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.

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

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I’ll admit, I saw Damon in one of the trailers and I was almost embarrassed at how bad his delivery was. I was convinced he would suck, and I’m a Damon fan.

But he was awesome. The way the trailer was edited left him out to dry.

Great movie. 3 hours of dialogue heavy drama and I was riveted the entire time. Also, big ole communist titties for about 5 minutes

Also, the Gary Oldman cameo was amazing

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(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.)

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I think this is definitely part of it...but also, I think a lot of people are going into it expecting 'The Manhattan Project' despite the title being 'Oppenheimer'. If you can let yourself be open to watch a movie about the man, then I think everyone who wanted science will see that the filmmakers used just enough science to show the audience the impact it had on Oppenheimer and the world. I think any more science would have been unnecessary to tell the story they wanted to tell.

Now that I've seen the whole movie, I think I will enjoy the first 1/3 more on the second watch. Second 1/3 was great, solid, captivating middle act. The last 1/3 could have been another 3 hours and had my full attention.

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The last 1/3 could have been another 3 hours and had my full attention.

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the last third felt like 15 minutes and it was easily an hour. It was fantastic

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the last third felt like 15 minutes and it was easily an hour. It was fantastic

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The last 1/3 AFTER the bomb test is one of the best hours I’ve ever seen in film. I was hanging on every word.

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I hope it’s because he had to go the bathroom or something.

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The movie had about a solid amount of time left and I didn’t notice the guy come back in at any point. It was after a particularly tense scene involving an exchange regarding some of the various characters’ communist sympathies and whether it made them loyal Americans or not, I figured, in this polarized time, the guy probably came for the ‘splosion and didn’t want to stick around for the Red Scare stuff.

He might have got caught up in the bathroom. But he missed out on some of the most intense parts of the movie, as various posters in this thread have attested to.

Old school 1970s psychological thriller stuff.

I don't think there is a better actor in the world to show his internal guilt than Cillian. In most scenes he didnt even have to speak. Just the look on his face was enough