A biographical thriller film based on AMERICAN PROMETHEUS — The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, biography of the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The book was first published in 2005 by Alfred A. Knopf, it won numerous awards, including the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904 – 1967) was an American theoretical physicist and the leader of the Manhattan Project that produced first nuclear weapons during World War II. He is often credited as the “father of the atomic bomb”.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is recruited by General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) to lead the Manhattan Project to develop the first nuclear weapon before the Nazi Germany.

The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the bombs. The Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but employed nearly 130,000 people at its peak and cost nearly US$2 billion (1% of the cost of WWII and equivalent to approximately $33.9 billion in 2023).

Later, he is appointed director of Los Alamos in New Mexico where they build a town and bring scientists and their families including his wife Kitty (Emily Blunt) and his son in. They intend to keep everyone there until the project is complete.

On 6 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, it killed approximately 80,000 people instantly. The death toll increased significantly in the following weeks and months due to radiation exposure and injuries. Roughly 140,000 people died by the end of 1945. On 9 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The death toll in Nagasaki was estimated to be around 40,000–75,000 people.

OPPENHEIMER probably is the most underwhelming Nolan’s films I’ve ever watched. The film stretches too long (it runs almost 3 hours), hopping back and forth in time, to the point where I lose interest about the conversation between Albert Einstein (Tom Conti) and Oppenheimer which the director keeps it hidden for the entire time.

Maybe because the film is more about the personal life of Oppenheimer (which doesn’t look good), his security hearing (he was accused of disloyalty and being a national security risk), his grief (for building weapons that killed hundreds of thousands of people), and his delusional state of mind. Lewis Strauss portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. delivers such a great performance, he should be nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

We learn about Oppenheimer’s choices in his life that led him to become the director of Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. How they spend billions of dollars and race against time to build a nuclear bomb before the Nazis. But we only see a glimpse of how they actually build an atomic bomb.

It’s supposed to show us how the a group of scientists and experts can solve the problems and achieve something that hasn’t been done before. I find a WIRED video titled “Atomic Expert Explains “Oppenheimer” Bomb Scenes is quite excellent on that matter, Alex Wellerstein also tells us a fun fact about the actual Trinity (nuclear test codename) when they assembled the bomb, the capsule got stuck because the heat from the plutonium core had caused the capsule to expand. (in the film, it just smoothly slides into place.)

They won’t fear it until they understand it. And they won’t understand it until they’ve used it.

The only thrilling moment in the film is when they decide to push the button to detonate Trinity’s nuclear bomb (16 July 1945), even though there’s a near zero chance in their calculations that the bomb would create atmospheric ignition and destroy the world, but they push the button anyway.

In 1970, weapon scientists redid those calculations and suggested that they would need a bomb 100,000 times more explosive than any bombs we ever made to create atmospheric ignition. (Nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere fuse together and release enough energy that would trigger more nuclear fusion that goes over the entire globe.)

OPPENHEIMER premiered in Paris on 11 July 2023, before its theatrical release in United Kingdom and United States on 21 July by Universal Pictures. The film was also theatrically released in several countries on 19 July.

OPPENHEIMER is Nolan’s first film not to be distributed by Warner Bros. since MEMENTO in 2000. Nolan’s decision to switch to Universal comes after he criticized Warner Bros. over their plans to release their 2021 film slate simultaneously on streaming service HBO Max, calling it the worst streaming service.

Universal Pictures has agreed to all Nolan’s terms including $100 million budget for the film, an equal marketing budget, total creative control, 20% of the first-dollar gross, 3-week blackout period before/after which the studio would not release another movie, and 100-day theatrical window which his film would not be on any streaming services.