Thirteen years after Inception, Christopher Nolans Oppenheimer shows the stuff of dreams becoming hard reality.
The realization destroys the dreamer.
What is the most resilient parasite?
Throughout all these efforts though, Nolan has almost exclusively worked within the realm of fiction.
Like Cobb, theyre using the trappings of genre and thrills to insist on their core ideas.
In so many respects, it feels like Nolans entire career has been building toward this realization.
This Oppenheimer is a doomed figure who fits comfortably next to many of Nolans other flawed heroes.
Hes obsessive, seemingly incapable of peace of mind or happiness, and relentlessly serious about his work.
But all of Nolans characters treat whatever flight of fancy theyre pursuing with severity.
Every one of them has revealed a dry but tangibly droll sensibility.
However, his characters are generally intellectual workaholics who work exclusively with other full-time obsessives.
Nolan structures this horrible epiphany along three parallel narratives.
The Father of the Atomic Bomb.
As even Oppenheimers foe shudders, Who could justify their entire life?
This narrative is filmed in a neutral, almost sterile color palette.
of Oppenheimer that becomes the climax of the film.
One of Oppenheimers greatest mentors was a physicist named Niels Bohr.
I think we did, Oppenheimer then tells him in the movies last line.
This is Oppenheimers legacy: the actualization of an idea.
Its a theme which Nolan has been chasing his entire career.
