Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' Trailer Released

The official trailer for Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated film Oppenheimer dropped on Sunday night. The biopic has already become a bit of an urban legend among movie buffs, though it is still over six months away from premiering. The trailer makes it clear that the spectacle will be worth it.

Oppenheimer is the twelfth feature-length film from acclaimed director Nolan, and it may be his biggest visual spectacle yet. The movie is about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer who is credited with the creation of the atomic bomb. Accordingly, the trailer is full of explosions, flames and blinding lights. All the while, Cillian Murphy plays Oppenheimer as a wide-eyed fanatic.

In addition to Murphy, the movie stars Emily Blunt as Katherine Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, Matt Damon as Leslie Groves, Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie as Edward Teller, Michael Angarano as Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence. Other cast members are Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Dane DeHaan, Matthew Modine, Jack Quaid, Josh Peck, Alex Wolff, Scott Grimes, Gustaf Skarsgård, Gary Oldman and Casey Affleck.

This trailer comes a bit early since Oppenheimer is not slated for release until July 21, 2023. However, it is a bit timely as it follows a report by Total Film about the practical effects used in making this movie. Nolan told the outlet that he and the production team essentially recreated the infamous Trinity test and filmed it rather than relying on CGI for the scene. Nolan called it "a huge challenge to take on."

"Andrew Jackson – my visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on – was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of the very harsh conditions out there – there were huge practical challenges," the director said.

Oppenheimer is based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird. It is about Oppenheimer's time as the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory and the Manhattan Project, which ultimately led to the creation of the atomic bombs that were used against Japan in World War II. The movie will premiere in theaters everywhere on July 21, 2023.