Christopher Nolan is back this summer with Oppenheimer, starring Peaky Blinder's Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who invented the atomic bomb and had to live with the consequences of his creation. Written and directed by Nolan, the epic thriller follows Tenet in 2020, and delves into the events that led to the creation of the unprecedented weapon. The cast also includes Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh and Rami Malek.
A trailer for the film has now been released and appears to show Oppenheimer as a conflicted figure, who is grappling with the ramifications of creating weapon that could kill the whole of humanity. Murphy's background in playing tormented anti-heroes serves him well for Oppenheimer, and audiences have undoubtedly got a compelling performance to look forward to.
In April, at the film industry convention CinemaCon, Nolan debuted the first extended footage from his A-bomb origin story. The director has been a long-standing champion of theatrical distribution and critical of the rise of streaming, so it's no wonder he picked the con as the first place to showcase his new sure-to-be opus. We've already seen enough footage to know that this one will demand the biggest screen possible; he even used real-world physical effects to recreate the detonation of a whole-ass nuclear bomb. (And you thought Tom Cruise was crazy.) Pump up that Dolby Atmos, theatre man.
With new details announced on a near-weekly basis, here's everything we know so far about one of the most hotly anticipated big-screen projects of 2023.
The first footage of Oppenheimer blows everyone away at CinemaCon
The new Nolan is but a few months away and, with a film festival preview unlikely now that the Cannes line-up has been announced, the director just delivered what will likely be the only extended preview of his J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic before it releases in July.
Per Variety's report, Nolan took to the stage at CinemaCon — an annual industry convention of cinema owners, executives, press and movie fans — to massive applause, such has been his reputation for championing the big screen experience throughout its recent slump (not least driven by the pandemic). Visually, the shared trailer “toggled between smoky black-and-white and colour,” with Variety lauding the film's “impeccable production design.”
“I know of no more dramatic tale with higher stakes,” Nolan said, introducing the footage to the assembled film aficionados. Further to its varied aesthetic, Variety described the footage as “nail-biting,” with scenes of “the physicist's team engaged in the top-secret work of bomb-making,” also zipping forward chronologically to “a point where Russia has developed its atomic technology, triggering suspicions of espionage at Los Alamos.” Sounds like a good ol' fashioned political thriller, centred on a story with massive historical consequences.
Nolan made a point of that, too. “Like it or not, J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived. He made the world that we live in for better or for worse. His story has to be seen to be believed,” adding: “His story is both dream and nightmare.” No doubt those consequences will be particularly felt in the present moment, with tensions between the world's two key nuclear states equalling the worst points of the Cold War. When we say that audiences will be “blown away,” we hope that remains figurative.
Watch the new trailer for Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer
It might be seven months until Oppenheimer drops for the masses on 21 July 2023, but we've thankfully got our first drama-filled trailer. “We imagine a future, and our imaginings horrify us,” Murphy’s Oppenheimer says in a voiceover at the start of the trailer. Tense music accompanies shots of swirling embers and glass marbles. Cillian Murphy's stress, as the titular destroyer of worlds (as was self-prophesied, at least) is palpable. “I don't know if we can be trusted with such a weapon, but I have no choice," he states, brow truly furrowed.
But work on such a weapon is underway nonetheless it seems. We're treated to a succession of lab-shots of a futuristic-looking object, and tests of small explosions, as the intensity of the music continues to build. By the end of the 2 minute clip, Murphy looks nothing short of tortured, as the music reaches a frightening crescendo, and what looks like a huge scale explosion. The final image we're left with is a hand hovering on a huge red button.
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Who stars in Oppenheimer?
The Inception director’s next film, a biopic of “the father of the atomic bomb,” boasts a smorgasbord of triple-A talent. Although the two projects couldn’t be more dissimilar, the more apt question to ask is similar to that of Knives Out 2: who doesn’t star in Oppenheimer?
First announced was Peaky Blinder Cillian Murphy, who stars as the titular nuclear scientist — but don’t expect him to build his own A-bomb. In a recent interview ahead of his Brummie crime saga’s final season, the 45-year-old Irishman told The Guardian that he eschewed any practical research into the mechanics of nuke making, focusing instead on the inventor himself.
He did an “awful lot of reading,” for one: “I’m interested in the man and what [inventing the atomic bomb] does to the individual. The mechanics of it… I don’t have the intellectual capability to understand them, but these contradictory characters are fascinating.” Hey, at least he’s honest.
Robert Downey Jr. is set to co-star as Lewis Strauss, “a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission,” with Matt Damon signed on to play Manhattan Project director, Gen. Leslie Groves Jr., according to Variety. Empire reports that Emily Blunt is set to play Kitty, Oppenheimer’s wife.
A slew of additions has followed since: Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Josh Hartnett, Matthew Modine, Jack Quaid, Dylan Arnold, Olli Maaskivi, Benny Safdie, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz, Michael Angarano, and Nolan favourite Kenneth Branagh.
What is Oppenheimer about?
Specifics are being kept under wraps, as one might typically expect of a big-budget studio flick. We do know that it’s a biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American inventor of the atomic bomb, with a script adapted from the Pultizer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
It’s novel territory for Nolan, better known for his time-warping sci-fi thrillers and mind-bending psychodramas. But don’t expect typical Hollywood biopic fare: Universal has coughed up one-hundred million dollars (say that in a Dr Evil voice) for Nolan’s vision, a figure practically unheard of in the genre.
Who was the eponymous Oppenheimer?
Upon the detonation of the first atomic bomb in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, Oppenheimer remarked that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Oppenheimer played a critical role in the American invention of the atomic bomb, leading the Los Alamos Laboratory, a team of scientists at the apex of the Manhattan Project — the programme that, amid the Second World War, led to the creation of the first nuclear weapons. In August 1945, a fifteen kiloton bomb codenamed “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima, followed shortly by the twenty-one kiloton “Fat Man” on Nagasaki, forcing a devastating end to the Pacific conflict.
He later protested the development of the hydrogen bomb, leading to intense McCarthyist scrutiny during the Second Red Scare. Oppenheimer was subsequently left out in the cold through much of the ‘50s and early-’60s, until President John F. Kennedy offered him the Enrico Fermi Award as a symbolic gesture of political rehabilitation, outraging many Republican figureheads in Congress.
A prolific smoker, he died a few years later of throat cancer.
When will Oppenheimer be released?
Oppenheimer is set to be released on July 21, 2023.
