"Some people leave absolutely devastated": Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan opens up about early reactions to his upcoming film

Filmmaker extraordinaire Christopher Nolan, in a recent interview, opened up about early reactions to his upcoming film Oppenheimer. The biographical thriller is Nolan's twelfth feature film and boasts an ensemble cast that includes Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr.

Speaking to Wired, Christopher Nolan revealed that some of the viewers left "the movie absolutely devastated" and couldn't speak, acknowledging the element of fear in the history behind and the underpinnings of Oppenheimer.

Nolan also emphasized that the film is his strongest work when it comes to "the love of the characters" and "the love of the relationships."

"Some people leave the movie absolutely devastated. They can't speak. I mean, there's an element of fear that's there in the history and there in the underpinnings. But the love of the characters, the love of the relationships, is as strong as I've ever done," Nolan said.

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Christopher Nolan says one of his filmmaker friends called Oppenheimer a horror movie

Christopher Nolan, during the interview, revealed that Oppenheimer would be "an intense experience" and a fellow filmmaker found the film to be "kind of a horror movie." He also touched on the anti-nihilistic message in films of his such as Dunkirk, Interstellar, and the Batman trilogy.

The interviewer, after expressing her nervousness about watching the film, was also told by Christopher Nolan to "wait a long time" before watching the film.

The Memento filmmaker added that he felt a certain color in Oppenheimer that he hadn't noticed in any of his previous works. He remarked that it was "just darkness" and his film "fights against that."

"I think you might have to wait a long time before you do. It is an intense experience, because it's an intense story. I showed it to a filmmaker recently who said it's kind of a horror movie."

The British-American filmmaker continued:

"I don't disagree. It's interesting that you used the word nihilism earlier, because I don't think I'd quite managed to put my finger on it. But as I started to finish the film, I started to feel this color that's not in my other films, just darkness. It's there. The film fights against that."

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Oppenheimer trailer, synopsis, and more

Oppenheimer, which marks Christopher Nolan's return after the mind-bending 2020 film Tenet, is a biographical thriller that revolves around J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who was instrumental in the Manhattan Project, a World War II program that resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons.

The film, apart from Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, and Robert Downey Jr., also stars Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, Kenneth Branagh, Dane DeHaan, Casey Affleck, Gary Oldman, Gustaf Skarsgård, and others.

It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2005 novel American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer is the first Nolan film to be distributed by Universal Pictures, breaking a years-long tie between the director and Warner Bros. It is also the first film by Christopher Nolan to receive an R-rating since the 2002 Al Pacino-Robin Williams starrer Insomnia.

The official logline for Oppenheimer reads:

"Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer is an IMAX®-shot 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."

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Produced by Universal Pictures, Syncopy Inc., and Atlas Entertainment, Oppenheimer is slated to release exclusively in theatres on July 21, 2023.