Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, OPPENHEIMER is an IMAX®-shot 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.
To create the score for OPPENHEIMER, Christopher Nolan turned again to Oscar®-winning composer Ludwig Göransson (BLACK PANTHER films), who had written the music for TENET. “Ludwig’s work on the film is both deeply personal and historically expansive,” Nolan says. “It achieves the effect of building out an emotional world to accompany the visual world that Ruth De Jong designed and Hoyte van Hoytema shot, and it draws the audience into the emotional dilemmas of the characters and their interactions with the vast geopolitical situations that they’re confronting.”
Driven by an unwavering desire to capture the delicate intersection between beauty and dread, Göransson’s creative endeavors manifested in an array of captivating experiments. Techniques such as the incorporation of microtonal glissandos were deftly employed to expand the sonic palette, infusing the music with an ethereal quality. Collaborating with esteemed musicians from the Hollywood Studio Orchestra, Göransson began shaping OPPENHEIMER’s musical world with an intimate solo violin performance, capturing the essence of the character. As the story evolved, the ensemble gradually expanded to include a quartet, octet and ultimately a large ensemble of strings and brass. This progressive orchestration reflected the deepening complexity of OPPENHEIMER’s journey, enriching the musical tapestry with each new addition.
