Christopher Nolan Shows Off Gigantic Reel of Film Used for Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer will be Christopher Nolan‘s longest movie yet, as the filmmaker has revealed the exact run time for the film. It had been previously teased as a three-hour film, with Nolan at one point saying it was “kissing” three hours, but as it turns out, the length is seconds past that point. In a new video shared to TikTok by @guywithamoviecamera, Nolan can be seen posing with the gargantuan reel of film that it takes to screen Oppenheimer while sharing that the run time surpasses the three-hour mark.

“This is the Oppenheimer IMAX 70mm print,” Nolan explains. “All three hours and nine seconds, and I’m told it’s eleven miles of film for one screening.”

This follows previous comments from Oppenheimer actor Matt Damon telling Variety, “It’s three hours. It’s fantastic. Cillian [Murphy] is phenomenal. He’s everything you would want him to be. I think it’s almost three hours. It goes so fast, it’s great.”

In any case, filmgoers are going to want to get comfortable when they sit down to watch Oppenheimer. You may want to get the large popcorn, and it might be best to visit the restrooms just before viewing the film, as one wouldn’t want to risk seeing the big explosion. As a movie about the “father of the atom bomb,” Oppenheimer features a nuclear explosion scene that was actually made without CGI.

Related: Oppenheimer Is Christopher Nolan’s First R-Rated Film in Over 20 Years

Christopher Nolan Took On the Challenge of Oppenheimer

“I think recreating the Trinity test without the use of computer graphics was a huge challenge to take on,” Nolan told Total Film in a separate interview explaining the big explosion scene. “Andrew Jackson – my visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on – was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself, to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of the very harsh conditions out there – there were huge practical challenges.”

Nolan also needed the right cast to help tell this story, and that includes Cillian Murphy in the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The director explained how the goal was to let viewers learn about Oppenheimer’s story through his own eyes, understanding how he embarked down a path that would result in the creation of a nuclear weapon.

“That was the challenge for Cillian that I set him, to take us on this journey; that was the challenge for Hoyte van Hoytema, my designer, my whole team: how do we view this extraordinary story through the eyes of the person who was at the heart of it? All of our decisions on how to make this film were based on that real premise,” Nolan said of the story of the film.

Oppenheimer will be hitting movie theaters on July 21, 2023.