Oppenheimer features some truly staggering moments, but none are more significant than that fateful meeting to decide where to drop atomic bombs on Japan.
The scene features James Remar as U.S. Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, who tells the group not to hit Kyoto because he honeymooned there with his wife.
The gut-wrenching line is a bombshell in itself, revealing just how fickle those in power can be. During my own screening, a nervous laughter punctuated the stomach-churning moment. However, during an interview with The New York Times, director Christopher Nolan revealed this line wasn’t in the original script.
“There’s a moment where James Remar... He kept talking to me about how he learned that Stimson and his wife had honeymooned in Kyoto,” said Nolan. “That was one of the reasons that Stimson took Kyoto off the list to be bombed. I had him crossing the city off the list because of its cultural significance, but I’m like, ‘Just add that.’ It’s a fantastically exciting moment where no one in the room knows how to react.”
Nolan, it turns out, wasn’t the only one doing research into Oppenheimer’s historical events. “Each actor was coming to the table with research about what their real-life counterpart had been,” said Nolan. “They had tons of homework to do.”
Based on the real-life story of the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer recounts how the first atomic bomb was created, as well as its repercussions.
“They had a great resource with ‘American Prometheus’,” said Nolan, who turned to the book by Kai Bird and Marton J Shewman for inspiration. “They then did their own research and what it meant for me, which isn’t something I’d ever really been able to do in the past. So, for example, with the scene in the section classroom with all the scientists, we would be able to improvise the discussion. The script is there, but they could come into it with passion and knowledge based on all of their own learning.”
As for whether a honeymoon in Kyoto actually spared the city from destruction, that’s unclear. Although Kyoto is said to have been on the initial list, some scholars speculate it was actually American archaeologist Langdon Warner who advised against the bombing of the city, to preserve the cultural heritage of the country.
IGN’s Oppenheimer review gave it 10/10 and said: “A biopic in constant free fall, Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s most abstract yet most exacting work, with themes of guilt writ large through apocalyptic IMAX nightmares that grow both more enormous and more intimate as time ticks on. A disturbing, mesmerizing vision of what humanity is capable of bringing upon itself, both through its innovation, and through its capacity to justify any atrocity.”
Want to read more about Oppenheimer? Check out why the dialogue in Oppenheimer might be difficult to hear and find out how historically accurate the movie really is.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
