While Christopher Nolan's highly-anticipated film Oppenheimer isn't quite putting out the mind-blowing PR that fellow summer blockbuster Barbie is, its packed, A-List celebrity cast more than makes up for it.
Both Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig's Barbie will (finally) premiere in theaters July 21, and two weeks before the official release, AMC Theaters, the largest chain of movie theaters in the US, reported that more than 20,000 of their AMC Stubs members have already bought double feature tickets.
Now, let us introduce you to the real Oppenheimer, and all of the mega-stars telling his story.
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What is Oppenheimer about?
Oppenheimer is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, authored by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin over a period of twenty-five years, which was released in 2005.
It details the life of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), his efforts to build the atomic bomb during World War II, and his inner turmoil as he faced "the moral consequences of scientific progress."
© GettyWho was the real Oppenheimer?
Oppenheimer was born Julius Robert Oppenheimer in New York City in 1904, and today is considered "the father of the atomic bomb."
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He was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, and is best known for his role in the Manhattan Project, a US government-led research project supported by the UK and Canada which ran from 1942 to 1945 that produced the world's first atomic bombs.
© GettyWho are the stars of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer?
First and foremost, Peaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy stars as the titular character. As the cast spoke to People about their time filming in the middle of the New Mexico desert, his co-star Emily Blunt recalled their cast dinners, but revealed Cillian would often have to skip them.
"The sheer volume of what he had to take on and shoulder is so monumental," she said, adding: "Of course he didn't want to come and have dinner with us."
© GettyCillian concurred: "You know that when you have those big roles, that responsibility, you feel it's kind of overwhelming." Luckily for them, filming is now in the past, and much of the cast was recently pictured in a smile-ridden selfie.
© InstagramEmily stars as Oppenheimer's wife, Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer Vissering, who hailed from Germany and passed away in Panama in 1972. In real life, the couple had two children: Peter Oppenheimer, 82, and Katherine "Toni" Oppenheimer, who died of suicide in 1977 on her 32nd birthday.
Matt Damon stars as Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon, and was the official director of the Manhattan Project. Robert Downey Jr. plays former United States Secretary of Commerce Lewis Strauss, who served two terms on the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and Florence Pugh plays psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Oppenheimer's young mistress.
© Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal PicOther notable stars in the film are Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid's son Jack Quaid as theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, Rami Malek as David Hill, Josh Peck as physicist Kenneth Bainbridge, Gary Oldman as the 33rd US President Harry S. Truman, Casey Affleck as military intelligence officer Boris Pash, Alex Wolff as physicist Luis Walter Alvarez, Kenneth Branagh as Danish physicist Neils Bohr, Tony Goldwyn as former National Security Advisor of the United States Gordon Gray, and more, if you can believe it.
