The one thing Oppenheimer gets wrong

The one thing Oppenheimer gets wrong Universal Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is surprisingly authentic, but, explains Dorian Lynskey, there are two key scenes where the film deviates from reality. Nolan's decision to tell the story of the bomb through Oppenheimer's eyes – not just his experiences but also his concerns – gives the film its contemporary urgency The first of these scenes comes on the eve of the Trinity test, the detonation of the world's first atomic bomb, after Enrico Fermi takes bets on whether the blast will destroy the world. Universal Two of the film's scenes elaborate on the same truth: those who built the bomb were worried that it would accidentally bring about the end of the world The physicist Hans Bethe soon revealed the flaws in Teller's theory and assured Oppenheimer that a chain reaction was "extremely unlikely, to say the least" – less than three in one million, according to Compton. Nolan's decision to tell the story of the bomb through Oppenheimer's eyes – not just his experiences but also his concerns – gives the film its contemporary urgency.