Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer Research Unearthed A Detail Historians Missed

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“Oppenheimer” is filled with stand-out moments that might as well have been made for the big screen. Beyond the Trinity test detonation of the atomic device, Nolan delivered other examples of spectacle through, of all things, speeches. While Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, and Downey, Jr. receive their own highlight-reel scenes, Rami Malek delivers an underrated performance as the mousy David Hill. Late in the movie, he dramatically undercuts Strauss during his Senate confirmation hearing by calling out the “personal vindictiveness” he holds against Oppenheimer that motivated many of his duplicitous actions.

According to the book “Unleashing Oppenheimer,” we wouldn’t have enjoyed this moment of comeuppance if it weren’t for Nolan’s attention to detail. Nolan explained:

“When I found David Hill’s testimony, where he just got up in front of a Senate committee in front of the whole nation and told the truth about who Lewis Strauss was, that’s an extraordinary moment. His testimony was devastating because he literally talked about Strauss’s vengeful nature. These things don’t happen in real life, usually. It is the stuff of artifice.”

As a result of stumbling upon this finding, Nolan decided to incorporate Hill’s speech into the film, word-for-word. But when he showed the script to “American Prometheus” co-author Kai Bird and he came to this sequence, he had no idea who Hill was. “Unleashing Oppenheimer” quotes him good-naturedly remarking on this oversight, saying:

“I thought that was delightful. It showed that Nolan had done some of his own research and picked up on something that we’d found but not explored. It was terrific.”

How great is that? Even months after release, “Oppenheimer” still holds plenty of secrets waiting to be discovered. You can start with a copy of “Unleashing Oppenheimer.”

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