“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, a chilling rendition of American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin dominated the box office this summer, gaining a total of $891.2 million worldwide, in turn becoming the highest grossing World War II-related film. Cillian Murphy takes on the role of Robert J. Oppenheimer, theoretical physicist and father of the atomic bomb. He is joined by Robert Downey Jr., who plays the role of Lewis Strauss, an untrustworthy government official who serves as Oppenheimer’s opposition throughout the film.
Appointed to the Manhattan Project by Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, Oppenheimer collaborates with a team of international scientists in a classified program to develop the world’s first atomic weapon. The project is held in Los Alamos, New Mexico for its desolate location, and it being in the middle of significant sites for the project: Berkeley, Chicago, Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Hanford, Washington.
A single drop of water causes a chain reaction of ripples across a pond, so what makes physics so different? A common, recurring motif throughout the film is the power of chain reactions and the silent strength it holds over the naive.
Fission. noun. The action of dividing or splitting something into two or more parts.
Along with the division of a nucleus, fission in Oppenheimer’s life takes the form of the demolition of relationships as well as his reputation. This fission is the dissolution of his old beliefs and innocence as he realizes the true potential of his ideas. He isolates himself from his colleagues, limiting his future support network…which backfires when he must work with them in Los Alamos.
Throughout his past, Oppenheimer expresses communist sympathies, bragging about reading Marx’s Communist Manifesto in its original German. At a Communist party meeting, he forms a strong, passionate connection with Jean Tatlock, a party member, and they continue to meet throughout Oppenheimer’s marriage with another woman. Gaining more traction in the governmental world, he decides to distance himself from his communist identity, still maintaining his “meetings” with Tatlock.
Fusion. noun. The process or result of joining two or more things together to form a single entity.
The most apparent interpretation of this chapter is Oppenheimer’s political collision with Strauss, representing two nuclei crammed together and the explosion that follows. After being publicly humiliated over his recommendation on the use of isotopes in the creation of nuclear weapons and believing Oppenheimer mocked him in front of Albert Einstein, Strauss forms a personal and political vendetta against Oppenheimer. This leads to Strauss’ obsession with Oppenheimer’s communist ties and security clearance in a plot to ruin his status as a trusted figure. The film depicts the contrast between the two men in a very literal manner: in scenes shown from Strauss’s point of view, everything is black and white, reflecting Strauss’s eagerness to see Oppenheimer as his enemy.
After evidence is discovered of Oppenheimer’s former involvement with party members, he is called to a closed security hearing with a commission planted by Strauss to dictate his clearance – and therefore involvement – with future government projects.
A notable directing choice was to partially replace Oppenheimer’s limited point of view during each cut to the meeting room. This structure sporadically took away the safety in his own perspective and provided viewers an insight into the real world, rather than just his mind.
Explosion. noun. a violent and destructive shattering or blowing apart of something, as is caused by a bomb.
The silence is deafening as light blasts the screen, the only sound being a flashback to Oppenheimer’s previous “meeting” with Tatlock, as the quote “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” runs as a chilling voiceover as his face lights up with the aftermath of his creation.
Soon after, when the bomb is dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer’s instant elation of its success is quickly overcome by guilt and remorse for the world he has just formed. During his speech in the Los Alamos multi-purpose room, Oppenheimer puts on an elated facade to please the crowd before him, when quickly, everything starts trembling. A single piercing scream blasts through his skull, followed by a new, haunting vision of the crowd, their skin melting from their bodies as they withstand powerful radiation. Oppenheimer stumbles out of the room, passing by those celebrating, as well as his scientist peers sobbing at the reality of what’s to come. Those who are aware of the severity realize there is no turning back, and Oppenheimer is no different. The fire consumes both the world, and his mind.
Overall, Oppenheimer was a film waiting to be made, as it tells the story of the world being catapulted into a new age of power and discovery. It reveals that there are consequences to even the most revolutionary of ideas. Nolan’s use of cinematography and sound, both its presence and absence, traps the viewer in the tortured mind of Oppenheimer. The film provides a glimpse into a world no one dares to imagine; the horrifying part is…we don’t have to. As Oppenheimer states, powerful world nations are like scorpions in a bottle; both have the power to kill each other, only at the expense of their own life.
“It’s not a new weapon, it’s a new world.”