'Oppenheimer' Created an Atomic Bomb Blast Without Using CGI - Here's How Christopher Nolan Pulled It Off

Christopher Nolan caused a stir when he announced that he filmed his new movie Oppenheimer without relying on CGI for pivotal scenes, even ones that involved igniting an atomic bomb.

By now you’ve likely seen some variation of the meme implying that the director legitimately detonated a nuclear bomb to get the shot.

Of course, that’s not the case. But you might be wondering how they pulled off the impressive shot. You might also be surprised to learn that a bomb was used, just not one as destructive.

Read more about Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb in Oppenheimer…

The scene in the movie that involves the bomb was a recreation of the Trinity Test, a historic moment when an actual bomb was tested.

How did Christopher pull it off? With help from special effects supervisor Scott R. Fisher and something called forced perspective to make a smaller explosion seem much bigger.

“We don’t call them miniatures; we call them ‘big-atures,’” Scott told Total Film, according to SYFY. “We do them as big as we possibly can, but we do reduce the scale so it’s manageable. It’s getting it closer to the camera, and doing it as big as you can in the environment.”

The explosion was created by igniting gasoline and propane with a couple extra ingredients added to create the blinding effect.

During a round table with EW, Christopher revealed that the cast did film with an exact replica of the atom bomb that was created in real life.

Have you seen how Oppenheimer did at the box office yet?