Christopher Nolan has been discussing the ending of his forthcoming biopic Oppenheimer, and comparing the finale to his 2010 sci-fi classic Inception.
We’re just a few weeks away from summer 2023’s most intriguing box office battle. July 21 will see atomic bomb drama Oppenheimer battling Barbie in cinemas worldwide.
In the run-up to the film’s release, Christopher Nolan has done a wide-ranging interview with Wired, in which he talked about making the movie, as well as the dangers of AI.
The writer-director also referenced his back catalogue, and compared the ending of Oppenheimer to Inception, his mind-melting science-fiction opus that starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon Levitt, and Cillian Murphy.
Oppenheimer has ambiguous ending like Inception
When asked if his movies are optimistic, Nolan tells Wired: “The end of Inception, it’s exactly that. There is a nihilistic view of that ending, right? But also, he’s moved on and is with his kids. The ambiguity is not an emotional ambiguity. It’s an intellectual one for the audience.”
Thenm drawing a comparison with his new film, Nolan adds: “I think there is an interesting relationship between the endings of Inception and Oppenheimer to be explored. Oppenheimer’s got a complicated ending. Complicated feelings.
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“Some people leave the movie absolutely devastated. They can’t speak. I mean, there’s an element of fear that’s there in the history and there in the underpinnings. But the love of the characters, the love of the relationships, is as strong as I’ve ever done.”
Oppenheimer asks “impossible questions”
According to the official synopsis, Oppenheimer is an “epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.”
While Nolan himself says: “Oppenheimer’s story is all impossible questions. Impossible ethical dilemmas, paradox. There are no easy answers in his story. There are just difficult questions, and that’s what makes the story so compelling.
“I think we were able to find a lot of things to be optimistic about in the film, genuinely, but there’s this sort of overriding bigger question that hangs over it. It felt essential that there be questions at the end that you leave rattling in people’s brains, and prompting discussion.”
Oppenheimer is released on July 21, 2023. The film’s runtime is explained here. To read about the best way to watch the movie click here. While everything else we know about the film can be found here.
