Christopher Nolan’s upcoming thriller Oppenheimer has got its first full-length trailer. The explosive teaser leans heavily on the conflict of Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer over his role in creating the world’s first atomic bomb.
"We imagine a future, and our imaginings are horrifiers," Oppenheimer says in a voiceover. "They won’t fear it until they understand it, and they won’t understand it until they’ve used it. Theory will take you only so far, I don’t know if we can be trusted with such a weapon, but we have no choice."
The trailer gives us a glimpse at the epic scale of Nolan’s vision for the movie, with shots of the early stages of the bomb’s creation, as well as its explosive trials. The director told Total Film in our latest issue, which features Oppenheimer on the cover, that he recreated the first nuclear weapon detonation known as the Trinity test without CGI.
"It’s a story of immense scope and scale," explained Nolan. "And one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever taken on in terms of the scale of it, and in terms of encountering the breadth of Oppenheimer’s story. There were big, logistical challenges, big practical challenges.”
The trailer mainly focuses on Murphy’s Oppenheimer, meaning that most of the all-star cast is missing in the first look. Jack Quaid and Josh Peck appear, but Kenneth Branagh, Emily Blunt, Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, and Matt Damon are all absent. Although, you can see them in these exclusive images from our latest issue.
There’s no Robert Downey Jr. in the trailer either, but Nolan has been waxing lyrical about his performance in the movie. "We all know that Robert Downey Jr. is one of the great movie stars," Nolan added to Total Film. "It’s so easy to forget that he’s also one of the greatest actors of all time."
Oppenheimer lands in theaters on July 23, 2023. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is released on the same day, and also recently dropped its first trailer. For the lowdown on both of these, as well as all of the other upcoming movies, check out our guide to 2023 movie release dates.
