Oppenheimer Teaser Trailer Explained: Your Biggest Questions Answered

The first Oppenheimer movie trailer follows Christopher Nolan’s track record of only showing a few glimpses at the film. Thanks to his work on the Dark Knight trilogy and original high-concept films like Inception and Tenet, Christopher Nolan has become one of the biggest directors in Hollywood over the last two decades. All of his projects are event films to some degree at this point, including his historically-based stories like Dunkirk. Now, the first Oppenheimer teaser trailer has been released online to provide the best look yet at what Nolan has created.

Running only a minute long, the Oppenheimer movie trailer offers a small glimpse at the 12th film directed by Christopher Nolan. It comes from a new partnership with Universal Pictures after the director left Warner Bros. due to the handling of Tenet‘s release. Although the film is based on the true story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, and the invention of the atomic bomb, Nolan’s involvement ensures that it will be anything but an ordinary biopic or recreation of real-life events. The official description for the movie teases an “epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.” With a massive budget and star-studded cast, the trailer hides much of what could make Oppenheimer a box office hit.

Understandably, some viewers might have a lot of questions after watching the Oppenheimer movie teaser trailer. The black and white footage, strange release methods, and a continuous countdown are just a few of the trailer’s quirks that help set Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film apart from other major Hollywood releases. Here is a breakdown of the Oppenheimer trailer to answer the biggest questions it raises.

Oppenheimer True Story: What Is Christopher Nolan’s Movie About?

Due to the brevity of the Oppenheimer trailer, what Christopher Nolan’s movie is about and the true story it is based on might not be easy to figure out. The film centers around J. Robert Oppenheimer, the real-life theoretical physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II, which resulted in the creation of the atomic bomb. It was this work that gave Oppenheimer the title of the “father of the atomic bomb” in history. The true story events shaping Oppenheimer will focus on this period of J. Robert’s life, while it has also been reported that Nolan is basing it on Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin’s biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. All in all, the Oppenheimer movie’s true story will center on the race to create the atomic bomb and see how these powerful weapons changed war and the world. It is possible the film will go beyond this WWII setting and explore Oppenheimer’s role in averting a nuclear arms race and claims that he was affiliated with the Communist Party.

Why Is Oppenheimer Mostly In Black & White?

One of the most striking parts of the trailer is Oppenheimer‘s black and white footage featured throughout most of it. This is not the first time that Nolan has done a movie mostly in black and white, as his directorial debut Following is entirely shot without color, while Memento used black and white footage to indicate the timeline of the film’s events. It seems Christopher Nolan’s return to black and white filming will be for a similar purpose as Following, as the decision could help transport viewers back to the WWII era. Oppenheimer‘s black and white footage also allows the brief bursts of color through glimpses of explosions and fire to be more effective. There is currently no confirmation that any actual footage from the movie will be featured in color, although Christopher Nolan could copy Steven Spielberg’s war movie Schindler’s List in a way to make the atomic bomb explosions the only source of color in the movie, much like how Spielberg used the little girl’s red coat. Similar to how Schindler was forced to confront the tragic events of the Holocaust upon seeing the girl, Oppenheimer could similarly have an existential crisis about the suffering his creation will cause.

Why Did The Oppenheimer Trailer Release In Such A Weird Way?

The Oppenheimer movie trailer’s release strategy was also quite strange. Christopher Nolan is nothing if not unconventional, but he went to weird extremes here. The acclaimed director got Universal to release the trailer exclusively in theaters at first by attaching it to Jordan Peele’s Nope, which is slightly uncommon nowadays but is not that weird for Nolan. The oddity for Oppenheimer‘s trailer release is the decision to have it announced as a live video on Twitter and YouTube. It means that those who click on the trailer will begin watching the trailer at whatever point the endless loop of footage is at. The result is the potential for people to see the end of the Oppenheimer trailer first or begin in the middle. The reason the Oppenheimer trailer released in this fashion, though, is so it could have a continuous countdown, highlighting the ominous, explosive themes the movie explores.

What The Countdown In Oppenheimer’s Trailer Really Means

The Oppenheimer trailer countdown is quite significant in the grand scheme of Christopher Nolan’s new movie. At first glance, the countdown might seem like a ticking clock to when the film will release in theaters. On the day of the trailer’s release, Oppenheimer‘s countdown began at 11 months, 17 days, and less than 24 hours. However, Christopher Nolan’s movie releases on July 21, 2023. The Oppenheimer trailer countdown does not align with that date, though, as July 16, 2023, would be when the clock runs out. The real meaning of the countdown is connected to Christopher Nolan’s movie’s story and the exploration of the creation of the atomic bomb. J. Robert Oppenheimer held the first test for the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945. It appears Oppenheimer‘s trailer is counting down to the 78th anniversary of that event. That is why the trailer is building to when “the world forever changed.”

Who Speaks In The Oppenheimer Trailer & Who Else Is In The Cast

There is surprisingly little dialogue in the Oppenheimer trailer, and Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer is the only main cast member shown in a few glimpses. Six lines of dialogue play over the footage, though. The first is a woman’s voice saying, “The world is changing, reforming. This is your moment.” The woman speaking here sounds like Emily Blunt, who plays Oppenheimer’s wife Katherine. The next line says, “How could this man, who saw so much, be so blind?” The male voice is difficult to identify, but it could be Gary Oldman’s secret cameo. The trailer continues when someone says, “The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed.” This could be Matt Damon’s Leslie Groves Jr., who was the director of the Manhattan Project. “He gave them the power to destroy themselves” might be a line from Josh Hartnett’s Ernest Lawrence.

The last person to speak in the trailer seems to be Lewis Strauss, Robert Downey Jr.’s Oppenheimer role, as the lines “And made him the most important man who ever lived” and the closing line of “The man who moved the Earth” sound like the former MCU star. Cillian Murphy does not speak in the trailer. Other Oppenheimer cast members missing include Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Modine, Jason Clarke, Dane DeHaan, David Dastmalchian, Casey Affleck, Alex Wolff, Alden Ehrenreich, Benny Safdie, Emma Dumont, and Jack Quaid.

Why Oppenheimer Is Called “The Man Who Moved The Earth”

The final line of Oppenheimer‘s trailer gives J. Robert Oppenheimer the nickname “The Man Who Moved The Earth.” This is not a nickname that Cillian Murphy’s character had in real life, but it is a fitting name for Oppenheimer to be called. As the father of the explosive atomic bomb, Oppenheimer played a pivotal role in World War II and the creation of a weapon capable of leveling cities. The literal and figurative power of the atomic bombs changed the world. The reason why Oppenheimer is called “The Man Who Moved The Earth” is likely a reference to just that, as the explosions from the atomic bomb can create earthquakes and aftershocks. It could also be an indication of how the atomic bomb’s creation moved the Earth into a new era.