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Image via Oppenheimer Movie

The long-awaited release of Oppenheimer has people flocking to the movie theatre, something which doesn’t seem to have happened in a decade. But it is a Christopher Nolan film, which means that people expected something brilliant, and we got nothing less. The cast is out of this world, from Cillian Murphy’s spectacular performance as the titular character to Rami Malek, who only appeared for a total of about five minutes with a few brief lines. Oppenheimer was definitely a game-changer in the world of modern cinema. However, in true Nolan fashion, it is just as confusing as it is brilliant. So to save you the agony of coming out of the theatre feeling the need to watch countless explanation videos on YouTube, here are some things you need to know before watching the film.

First, Nolan loves juggling between time periods, and Oppenheimer is no exception, juggling between J. Robert Oppenheimer’s legal proceedings and hearings and flashbacks. So be very careful and pay close attention to what is happening so as not to mix time periods. Also, it’s a very dialogue-heavy film. Contrary to Nolan’s other films, Oppenheimer has no action whatsoever and relies on words to get the story across. So, make sure to go in caffeinated because the film is three-hours worth of beautifully written dialogue, but if you lose focus for so much as an instant, you’ll miss some very valuable information.

Image via IMDb

One of the crucial aspects of the film that you need to know is how colours function. There are scenes in colour and others in black and white, and this decision on Nolan’s part was far from arbitrary. As a biopic, the film discusses the life of Oppenheimer from his own perspective. However, while Nolan depicts Oppenheimer’s subjective point of view throughout the film, it’s important to keep in mind that the parts in black and white instead show the more “objective” and “factual” aspects of the story, particularly his security hearing and trial.

You cannot go into this film without at least some basic historical background. Oppenheimer had an extremely tense relationship with U.S. politics. While he never claimed to be a communist, he seemed to have left-leaning tendencies, on top of having very close personal relationships with devoted communists, which led to suspicions as to his national loyalty. His security hearing and trial play an enormous role in the film, and the ridiculousness of the “Red Scare” when it came to questioning Oppenheimer’s loyalty is never downplayed.

Image via IMDb

One of the main plot points that may leave the audience wondering is the “Chevalier incident”. Haakon Chevalier was a known communist and a friend of Oppenheimer’s, having taught at Berkley together. This “incident” had to do with the fact that during his security hearing, Oppenheimer had not disclosed the fact that Chevalier had once told him that he had means of delivering technical information to the Soviet Union. Even though Oppenheimer had refused to get involved with the Soviets, omitting this information, as well as his desire to keep his friend’s identity a secret, led to questions about his loyalties. This particular incident is vital to understanding Major Gen. Kenneth Nichols’, played by Dane DeHaan, hostility towards the scientist and consistently painting him as untrustworthy.

All in all, it’s vital to have some historical background when coming into the theatre, whether that be on U.S. politics at the time or information on the story of the father of the atomic bomb himself. While some of us might prefer to go into the film completely blind, that is a bad idea for this film in particular. Going in with just enough information to keep you hooked will allow you to make the most of the film and hopefully make you enjoy it as much as we did.