If You Liked “Oppenheimer,” You'll Love These 11 Movies

The success of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer isn’t an accident. Nolan’s epic doesn’t treat its audience as gullible consumers of propaganda. Instead, it asks them to rise to a level of thought and maturity and to leave the film sobered and reflective.

On some movie nights, I need a classic, lighthearted rom-com to watch with my girlfriends that affirms our femininity. But other times, I’m looking for a serious film that will make me think deeply about humanity’s flaws and the moments of greatness that can occur when we try to overcome them. If you loved this about Oppenheimer, check out these 11 thought-provoking films that will spark conversation with your friends. 

1. Dunkirk

If you haven’t seen Christopher Nolan’s first World War II epic, this is where you need to start. Its multiple plotlines follow the common soldiers, pilots, and citizens caught in the greatest escape story in history: the race to save over 300,000 allied troops caught on the beaches of northern Normandy. Dunkirk celebrates the rousing patriotism of British mariners and something more – the beauty of human beings who will sacrifice their life to save another’s.

2. The Theory of Everything

When Stephen Hawking falls for beautiful literature student at Oxford, everything seems to be going his way. But then his muscles begin to fail, and he learns that he only has a few years to live. Jane isn’t one of the faint of heart, though, and as Stephen begins groundbreaking work in theoretical physics, she builds them a home and keeps his failing body going. Eddie Redmayne’s performance as Stephen Hawking earned him an Oscar award, for he shows Hawking’s brilliance eventually becomes outweighed by his selfishness – which will unravel his marriage. He may not be Oppenheimer’s “destroyer of worlds,” but we can’t help but wonder if Hawking’s “theory of everything” left out the most important things of all.

3. Steve Jobs

One of Oppenheimer’s great abilities was drawing together a team and guiding them to create something earth-changing. That ability isn’t just applicable to physics, though. Steve Jobs did much the same thing with Apple, as shown in this Danny Boyle biopic. This biopic spends as much time examining Jobs’s (Michael Fassbender) failings as a man and a leader as it does on his triumphs. In the end, his quest to prove himself a tech giant takes a back seat to his growth as a father.

4. Jurassic Park

Stay with me on this one. On the surface, Jurassic Park, the classic action/adventure that launched a successful franchise, may not seem to have much in common with Nolan’s serious epic Oppenheimer. But thematically, the films are examining the same question. To borrow the words of Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm, “[Scientists] never stopped to think if they should.” The race to escape an island of dinosaurs turns out to have more in common with Oppenheimer’s tortured realization of his own destructive invention – and it’s a much easier watch to boot.

5. The Man Who Knew Infinity

A biographical drama about real-life math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel), The Man Who Knew Infinity is an inspiring story about true genius. Srinivasa is an impoverished young man from India whose natural brilliance with math eventually earns him a place at Oxford University, at the request of mentor G. H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons). No matter how humble the beginnings, the human capacity to learn and achieve good with that learning is as important as our ability to use that knowledge to build an atomic bomb.

6. A Quiet Place

Even if you’ve seen this one already, go ahead and watch it again. Though the themes and genre of A Quiet Place are different from Oppenheimer, this film is attentive to silence and sound in the same way. A Quiet Place reminds us of the blaring noises to which we are accustomed by a dedication to silence, and its thrilling journey is headlined by a powerhouse performance from Emily Blunt that couldn’t be more different from her Kitty Oppenheimer.

7. Lawrence of Arabia

Nolan may have tried hard in Oppenheimer, but nothing quite matches the scale of David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia. Based on the life of T.E. Lawrence, a British army officer and diplomat, Lawrence of Arabia is what epic biographical drama looks like at its finest. Played with great nuance by Peter O’Toole, Lawrence begins to assimilate into the Ottoman world through the film’s rebellions and battles. But divided loyalty takes a toll, and like Oppenheimer, Lawrence must face up to the destruction of the war he has helped to fight. 

8. Good Will Hunting

This one doesn’t just make the list because Matt Damon (Oppenheimer’s General Groves) makes the early appearance that would launch his career. Like Oppenheimer, it’s a film about the dangers of genius untempered by morality or virtue. Hotshot Will Hunting (Damon) can do the most complicated math without breaking a sweat, and he’s read more books than anybody else. But when he attends court-mandated therapy with Sean (Robin Williams), Will Hunting starts to learn that being the smartest person in the room won’t always help him to make the right decisions.

9. Interstellar

Another Nolan film, Interstellar takes the director’s fascination with science to the furthest reaches of space. Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) must take a trip to space that will separate him from his children for decades – but if he remains on Earth, then they will be doomed to death. As Cooper and his team seek out a habitable planet on the far reaches of the galaxy, he finds that the only way to save humanity – and more importantly, his aging children – is to move into a different dimension entirely. If you love science jargon, Matthew McConaughey, and a good father/daughter bonding story, this one’s for you.

10. A Hidden Life

Another World War II film, A Hidden Life follows a different kind of protagonist – the quietly faithful husband and father Franz Jägerstätter, who watches Nazi ideology slowly poison his happy mountain town. Unable to take a vow of loyalty to Hitler, Franz is placed under arrest, and he and his wife must determine whether his integrity as a man is worth the ultimate sacrifice. Malick’s fragmented style of editing and sharp camera angles to create perspective has a lot in common with Oppenheimer’s visual first-person perspective.

11. First Man

The great space race, as seen through the eyes of one man and the family he left on earth when he catapulted toward the moon. The tumult and triumph of man’s first landing on the moon is portrayed excellently here by La La Land and Barbie leading man Ryan Gosling, whose Neil Armstrong is driven almost to the point of madness by grief for his lost daughter. Leave it to director Damien Chazelle to turn a scientific epic journey into a personal quest for healing.  

Bonus: Genius Season 1: Einstein

It’s not a movie, but if you like something that’ll take more than a couple of hours, Genius Season 1 is the perfect companion to Nolan’s Oppenheimer. This follows a different genius theoretical physicist – the great Albert Einstein – but the series deals with many of the same themes that Oppenheimer addresses so well. Here’s the backstory to Einstein’s eventual refusal to participate in the Manhattan Project.

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