10 Facts That All You Need To Know About J Robert Oppenheimer, The Real Mastermind Behind The Atomic Explosion

‘Oppenheimer’ is written and directed by the one and only Christopher Nolan, collaborating with the actor Cillian Murphy for the sixth time. Not as the supporting actor but this time as a lead titular role, before he was seen in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Dunkirk.

Ahead of the most anticipated film releasing on 21 July 2023, is based on the real-life J Robert Oppenheimer known as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ who was the mastermind behind the explosion of Hiroshima, and Nagasaki blast amidst World War II. That’s why currently Christopher Nolan’s directorial has become the most talked about movie of the year and you won’t believe also in the film the filmmaker has used a real atom bomb for that actual feel that will shake us in the theatrical experience. 

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Talking about such interesting facts on the real-life Oppenheimer, how amazingly talented and the man who was ahead of his time, read on to know the facts:

1.      Robert Oppenheimer was the head of the famous Los Alamos Laboratory, the one who was charged with designing the first atomic bomb for the Manhattan Project he was urgently called by President Roosevelt to develop it as soon as possible before the Germans makes it and the bombs were detonated on Nagasaki and Hiroshima by ending the war and causing widespread damage. 

2.      Robert knew several foreign languages he was keenly interested in keep on learning new things and was also a believer in reading books in their original translation. When he was 30, he learned the Hindu language called Sanskrit to read the cultural scripture Bhagavad-Gita. From which he uttered a now famous line “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” when he saw the first successful detonation of an atomic bomb at the test site in the desert of New Mexico in 1945.

While he was riding on a train from San Francisco to the East Coast, he read all four volumes of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital in the original German and in the same journey he read Proust in French, “which he later said was one of the great experiences of his life.”

Adding on, learnt Latin and Greek while he was studying at Harvard University and on a trip to the Netherlands, he learnt Dutch to give a lecture there. What a genius!

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3.      The bombs detonated in August 1945 firstly on Hiroshima and three days later on Nagasaki, for the same afterwards Oppenheimer regretted his role in the creation of the atomic bomb for which he later opposed further development and also resigned from Los Alamos Laboratory. 

With colleagues, he thought the second explosion was unnecessary and also wrote a letter by himself hand delivering it to the Secretary of War Henry Stimson in which he strongly proposed the ban of nuclear weapons in the arena of war.

4.      Robert was a Nobel Prize Nominee in the years 1945, 1951 and 1967. But unfortunately, he never won it, his prize was awarded to his contemporaries, as many physicists believed that his contribution was gravitational collapse which was worth more than an award.         

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5.      Another fact to reveal about the genius Oppenheimer is that he was a multi-talented scholar, he completed the third and fourth grades together in just one year and skipped half of the eighth grade. Further graduated with distinction for three years and also studied Chemistry at Harvard University but was interested in experimental physics. Adding on, he was the youngest member of the New York Mineralogical Society.

6.      The atomic bomb which ended the Second World War had sparked a global race to acquire nuclear weapons and Oppenheimer and his work inspired Hollywood. The Manhattan Project and his subject fascinated the industry for several movies that made him play lead roles in the films like The Beginning of the End (1947) and Fat Man and Little Boy (1989).

7.      And as said, his opposition to the development of the atom bomb had led him to the revocation of his security clearances, for which he used his strategic position to lobby for global nuclear power. As he was a nuclear power specialist and had direct involvement in the making of the only nuclear bomb deployed in the war, he also has many other uses apart from the war and was appointed to Chair the Advisory Committee of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. 

8.      Many don’t know that the students were obsessed with Oppenheimer’s teaching skills, as he was a brilliant teacher too. The students use to run from one campus to another to attend his lectures at both the colleges which he used to teach, Caltech and the University of California Berkeley. He went there after earning his PhD in Germany and he was teaching astrophysics even before studying it. Students also use to copy his dress and mannerisms.

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9.      Also, Robert was the first one to suggest the existence of black holes and in 1939, he wrote a paper titled “On Continued Gravitational Contraction” His research perfectly predicted the existence of "dying stars whose gravitational pull exceeded their energy production” or as they are called today, black holes. 

Oppenheimer and his team of scientists were the first to realize there was a bubble inside the collapsing stars where time stopped, even though before them many had observed relativity and the degeneration of stars.

10.  J Robert Oppenheimer’s cremation was attended by over 600 well-known people, who died due to throat cancer because of his heavy smoking habit and he had also undergone surgery, radiation and chemotherapy in vain. 

Christopher Nolan’s directorial film ‘Oppenheimer’ is near to hit the theatres soon on 21 July 2023. Starring other A-list Hollywood actors like Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr are also part of the project.