with a sizeable audience on TMDB)

Best-known films, which are often the quickest places to start a chain:

About Cillian Murphy

Born
May 25, 1976 in Douglas, Cork, Ireland
Film career
1999–2026
Widely seen films
37 (films with a sizeable audience on TMDB)

Best-known films, which are often the quickest places to start a chain: