Spoiler Warning: OppenheimerA genius director, Christopher Nolan has amassed iconic status among cinephiles everywhere. There's always an x-factor to his films that makes them superb beyond anything existing adjectives are sometimes even capable of describing. This is largely why the director's latest offering, Oppenheimer was released worldwide amid so much of anticipation and fanfare. While Barbie will probably have something to say about adding to the spectacle, the film was always destined to experience much of the hype it did anyway.
One of the chief reasons why Nolan's films are always so eagerly anticipated is because his fans know exactly what they're going to get. Aside from unbelievably detailed stories, brilliant dialogues, fantastic effects, and mind-ending plots, his films have also become synonymous with exceptional performances. With previously outstanding roles from the likes of Heath Ledger, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, and Tom Hardy in Nolan's films, Cillian Murphy was certainly due for his time to truly shine in one of them too.
Another Nolan favorite, Murphy has previously played supporting roles in the director's movies but took center stage in this time. With Oscar nods for Best Actor already doing the rounds for his performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer, here's a look at some of Cillian Murphy's best moments as the physicist in the film.
10 Staring Through You
Much has been said about Cillian Murphy's unique ability to focus so intently on something that it feels like he's staring through you. The Irish actor is no stranger to Nolan's films, having shown up as the Scarecrow in all three of The Dark Knight films and playing a memorable role in Dunkirk. While Murphy's made other brilliant films, Nolan always seems to know just how to bring the best out of him and Oppenheimer was the magnum opus of the pair's collaborations. In various moments during the film, we see some quiet shots of Murphy just staring forward.
Related:Oppenheimer: The Dark, Deeper Meaning Explained
While scenes like these may ordinarily seem like filler scenes with no added value to a film, Murphy's scintillating performance and Nolan's unique directing skills even made these moments memorable. Rather than just being panning shots, Murphy's brilliance somehow managed to imbue them with feelings of quiet contemplation that conveyed the character's moral ambiguity. Murphy's compelling stare, his unusual, translucent eyes, and the penetrating expressions he wore during them made these scenes feel purposeful and necessary — even in a film that was longer than three hours.
9 Discussion With Einstein
Robert Oppenheimer, no matter how morally divisive he may be, is still widely regarded as a genius and one of the most brilliant scientists in history. However, since his contributions to the world may one day end it, history never remembers him as often, nor as favorably, as it does Albert Einstein.
Since Einstein's Theory of Relativity made him world-famous, his amazing worldview also left him with a scientifically heroic reputation. Seeing Einstein and Oppenheimer on screen together and the poignancy of their discussion was a sight to behold. While the world may always revere Einstein more than Oppenheimer, one of Cillian Murphy's best moments in the film came courtesy of the wonderful nuance he brought to this scene.
8 Visceral Realism
Cillian Murphy is being hailed for his majestic performance in Oppenheimer. Anyone who followed this highly talented actor's career so far always knew what he was capable of, so the film was the perfect setting to finally bring him the full recognition he's deserved over the years. The film was incredible, but there was also no doubt that Murphy as Oppenheimer was the overarching factor that set it apart most.
Fans of Christopher Nolan films may actually be a little disappointed if they go into it expecting the dynamic action, ear-numbing explosions, or heart-pounding stunt sequences that many of his other films had. Of course, no one could blame you for expecting that since it's essentially a film about the creator of the atomic bomb. However, although billed as a biopic, Murphy and Nolan together created a spectacle that felt so raw and visceral at times that it feels more like a documentary than anything else. That realism was the true spectacle and Murphy's performance made it something to behold. We see it in the moral battle constantly raging in Oppenheimer's mind.
There's more of it in the layered story that saw him both hailed as a hero and thrown under the bus by the government when his accomplishments stopped serving its interests. By the end, the audience is left with the sense of just how flawed and imperfect he was and what an impeccable testament to that fact the film was.
7 Dancing Between the Rain Drops
The opening scene immediately grips you, even though it may not be clear why if you haven't followed Cillian Murphy's interviews about the film. Christopher Nolan is widely known for his ability to take great actors and coax performances that push them to heights even their most ardent fans may not have known they were capable of.
Murphy attributes much of why he was so good in the film to the uniquely detailed direction provided to him by Nolan. The opening scene featuring Oppenheimer staring at rain falling is all the more poignant when you consider what Cillian Murphy revealed about how Christopher Nolan described the kind of person he believed Robert Oppenheimer to be.
Here's a snippet of his interview with BBC Radio where he touched on this point.
Murphy: "There was two Phrases that Chris uses very early on in the movie. One was...I was kind of struggling... it's a very complex moral journey that Oppenheimer goes on, you know, it's wild."
Interviewer: "To say the least."
Murphy: "And he used this phrase to me, he said, "he's dancing between the raindrops" and that kind of unlocked something in my mind about how to play him."
6 Steamy Scene With Florence Pugh
There were other moments where the blurred lines of the character's moral ambiguity were less nuanced and more direct. One of these lay in a first for Nolan films since this one was R-rated and featured sex scenes. Christopher Nolan famously never bothered with these before since he's the kind of director who is so loyal to his craft that he'd never include a scene that doesn't add value to it.
In true style, even the steamy scenes in the film were done artistically and played a very necessary part in driving the story. In this sense, they are very intimately portrayed as other examples of Oppenheimer's jaded morality since he was quite a philanderer, even after he was married. His main love interest in the film, aside from his wife, who was brilliantly played by Emily Blunt, was one of long-time lover, Jean Tatlock, who was played by Florence Pugh.
Their intimate scene together, aside from being pretty racy, had a brilliant segue into Jean reading a line from the Bhagavad Gita that would go on to become one of Oppenheimer's most famous quotes.
5 Glimpses of a Teacher
One of the best angles of the film was how perfectly it utilized temporal switches as it moved between past and present to personify cause and effect. Some of these provided us with some unique insights into angles of Oppenheimer's life before he became known as "the father of the atomic bomb." Before any of that happened, he was once a simple scholar with roots in institutions like Berkeley.
These scenes and the way Murphy handled them humanized the character very effectively. This was important too since the film was one where, like in the hearing he was eventually subjected to, audiences were also invited to judge him. While his legacy became one of a "destroyer," he was once also an academic and a teacher. Significantly for the man himself, that part of his life was also how he met Jean Tatlock, who would arguably become the most important woman in his life aside from his wife.
4 Conversation about Ending the World
Oppenheimer and Cillian Murphy's performance will undoubtedly be spoken of synonymously now since the actor has already been tipped for an Oscar nod because of it. However, his was by no means the only great performance in the film. Christopher Nolan's unique ability to coax exceptional acting out of his stars is now legendary. Oppenheimer was no exception since it also saw brilliant roles from the likes of Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, and of course the amazing Robert Downey Jr.
In one scene that embodied just how horrifying the film's themes and moral questions are, Matt Damon's character, General Groves, and Oppenheimer have a frank discussion about the bomb. Groves wants to know what the chances are that its detonation will destroy the world. Oppenheimer's response is that it's "near zero." Groves is of course flabbergasted since what's at stake is human existence itself. Murphy's demeanor and inflection during this scene were perfection. It conveyed just how tortured he was in a way, showcasing how he was simultaneously almost both blasé about what could happen, despite knowing the risks all too well.
3 Hands on Hips
One of Cillian Murphy's outstanding achievements with the role was just how deeply he was able to immerse himself into the very personhood of Oppenheimer. While the actor was frank in admitting that he previously only had Wikipedia-level knowledge of the real Robert Oppenheimer's life, his professionalism in later preparing for the role was meticulous, or at least must have been given how detailed it was.
It wasn't just the fact that he looked so hauntingly like Oppenheimer at various stages of his life, and even aged his voice as the character got older, but the way he was able to adjust everything from his tone, accent, demeanor, body language, and other minute details of himself to embody the character more realistically.
One of the best ways he did this throughout the film were moments when he perfectly captured Oppenheimer through details like his gait and stance. Since he was well known for often standing with one or both his hands on his hips, Murphy brilliantly used this idiosyncrasy in a manner that often made it feel like you were staring at the man himself resurrected from history.
2 Speech After the Trinity Test
In one of the most disturbing but significant moments in human history, Robert Oppenheimer successfully proved his theories on the atomic bomb at the now infamous Trinity Test. The aftermath set the scene for an astoundingly nuanced moment where he had to give a speech, effectively meant to be a victory lap for his achievement.
Related: Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer Ending, Explained
While his handlers and peers then saw him as a hero and someone to be celebrated since he had beaten the Germans in the race to develop such a weapon, the test also proved an eye-opening moment for him. For the first time, he saw in full detail just how destructive and terrifying his creation was. In a scene dripping with an unbelievably good acting range, Oppenheimer delivers the speech where he speaks in glowing terms about the success of the test, while actually being inwardly tortured by his own dread now that he's seen first-hand what he's brought into the world.
1 The Destroyer
In the midst of Oppenheimer's moral battle in his mind, his life follows a different kind of morality struggle through his marriage. The tender scenes between husband and wife were constructed beautifully in contrast to just how tumultuous a marriage it was at times too. His marriage to "Kitty" Oppenheimer was marred by constant betrayal and infidelity but, in the end, despite all her pain, she sticks by his side and defends him.
This aspect of his life acted as an ingenious allegory for the larger moral debate at play. He constantly betrayed his wife while she proved to have unbelievable loyalty to him. In reality, his invention saved the world but brought indescribable destruction and a threat to it too, one we all still face today. However, it also ended the war and kept the world from perhaps experiencing that same fate decades earlier if another more hostile nation had created it before him.
The very thing that was his greatest achievement also became why he famously referred to himself as "the destroyer." Only time will tell if he actually doomed us all, or gave the world as we know it the chance to live on for decades more than it might have if he didn't. Murphy's exceptional performance often captures this duality, another reason why it's been so acclaimed.
