look back at five explosive scenes from Nolan’s biopic

Accustomed to complex scenarios, Christopher Nolan also impresses with his aesthetic brilliance. Anxious interrogation, explosion, arrival in the desert… His film on the father of the atomic bomb strings together the strong moments in so many shocking images. Decryption.

De Memento (2000) to Tenet (2020), telling Christopher Nolan’s scenarios is a challenge! On the other hand, his images, astounding, dark or lyrical, imprint our memory for a long time. The biopic – with a disrupted chronology, obviously – of the inventor of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer, is an anthology of inspired visions. The proof in five exciting key moments to decipher.

In the desert

When Oppenheimer decided to create a city for the “Manhattan Project” and install his researchers there, he chose the site of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Nolan films his hero (Cillian Murphy) who arrives on horseback in the desert, Stetson on his head, ready to set off to conquer the atom. Later, we see him in the new town, framed like James Stewart before a duel. “All that’s missing is the saloon,” his wife will say. Nolan summons all the imagery of the genre, borrowing from John Ford and Sergio Leone for his neo-western to the glory of a solitary cowboy. — Anne Dessuant

With Einstein

We remember the spinning top that wobbles at the end ofInception : will fall? Will not fall? As a good Methodist, Nolan knows how to capture the viewer’s attention thanks to gimmicks of which he has the secret. In Oppenheimer, it is the conversation at the edge of the pond between Oppenheimer and Einstein that raises the question: what could they have said to each other to make Einstein leave with a crumpled face? The answer is also found at the very end – after three hours… Clever. — Marion Michel

The interrogation room

“A small, dingy room, far from the spotlight. A simple administrative procedure. His authorization is about to expire. » This is the sad fate reserved for Robert Oppenheimer. Lewis Strauss, chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, harbors deep resentment against the scientist and organizes a closed-door hearing to bring him into disgrace. In this biased interrogation from which he will not emerge victorious, Oppenheimer tells his story chronologically: the common thread of the film which guides the viewer between the overlapping eras, in black and white and in color. — Marion Michel

L’explosion

Pressure mounts around the Trinity nuclear test, carried out on July 16, 1945. A storm breaks out in the dark night, on the Alamogordo firing range, 400 kilometers from Los Alamos. General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) adds up: three years, 2 million dollars and four thousand people were necessary for the project to succeed. “If it doesn’t explode, we’re both finished.” he slips to Robert Oppenheimer. At the same time, an unbearable doubt remains: “the risk that by pressing this button we will destroy the world”…H-20 minutes. Paltry protective glasses are distributed. Some people apply anti-UV cream to their face. Oppenheimer stands ready behind a wooden fence.

At the moment of triggering, the music of Ludwig Göransson, until then omnipresent, stops for around forty seconds. Only the breathing of the participants is heard, stunned by the vision of the mushroom cloud, a ball of fire as spectacular as it is sinister. The successful trial caused joy among the participants. The spectator knows that their applause will soon be stained with ashes and blood. — Caroline Besse

The horror of Hiroshima

The scientist is on the cover of Time, but the guilt begins to eat away at him. The ravages of the atomic bomb, until then distant, are embodied in a haunting scene. At the end of a conference where he is celebrated as a national hero in front of an assembly of wild students, he is suddenly prey to dizziness, to a hallucination which makes him see an explosion, then the irradiated face of a spectator at skin torn off, a shower of ashes, a blackish mass clinging to his feet. A very strong, fleeting sequence, where the director silently evokes the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by transposing it inside the American camp. — Jacques Morice