The much-awaited and hotly anticipated Christopher Nolan classical, led by Cillian Murphy is creating a huge buzz among fans around the world. The movie titled ‘Oppenheimer’ is a historical classic established around World War II and is based on one of the biggest groundbreaking developments in human history.
Christopher Nolan’s latest which will hit theaters around the world next year is a true story based on the politics and drama surrounding the creation of the first atomic bomb. While World War II isn't unfamiliar territory for Nolan — Dunkirk was set during the same period this would be the first time he has put long-time collaborator Murphy as a lead in one of his movies.
And unlike the Oppenheimer teaser trailer, which debuted in July and is still running as a live stream, this new Oppenheimer trailer is presented in color. The film itself is poised to switch to monochrome film stocks periodically.
The trailer of the film which was released on Monday opens up with an explosion, with engulfing flames that turn into snow-like ashes, depicting the catastrophe of the blast that followed.
“We imagine a future, and our imaginings horrify us,” theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Murphy) narrates, as we're offered landscape visuals of where the US government-controlled Manhattan Project took place, amidst World War II. “They won't fear it until they understand it. And they won't understand it until they've used it.” The Oppenheimer trailer is quite dreamlike, in what feels like vignettes of memory, in which the titular physicist appears to be a troubled man, whose flaws are ignored in favor of his brilliance.
He went on to say in the trailer, “I don't know if we can be trusted with such a weapon. But we have no choice,” contemplating the unprecedented, destructive power, he has created.
There's a brief shot of Josh Peck (Drake and Josh) as the American physicist Kenneth Bainbridge, who can be seen flicking some switches before the Trinity explosion is triggered.
Jack Quaid (The Boys) as theoretical physicist Richard Feynman is also seen, tensely awaiting the test results with his peers. With the timer ticking down, the trailer showcases the hand, presumably Oppenheimer's, hovering over a big red button.
Nolan while describing the film confirmed last week that the nuke explosion for his upcoming historical classic was recreated practically. The director who is notorious for avoiding CGI in his films said, “I think recreating the Trinity test [the first nuclear detonation in New Mexico] without the use of computer graphics was a huge challenge to take on,” he told Total Film.
He further added, “Andrew Jackson — my visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of the very harsh conditions out there — there were huge practical challenges.”
Apart from Murphy, Peck, and Quaid, Oppenheimer will also be featuring Robert Downey Jr. as Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, Matt Damon as the Manhattan Project director Leslie Groves Jr., Emily Blunt as wife Katherine Oppenheimer, Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock who harbored a relationship with Oppenheimer, Benny Safdie as Edward Teller, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and Gary Oldman.
Pertinently this will be Nolan’s first collaboration with Universal Pictures, after serving a two-decade-long stint with Warner Bros. The reason behind the switch reportedly was that Nolan didn’t take kindly to Warner releasing all major 2021 films on its streaming platform HBO Max at the time when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak, although Nolan's last film at Warner, titled Tenet, was not affected by that decision.
However, to watch another Murphy classic in one of the finest movies on the cards the audience will have to wait for the entire first half of 2023, which is slated to release on July 21st in India and around the world.