(While the “destroyer of worlds” quote is more famous, Oppenheimer has said he initially thought of a different Bhagavad Gita quote when he saw the bomb: “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One.”)īut in Oppenheimer, Nolan denies the man any simple elevation to the divine. In this way, it makes sense that the best way Robert has to quantify his team’s accomplishment, in all its awe-inspiring, horrifying glory, is by tripping into the mythological. Even while surveying the varying reactions that scientists and soldiers have to that first test detonation, Nolan keeps the immediate aftermath centered on Oppenheimer, his breath, and the nascent but growing comprehension of what they’ve just marshaled into the world. It’s hefty subject matter, but Nolan keeps the focus relatively tight. Image: Universal PicturesĪs Nolan takes great pains to communicate when portraying the Trinity test, the scientists at Los Alamos surprised even themselves with the destructive power of the bomb. But there’s more to it - and, importantly, more to how these two moments from Oppenheimer inform each other. In a way, this scene (which is, no matter how you slice it, a lot) feels not unlike the “Han Solo” scene in Solo or how Indy got his hat and whip. It’s what the real Oppenheimer said ran through his mind during the first detonation of the atomic bomb, something Oppenheimer depicts in recreating that test. This quote is, of course, important later in the movie. Then she returns to having sex with him as he reads, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” His heart doesn’t seem in it, and she stops, grabs his copy of the Bhagavad Gita off his shelf, straddles him, and asks him to read a Sanskrit passage aloud. The scene scans as a bit hokey, perhaps because of Nolan’s long-standing directorial impulse to present most things as straightforwardly as possible. This time, it’s because of Oppenheimer, the new biopic from Christopher Nolan - specifically, the sex scene between Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) and his real-life partner Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). It’s not because of his work as director of the Manhattan Project, or even his leftist politics and ties to the Communist Party.
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