Christopher Nolan reveals how he brought a nuclear explosion to life without CGI in new Oppenheimer film

Despite directing major studio blockbusters, Christopher Nolan has progressively put visual effects on the back burner in order to make his projects as genuine as possible. Because of the pragmatism shown in the footage, behind-the-scenes snippets from Nolan's Dunkirk and Tenet, among others on the filmmaker's portfolio, have gone viral ten times over in the years after the films were released. That is, when it came to Oppenheimer, Nolan did all he could to recreate the first nuclear explosion ever constructed.

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The film centres on Cillian Murphy's depiction of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the leader of the Manhattan Effort, the government project entrusted with developing the United States' first nuclear weapons. While Nolan did not go out of his way to build an actual nuclear weapon (after all, someone, somewhere would probably have an issue with that), he and his crew were able to recreate the Trinity test, the first-ever nuclear weapons test, without the use of computer-generated imagery, according to a recent interview.

"I believe recreating the Trinity test [the first nuclear bomb explosion in New Mexico] without the assistance of computer graphics was a significant undertaking," Nolan told Total Film in a recent interview. 

"Andrew Jackson - my visual effects supervisor, who I brought on board early on - was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself to recreating Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of the very harsh conditions out there - there were huge practical challenges."

While creating the explosion was difficult in and of itself, Nolan remarked that the fact that the film was a historical biography offered "significant logistical issues."

"It's a narrative of enormous scope and scale," the filmmaker said. 

"And one of the most difficult tasks I've ever undertaken in terms of magnitude and facing the depth of Oppenheimer's tale. There were significant logistical and practical hurdles. But I had an incredible staff that really stepped up. We won't be done for a long time. But, as I see the results come in and work on the film, I'm overjoyed with what my team has accomplished."

Along with Murphy, the cast of Oppenheimer includes Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Gary Oldman, Rami Malek, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Alden Ehrenreich, and many more.