OPPENHEIMER is the story of a brilliant scientist. J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is an American-born Jewish who has earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. After securing a PhD in physics from the University of Göttingen in Germany in 1927, he returns to the USA and joins the physics department… at the University of California, Berkeley. Here, he makes significant contributions to theoretical physics, including achievements in quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. His works get noticed by the US government and they hire him on the Manhattan Project. At his insistence, he is appointed director of the project’s Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico. Oppenheimer is also the one to suggest the remote place for the laboratory and asks Lt Gen Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) to ensure a makeshift town is built, complete with bars, church, school, etc. His team of scientists is also encouraged to bring their families so that their work doesn’t suffer due to loneliness and homesickness. His mission is simple – he has to develop the first nuclear weapons after it comes to light that Germany has already started a nuclear weapons program. How J Robert Oppenheimer has to face several challenges to achieve his goal and how his life changes after World War II forms the rest of the film.
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