The first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer dropped last night, revealing the auteur’s upcoming period epic. Oppenheimer boasts yet another stellar A-list cast as the writer/director now turns his attention to a turning point in world history, focusing on the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the man who risked creating something that could destroy the entire planet in order to save it.

Nolan’s film will explore Oppenheimer’s life and role in Manhattan Project, a government research effort that was created to build and test nuclear weapons that went on from 1942 to 1946. Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory at the time, where the bombs were assembled. He is widely considered to be the key architect of the bomb and a morally and ethically conflicted genius who quoted Hindu scripture while witnessing the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945; “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

This is not Murphy’s first time working with Nolan, of course. He has had important roles in Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, and Dunkirk. However, this is the first time that he’s the star, and he heads up a sensational cast that includes Emily Blunt as his wife, botanist and biologist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer; Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves. Jr., director of the Manhattan Project; Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Commission; Florence Pugh as psychiatrist Jean Tatlock; Benny Safdie as theoretical physicist Edward Teller; Josh Hartnett as pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence; Michael Angarano as Robert Serber; Gary Oldman as Harry S. Truman; and Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh in undisclosed roles.

Nolan adapted his script from Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Check out the first trailer below. Oppenheimer drops into theaters on July 21, 2023.

Here’s the official synopsis for Oppenheimer:

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.

The film stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer. Oscar^® winner Matt Damon portrays General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Downey, Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

Academy Award^®nominee Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie plays theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano plays Robert Serber and Josh Hartnett plays pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence.

Oppenheimer also stars Oscar^® winner Rami Malek and reunites Nolan with eight-time Oscar^® nominated actor, writer and filmmaker Kenneth Branagh.

The cast includes Dane DeHaan (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), Dylan Arnold (Halloween franchise), David Krumholtz (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises).

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Featured image: OPPENHEIMER, written and directed by Christopher Nolan