Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer drops intense teaser trailer

The first teaser trailer for Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s film about the “father of the atomic bomb,” has just dropped online.

Nolan is an advocate of the theatrical experience. Back in 2019, the first trailer for Tenet was exclusively shown in cinemas before it was released online, and a prologue was only available to watch in IMAX screenings of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

It’s his belief in cinema that has led to Oppenheimer’s momentous production. For the first time since 2002’s Insomnia, Nolan has flown the nest of Warner Bros. and set up shop with Universal Pictures.

Oppenheimer, the director’s 12th film, has been generating excitement ever since its first casting announcement. Now, we can all watch the first teaser trailer.

First trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has just dropped

The first teaser trailer for Oppenheimer dropped on YouTube today, July 28, following a live broadcast with thousands of viewers.

It opens with Emily Blunt’s Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer saying: “The world is changing, reforming. This is your moment.”

A timer then appears on the screen, starting at 11 months, 24 days, 15 hours, 29 minutes, counting down to the day that “the world forever changes.”

It’s a short teaser, comprised of black-and-white footage intercut with swirling flames and smoke. “You gave them the power to destroy themselves,” one character says.

Robert Downey Jr.’s Lewis Strauss describes him as perhaps “the most important man who ever lived… the man who moved the Earth.”

Oppenheimer plot and cast

The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project. The film is based on his autobiography American Prometheus, and will follow his contributions that led to him being known as the “father of the atom bomb.”

The book’s synopsis reads: “J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.”

As well as Blunt and Downey, the A-list cast also features Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Josh Peck, Rami Malek, Jack Quaid, Alden Ehrenreich, Gary Oldman, Olivia Thirlby, and more.

Oppenheimer will hit cinemas on July 21, 2023.