Physicist Reacts to New Oppenheimer Trailer 

It's a story about Oppenheimer that is meant to entertain. Not be a documentary. Let's all keep that in mind because Nolan has never failed to make an awesome movie.

Oppenheimer wasn't so much the 'face' of the bomb, nor was he the 'one who gave it to us'. He DID organize the scientists in a manner that had not been done before. Without his ability to unify the scientists toward a single goal, it may not have come to fruition.

I think, even from just the trailer, it's pretty apparent this movie isn't going to make it seem like Oppenheimer is solely responsible for the Atomic bomb and that it took a team of scientists. The movie is called Oppenheimer because it focuses on the life of Oppenheimer before and after this world changing event.

The film did a great job of making his role clear. He was the planner, the coordinator, the manager. It's very obvious how much of a team effort it was, and I LOVED all the little nods to absolute titanic figures in the history of science.

I literally can not wait for Oppenheimer to come out. SO PUMPED Edit: As of today on July 24 2023 I have seen Oppenheimer in cineplex and it is the greatest movie ever made so far. Please watch it if you haven't

Actually it was the theoretical work of Enrico Fermi that led to the idea of an atomic bomb being plausible. Also the letter from physicists Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner the Einstein-Szilard letter. They included Einstein thinking his name would get Roosevelt's attention. Oppenheimer was seen as the only scientist all the others would listen to because while he was considered a "maverick," everyone acknowledged he was brilliant. Lastly, I'm pretty sure it wasn't Oppenheimer that went to see Einstein, but Edward Teller.

Someone came out of the theaters and said it felt more like he watched a real life horror film. Also, Matt Damon made a promise to take a break from acting, unless he got a call from Nolan. He got a call from Nolan lol

The movie did well to show that it was not just oppenheimer who made the bomb. This movie is just his in the sense that its about him. Throughout it he was shown to want the other scientists and did not want any of them to leave the project and was asking others for help.

Oppenheimer was the face of the bomb. A great administrator and American, which was important for the US public considering all the science was actually achieved mainly by Germans (as well as a couple hungarians and a certain Italian 😅)

He was the organizer who kept it together. A lot of brilliant people couldn’t run a lemonade stand.

Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer is so insane in a tentatively good way.

Who doesn't love Feynman. What a guy! I have seen most of his old lectures in black & white that are on youtube. It's pretty dense material, despite his amazing pedagogical skills, so I am not sure how much I truly understood about the direction of time, and the Feynman-diagram... XD I don't know enough basics.

Another lesson learnt : If ALL scientists united and were given resources to experiment, then almost all out problems would be solved.

I think Christopher did a good job showing it wasn’t just Oppenheimer, especially the end he shakes the other physicists hands and u can also tell the whole movie he cares about his other ppls thoughts.

It's a biopic, a biography of Oppenheimer. So the story mainly focuses on him and his part in the Manhattan Project and includes stuff to show his grief/shame in the aftermath of the human toll from the bomb. Also, it does show all the other physicists on the Manhattan Project. *You do meet Heisenberg in the film *they filmed at the actual locations where all this occurred. The first sustained nuclear reaction that actually happened was under the stands of a football field, they filmed the scene in the movie about that under those same stands. *the scenes in Oppenheimer's house in the movie were filmed inside Oppenheimer's actual home. The movie is phenomenal.

So that’s why Feynman was in the car with no goggles during the test! Holyyyyy mind blown

Some points: A. With respect to the danger of people leaving this trailer thinking that it was only Oppenheimer who developed the bomb, I hear you. But, many people already see it that way. Furthermore, it is exceedingly difficult to bring the required nuance to a 2-3 minute trailer. Richard Rhodes required almost 1,000 pages in his Pulitzer Prize winning book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" to bring that kind of nuance. At the height of the Manhattan Project, around 130,000 people were employed, many of them in three categories of chemical plants performing the essential task of uranium enrichment through gaseous diffusion, centrifuge, and electromagnetic separation. B. There were two designs developed to achieve critical mass - the gun design (not implosion) using highly enriched-uranium and the spherical implosion design using plutonium [thus, there were two "gadgets" - the gun "gadget" and the implosion "gadget"]. The implosion "gadget" was, by far, the more complicated of the two. "Little Boy" dropped on Hiroshima was the gun-type design and the Trinity test and "Fat Man" were of the implosion-type design. C. The atomic program in Japan was far more advanced than the one in Nazi Germany. Their main problem was the lack of availability of nuclear material. D. Richard Feynman defended his doctoral dissertation at Princeton University in 1942, the title of which was "The Principle of Least Action in Quantum Mechanics." From 1941-1942, he worked on the atomic bomb project at Princeton, and in 1943-1945 the project in Los Alamos. E. The "gadget" shown in the trailer shows the explosive lens used (i.e., explosive arrangement) so that the implosion produces "a converging wave" ["fitting the shock wave to the shape it needed to squeeze"]. F. It is not clear whether the Oppenheimer/Einstein meeting in the movie will be shown to happen before or after Trinity. G. In 1942, Oppenheimer was, indeed, concerned about the atmosphere igniting. Calculations were conducted and verified by Edward Teller, Emil Konopinski, and Hans Bethe. The final position was: "Calculation led to the result that no matter how high the temperature, energy loss would exceed energy production by a reasonable factor. ... The impossibility of igniting the atmosphere was thus assured by science and common sense." Emil Konopinski, Edward Teller, and C. Marvin prepared a report of their calculations entitled "Ignition of the Atmosphere with Nuclear Bombs" [Los Alamos National Laboratory, LA-602, April 1946].

After listening to the Last Podcast on the Left cover the Manhattan Project I am primed for this film! Glad I found your channel too. Great job!

love how what he disliked in the trailer and questions , he will certainly get them answered and love the movie/storyline. plus nolan has actual physicist reading/helping with script

Correction 10:35 The Gadget was a Plutonium based bomb. Not a Uranium based bomb. That's why they had to test Gadget before they deploy the FATMAN on Nagasaki. Because, Uranium bomb and Plutonium Bomb has a different type of working. Uranium based bomb is detonated through neuclear Fussion & Plutonium based bomb is detonated through neuclear Fission. Just had to make that clear😊

id actually love it if you do a reaction or commentary on the movie itself because a lot of things you spoke about here ARE actually in it. it was a great experience!!

I mean I think the movie might cover Oppenheimer and his contribution. He had a huge contribution being the implosion aspect considering he did black hole research or whatever. I think it would cover his research, recruitment and assignment in the first act, the challenges of implosion theory and resources in the second act. Lastly it might cover the fallout, his separation from that and the red scare. But that’s what I expect, I only covered quantum physics in Pchem so I had a rundown on the history of these juggernauts so I’m extremely excited to watch this.

It's always good to find a fellow Feynman fanatic on the internet.

don’t think you mentioned it but that clicking sound we heard during and at the end of the trailer was the sound of a geiger counter, which is the tool used to measure radiation. cool touch

This was the effort of hundreds of people you're absolutely right. And its also not about one country, this was humanity at its last resort. I'm british and we were so fucked by this point, we needed help from everyone. Theres a lot of stars and stripes in this but i want people to know WE DID THIS. As a planet of good people. Love you to you all x

The whole speech sequence after test drop was so good.

Watch the movie..every scientist that worked on it gets some credit

Just booked 2 VIP tickets at the BFI Imax at Waterloo, London. The biggest genuine Imax screen in the UK. SSssoooo looking forward to this. With Dune Part 2 coming later in the year. Anything else that shines is going to be Icing on the cake for Movies in 2023.

Having recently finished Richard Rhodes' "Making of the Atomic Bomb" before this film was announced, it made me so excited to see Nolan's take. I'm also a bit trepidatious about how much importance will be given to oppenheimer's role versus that of all the other hundreds of scientists who worked on the bomb, but I'm optimistic given Nolan's track record. Can't wait!

Great video man!

The Gadget was not a Uranium bomb (although it had a Uranium sheath around the core). The Gadget was a Plutonium bomb, similar to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The core was made of 6.1 kg Plutonium surrounding a Beryllium/Polonium moderator and could not use the 'gun' mechanism of the Little Boy Uranium bomb. As you said, the idea was to compress the Plutonium core into the neutron moderator, creating the cascading flow of neutrons that dissolved around 20% of the core into energy, and Heyo a 20kt explosion with accompanying Alpha, Beta and Gamma radiation.

slight spoiler: the scene of the guy not wearing the googles is in the movie actually :D

If you want a more multi-person approach to building the bomb with maybe too much drama thrown in, the show Manhattan is quite good.

Looks like a great movie - but for accuracy puzzled why the bombs explosive blocks are shown being handled like they don’t weigh much - well known that these were almost the weight of concrete and a chain-hoist and suction cup system was used to assemble them. Same thing where two men are shown “one handing” the insertion of the 105 pound core cylinder which was also actually done with a chain-hoist.

Oppenheimer brought all those scientists and resources together with engineers to produce the bomb. It just took a very short amount of time and no room for error to put all the puzzle pieces together. It's quite an accomplishment

you are right that oppenheimer wasnt the only inventor of the bomb, but the movie is a bout that person's most importent part of life

Having seen the film now, I can say that Nolan makes it perfectly clear that other scientists contributed greatly.

@10:12 "It's really quite simple.." One of the challenges of the implosion is that if you bring together the uranium too quickly then the implosion destroys enough of the fissiable material that only a small portion gets to react (maybe burn down a building or two) and if the implosion is too slow the fissioning starts to push back against the implosion, again, not allowing for enough use of the fissiable material and again a dud so it's really not that simple.

I think they show Feynman in the first trailer and the character’s played by Jack Quaid

2:58 "until somebody builds a bigger bomb..." Spoiler: The guy saying this does. Edward Teller.

I get Scare crow vibes from Batman from Christopher Nolan in this. Also because he was kinda like a scientist in a way with his poisoned toxin shot claws.

How did I miss this live?! This irks me, Dylan.

"We're going to watch it through once then come back and talk about it" Proceeds to pause & talk every 10 seconds

Jack Quaid played Feynman and he looks just like him! Had the bongo’s and everything

Says we are going to watch it one time through then come back and talk about it. then proceeds to pause and talk during it several times lol

The most impressive thing to me is not the theory they used as a starting point, or the end result. It's how they were able to work on the development and process of something this dangerous to make it functional, without hurting or killing themselves in the process. Considering the destructive elements at play - wouldn't a single minor error during the development process have injured or killed the scientists? You can have 100 safety precautions at play - but a single error? Lethal radiation, premature detonation etc. I've no clue about physics or any technical stuff. My opinion on this is admittedly ignorant. However what stands out to me as the big achievement - is that they successfully developed it without destroying themselves attempting it.

Trailer mentions about recruiting scientists. Oppenheimer was responsible for putting the project together which is what the trailer portrays. I think most people know that it took a group of scientists to develop The Bomb.

The "Gadjet" was an implosion device using plutonium. The "Little Boy" used over Japan was a gun-type device using uranium.

From watching "Fat Man & Little Boy". I thought that Oppenheimer's main contribution was bringing everyone together. And getting the military to let them work and talk amongst each other. I haven't seen this one yet.

They show the freaking TEAM that was involved. Sheesh

@dylanjdance jack quaid, dennis quaid and meg ryan's son, is playing feynman according to the imdb credits of this film

There are a lot of inaccuracies in this review. "the gadget" was the bomb detonated at the Trinity Site near Socorro, NM. It had no uranium. It was a plutonium bomb and the plutonium device had to be tested because it relied on shaped charges creating a spherically symmetric implosion that drove the metal super-critical so that the chain reaction could occur. The Trinity test was Fat Man type device just like the one dropped on Nagasaki. Little Boy was a uranium bomb and was dropped on Hiroshima. It didn't need to be tested because we knew it would work. Alvarez remarked that one could make U235 go super-critical by dropping one chunk (of U235) onto another. The plutonium weapon was far more complex.

I eagerly await this Film. If you want to know the whole story sit down and read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes, 1986. It's a hefty read, 886 pages but interesting and entertaining.Once you start you will want to finnish!

I dont think Feinman ever worked in Los Alamos. I think he mentioned working under Wigner to calculate something about the storage of fissile materials, so it sounds like he either worked in Oak Ridge or Hanford. Not a lot of Manhattan project materials talking about these places, although they were more important, than Los Alamos itself.

Seeing as YOU HADN'T SEEN THE MOVE YET...(I saw last night)....There is PLENTY OF EMPHASIS on OTHER PHYSICISTS that are involved...

04:20 luckily that gets covered in the movie

Hes called the father because not only would the bomb straight up not exist if he didn't help and use his abilities to organize people, he is the person who has the most right to that title in a sort of weird press and liabilityway, but yes he didn't do it single handed. Edit: also, don't let this guy trivialize the process, it seems simple by today's standard, but the refining tools and tech didn't exist for uranium, and the process of measuring and using it didn't exist, calculation and advanced tools didn't exist, the tech used in the bomb didn't exist, the Explosive mechanism didn't exist, the reason it was hard was because they had to basically invent all of the stuff, also they had a thought of the atmosphere ignition because they literally didn't have the time or tools to make sure.

Jack Quaid from the Boys is playing Richard Feynman.

One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics.

What's that book about the stories in Los Alamos? Would love to give it a read

Ayee that’s my birthday LETSS GO

I’m excited to see Kenneth Bainbridge (Josh Peck)

3:54 well the movie answers that concern of his.

I cant wait to watch this movie

10:32 the gadget was a plutonium implosion device

I have seen the movie and I can assure to anyone who has not seen it yet, the issue with oppenheimer is getting potrayed as he did everything is not the case in the movie, in the movie it shows how many people were a part.

which version of the VPN works best for Samsung?

I don’t know much about Heisenberg, was he really on Einsteins level?? That’s insane if so I’ve never heard of him.

Feels like nolan is contributing to the new scientist cinematic universe (SCU) Einstein, feyman, and the new Fincher movie in the works is rumored to be about Jung

I’m here after this came out and I’ll tell you the movie makes sure you know it wasn’t only Him to do this. Obviously he’s the lead but many people work on it

the guy said he would not talk at first

7:02 Glad you give respect to Heisenberg as much as Einstein.. Indeed wonders of Science is not just product of one Genius Mind.. But mixture of Different mind.. ❤❤❤

Well said, happy to hear people state it's not Oppenheimer who single handed created the A-Bomb.

He was the project manager.... he was the only one.

This dude looks like Kilmer from Batman Forever. I dig it

Actually... Oppenheimer said the fear of destroying the world kept him up at night for months... It was a real concern to him...

There seems to be a bit of disagreement regarding the term "gadget". In 1943 when Robert Serber was tasked with briefing newly arrived scientists on the specifics of the research he used the word "bomb" in the group presentations. Problem is, one day there were some uncleared workers finishing up the room next door and Oppenheimer sent John Manley up to Serber to tell him not to use that word but use "gadget" instead, and that was the term everyone used after that, for either type of device. Also, the gun type assembly of Little Boy was considered so reliable that it was not tested before being used in combat. When I worked at Los Alamos there was a bookstore (NOT associated with the lab) that had t-shirts for sale with a drawing of Little Boy and the caption , "built in the USA, tested in Japan". Perhaps the ultimate in bad-taste t-shirts.

Einstein wrote Roosevelt a letter warning him other countries were working on a bomb with uranium and the destruction it can ultimately cause. Which got the Manhattan project started immediately.

Please do a Three Body Problem tv show review.

Even Oppenheimer said Los Alamos was less a physics problem than a complex engineering problem. In terms of theoretical physics.

the result is more than 50 years of recherch in physics

My favorite physicist is either Roger Penrose or Juan Maldacena.

You feel the need to pause the 2 and a half minute trailer multiple times just to say how awesome it is like you didn't know it was gonna be awesome... i think you just like most people nowadays just like the sound of your own voice

I got a Teller, Feinman, Fermi, and Einstein cameo Also how about the University of Chicago bleacher cameo???

Little correction: the Gadget was an implosion type bomb made with plutonium, not uranium. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was made with uranium (gun design) and wasn't even tested before being dropped because the concept of the gun design was so simple that the scientist just assumed it would work. The only issue with uranium was that it was way harder to produce sufficient amounts of than plutonium (Pu239) which could be made out of U238 in a breeder reactor. How to produce an atomic bomb was actually quite well known in the scientific community, even at that time; the main problem was to produce enough highly fissile material efficiently. That's basically the most expensive part of producing nuclear fuel to this day.

They were making the point the entire trailer of recruiting the best. What are you irked about? You also can’t tell everyone’s story.

When you watch the movie you'll realize that the "one man" idea isn't really a thing. Yes Oppenheimer is the focal character, but at least to my perception it was pretty obvious that he couldn't do it alone.

Can you explain the sparkly and wobbling visuals after you see the movie? I didn't understand what that represented really but I loved them all the same

tbf in the movie they don't make it out to be the case that he single handedly did it at all. Thats the whole point of the first half of the movie

If only this movie focused more on the Manhattan project and the effects of the bombs and less on boring Senate hearings and some security clearance trial.

You don't have to be situated in Los Alamos to assist the Manhattan Project. I'm wondering how much Einstein contributed to the bomb making, outside his original e=mc^2 equation.

Yes we all know the difference between orchestrating and developing. We’ve watched Steve Jobs.

Just looked up that Tom Conti is playing Einstein. He’s completely unrecognisable. Wow.

Einstein had an extra frontal lobe fold. He was extra wrinkled.

You mean plutonium-implosion device. Uranium bomb was a trigger bomb

No cgi

The Gadget was a plutonium bomb, not a uranium bomb. The uranium bomb was never tested before it was dropped on Nagasaki.

I understand that it was a collection in the group called the Manhattan project, but unless you're seeing a documentary, not a loosely based drama, people just want entertainment, not fact unless it's a true documentary.

Einesteines insane conclusion that every part of the universe is moving forwards and backwards in time relative to movements in other parts of the universe is quite frankly ridiculous.

Not gonna lie, blindly going into this movie made it a better experience.