Nolan’s "Oppenheimer": An explosive masterpiece

A chilling feeling

The answer to that question is clear: at the end of the three hours, and without seeing any of the atrocities left by the atomic bomb or any bodies or destruction, the audience is left with a chilling feeling of overwhelming sadness and terror.

We are left with sadness as we're reminded of something we have tried hard to forget: a crime of immense proportions committed against humanity that was "not necessary" at all, when the United States decided to win the fight in WWII by dropping the bomb on two Japanese cities.

We are left with terror as we're reminded that the threat of weapons of mass destruction will remain present as long as these weapons exist. What's more, they are becoming deadlier and more numerous, and the world continues to be ruled by madmen with their fingers on the control button.

The tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be repeated on an even larger scale. The threat of nuclear weapons in the Russian war on Ukraine is only one reminder of the constant danger we live under as humans.

Not one drop of blood

How did Nolan achieve this without showing a single drop of blood

Other than the soundtrack, which set the tone of the film, especially during the most dramatic and tense moments, the true tension that built up throughout the film came from the characters, especially Cillian Murphy (J. Robert Oppenheimer), Robert Downey Jr. (Lewis Strauss), Florence Pugh (Jean Tatlock) and Emily Blunt (Kitty Oppenheimer) and many others.

Pain, confusion, malice, greed, despair, and helplessness played a harmonious tune orchestrated by Nolan through the actors' mouths and tight skin, as if unable to handle the burden of all these thoughts and emotions.

In one of the best scenes – the test explosion of the bomb Trinity in Los Alamos – we not only see the magnitude and impact of the explosion, but we also see the immensity of its meaning, intensity, and terror in the eyes of those watching from a safe distance, especially Oppenheimer himself.

We don't need to see a new portrayal of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions. The test explosion was more than enough to get the idea.

This was the moment when the tragedy began, two weeks before the two explosions. It was at that moment that Oppenheimer said, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds".

He was no longer the director of the Manhattan Project that gave us the nuclear bomb, or a pioneer of quantum physics in the US, he and the explosion became one.

There is no way to convey this idea and feeling other than through facial expressions: They were expressive in their silence and could only resemble what we might see on people's faces come judgement day.

Parallel evil

In a parallel, albeit maybe confusing, narrative, Nolan tells a story taken from one of the most prominent biographies written about Oppenheimer, the Pulitzer-winning "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer" (2005) by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin.

He shows us the corridors of American politics, namely the hallways of the White House, and the nuclear explosion unveils unimaginable ugliness as part of a network of economic, military, and political interests.

Conspiracies are woven in the dark, with malice that befits the devil himself. Here, Robert Downey Jr. gives one of his best performances (mostly through facial expressions) as his character evolves slowly and surprisingly.

The character he plays, Lewis Strauss, is essential to the film. A businessman, politician and (a one-time member) of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, his ambition and plots were part of the reason why Oppenheimer was excluded from playing any significant role in nuclear energy after World War II, especially after the Commission and the FBI opened an investigation into his previous connections to the American Communist Party.

I described this parallel narrative as confusing because it makes it seem like the story is about Oppenheimer's fate in the American political, scientific, and academic scenes more than about the nuclear bomb itself.

However, Nolan uses his craftsmanship to weave political webs and personal conflicts at the heart of the nuclear bomb story itself. As if to say that the nuclear bomb, and all the evils of past and future wars, are, in the end, one side of the bleak darkness that resides in the souls of humans.

A story within a story

Therefore, at the heart of the story about the greatest ever explosion to have been seen, felt or experienced, lies another story about another explosion, one that is internal, deep, and intangible.

We see this in many of Nolan's characters across his career. James Gordon, played by Gary Oldman in the Batman trilogy, comes to my mind.

Oldman comes back in Oppenheimer to play the part of US President Harry Truman — a character constantly walking the line between good and evil, often hijacked by the darkness growing inside him, and often seemingly losing control to that darkness, as if by genetic destiny.

We also see it in the amazing performances given by Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. who seem to be competing over who can delve deeper into that true darkness, the one that lurks in the hearts of mankind (especially the men) and explodes in the massive silver cloud of the atomic bomb.

The large nuclear explosion never takes place in the film, not as we expect. However, a larger explosion is seen continuously on the screen for three hours.

Christopher Nolan, as a director and writer, succeeded in conveying the power and impact of the nuclear explosion itself on-screen through the explosion of accumulated and inherent evils: greed and ambition.

And perhaps on top of it all, we see madness and delusions of grandeur, and a desire for immortality and "historic moments", temptations that Oppenheimer himself falls victim to, with terrible consequences.