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Raindrops help usher in the opening moments of “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s ambitious, Golden Globe-winning biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the “father of the atomic bomb.” Those simple raindrops give way to high-resolution images of bomb detonations that are both sobering and fascinating.
Narrating the sequence, Nolan said that the idea of opening with the raindrops came to him and his editor, Jennifer Lame, late, “but eventually it became a motif that runs through the entire movie and became very important.”
The scene introduces us to the two timelines into which the film is divided: fission and fusion, two approaches to releasing nuclear energy. The fission sequences are in color, while the fusion segments are filmed in black and white on special IMAX film developed expressly for the film.
The scene, featuring Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, encapsulates the themes of arrogance and regret that will be explored more deeply throughout the film.
Read the review of “Oppenheimer.”
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