Oppenheimer is a 2023 biographical thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film chronicles the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist who was pivotal in developing the first nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project, and thereby ushering in the Atomic Age. Cillian Murphy stars as Oppenheimer, with Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a senior member of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. The ensemble supporting cast includes Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh.
The project was announced in September 2021 after Universal Pictures won a bidding war for Nolan’s screenplay. Murphy signed on to portray Oppenheimer in October, with others in the main cast joining between November 2021 and April 2022. Pre-production was underway by January 2022, with filming taking place from February to May. Oppenheimer was filmed in a combination of IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large-format film, including, for the first time in history, sections in IMAX black-and-white film photography. As with his previous works, Nolan used extensive practical effects and minimal computer-generated imagery.
Oppenheimer premiered at Le Grand Rex in Paris on July 11, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States and United Kingdom on July 21, 2023, by Universal Pictures. Its simultaneous release with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie led to the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon on social media, which encouraged audiences to see both films as a double feature. The film has grossed over $241 million worldwide and received critical acclaim, with particular praise for its cast, screenplay, and visuals.
In 1926, 22-year-old J. Robert Oppenheimer grapples with homesickness and anxiety while studying under Patrick Blackett at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Blackett is demanding, prompting Oppenheimer to leave him a poisoned apple, which visiting scientist Niels Bohr almost eats accidentally. Oppenheimer completes his PhD in physics at the University of Göttingen in Germany, where he meets Werner Heisenberg. He returns to the United States, hoping to expand quantum physics research there, and begins teaching at the University of California, Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology. During this time, he encounters Jean Tatlock, a member of the Communist Party USA with whom he has an intermittent romantic relationship until her eventual suicide, and meets his future wife, Katherine Puening, a biologist and ex-Communist.
U.S. Army General Leslie Groves recruits Oppenheimer to lead the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb after Oppenheimer assures Groves that he has no communist sympathies. Oppenheimer, who is Jewish, is particularly driven by the Nazis possibly having a nuclear weapons program underway, headed by Heisenberg. Oppenheimer assembles a scientific team that includes Edward Teller, Isidor Isaac Rabi and David L. Hill, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to secretly create the bomb with the intention that it would save the world despite its potential global repercussions. During the development, Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein discuss how an atomic bomb could trigger a chain reaction that could destroy the world. Oppenheimer also learns that a Soviet spy may have leaked the Manhattan Project’s intel to Russia.
When Germany surrenders in World War II, some project scientists doubt the bomb’s continued importance. The bomb is completed and the Trinity test is successfully conducted just before the Potsdam Conference. U.S. president Harry S. Truman orders the atomic bombs be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan’s surrender and thrusting Oppenheimer into the public eye as the “father of the atomic bomb”. Haunted by the immense destruction and suffering, Oppenheimer personally urges Truman to use restraint in developing even more powerful weapons. Truman perceives Oppenheimer’s distress as weakness and insists that, as president, he alone bears responsibility for the bomb’s use. Oppenheimer continues feeling intense guilt.
Oppenheimer advocates against further nuclear development, especially the hydrogen bomb, positioning him against Teller. His stance becomes a point of contention amid the tense Cold War with the Soviet Union. Lewis Strauss, chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, resents Oppenheimer for publicly dismissing Strauss’ concerns regarding the export of radioisotopes and – per Strauss’ belief – badmouthing him to Einstein. At a hearing intended to remove Oppenheimer from political influence, Oppenheimer is betrayed by Teller’s and other associates’ testimony, while Strauss exploits Oppenheimer’s associations with current and former communists such as Tatlock and Oppenheimer’s brother Frank.
Despite Rabi and several other allies testifying in Oppenheimer’s defense, Oppenheimer’s security clearance is revoked, damaging his public image and neutralizing his policy influence. Later, at Strauss’ Senate confirmation hearing as Secretary of Commerce, Hill exposes Strauss’ personal motives in engineering Oppenheimer’s downfall. Strauss’ confirmation fails to pass.
In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson presents Oppenheimer the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation. It is revealed that Oppenheimer and Einstein’s earlier conversation was not about Strauss but rather nuclear weapons and their far-reaching implications. Oppenheimer wonders whether the Trinity test – that he helped create – launched a “chain reaction” of events that could lead to a nuclear holocaust.
