A blast from the past

As of Tuesday, the three-hour-long film has grossed more than 240 million yuan ($32.9 million), replacing the Chinese blockbuster No More Bets over the weekend as the country's latest box-office champion.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the movie skillfully intertwines multiple narrative threads to portray the life of its titular character, the famous American theoretical physicist, and explores his journey to become the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, where he led the development of the world's first atomic bomb.

Recalling his inspiration to write the script for the movie, Nolan revealed that he is acquainted with the story of Oppenheimer, who is often referred to as "the father of the atomic bomb".

However, what captivated him the most was a historical moment filled with drama. Even before Oppenheimer and his team of scientists prepared to press the button, detonating the world's first nuclear explosion in July 1945, they couldn't entirely eliminate the possibility that there was a slim chance of triggering a chain reaction capable of destroying the planet.