EYNTK about the true story behind 'Oppenheimer'
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Unless you've been living under a rock, or have been completely absorbed in Barbie (which also hits cinemas this Friday and tbh we wouldn't blame you), you've heard of Christopher Nolan's new film Oppenheimer.
Featuring a star-studded cast of Peaky Blinders favourite Cillian Murphy (playing protagnoist J. Robert Oppenheimer), as well as Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey Jr., the much-anticipated biopic is set to be one of the biggest films of the year.
Oppenheimer tells the story of the late scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, from his rise as esteemed scientist to reputational ruin following his involvement in the creation of the atomic bomb.
Not familiar with the story? Here's everything you need to know before taking your seat in the cinema (unless you're a 'google the details' after watching kind of person, in which case hi, we got you).
What is Oppenheimer about?
The film tells the story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb, as well as the deadly consequences that followed. The plot follows Oppenheimer from his student days in Europe to his time as a professor in California, and then what is famously known as the Manhattan Project – the secret US programme to build nuclear weapons, specifically a bomb to end World War Two. Director Nolan partly bases the film on the biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer published by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin in 2005 after 25 years of writing.
Who was J. Robert Oppenheimer?
Oppenheimer came from a wealthy German-Jewish family in New York. From an early age, his advanced intellectual abilities led him to a place at Harvard University at 18, graduating after just three years (it's typically four in America).
While he exceeded in his academics, he struggled with his mental health, expressing suicidal thoughts while at college and reportedly leaving a poisoned apple (dosed with chemicals from the lab) on his tutor's desk when pursuing a graduate degree at Cambridge.
Nonetheless, by World War Two, he was working as a respected professor at the University of California, Berkeley, after gaining a reputation for his contributions to science. At Berkley, he fell in love with a woman called Jean Tatlock (played by Pugh in the new film) who was a member of the communist party, which later became an issue in his security clearance hearings (more on that soon). After the pair split in 1939, he married Katherine, or 'Kitty' (played by Blunt), and had two children. But he went on to have an affair with Tatlock, who later sadly died by suicide in 1944.
What was Oppenheimer famous for?
Mainly for his involvement in the Manhattan Project, as mentioned earlier. In 1941, then president Franklin D Roosevelt approved a programme to develop an atomic bomb, just two months before the US entered the war. But it was a year later that Oppenheimer was recruited to research how to actually build one. When General Leslie Groves (played by Damon) took over the project, he selected Oppenheimer to head its secret weapons lab.
Oppenheimer and his team of scientists worked for three years in the lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico to create an atomic bomb (in case confusing, it was called the Manhattan Project after its offices in the New York borough). This led to the first nuclear detonation in history on 16 July 1945, known as the Trinity test. In an interview years later, Oppenheimer famously claimed a line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, came into his head: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
A month later two bombs developed in the project were dropped on Japanese cities Nagasaki and Hiroshima utterly decimating them and killing roughly 200,000 people, most of whom were civilians. Emperor Hirohito soon announced Japan’s surrender from the war.
What happened to Oppenheimer?
Oppenheimer continued to serve as a nuclear weapons consultant for the US government, though (arguably a little late) reportedly did warn against the damage they could cause.
During a 1953 speech he compared the nuclear power of the US and the Soviet Union to "two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life".
In December, during the Second Red Scare (fear of communism in America), Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman Lewis Strauss (played by Downey in the new film) revoked Oppenheimer's top-secret security clearance and called for his resignation.
But after refusing, Oppenheimer then lost a battle to defend himself at a highly publicised security hearing, leaving the scientist's reputation damaged. That said, in 1963, President Lyndon B Johnson presented him with the Enrico Fermi Award, the AEC's highest honour.
Oppenheimer, who was a heavy smoker, died of throat cancer in his home in Princeton in February 1967.
Bird, one of the co-authors of the biography mentioned earlier, wrote in a New York Times piece earlier this month: "It is my hope that Christopher Nolan’s stunning new film on Oppenheimer’s complicated legacy will initiate a national conversation not only about our existential relationship to weapons of mass destruction, but also the need in our society for scientists as public intellectuals."
Did Oppenheimer work with Einstein?
Amid all the drama, you may have spotted Albert Einstein in the trailer for the film, played by Tom Conti. But did the physicist actually work with Oppenheimer?
Although Einstein never worked directly on the atomic bomb, and was denied to work on the Manhattan Project because he posed a security risk (as a left-leaning political activist), according to the American Museum of Natural History, he is often incorrectly associated with the creation of nuclear weapons. His world-famous equation E=mc2 explains the energy released in an atomic bomb, but not how to build one.
When questioned on his involvement, Einstein repeatedly claimed he had only written to President Roosevelt suggesting the US research these types of weapons before the Germans got there first. However, in an interview with Newsweek, he expressed his regret, saying "had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing".
While Einstein and Oppenheimer did meet numerous times, it's thought there's no evidence of scientific collaboration between them.
When is Oppenheimer in cinemas?
Oppenheimer will be released in cinemas nationwide on Friday 21 July 2023.
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