The July 2023 release of "Oppenheimer," director and writer Christopher Nolan's explosive biopic on the physicist pioneering the atomic bomb, has been making waves at the box office and in the Twitterverse.
Nolan raised eyebrows in 2022, long before the movie was released, when he announced he was ditching CGI (computer generated imagery) for more authentic non-digital visual effects, including for the scene in which the eponymous J. Robert Oppenheimer watches a nuclear bomb explode.
"Chris Nolan detonated a real nuke" memes have been circulating in one form or another ever since. When the entertainment blog Dexerto tweeted on July 7 that the film contained "no CGI shots ... at all," public speculation about the movie began to mushroom once again. So, too, did the memes — with many posts blurring the lines between sincere takes and trolling.
THEY SET OFF A REAL NUKE?? https://t.co/LK64RX5YIP
— kira ? (@kirawontmiss) July 7, 2023
Christopher Nolan my guy https://t.co/x2iJSLERGx pic.twitter.com/634z7pNPuw
— vedaarth (@vedaarth) July 8, 2023
LETS GOOOO THEY GOT A REAL NUKE https://t.co/mcqWr6iXAi
— ßquatcho (@JankboyE) July 7, 2023
But there are ways to recreate a nuclear explosion for the big screen that don't require CGI or a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions. In the case of "Oppenheimer," the explosion sequence was a mix of aluminum powder, magnesium, and forced perspective, a photography trick using angles and distance that can make items seem bigger or smaller than they really are. Far from a technological miracle, it's among the most common tactics that crop up in fact checks performed by Snopes. It has been for years.
Nolan told Empire that this kind of authenticity was the crux of his filmmaking process. "We have to find a way into this [Oppenheimer]'s head. We've gotta see the world the way he sees it," Nolan said. "[W]e have to feel the danger, feel the threat of all this somehow."
He did not, however, detonate a real nuclear bomb.
For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.