One of the most highly anticipated films this year is Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, who also joins as the screenplay writer. This film is based on the book titled American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. This film stars Cillian Murphy as the titular character along with Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt, Gary Oldman, Gustaf Skarsgård, David Dastmalchian, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, Scott Grimes, Alex Wolff, James D’Arcy, Josh Peck, Dane DeHaan, David Krumholtz, Jack Quaid and other cast members.

In every Nolan film, there are certain elements that make it worthy of watching, which include but are not limited to the cinematography and the background scoring. The former is done by Hoyte Van Hoytema, who served as a cinematographer for Nope, Interstellar, Tenet and other highly acclaimed films. Meanwhile, Ludwig Göransson serves as the music director. He has previously worked for films like the Black Panther series, the Creed series, Turning Red and other highly acclaimed film and television shows.

In order to see the kind of work it took to make this film, here are some facts about it that would baffle anyone who was interested in experiencing the film at least once.

Baffling Revelations Christopher Nolan Made About Oppenheimer

No CGI Explosion

In order to give audiences an authentic and immersive film-watching experience, the director shared how the Trinity test (the first nuclear detonation test) was filmed without the use of any computer graphics. Sharing with Total Film, he explained how he spoke to the visual effects supervisor and countless other crew members to make this possible. While it was one of the most difficult challenges on set, the result made him thrilled to see how audiences felt about it.

Most recently, he had also shared that it was important to make the explosion practical because CGI makes audiences feel safe, but capturing the realism this way will give them a much more immersive experience.

Film Reel Length

While the length of the film itself is incredibly large, a whopping 3 hours and 9 minutes, the director shared with the actor and film enthusiast Reece Feldman that the reel itself was around 11 miles long and weighed about 600 pounds. For the rest of the world, he means that the reel is around 17.7 kilometres. The Film Reel the Tenet director was talking about was the IMAX 70mm film which is the most immersive and high-quality film reel. It has the ability to completely immerse the audience in the story while giving crisp images.

Also Read: Never Have I Ever Season 4 Review: A Rewarding and Cutesy Conclusion to Devi Vishwakumar’s Story

Writing From First Person POV

Once again breaking all the barriers, Nolan decided to write the script in a first-person point of view. He also sat down and explained to Total Film why the movie consistently changes colour going from black and white to colour. The latter is written with a first-hand point of view, making it the character’s subjective perspective, while the black-and-white scenes are for the objective perspective of the camera. The Interstellar director explained that he had never written in the first person before, and it was not just daunting for him but the cast members as well, who were reading it for the first time.

Countdown Clock

Along with revealing the length of the film reel, Nolan also showed Feldman a countdown clock officially detailing the exact moment when the film would be hitting theatres. The countdown was a sly nod to the initial announcement when the clock was counting down from 1 month, 8 days, 3 hours, and 8 minutes. It is incredibly fascinating to see the director of the film just as excited to see the film as audiences are because the countdown only beckons people to come closer and see what all the hype is about.

Nolan’s First R Rating in 20 Years

Variety shared that Oppenheimer will be R Rated, after speaking to Universal Pictures. They were able to confirm that even though Nolan has had some gritty and interesting films in the past few years, this will be the first R-rated feature of his in 20 years since the release of Insomnia in 2002. Considering the themes of this film, it makes sense for the violent aspect that the film is rated in such a way. However, that may not be the only reason. There may be some threatening images lurking, causing this strict a rating.

Oppenheimer will be releasing in theatres on July 21, 2023. What fact were you most surprised to learn about? Let us know in the comments below.

Also Read: The Idol Episode 2 Preview: When Will It Release? What Will Happen to Lily-Rose Depp’s Jocelyn Next?