‘Oppenheimer’ Teaser: Christopher Nolan’s Explosive Atom Bomb Epic Has Live Countdown to Destruction

Tick, tick…

Christopher Nolan’s 12th feature film, the star-studded period piece “Oppenheimer,” debuted its teaser trailer complete with a live countdown to the July 21, 2023. The “world forever changes” thanks to the scientific invention of the atom bomb, “fathered” by Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy.

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Known as the “father of the atomic bomb,” Oppenheimer was head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and helmed the “Manhattan Project,” which first developed nuclear weapons for World War II. He also supervised the Trinity Test, in which the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated in New Mexico.

Emily Blunt playing Oppenheimer’s wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie is theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano takes on Robert Serber, and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence.

Jack Quaid, Rami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh also co-star, as well as Dane DeHaan, Dylan Arnold, David Krumholtz, Alden Ehrenreich, and Matthew Modine.

“Oppenheimer” marks the first collaboration between Universal and director Christopher Nolan — who left Warner Bros. after squabbling with the studio over the release of “Tenet” — and is based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

“Oppenheimer” was shot on combination of IMAX 65mm and 65mm large-format film photography including, for the first time ever, sections in IMAX black and white analog photography.

“Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas’ films have shattered the limits of what cinematic storytelling can achieve,” Universal Filmed Entertainment Group Chairman Donna Langley said in a statement accompanying the release date for “Oppenheimer.” “We are thrilled to be working alongside them on this exceptional and extraordinary project and are grateful for their shared passion and commitment to the theatrical experience.”

Lead star Murphy previously dropped the bomb that he chose to dive into the emotional depths of his character rather than the specific science behind Oppenheimer’s legacy.

“I’m interested in the man and what [inventing the atomic bomb] does to the individual,” Murphy told The Guardian. “The mechanics of it, that’s not really for me — I don’t have the intellectual capability to understand them, but these contradictory characters are fascinating.”

Murphy added of longtime collaborator Nolan, “Isn’t it wonderful that filmmakers are still making challenging, demanding films within the studio system, shot on film? I think he’s flying the flag. Him, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino are fantastic filmmakers making interesting work on a massive scale.”

“Oppenheimer” premieres in theaters July 21, 2023.

Check out the teaser below.

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