If you went to check out Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 last weekend, you probably got an early look at this new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which is honestly a pretty good pairing: You start your time in the theater with a bummer, and you end your time in the theater with a bummer. In all seriousness, we’re absolutely pumped for this odd duck drama that’s been plopped straight into the middle of summer movie season simply because of the director’s pedigree. Will audiences respond? More importantly, does that matter? Short answer: no, it doesn’t. Anyhow, Warner Bros. put the new trailer up on YouTube for everyone to check out earlier on Monday, and you should most definitely check it out.
Take a look:
In lieu of posting Universal’s official synopsis (which is at best a sentence long), here’s an abbreviated summary from American Prometheus, the award-willing biography by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin that Nolan based his film on:
“[‘American Prometheus’ is about] J. Robert Oppenheimer, “father of the atomic bomb,” the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Immediately after Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation-one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific progress.
He was the author of a radical proposal to place international controls over atomic materials-an idea that is still relevant today. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb and criticized the Air Force’s plans to fight an infinitely dangerous nuclear war. In the now almost-forgotten hysteria of the early 1950s, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup, and, in response, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, Superbomb advocate Edward Teller and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover worked behind the scenes to have a hearing board find that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America’s nuclear secrets.”
Oppenheimer arrives in theaters on July 21, which is, coincidentally, the same day that Barbie‘s going to hit theaters. Following Nolan’s spat with Warner Bros. in the aftermath of Tenet, we’re going to believe that’s not an error.