Oppenheimer: Christopher Nolan explains movie’s most terrifying scene
Universal PicturesChristopher Nolan has called Oppenheimer a horror movie, and here he unpacks the film’s most terrifying sequence.
Writer-director Christopher Nolan spoke about extreme reactions to Oppenheimer before the film’s release, describing audiences as both horrified and distraught.
You can see where they were coming from now that the film is on general release, with circumstances around the creation of the atomic bomb – and the way that is was then unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – making for a viewing experience that’s both disturbing and tragic.
There’s one scene in particular that stands out. And both Nolan and his editor have been speaking about how it came together. So beware of SPOILERS ahead.
Oppenheimer: Christopher Nolan explains movie’s most terrifying scene
The scene in question concerns J. Robert Oppenheimer addressing his colleagues in a gymnasium soon after the bombs have been dropped. The sound of the crowd cheering is delayed – much as the sound of the bomb detonating came in belatedly during the Trinity explosion. While he then has visions of skin burning off a member of the audience.
“The whole film is about consequences,” Nolan tells Vulture of the sequence. “The delayed onset of consequences that people often forget – the film is full of different representations of that. Some visceral, some more narrative.”
Nolan continues: “As I immersed myself in Oppenheimer’s story, what I eventually came to is the realization that even though he never specifically apologized for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, his actions the night after the bombing were the actions of somebody truly possessed by guilt, truly possessed by a desire to undo what he had done. So I felt that in the telling, I wanted to be true to my interpretation of the interior turmoil he must have felt, how that would’ve manifested itself.”
Harking back to the Trinity explosion
Editor Jennifer Lame says the lack of initial sound is a callback to that earlier explosive test, calling it “the evil stepsister to Trinity in a way, sound-wise, in the way we cut it.”
Lame adds: “It took a while to make those two feel a pair with each other. It’s such a fine line between just making them the same rather than making them feel they speak to each other.”
Oppenheimer is in cinemas now, and you can read more about the movie below:
Oppenheimer review | Ending explained | Epic runtime revealed | R-rating explained | Best way to watch Oppenheimer | Christopher Nolan on sex scenes | Cast and characters | Filming locations | True story explained | Is Oppenheimer streaming? | Nolan ranked by Rotten Tomato scores | Is it based on a book? | Age-gap controversy explained | Robert Pattinson’s influence | How Oppenheimer died | Christopher Nolan explains strange script | Did Japan ban Oppenheimer? | Review roundup | Does Oppenheimer have a post-credits scene? | Box office | Was Jean Tatlock murdered? | What happened to Kitty? | Why did Lewis Strauss hate Oppenheimer? | Did Oppenheimer win a Nobel Prize?
