Christopher Nolan’s latest three-hour epic is all over the internet right now, but what do you watch after you’ve seen the final credits and gathered your thoughts? J. Robert Oppenheimer, portrayed in an Oscar-worthy performance by Cillian Murphy, is a guide through the scientific feats and human sacrifice that went into creating the atomic bombs that shattered the world humans once knew for three heart-pounding hours.
The world changes about two hours into Christopher Nolan’s new film, Oppenheimer. In both literal and figurative terms, the Trinity test on July 16, 1945, marks the beginning of the nuclear age. The explosion’s fallout reached 46 states, as well as parts of Canada and Mexico. The 5:30 a.m. blast was also bright enough that those who saw it thought the sun had risen twice that day. Nolan’s film builds up to the test, but he doesn’t conclude Oppenheimer’s story with the Trinity or the successful detonation of two nuclear bombs against Japan. The film is as much about the communist scare as it is about tensions within the United States government after the war over how to develop and control the bomb. Nolan’s account emphasises how J. Robert Oppenheimer’s advocacy was caught up in the aftermath of his specific friendships and affairs. The movie is both tragic and inspirational. And it makes perfect sense if you’re craving for more. Here are 8 films to watch after you have experienced Oppenheimer in the theatres:
Fat Man And Little Boy (1989)
Gen. Leslie Groves (Paul Newman), who has been assigned to oversee the development of the atomic bomb, is a stern military man determined to see the project through to completion. Groves chooses J. Robert Oppenheimer (Dwight Schultz) as the top-secret operation’s key scientist, but the two men have a number of disagreements. Despite their frequent disagreements, Groves and Oppenheimer proceed with two bomb designs: the larger “Fat Man” and the more streamlined “Little Boy.”
The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)
Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel) is a man of boundless intelligence in 1910s India. Eventually, his exceptional mathematical intelligence and boundless confidence in both attract the attention of renowned British mathematics professor G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), who invites him to continue developing his computations at Trinity College, Cambridge. Forced to leave his young wife, Janaki, behind, Ramanujan finds himself in a land where his largely intuitive mathematical theories and cultural values collide with the stringent academic requirements of his school and mentor, as well as the prejudiced realities of a Britain on the verge of World War One. Faced with this, as well as a family back home determined to keep him away from his wife and his own deteriorating health, Ramanujan joins Hardy in a mutual struggle that would define Ramanujan as one of India’s greatest modern scholars, breaking more than one barrier in his worlds.
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Set during the height of Cold War tensions, the story revolves around a demented US general (played by Sterling Hayden) who, frustrated by his sexual impotence, plots a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, a diverse group of political officials works feverishly to avoid Armageddon. In the film, Peter Sellers played three characters, including Dr. Strangelove, a weapons expert and barely reformed Nazi, and George C. Scott played a hawkish general. The film was originally intended to be a dramatic look at the Cold War, but Stanley Kubrick felt that satire would be more effective.
The Theory of Everything (2014)
In the 1960s, Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne), a Cambridge University student and future physicist, falls in love with fellow collegian Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones). Hawking discovers he has motor neuron disease when he is 21 years old. Despite this, and with Jane by his side, he embarks on an ambitious study of time, of which his doctor claims he has very little left. He and Jane defy terrible odds to break new ground in medicine and science, accomplishing more than either could have imagined.
The Imitation Game (2014)
In 1939, the newly formed British intelligence agency MI6 hires Cambridge mathematics alumnus Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to crack Nazi codes, including Enigma, which cryptanalysts had thought unbreakable. Turing’s team, which includes Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), analyses Enigma messages while he constructs a machine to decipher them. Turing and his team eventually succeed and become heroes, but in 1952, the quiet genius faces disgrace when authorities discover he is gay and imprison him.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
At Princeton University, John Nash (Russel Crowe) struggles to leave a meaningful legacy in the world of mathematics. He eventually makes a revolutionary breakthrough that earns him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school, he goes into teaching and falls in love with one of his students, Alicia. Meanwhile, the government requests his assistance in breaking Soviet codes, which soon leads to his involvement in a terrifying conspiracy plot. Nash becomes increasingly paranoid until he makes a discovery that turns his entire world upside down. Only with Alicia’s assistance will he be able to regain his mental strength and reclaim his place as the great mathematician people know him as today.
The Grave of Fireflies (1988)
This animated story follows Seita (Tsutomu Tatsumi), a teenager charged with caring for his younger sister, Setsuko (Ayano Shiraishi), after an American firebombing during World War II separates the two children from their parents. Their survival story is both heartbreaking and true to life. The siblings rely entirely on one another and fight against all odds to stay together and alive.
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
This celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave, is based on a deep conversation between a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) and a French actress (Emmanuelle Riva). Faced with images of the war and encouraged by her lover to reveal her past secrets, she recounts her first tragic love with a German soldier during the Nazi occupation of France. The two intertwine their past stories while contemplating the devastation caused by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.
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