Oppenheimer: Christopher Nolan and the greatest challenge – an explosion

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a soft spot for Christopher Nolan’s film projects. In many of his own films, the Briton devotes himself to the concept of time and its perception in a wide variety of ways – a topic that I am very fascinated by. I hope I’m not spoiling things too much when I say that at least in the films Memento, Inception, Interstellar and Tenet our linear conception of time is turned upside down and shaken up.

Although I don’t think Christopher Nolan is the greatest and best director and screenwriter of all time, because anyone who goes looking for a plot hole will quickly find what they are looking for in various films, I still have the greatest respect for him. It starts with the fact that Nolan not only wants to entertain the viewer, but also wants to challenge them intellectually. This goes on with the fact that his interpretation of the “Show, don’t tell” principle, in that he works with sound volumes as well as explanatory passages, is quite idiosyncratic and not universally appreciated. Some people accuse Nolan of trying to explain too much, especially complex concepts. I also occasionally tend to say, especially in view of the long interstellar dialogues, that at some point it will be enough. That’s the Nolan style.

Christopher Nolan’s strengths in one picture: He actively participates in the composition, shoots in the IMAX film format, even if that has never really caught on, and prefers real sets with real effects.

Source: © Universal Studios. All rights reserved.

IMAX, auteur film, practical effects

Most of all, I respect Christopher Nolan for his love of monstrously large IMAX cameras, which are real, heavy Oschis; because he doesn’t like 3D and digital recording techniques. In addition, Nolan is regarded as an author filmmaker who has full control over his films and is actively involved in the script and production design. He’s probably also quite a pedant, who, however, works with such foresight on the implementation of his vision that he can solve problems in the material in the editing room, and not with reshoots – I just assume that with the pedantry.

And then: Nolan only uses digital effects (CGI) to edit the filmed material afterwards, for example to remove wires or cameras or to add CGI to the physical material. As often as possible, however, he and his team spare no expense or effort to implement special effects in a practical way – practical effects, in fact. I think every director who, despite the huge budget, doesn’t rely on digital, but rather on practical special effects and sets, deserves the greatest respect. For example, George Miller, who practically implemented 90 percent of the special effects of Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s easy to see. Here’s an interesting video on why Nolan relies on IMAX cameras.

In my opinion, there are also good reasons for Practical Effects. CGI effects, especially from the ’90s, age poorly. The best example of this is my favorite Jurassic Park. The scenes with the T-Rex at the enclosure, where the car with the kids is pushed into the mud by the dinosaur and then pushed over the cliff, is still captivating and terrifying today. Mainly because parts of the scenes were actually shot with an animatronic model (everyone probably knows the story of the waterlogged Robo-Rex) and the rest took place at night. Darkness is very kind to animations.

The Hunt of Dr. Alan Grant with Lex and Tim across an open space as a herd of Gallimimus rushes past them fleeing the T-Rex, however, hasn’t aged very well. Computer animations in broad daylight with so many moving creatures was quite a challenge in the early 1990s. At that time. Today one or the other viewer flinches a little. That doesn’t make Jurassic Park a bad movie, Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece was one of the absolute pioneers in terms of computer animation. Here is the Before And After featurette:

However, due to the effort that goes into the planning, construction, and execution of actual sets and practical effect, I admire them a lot more these days. Which finally brings me to Oppenheimer…

An atomic bomb explosion as a practical effect

Anyone who knows Inception knows that Nolan had a 30-meter-long corridor built on a frame for the film, which in turn could be rotated around two axes. All this to illustrate how the free flight of Yusuf’s van in dream level 1 directly affects the gravity of Arthur’s dream level 2. The “Centrifuge” that Nolan had built (among other sets) also pays homage to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you don’t know the Inception mobile stage, you can watch this video.

Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer, Nolan and Murphy’s fourth collaboration following the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception and Dunkirk.

Source: © Universal Studios. All rights reserved.



Another example: For the protagonist’s attack on the Freeport in Oslo, a Boeing 747 is destroyed – literally. And in The Dark Knight, the Joker actually blew up a building, which was actually a disused candy factory, not a hospital. CGI is absolutely no stranger to Christopher Nolan, no. But he strives to avoid green screens and is therefore more concerned with building real sets, using real stunts and realizing real effects.

Perhaps Nolan has reached the limits of what is possible at Oppenheimer? Because that’s how Nolan explains it to Total Film magazine (via gamesradar.com): “I think the Trinity test [die erste Kernwaffendetonation in New Mexico] Recreating it without the use of computer graphics was a huge challenge.” The trailer only gives a glimpse of what the explosion might look like, purely as a practical effect.

But what can be seen in the trailer undoubtedly arouses in me that pull that Nolan films somehow always have on me. Well, almost always. I haven’t seen Dunkirk until today ^^ But since the film Oppenheimer, which deals with the life and work as well as the case of J. Robert Oppenheimer, is still awaited until the summer of 2023, I still have a little time to catch up on the war drama. Or to see Tenet for the tenth time. Or Inception for the twentieth time. Or, for the umpteenth time, The Dark Knight. Are you also on board with Oppenheimer?