Suspense in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer

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It’s Valentine’s Day and there’s nothing more romantic than sitting down and watching a three hour film about the race to create the atomic bomb with your significant other. Mikaela seemingly disagreed with that statement, as when I went to finally watch last year’s Oppenheimer and asked if she would be interested in watching it with me, she declined the invitation. To my great surprise, Milo Ventimigalia of Gilmore Girls fame playing a race car driver alongside his Kevin Costner-voiced golden retriever is much more her speed, so we watched The Art of Racing in the Rain instead.

Which left me to watch the biopic about the man dubbed “the father of the atomic bomb” by myself, but I’m glad I did. While I would not recommend it to anyone, as it is significantly lengthy and much of that runtime being dedicated to people just talking to each other may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I very much enjoyed the journey it took me on.

An examination of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life and work in quantum physics through the lens of a federal investigation into his potential association with the Soviet Union, Oppenheimer is full of scientific and political intrigue, giving the audience a glimpse into the tensions before, during, and after World War II. Director Christopher Nolan is doing some of his best work here, as, despite the runtime and lack of physical action, I was very much engaged in Dr. Oppenheimer and his team’s race to create an atomic weapon before Germany, as well as the drama that would unfold in that race’s aftermath.

I could spend a good amount of time talking about various aspects of the film, but I will focus on one scene that stuck out to me.

Alfred Hitchcock, who is often considered a master of suspense and tension in his movies, once said that suspense is created when the audience knows more than the characters. He then used an example to illustrate his point, that example being the situation of two people talking at a table, with an unknown bomb strapped underneath said table about to go off. Now, if the audience also does not know about the bomb, then they are surprised when it goes off suddenly, but the scene lacked any tension due to their lack of knowledge. However, if the audience knows the bomb is there, all of a sudden, the entire mood of the scene is changed, as the danger is clear and present to the audience, but with the characters being completely oblivious to that danger, suspense is created.

Which brings us to the final test scene in Oppenheimer. Much like the titular character’s work, the movie has been building towards this scene where the capabilities of the bomb are finally put to the test. It is a scene filled with tension and suspense, one that made me sit up from my lounging position after two-and-a-half hours as I watched it unfold.

The interesting thing here though, is that, as the audience, I actually know too much. Hitchcock’s theory of suspense is pushed past it bounds, as our knowledge of the future (the fact that we know this test is going to be successful) is so great that in fact should suck any tension from the scene.

But it still works, and that’s because Nolan creates a different sort of suspense. Through acting, cinematography, editing and sound design, the film is able to recreate the tension felt by each and every person present in the hours leading up to the final test. Words and cuts are terse and grow shorter as the scene progresses and a growing orchestra of frantic string instruments gets louder and louder as the seconds on the countdown inch ever closer to the moment. Instead of creating an artificial suspension through audience knowledge, Nolan attempts to impart the stress felt by the characters through every means available to him, and manages to succeed.

And this tension works twofold, because Oppenheimer also holds some of the same knowledge that we as an audience do in this moment and his poignant “victory speech” scene after the bombs are used later hammers home this point. He knows that if this test is successful, what it will mean. At this point, it has been established that the war has largely been won and using the weapon he has created will be an act of horrifyingly deadly calculus, a hope that utilizing it will save more lives in the long run than it will take in the moment. Even if he “succeeds,” what does that success mean for hundreds of thousands of other human beings affected by it directly, or the billions that will be affected indirectly by now living in a world with atomic weapons? He knows the answer, as we do, so the question instead becomes how will he continue to live with that knowledge.

There are so many things that the movie does well, and if you are a fan of biopics, history, or dramas, I would highly recommend giving it a watch.

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