re: Oppenheimer | Official Reaction Thread | Spoilers

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Yeah it seemed like they made the bomb really fast. I kept waiting for that “breakthrough” moment where they have an epiphany and figure out how to make it work but it kinda went from the drawing board straight to “ok it’s ready to test”

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Actually, they did depict the "breakthroughs". There's the scene where Alvarez runs to Oppenheimer to share the news that the Germans have split the Uranium atom (Oppenheimer is even depicted as having a "Eureka" moment in understanding that this can be used to create a bomb), and later, at Chicago, Fermi has created the first controlled nuclear reaction.

There was not one single "epiphany" that resulted in the atomic bomb. It was the result of almost 45 years of work dating back all the way to the Curies discovering radiation and Einstein's mass-energy equivalence.

The Manhattan Project was more of an engineering project than a physics project. By 1942, the theory of splitting the atom to produce energy was on solid foundation. The success of the MP was the engineering skills to a) refine and produce nuclear fuel, and b) the best/most efficient design for assembling a critical mass.

A) Is not depicted, because they never go to Tennessee. But B) is discussed in some detail in the movie. (I imagine they had to be very careful not to bore the audience with the technical details of why the gun-type and implosion-type assemblies worked.)

I don't think I'm spoiling anything with these details. Alvarez's meeting with Oppenheimer, Fermi's work, and the gun-type/implosion-type designs are standard things most people who are familiar with the MP would already know, and some of this is depicted in the trailers.

In fact, if there was one complaint, the movie's script does somewhat feel like a regurgitated Wikipedia entry.

Where the movie marvels is in the cinematography, sound design, and performances of Murphy, RDJ, and Damon.