How Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ screenplay is different from his previous ones

Christopher Nolan believes that the story of Oppenheimer was one of the most important stories that needed to be told, hence his script reflected that.

The acclaimed director has put forward many interesting projects such as Tenet and Dunkirk and even delved into the superhero genre with the Dark Knight trilogy.

Oppenheimer’s leading man, Cillian Murphy, vouches for this with his latest release that the screenplay was the best he has yet read.

Before the SAG-AFTRA strike was called, Murphy sat down for an interview with Collider where he revealed that the script was written in first-person which was unusual for a script.

And because the script was written in such a way, the Peaky Blinders star realised the weight of responsibility that came with portraying the titular role.

“[Nolan wrote the script in first-person, which I’d never encountered and never experienced,” Murphy told the outlet. “It blew my mind.”

He continued, “. It was one of the best screenplays I’ve ever read, without a shadow of a doubt. For example, he wouldn’t say, ‘Oppenheimer walks into the room and speaks to Strauss.’ He would say, ‘I walk into the room,’ and ‘I walk over and speak to Strauss.’ That’s how it was written.”

He further explained that he realised “a huge responsibility because everything is kind of subjectively through Oppenheimer’s eyes, except for the black and white bits which are objectively from [Lewis] Strauss’ (Robert Downey Jr.) point of view.”

The story of Oppenheimer is about the physicist who created the first-ever atomic bomb during the World War II, changing the course of history forever.