Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic thriller about the physicist often dubbed the “father of the atomic bomb,” has received its first full trailer.
Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and the story focuses on America’s top-secret nuclear weapons project during World War II. In addition to Murphy, Oppenheimer’s cast includes Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, David Dastmalchian, Josh Peck and more.
The trailer immediately sets the intense tone of the film and previews some of the places Oppenheimer’s story will take viewers when the film hits theaters on July 21, 2023.
“We imagine a future, and our imaginations terrify us,” says Oppenheimer von Murphy. “They won’t fear it until they understand it, and they won’t understand it until they use it. The theory will only get you so far. I don’t know if we can be trusted with a weapon like this, but we have no choice. Will anyone ever tell the truth about what is happening here?”
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Rober Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film was shot in a combination of IMAX 65mm and 65mm wide-format Film photography shot, for the first time ever, sections in IMAX black and white analog photography.”
Ranking of Christopher Nolan films
Speaking of firsts, Christopher Nolan and the team behind Oppenheimer recreated the world’s first-ever nuclear explosion without using CGI for the film, and this will be just another example of Nolan’s preference for practical effects over CGI.
For more information, see Everything Nolan asked Universal for Oppenheimer and our ranking of the best Nolan films.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.