Who is Oppenheimer and why is Christopher Nolan, one of the biggest directors in Hollywood, making a movie about him?

Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer
“Oppenheimer,” due to hit theaters on July 21, stars Cillian Murphy in the titular role. Universal Studios Photo

J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Even if that name doesn’t ring a bell, you almost certainly know who he is. Known as the father of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer is one of the most important figures of the 20th century––and now he’s the protagonist of one of the year’s biggest movies from Christopher Nolan, one of the biggest directors working today.

Considering Nolan’s filmography––dark superhero epics like “The Dark Knight,” cerebral, twist-filled blockbusters like “Inception”––it might seem odd that he’s tackling a film about Oppenheimer. But the life, work and legacy of the man are more than deserving of a jump to the big screen, says Gretchen Heefner, an associate professor of history at Northeastern University.

 

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX®-shot epic thriller.

His leadership in the Manhattan Project, the top secret operation to develop the atomic bomb before the Nazis, that culminated in the creation of a world-altering weapon is notable enough. His post-World War II disgust in what he had created and fierce attempt to regulate nuclear weapons even more so. But according to Heefner, he was also just “an interesting character” who seems almost tailor-made for the movies.

“He was this really complicated, interesting figure,” Heefner says. “He flirted with communism for a while. He was known to be volatile, difficult to work with yet apparently a good manager when he was at [the Manhattan Project’s] Los Alamos [lab].”

Based on Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “American Prometheus,” “Oppenheimer,” due to hit theaters on July 21, stars Cillian Murphy in the titular role and, based on trailers, appears to follow his early days, time on the Manhattan Project and the post-war period that destroyed his career.

headshot of Gretchen Heefner
Gretchen Heefner, an associate professor of history at Northeastern University. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Oppenheimer quickly acquired a reputation as a brilliant theoretical physicist who was pretty clumsy in a lab. He was also incredibly driven––sometimes to the point of obsession––and, as a result, prolific. Oppenheimer is mostly known for his contributions to theoretical astronomy, astrophysics, quantum field theory and, of course, nuclear physics

But Oppenheimer was also known as much for his personality as his publications. 

Tall, lanky and constantly smoking a cigarette, Oppenheimer was in many ways a renaissance man. He could learn other languages incredibly fast and was often as knowledgeable and passionate about philosophy and art as he was physics. 

He also was not afraid to show how knowledgeable he was. As a university student, he would dominate class discussions to the point that his classmates threatened to boycott their class, according to Bird and Sherwin. During his university years, Oppenheimer also struggled with depression that manifested in some violent behavior toward some of his closest friends.

Politically, Oppenheimer was a supporter of progressive causes and left-wing politics throughout his life. Although he never formally joined the Communist Party, in the 1930s he was an active supporter, financially and philosophically, of reforms and ideas that aligned with the party. During the Red Scare of the ’40s and ’50s, this would prove his undoing.

With a character like that at the center of his film, the focus of Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” is largely what has come to define the physicist’s legacy––the creation of the first atomic bomb––and his response to that legacy.

Northeastern Global News, in your inbox.

Sign up for NGN’s daily newsletter for news, discovery and analysis from around the world.