How was the explosion created in ‘Oppenheimer’?
Cinema has struggled to find its feet following the devastating effects of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, but if there’s one tried and tested method of getting audiences back into the multiplex, it’s epic event movies that demand to be watched on the biggest screen possible. Such became key selling points of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part II and Christopher Nolan’s giant biopic Oppenheimer.
A biopic unlike any other, Nolan’s film tracks the life of the inventor of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, detailing his every involvement in the creation of the weapon of mass destruction while touching perhaps a little too lightly on his moral quandary. Starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Matt Damon, among a mighty ensemble cast, the film carried the essence of a cinematic behemoth.
But, as is the same with every biopic, audiences came to Nolan’s ‘Best Picture’ nominee with their own set of expectations and preconceived ideas and were highly anticipating how the director would handle the scene in which Oppenheimer first lays his eyes on the fruits of his labour, testing the atomic bomb for the very first time.
The scene is, indeed, one of the film’s most memorable moments, practically rocking the walls and blowing the seats of everyone lucky enough to see the film in an auditorium. Yet, the scene also provided more questions than answers, with many viewers asking how Nolan was able to create such a mighty explosion, especially when he claims that no CGI was used in the making of the movie.
Did Christopher Nolan use a real atomic bomb?
Let’s get this out of the way first and foremost. No, Christopher Nolan did not use a real atomic bomb in the making of Oppenheimer. The use of such a weapon by a British filmmaker for sheer cinematic clout would have been entirely bizarre and would have broken millions of different laws and treaties, also putting the lives of the cast, crew and anyone in the surrounding area in perilous danger.
It remains true that nuclear weapons have only been used on two occasions in warfare, with both instances being mentioned in Nolan’s dramatisation. The first was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6th, 1945, immediately taking the lives of 78,000 people, with the second bomb hitting Nagasaki, Japan, three days later, claiming 40,000 victims. Both bombs utterly annihilated the infrastructure of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Despite only two being dropped in the history of warfare, over 2,000 nuclear tests have been conducted across the world. Following the pioneering and controversial efforts of Oppenheimer during the closing stages of the war, now over 12,500 nuclear warheads exist across the globe, with the use of such weapons remaining a constant threat to the safety of life on Earth.
How was the explosion created in Oppenheimer?
Taking many weeks to put together, the explosion sequence Oppenheimer was the product of several different low-scale scientific experiments that were later blown up to achieve the film’s epic proportions. Yet, the exact truth of how it was achieved remains a mystery, with neither Nolan nor cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema explaining precisely how they did it.
Much of what we do know was communicated to Variety by van Hoytema, with the cinematographer admitting: “We created science experiments. We built aquariums with power in it. We dropped silver particles in it. We had moulded metallic balloons which were lit up from the inside. We had things slamming and smashing into one another such as ping-pong balls, or just had objects spinning”.
Continuing, he added: “The Trinity Test was something that came together and was cobbled from the miniatures of that science experiment, under the guidance of Chris [Nolan] and my guidance, that we pushed slowly in certain directions in order to serve specific functions in these sequences,” with it becoming clear, at least, that the effect was achieved using a clever collection of miniature models and experiments.
Did Oppenheimer regret the atomic bomb?
In short, Oppenheimer didn’t regret inventing and constructing the atomic bomb, seeing it as a necessary means to bring WWII to a swift close. You’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise after seeing Nolan’s Oscar-nominated film, with the director constructing the protagonist as having an extremely fragile moral standpoint, often being haunted by the victims of the atomic bomb that was dropped in Japan.
The most telling statement the scientist ever made in regard to his supposed inner turmoil came when he visited Japan in September 1960, more than a decade after the atomic bomb was dropped on the country. At a press conference, Oppenheimer stated: “I do not think coming to Japan changed my sense of anguish about my part in this whole piece of history. Nor has it fully made me regret my responsibility for the technical success of the enterprise. It isn’t that I don’t feel bad. It is that I don’t feel worse tonight than last night”.
Indeed, Oppenheimer stated that his one regret was that “we hadn’t developed the bomb in time to use it against the Germans,” and, in the end, he appeared to be more merely conflicted about his actions during the war. In particular, he was concerned that his creation would complicate the future of international politics if proper legislation and restrictions were not put into place in regard to the use of nuclear weapons.
