Now it’s clear that the peak of Oppenheimer will be the Trinity nuclear scene. All of the film’s energy is concentrated on that scene. Admittedly, in a series of interviews, director Christopher Nolan stated that the Trinity test in the movie is based on practical effects. Moreover, Nolan said that there’re zero CGI shots. Can it be?

Trying to photograph real-world things to give the first detonation of the atomic bomb is one of the most hypnotic, terrifying, and beautiful things and equal measurements. We really needed to find a way in this film to represent that in a way that the audience could feel some of that extraordinary sense of witnessing – that first unleashing of the power.

Christopher Nolan

Nolan tries to avoid CGI and VFX

We know Nolan. He’s not a fan of VFX and CGI layers. He’s not a fan of digital imagery either. He wants to shoot on large format film cameras (IMAX preferred), and with a practical approach. He’s old-school (and this is a compliment). It appears that in every movie, Nolan tried to reduce the amount of VFX. For instance, the Dark Knight (2008) featured 650 VFX shots, The Dark Knight Rises (2012) had 450, Inception (2010) around 500, and Dunkirk (2017) contained only 429 visual effects shots. However, Tenet had only 280 VFX shots, less than most romantic comedies. We all remember the scene of a real 747 airplane that was purchased just to be crashed into a hangar. No visual effects or CGI were involved in that scene.

Oppenheimer: Zero (0) CGI shots

In a set of interviews, Nolan emphasizes that practical approach to the forthcoming Oppenheimer, by saying that the film contains “Zero” CGI shots. In fact, Nolan stated that the first person he showed the script to when it was finished, was Andrew Jackson, the visual effects supervisor, so he can plan the minimization of VFX and CGI layers, in order to make it more practical. “We have to find a way into this guy’s [Oppenheimer] head. We’ve gotta see the world the way he sees it, we’ve gotta see the atoms moving, we’ve gotta see the way he’s imagining waves of energy, the quantum world. And then we have to see how that translates into the Trinity test. And we have to feel the danger, feel the threat of all this somehow. Let’s do all these things, but without any computer graphics” Nolan said to Jackson.

The peak of the movie: Trinity Test

Nolan keeps mentioning the most powerful part of the film, which is the Trinity Test. That scene has caused tremendous interest and there are even AI-generated BTS of that scene (via Midjourney), which went viral. Anyway, in reality, Oppenheimer was among those who observed the Trinity test on July 16, 1945, in which the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated. He later remarked that the explosion brought to his mind words from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita: “Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds”. That would be the major sentence in the movie (our guess). Hence, Nolan continues and explains what differentiates Oppenheimer from others: “I mean, I’ve done a lot of explosions in a lot of films. But there is something very unique and particular about being out in a desert in the middle of the night with a big cast, and really just doing some enormous explosions and capturing that. You couldn’t help but come back to this moment when they were doing this on the ultimate scale, that in the back of their minds, they knew there was this possibility that they would set fire to the atmosphere. It was pretty amazing to engage in that kind of tension”. Also, he adds: “Trying to photograph real-world things to give the first detonation of the atomic bomb is one of the most hypnotic, terrifying, and beautiful things and equal measurements. We really needed to find a way in this film to represent that in a way that the audience could feel some of that extraordinary sense of witnessing – that first unleashing of the power”.  Watch the interview below:

Final thoughts

Besides an ultra-super-huge explosion, Oppenheimer seems to be more of a drama. Rumors indicate that it contains nudity and even IMAX fans say that it will be the first sex scene with full nudity shot in IMAX. The dramaturgy is enhanced by the black-and-white filming methodology, focusing on the characters’ faces, with the help of the 15 perforations. Therefore, a very unique experience is waiting for us in 70mm theaters. And if you are not close to any of these venues, here’s a guide on the best options to watch this film. As usual, we can’t wait.