Nolan, a big advocate for the big screen and a critic of streaming, took the stage to applause from movie theater owners. “I know of no more dramatic tale with higher stakes,” Nolan said of his latest opus.

Oppenheimer creates a bomb with the potential to lead to unbelievable loss of life and destruction.

There were scenes of the physicist’s team engaged in the top-secret work of bomb-making, but the movie also spins forward in time to a point where Russia has developed its atomic technology, triggering suspicions of espionage at Los Alamos.

Nolan said that the film’s protagonist made decisions that still reverberate to this day.

The film, which Universal is releasing on July 21, is one of the most ambitious big studio summer releases in years. It’s a season that’s usually reserved for escapist fare and superhero flicks, but “Oppenheimer” grapples with some weighty themes, not to mention a scientific development that re-shaped the course of history. Oppenheimer guided the Manhattan Project as the head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, before becoming a critic of weapons of mass destruction.

“His story is both dream and nightmare,” Nolan said.

The movie was shot in 70mm with Imax cameras, and the trailer that Nolan shared toggled between smoky black-and-white and color with impeccable production design. A gaunt-looking, fedora-wearing Cillian Murphy is a dead ringer for Oppenheimer, and he has the haunted air of a man who unleashed an awesome weapon, a destroyer of worlds. But when the Manhattan Project was launched during World War II, control of civilization did hang in the balance.

“I don’t know if we can be trusted with such a weapon. But I know the Nazis can’t,” says Murphy’s Oppenheimer.

Murphy is a vet of previous Nolan films such as “Dunkirk,” “Inception” and “Batman Begins” (he portrayed the Scarecrow).

The ensemble includes Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a member of the Atomic Energy Commission, and Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife, Katherine.

The cast also includes Rami Malek and Florence Pugh.

Nolan is one of the most acclaimed and financially successful filmmakers, having helmed the “Dark Knight” trilogy, as well as “Inception” and “Dunkirk.” His most recent film, “Tenet,” was released in the height of the pandemic and struggled to connect with COVID-wary audiences.

Nolan wrote the screenplay to “Oppenheimer” and co-produced the movie.