Christopher Nolan’s next after Tenet (2020) is quite literally an explosive look at the making of the atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy plays J Robert Oppenheimer, the man tasked with making the mission a reality. The second trailer shows audiences a closer look at the other key players in the film including actors Emily Blunt who plays his wife Katherine ‘Kitty’ Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves Jr and Robert Downey, Jr as Lewis Strauss from US Atomic Energy Commission.
Written and directed by Christopher, the tense trailer shows the immense pressure Cillian’s nuclear physicist is under, to make sure that the US be the first to make the bomb, ahead of the enemies like Germany. There are many instances where he and Matt’s General are at odds with one another as the latter is the director of the Manhattan Project and wants clean results.
He requests to work on the project in a remote town away from prying eyes and wants to include all the scientists’ families on site, so they are not lonely and miss home. The line shown in the trailer, “You are the man who gave them the power to destroy themselves and the world is not prepared,” is already chilling when one thinks of the impact of this event afterwards.
On YouTube, fans wrote that they are eagerly awaiting the film’s release. One fan wrote, “This film looks absolutely unreal. Cillian Murphy is so talented and expresses Oppenheimer’s discomfort with the Manhattan Project so perfectly. Cannot wait to see this in IMAX. This could very easily be my favourite movie this year.” Another added, “A Christopher Nolan film is meant to be watched on the big screen. Can’t wait since it has an ensemble cast of talented actors.”
More cast members are shown in this trailer including Florence Pugh as psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, filmmaker Benny Safdie as theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano as Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett as US nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence. Rami Malek, actor-filmmaker Kenneth Branagh, Dane DeHaan, Alden Ehrenreich and Matthew Modine are other members of the ensemble cast. Oppenheimer is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J Sherwin. The film will be released in theatres worldwide on July 21, 2023, the same day as Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.