Quick takes before thinking about the movie more for a real opinion.
Amazingly well made and well acted, not sure how much I actually liked it or if I will see it again. 3 hours went by pretty fast though, considering the length.
Did anyone else get a weird amount of horror movies for previews?

I still think that's from Oppie's perspective. He appears nude first and then is re-living the affair in front of her.

For being so dialogue-heavy, that three hours flew by.

I was wondering why an Oscar winner in Malek would have such a tiny part until the very end. Loved how Nolan tied it all together in the end.

Claude! said:

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Arrakis ecologist said:

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The bomb still went off right?

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Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

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But will you put on a life jacket?

Excellent movie. As said it's amazing how much Nolan can pack in to a single film and yet the movie never felt rushed. Also impressed how well he wove the tension throughout the film, kept the audience engaged and helped 3 hours pass quicker than I expected.

Cliff.Booth said:

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In the multiple quick shots of Oppy's commie girlfriend dying am I tripping or in one shot was there a gloved hand holding her head under water?

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I thought the same thing, was she murdered or committed suicide?

This is, I think, done on purpose to show that Oppenheimer himself isn't sure. This is maybe giving too much credit, but I think that's the feeling the movie wants to give. It was probably a suicide... but maybe it wasn't...

I think the movie made the specific choice (and a good one) not to get mired in all of the names and dates and whatnot. This wasn't supposed to be a history lesson about the Manhattan Project, but a character study of Oppenheimer himself. It only fleshed out any other characters to serve that greater point in how they impacted Oppenheimer.

What else they did or had to do with anything is irrelevant to this movie, they're practically cameos by other heroes in a marvel movie that aren't central to the story.

I do wish Fuchs' story would get this kind of movie treatment though, but otherwise I'm not sure how much knowing any of the other characters would improve the movie other than that "I know that guy!" feeling.

I was fine with the Einstein ending. The Einstein scene thst felt forced to me was the night time one leaving his house during the middle of the hearing where he tells him about leaving the country. He didn't need to just appear at Oppie's door right in that moment and the scene didn't add any extra convincing as to Oppie's love for America.

I don't think he means the Einstein ending, but the image of the world literally catching on fire just afterward. That seemed a bit cheesy to me as well.

Ohh gotcha. Yeah I could take it or leave it. I do think the further we get from WWII, more and more of the population can't grasp the dangers of nuclear war so ending it like that plays ok but it wasn't anything great.

Ok saw this today and my initial thoughts are:

This movie is DENSE. So much is going on but is laid out so well that I bet, like most of Nolan's film, it only improves with each viewing. I've read the book and am so impressed with how he was able to get it all in

This may be Nolan's best screenplay. Oscar nom lock for sure. Will this be a category (of many) were Oppenheimer and Barbie face off again? I'm assuming both will be in adapted screenplay. Haven't seen Barbie yet, but just assuming it will be an Oscar player there as well.

The score is amazing.

The visuals are incredible.

The cast was perfect. And I somehow forgot I knew Casey Affleck was in this until he showed up. He was good in a quick part. RDJ is a lock to win an Oscar, and Cillian Murphy should be too. Emily Blunt is so good. I also thought Bennie Safdie was a standout, as well as Jason Clark, Alden Ehrenreich and David Krumholtz. Honestly we will be here all day if we start praising the cast. It's large and everyone feels perfectly cast.

I need to sit a bit more with the movie to have more thoughts but that's my quick reaction.

That was great.


The detonation, visually, and sonically was just perfect… I knew it was gonna happen, but the silence and light was just plain epic

This was well worth the hype. Really enjoyed it. Theater was enthralled and packed at 2:30 on Friday

Funny to think of seeing Cillian Murphy play Scarecrow in Batman Begins and to see him in this

I thought it was a very heavy movie because of the amount of dialogue and the quality of the dialogue. I feel like I'll be unwrapping this one for some time. The acting and production were top quality typical Nolan. Great film, go see it.

Fantastic movie. I feel like this one is gonna sit with me for quite some time.

I had only a Wikipedia level knowledge of the Manhattan Project, and knew nothing about what happened to Oppenheimer after Hiroshima. Riveting stuff.

RDJ is a lock for his first Oscar, imo. Cilian will likely get a nomination, too. Would love to see him win.

Loved the score. It does a great job of keeping you anxious and in anticipation of the bomb the entire movie.

This was me in the final countdown before the bomb:

Also, my IMAX theater was packed out, and I saw zero cell phones for 3 hours.

No, it's the same scene we saw a couple other times from Strauss' perspective when he invited him to Princeton after the war. That was the bit, that Strauss always thought they were talking about him, but they weren't.

Ok, with the different timelines, I thought that scene occured before Los Alamos for some reason.

My thoughts:

- The first 20-30 minutes were sort of chaotic. Within the first minutes you already have multiple plot lines introduced that take a bit of time to settle in. You're meeting a new physicist or communist or both by the minute. I think the movie actually hits its stride when Damon comes on screen as General Groves and builds steadily to the end. I thought the final reveal of the conversation between Oppenheimer and Einstein was great.

- The focus on Oppenheimer's life very interesting. This was less about the Manhattan Project technical stuff or the war in general. I think Nolan aptly portrayed Oppenheimer as a complex, flawed, and genius figure all at once, and wrapped a great storyline to tell it all. Cillian Murphey nailed the part.

- Emily Blunt was amazing. My wife and I kept trading looks when all the Oppenheimer kids were screaming in the background - it was too relatable. I think she very powerfully conveyed the hurt that infidelity causes a spouse, which just doesn't seem like something you see in a lot of contemporary medial.

- Josh Hartnett?! I didn't recognize him until the end credits. I had to look-up the last movie I watched him in and I'm pretty sure it was Wicker Park. He was great. I loved the part where he kicked the hippie commies out of his lab.

- I didn't care for the portrayal of Harry Truman. They made him out to be a buffoon. Probably the only character - major or minor - I thought it got wrong.

- There are too many other great major and minor parts to mention. Teller, Einstein, etc, etc.

- I was curious if they would touch on Julius and Ethel Rosenburg. They danced around all of the security breaches somehow without mentioning them once. I wonder if that's still a touchy subject in Hollywood.

- The Trinity test scene was stunning. I believe it was said in the pre-release thread that all the visuals were retouched film from the actual test and not CGI. Just amazing. I thought dropping all the sound for roughly 30-45 seconds was an accurate depiction of what they would have experienced at the test site.

- I was curious if they would depict the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Given the film is through Oppenheimer's perspective, it makes sense that they didn't. They left a lot of that to the imagination. In general, I thought it took a very balanced view on the ethics of dropping the bomb.

- It definitely leaves you with a sense of the awesome power of nuclear weapons. I'm darkly fascinated by nuclear weapons and tactics, and one line of dialog (approximately) summarizes my central belief is "what gets invented will get used." It's a matter of time before nuclear weapons are used again and I think it is a good reminder of how terrible that day will be and why we should work really hard to keep it from happening.

cr0wbar said:

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Very immersive. Paces incredibly well for a 3 hour runtime. Loved the score, it absolutely helped move the movie along. Gonna stew on it overnight. Needs a rewatch with subtitles for me, personally.

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This. Immersive is a good word.

We saw it in IMAX and I told my family that I would like to watch it again on a smaller screen, even at home, so I could take it all in a little better and get a little distance from it. It was very loud (old man yelling at clouds) so I'd prefer subtitles to catch the intricacies of the dialogue.

bobinator said:

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This is, I think, done on purpose to show that Oppenheimer himself isn't sure. This is maybe giving too much credit, but I think that's the feeling the movie wants to give. It was probably a suicide... but maybe it wasn't...

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That or its his own hand in the glove, and he is blaming himself in the moment too

Who would've ever expected this guy to be the one to detonate the first atomic bomb.

Saw it in cinemark XD and was blown away by the sound. Haven't done XD in a long time. Will study up now on the plot and see it next in 70mm IMAX to focus on all the details.

First experience was just pure immersion and intensity but mostly lost on plot and dialog just like some other Nolan movies. I'm bad with recognizing people and all the characters looked alike to me. My teenage sons were freaking out a couple times like hey that's Rodrick from diary of a wimpy kid and hey that's Huey from the boys. We have seen all of the Nolan movies together and this was their favorite experience. Surreal hanging out in the empty parking lot at 2:30am with them talking about it as they were really affected by it.

The nudity was hyped up and I was expecting something weird like 12 ft Cillian Murphy IMAX dong but it was just sweaty, grinding Florence Pugh. Not bad.

Cliff.Booth said:

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InternetFan02 said:

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12 ft Cillian Murphy IMAX dong

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Thanks for the mental image on that one

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You could have went with "sweaty grinding Florence Pugh." Kind of on you.

Casual Cynic said:

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Cliff.Booth said:

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In the multiple quick shots of Oppy's commie girlfriend dying am I tripping or in one shot was there a gloved hand holding her head under water?

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I thought the same thing, was she murdered or committed suicide?

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She committed suicide by official explanation, but there's always been conspiracy rumors that the FBI killed her.