Eagle-Eyed Historians Spot Mistake in 'Oppenheimer' Involving the American Flag
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One scene in Christopher Nolan's new movie 'Oppenheimer' shows 50 stars on the American flag more than a decade before the country gained 50 states
Universal Pictures
Cillian Murphy in 'Oppenheimer'Christopher Nolan's new movie Oppenheimer dives deep into 20th century history — but it appears to have made an anachronistic mistake along the way.
As Oppenheimer made an impressive $82.4 million in its first three days in theaters over the weekend, sharp-eyed audience members noticed one scene in the film in which J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is greeted by community members in Los Alamos, New Mexico, holding American flags that bear an incorrect number of stars for the time period the scene takes place in.
“It was good and all, but I’ll be that guy and complain they used 50-star flags in a scene set in 1945,” a Twitter user named Andy Craig shared last Friday.
In real life, the United States' flag bore only 48 stars to represent the country's 48 states at the time. Hawaii and Alaska were both admitted into the union in 1959, more than a decade after the Manhattan Project's research led to the August 1945 atomic bombings of Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki and end of World War II, as depicted in Oppenheimer. The 50-star American flag was first flown on July 4, 1960, according to the Eisenhower Presidential Library.
The apparent mistake is not present each time an American flag appears in the movie; another shot showing Oppenheimer and the flag appears to bear the appropriate amount of stars.
Universal Pictures
Oppenheimer is a biopic centered around the life of the theoretical physicist who rose to prominence in the early 1900s and eventually worked as a director on the Manhattan Project's efforts to build an atomic bomb in New Mexico during World War II. The film covers much of Oppenheimer's life before, during and after World War II and sheds light on the events that led to the denial of his security clearance in the 1950s as well as the development of nuclear weapons.
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The movie proved a critical and box office success following its theatrical release last Friday. The film's success combined with Barbie's popularity at the box office — a phenomenon commonly known as Barbenheimer — made for the fourth-largest domestic box office weekend ever, according to Variety.
Anticipation for both films was so high that film-data research company The Quorum estimated Oppenheimer made $4.98 million in ticket sales from people who originally intended to see Barbie and found that screenings were sold out.
Gareth Cattermole/Getty
Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Cillian Murphy, Christopher Nolan, Robert Downey Jr. and Josh Hartnett attend the "Oppenheimer" UK Premiere at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on July 13, 2023 in London, EnglandThe researchers conducted a survey of Oppenheimer viewers on Sunday, asking moviegoers why they saw the Christopher Nolan film. The company’s founder David Herrin told IndieWire that “bought ticket because Barbie was sold out” was one of the options for respondents.
In addition to Murphy, Nolan's new movie also stars Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Kenneth Branagh, David Krumholtz, Josh Peck, Casey Affleck, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh and Jack Quaid, among others.
Oppenheimer is in theaters now.
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