The film was announced in September 2021 after Universal Pictures won a bidding war for Nolan's screenplay. It is Nolan's first film not distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures since Memento (2000), due to his conflicts regarding the studio's simultaneous theatrical and HBO Max release schedule.[9] Murphy was the first cast member to sign on the following month, with the rest of the cast joining between November 2021 and April 2022. Pre-production was under way by January 2022, and filming took place from February to May 2022. Oppenheimer was filmed in a combination of IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large-format film, including, for the first time, scenes in IMAX black-and-white film photography. Like his previous works, Nolan made extensive use of practical effects, with minimal compositing work to incorporate and refine the effects. Editing was handled by Jennifer Lame, and the score was composed by Ludwig Göransson. The film was Nolan's first to receive an R-rating in the United States since Insomnia in 2002.
Oppenheimer premiered at Le Grand Rex in Paris on July 11, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 21 by Universal. Its simultaneous release with Warner Bros.'s Barbie led to the "Barbenheimer" cultural phenomenon, which encouraged audiences to see both films as a double feature. The film grossed over $958 million worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 2023, the highest-grossing World War II-related film, the highest-grossing biographical film, and the second-highest-grossing R-rated film. It received critical acclaim for its screenplay, score, visuals, and performances, with Murphy, Blunt, and Downey receiving the most praise, and was named one of the top-ten films of 2023 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. It also received numerous accolades, including five wins at the 81st Golden Globe Awards, as well as a leading 13 nominations each at the 77th British Academy Film Awards and the 96th Academy Awards, including one for Best Film and Best Picture, respectively.
Plot[edit]
In 1926, 22-year-old doctoral student J. Robert Oppenheimer grapples with anxiety and homesickness while studying under experimental physicist Patrick Blackett at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. Upset with Blackett's attitude, Oppenheimer leaves him a poisoned apple but later retrieves it. Visiting scientist Niels Bohr advises Oppenheimer to study theoretical physics at the University of Göttingen instead.
Oppenheimer completes his PhD there and meets fellow scientist Isidor Isaac Rabi. They later meet theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg in Switzerland. Wanting to expand quantum physics research in the United States, Oppenheimer begins teaching at the University of California, Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology. He marries Katherine "Kitty" Puening, a biologist and ex-communist, and has an intermittent affair with Jean Tatlock, a troubled communist who later commits suicide.
In December 1938, nuclear fission is discovered, which Oppenheimer realizes could be weaponized. In 1942, during World War II, U.S. Army Colonel Leslie Groves recruits Oppenheimer as director of the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb. Oppenheimer, who is Jewish, is mainly concerned that the German nuclear research program, led by Heisenberg, might yield a fission bomb for the Nazis.
He assembles a team consisting of Rabi, Hans Bethe and Edward Teller at the Los Alamos Laboratory, and also collaborating with scientists Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard and David L. Hill at the University of Chicago. Teller's calculations reveal an atomic detonation could trigger a catastrophic chain reaction that ignites the atmosphere. After consulting with Albert Einstein, Oppenheimer concludes the chances are acceptably low. Teller attempts to leave the project after his proposal to construct a hydrogen bomb is rejected, but Oppenheimer convinces him to stay.
After Germany's surrender in 1945, some Project scientists question the bomb's relevance; Oppenheimer believes it would end the ongoing Pacific War and save Allied lives. The Trinity test is successful, and President Harry S. Truman orders the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in Japan's surrender. Though publicly praised, Oppenheimer is haunted by the mass destruction and fatalities. After expressing his personal guilt to Truman, the president berates Oppenheimer and dismisses his urging to cease further atomic development.
As an advisor to the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Oppenheimer's stance generates controversy, while Teller's hydrogen bomb receives renewed interest amidst the burgeoning Cold War. AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss resents Oppenheimer for publicly dismissing his concerns about exporting radioisotopes and for recommending negotiations with the Soviet Union after they successfully detonated their own bomb. He also believes that Oppenheimer denigrated him during a conversation Oppenheimer had with Einstein in 1947.
In 1954, wanting to eliminate Oppenheimer's political influence, Strauss secretly orchestrates a private security hearing before a Personnel Security Board concerning Oppenheimer's Q clearance. However, it becomes clear that the hearing has a predetermined outcome. Oppenheimer's past communist ties are exploited, and Groves' and other associates' testimony is twisted against him. Teller testifies that he lacks confidence in Oppenheimer and recommends revocation. The board revokes Oppenheimer's clearance, damaging his public image and limiting his influence on nuclear policy.
In 1959, during Strauss' Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of Commerce, Hill testifies about Strauss' personal motives in engineering Oppenheimer's downfall, resulting his nomination being voted down. In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson presents Oppenheimer with the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation. A flashback reveals Oppenheimer and Einstein's 1947 conversation never mentioned Strauss. Oppenheimer instead expressed his belief that they had indeed started a chain reaction—a nuclear arms race—that would one day destroy the world.