Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer Drops A Hair Trigger Preview Of Upcoming Epic

We're one week out from the moment the world changes. Yes, we're talking about Barbenheimer. 

Both films and the people who have worked on them have leaned into the marketing of releasing a movie about the Barbie doll and the making of the atomic bomb on the same day. "Barbie" has done a great job of raising the hype with pink carpets and a soundtrack featuring some of today's biggest artists. Naturally, "Oppenheimer" is a very different movie, so it's getting people excited by ... really bumming them out. 

A three-hour movie about the ramifications of developing a weapon that could destroy the world would always be existential and reflective, and the five-minute opening look certainly maintains that tone. Universal released the video on YouTube, and it was posted on the official "Oppenheimer" Twitter account. It consists of various tense scenes from the movie where characters discuss the urgency of creating nuclear warfare set to a score that's inevitably going to invite Oscar conversation. Underneath the video is another tweet giving credit to those who made this project possible, "The exclusive five-minute Opening Look, edited by the film's editor Jennifer Lame, reveals new scenes, images and sounds from the IMAX®-shot epic thriller and features the film's breathtaking score by Academy Award® winner Ludwig Göransson."

Early reactions to "Oppenheimer" hail it as perhaps the best film director Christopher Nolan has ever made. From the score to the performances, especially Cillian Murphy's chilling turn as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the film knocks it out of the park, and the opening look gives anyone who may be on the fence about seeing it a chance to see what they're in for. 

While Murphy's Oppenheimer is front and center for most of it, the opening look opens with Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) taking a car to meet with various officials about the atom bomb's development. It's a race against the clock, as Lewis points out how the Russians are also working on a bomb to rival theirs. It's shot beautifully in black and white and underscored with music featuring a slight crackling, like something you might hear coming off a Geiger counter. The rest of the video shows what kind of obstacles Oppenheimer's team was up against, including a potential spy in their ranks. It culminates in a chilling conversation between Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) about how setting off the atomic bomb could result in a chain reaction, destroying the planet.

With this kind of material at three hours in length, "Oppenheimer" promises to be an epic moviegoing experience that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Maybe after seeing this video, people will be more inclined to watch "Oppenheimer" earlier in the day on July 21 so that they can cheer themselves up with "Barbie" later.