Oppenheimer | Pushing The Button Featurette
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 This is a national emergency.
00:05 Our work here will ensure peace mankind has never seen.
00:09 The world will remember this day.
00:18 This is arguably the most important story of our time.
00:21 The stakes really couldn't be any higher.
00:23 It's profound, but it's told in a very human way.
00:27 Everything Chris Nolan has done has been a prelude to this.
00:31 This is not a film.
00:33 This is an experience.
00:34 It is a heart in your mouth thriller.
00:39 I've been interested in Oppenheimer's story for a long time.
00:43 At some point I learned this key piece of information that in the lead up to the Trinity
00:48 Test, they were dealing with the very small possibility that when they pushed that button
00:54 they would set fire to the atmosphere of the earth and destroy the entire planet.
00:58 And yet they pushed that button.
01:03 I wanted to take the audience into that extraordinary moment in human history.
01:15 All America's industrial-minded scientific innovation connected here, a secret laboratory.
01:22 Gillian playing Oppenheimer was the centerpiece of the film, but I knew that he was going
01:26 to need the most extraordinary ensemble around him.
01:29 Let's go recruit some scientists.
01:31 The people involved in the Manhattan Project were charismatic individuals.
01:35 They're very talented.
01:36 The world that Oppenheimer inhabits is filled with rock star scientists, and I think because
01:42 we have all these fantastic actors, you really buy that.
01:47 It felt like I was playing sports with some of the best athletes.
01:50 Every single person has come to set knowing that they have been hired because somewhere
01:54 along the line Chris thought that you did a good job.
01:56 And this goes for crew as well.
02:04 My preference is to always do things in camera as much as possible.
02:08 It sets a big challenge for every department to actually bring the reality of a thing there
02:12 for the actors.
02:14 Every crew member on this film has to adjust their work for the IMAX screen.
02:20 IMAX can contain 18K resolution per frame, which is by far more than any digital camera.
02:27 It gets thrown up on a gigantic screen, and the moment you watch it, it's very evident
02:31 the quality is unprecedented.
02:33 This is the story of America in the 20th century, so I think it can be painted on that big of
02:38 a canvas, and what better way to do that but with IMAX cameras?
02:42 Why would we go to the middle of nowhere for who knows how long?
02:46 I always try to use real locations as much as possible.
02:50 With location shooting or sets, the more things can just be real, the better they're going
02:54 to feel to the audience.
02:56 There's almost no studio work on this film.
02:58 Everything is location.
03:00 The sets were built in such a way that they felt incredibly authentic.
03:06 We built our Los Alamos at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, which is along the same mountain range
03:11 that Los Alamos proper sits on.
03:14 This was very important, and I based all of this on research.
03:17 We built all of these buildings 360.
03:20 We want it to feel like you are right there, you are in this, this is happening, this is
03:24 real.
03:26 This isn't a back lot.
03:27 It's just the most transporting thing, you know, when you're there and it just looks
03:31 exactly like Los Alamos 1940s must have looked, and you know that no detail has been overlooked.
03:40 We also shot in a huge amount of the real locations.
03:43 We shot in Oppenheimer's house, in Los Alamos.
03:46 We shot in Princeton.
03:48 Walking through Princeton, it's really very funny because people, you know, they're walking
03:53 and they go...
03:57 Shooting those scenes, playing the characters who really had versions of these events happen
04:04 there, you just get a real charge out of it, you know?
04:08 This is a matter of life and death.
04:10 I can perform this miracle.
04:12 When you do Chris's movies, things that when you read a script you normally would think
04:15 would be visual effects, you know that you're going to be doing this stuff practically.
04:22 They had to film the world of quantum physics.
04:25 Their whole unit was one big science project.
04:28 I was daily very jealous.
04:29 This is kind of back to the old days.
04:31 We did a lot of experimentation.
04:33 We came up with some very interesting analog methods of how to approach this, all of which
04:38 was leading to the Trinity test, which had to feel nightmarish and terrifying in a way
04:45 that computer graphics never really is.
04:51 What we were able to get into the finished film, to me, is extraordinarily beautiful,
04:56 but also very frightening.
05:00 Working with this whole team was such a great camaraderie and with the commonality of we
05:05 are going to get this in camera.
05:07 I love Chris's dedication to that.
05:10 It really speaks to Chris and the way he directs.
05:13 All of the energy goes around the camera.
05:16 Like we're all here to do the same thing.
05:19 Chris makes films for theaters, for movie-going audiences.
05:23 You know, so you want to see that as it's designed to be seen.
05:28 Watching this very different sort of film on that big screen, it sort of makes you gasp.
05:34 You're right in their experience.
05:39 This is, I think, a definitive moment in the history of modern filmmaking.
05:44 Do yourself a favor and go see this on as big a screen as you can.
05:48 With the sound design and the score and the emotionality of it, this is an unforgettable,
05:54 unmissable experience in a theater.
05:58 You are the man who gave them the power to destroy themselves.
06:01 We made Oppenheimer on the largest scale possible because the idea is to come and experience
06:07 this.
06:08 His story is monumental and epic and extraordinary.
06:11 It really has to be seen on the big screen to be believed.
06:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]