Oppenheimer, the upcoming biopic thriller from Inception and The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan has received a new “making of” featurette that takes audiences behind the scenes, behind the recreation of the atomic bomb and the spectacular practical effects that all went into it. Ahead of the movie’s launch later this month, marketing has been ramping up and we’re finally getting glimpses of what to expect from this big-budget project.
Oppenheimer will recount the turbulent life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the theoretical physicist who was intimately involved in the historical Manhattan Project during the height of World War II that led to the creation of the atomic bomb – as well as the devastating conclusion to the American/Japanese conflict that saw two atomic bombs dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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The latest featurette for Oppenheimer interviews several of the movie’s cast and crew including Nolan, who provides some insight into his ambitious in-camera recreation of the Trinity test, the first time humanity tested the atomic bomb out in the deserts of New Mexico. Impressively, none of it uses CGI as the explosion was actually recreated practically using cutting-edge methods. Nolan placed a lot of emphasis on capturing just how horrifying the first bomb test was, stating:
“We did a lot of experimentation. We came up with some very interesting analog methods of how to approach this, all of which was leading to the Trinity test which had to feel nightmarish and terrifying in a way that computer graphics never really is.”
Los Alamos, the base of operations for the scientists and families of those scientists, was also faithfully rebuilt in the same location to give the movie’s setting plenty of authenticity.
Oppenheimer releases in cinemas on 21 July 2023. According to Robert Downey Jr., you’ll probably want to watch the movie on the biggest screen you can find. Check out the featurette below:
Source: Universal Pictures