Oppenheimer trailer: A tormented Cilian Murphy fights with himself as he builds an atom bomb in Christopher Nolan’s film

The first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus Oppenheimer has just been released by Universal Pictures. The film is based on the nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer who headed the Manhattan Project, a government research effort that was organised for the creation of nuclear weapons between 1942 and 1946. He was also the director of Los Alamos Laboratory, where the bombs were created.

At the beginning of the trailer, we see a clearly tormented Cilian Murphy, who plays the role of Oppenheimer. He says the words, “We imagine a future and our imaginings horrify us…..” The trailer progresses into him supervising the nuclear weapons, while being under immense strain. He then says the words, “I don’t know if we can be trusted, with such a weapon, but we have no choice.” The trailer ends with his hands shaking as he almost presses the button. It’s a trailer filled with immense tension as a countdown ticks on, inducing further anxiety and communicates the enormity of the invention that has just been created, a bomb that can wipe out an entire country.

Also Read | Christopher Nolan reveals he recreated nuclear weapon explosion without CGI for Oppenheimer

Watch Oppenheimer trailer

Apart from Cilian Murphy, Oppenheimer has a star-studded cast that features Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, Robert Downey Jr., Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz, and Michael Angarano among others. It is based on the biographical novel American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. The book had won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006.

The film will  premiere in theaters on July 21, 2023.