Oppenheimer (2023)
- Documented locations
- 34
- Year
- 2023
- Directed by
- Christopher Nolan
- Cities
- Los Alamos, Abiquiu, Lamy, Belen, Santa Fe, Alhambra, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Sierra Madre, Santa Clarita, Universal City, Berkeley, Princeton, Zürich, Einsiedeln, Cambridge
King's College (Cambridge)
Cambridge, United Kingdom
The scene : 6 minOppenheimer studying in England, the view of the Cam, and the apple he injects with cyanide for his tutor.
Einsiedeln, Switzerland
Benedictine abbey and pilgrimage site in the canton of Schwyz, founded around the year one thousand. The current complex is in the baroque style and is considered one of the Swiss cultural heritage sites of national importance; it houses one of the oldest libraries in the country.
The scene : 7 minThe abbey appears on screen during a flyover, in the sequence that follows Oppenheimer across Europe.
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, United States
Einstein taught and lived there for many years without ever being officially affiliated. The woods and gardens of the institute are open to visitors, the buildings are not.
The scene : 9 minStrauss meets Oppenheimer for the first time on the campus of the institute, and it is also where Oppenheimer comes to find Richard Feynman.
Zürich, Switzerland
Founded in 1833, the University of Zurich is a multidisciplinary university; its main building borders Rämistrasse, adjacent to the Federal Institute of Technology.
The scene : 15 minAerial view of the university during the European years of Oppenheimer.
Edgar W Camp House
Sierra Madre, United States
Craftsman-style house built in 1904 according to the plans of architects Greene and Greene. It is listed by the Cultural Heritage Commission of Sierra Madre.
The scene : 20 minFrank takes his brother to a rally in this large wooden house; Oppenheimer notices Jean Tatlock there, and their story begins. The filming occupies the living room, the upstairs bedroom, and the garden.
Sierra Madre, United States
The scene : 27 minOppenheimer and Jean Tatlock talk about what they mean to each other in front of the theater; a little further down the same street, Alvarez bursts out of the barber shop, half-shaven, in a scene that the film places in Berkeley.
Princeton, United States
The vaulted passage of East Pyne Hall was dedicated in 2022 to James Collins Johnson.
The scene : 48 minOppenheimer and Groves walk through the arched passage of the building, having come to Princeton to seek Richard Feynman.
Edwards Stadium
Berkeley, United States
Athletics stadium of the University of California, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It houses Goldman Field.
The scene : 1 hr 7 minA scene takes place on the track and the lawn of the stadium, which the film sets in Chicago.
Millennium Biltmore Hotel
Los Angeles, United States
Grand historic hotel from 1923, located in downtown Los Angeles. It was designed by Schultze & Weaver.
The scene : 1 hr 14 minThe Renaissance hall serves as the backdrop for the reunion with Jean Tatlock: she calls, he arrives, and the narrative places the scene in San Francisco.
Physics South (UC Berkeley)
Berkeley, United States
The building was called LeConte Hall until 2021, the year the university renamed it Physics South. It, along with Physics North, the former Birge Hall, makes up the campus's physics complex.
The scene : 1 hr 18 minThe film sets up the office that the physicist occupied at Berkeley — in the very building where he worked.
Los Alamos, United States
Built in 1928 to the plans of architect John Gaw Meem, using 770 ponderosa pine logs, the building was the dining hall of the Los Alamos Ranch School before becoming the community center for employees of the Manhattan Project. It is the largest of the school’s buildings still standing; it currently houses an art center.
The scene : 1 hr 24 minIn front of the building, Oppenheimer faces the ovation of his teams after the announcement of Hiroshima, not knowing what to make of it; it is also here that he declares that the name of Los Alamos may one day be cursed.
Oppenheimer House
Los Alamos, United States
Built in 1929, the house belonged to the Los Alamos Ranch School before the Manhattan Project took over the site. J. Robert Oppenheimer lived there from 1943 to 1945 with his wife Kitty and their children Toni and Peter. It borders the section of Peach Street nicknamed Bathtub Row, because these houses were the only ones on site to have bathtubs; it now belongs to the Los Alamos Historical Society.
The scene : The scenes of domestic life of the Oppenheimers are shot in the house they actually lived in: it is there that Kitty, seeing her husband return, realizes that the test will go all the way.
Civilian Women's Dormitory
Los Alamos, United States
The T-101 is one of the very first dormitories built on the mesa, designed by architect Willard C. Kruger, who is also responsible for many of the non-military facilities of Project Y. It housed women employed at the site; of the four dormitories of this type in Project Y, it is the only one still standing, and one of the few remaining buildings from the Manhattan Project in the town of Los Alamos. The National Park Service describes it as a civil personnel dormitory, while other sources refer to it as that of the Women's Army Corps. Acquired in 1967 by the Los Alamos Christian Science Society, it served for worship until 2019.
The scene : The old dormitory serves as a laboratory: it is the room where the progress of uranium and plutonium stocks is read in bowls of glass beads that fill slowly. The building has been restored to its 1940s appearance for the filming.
Los Alamos, United States
The building was transported from Santa Fe to Los Alamos in 1946, and then expanded under the authority of the Atomic Energy Commission. It took the name United Church in 1947, hosting several denominations under the same roof.
The scene : It is in a church meeting room that the physicists assemble the bomb intended for the test.
Los Alamos, United States
The meeting point of the Manhattan Project community, the pond still serves today as a public space in Los Alamos.
The scene : The pond at the heart of the city, where the community of the Manhattan Project gathered, appears on screen.
Los Alamos, United States
The trail crosses two canyons of the Rio Grande Valley. It has been used since 1887, initially by Hispanic settlers who drove cattle and wagons through it.
The scene : It is in the canyons north of the city that the couple confronts each other, after the death of Jean Tatlock. Oppenheimer comes there to seek comfort from Kitty; she coldly denies him.
Ghost Ranch
Abiquiu, United States
A domain of 8,500 hectares in northern New Mexico, about sixty kilometers from Los Alamos. It was the property of Georgia O'Keeffe, donated to the Presbyterian Church in 1955.
The scene : All of 1940s Los Alamos has been rebuilt here: Oppenheimer and Kitty arrive by car on the main street of the set, between the security gate, the barracks, and the church.
Lamy, United States
The Spanish Mission-style train station replaced the two-story wooden structure built in 1881. It belongs to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe line and is still served by Amtrak. It is from here that arrivals were taken to 109 E. Palace Avenue, in Santa Fe, to receive their secret badge.
The scene : The platform of this isolated stop is the first image of New Mexico for the recruited physicists: they step off the train with their suitcases, before the long road to the mesa.
Belen
Belen, United States
The scene : The Trinity test site has been reconstructed in the municipality: the metal tower about thirty meters tall that holds the device, and in the distance, the observation bunker from which Oppenheimer watches the detonation.
Bataan Memorial Building
Santa Fe, United States
The building was the State Capitol of New Mexico until 1966. It occupies an entire city block, with facades on Don Gaspar Avenue and Galisteo Street.
The scene : Lewis Strauss waits in a separate office while the Senate reviews his nomination for the Secretary of Commerce, then faces the audience itself — two rooms in the same building, which the film locates in Washington.
The Alhambra (Alhambra)
Alhambra, United States
Office campus of the San Gabriel Valley, located about fifteen kilometers northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The scene : Neither courtroom nor gallery: the Atomic Energy Commission examines Oppenheimer's authorization in a cramped office, where he is questioned at close range — the adjoining hallway serves as well.
The Ebell of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, United States
The scene : Meeting rooms, amphitheater, and corridors of the club serve for several sequences, including the meeting between Oppenheimer and Werner Heisenberg, which the story places in Switzerland.
Los Angeles, United States
Women's Club and historic theater of Los Angeles (1927), at the corner of Lucerne Boulevard and 8th Street. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and in the Neo-Renaissance style.
The scene : The theater of the Ebell complex provides other interiors, listed separately from those of the neighboring club.
Pasadena, United States
Municipal auditorium inaugurated in 1931.
The scene : A sequence is filmed in the Gold Room of the auditorium.
Los Angeles, United States
The scene : The campus hosts Oppenheimer's classes and lectures, as well as the speech he delivers after receiving his award.
Santa Clarita, United States
The scene : Sources cite the municipality as one of the filming locations for the film, without naming a specific site.
Universal Stage 19
Universal City, United States
The scene : Truman receives Oppenheimer in the Oval Office and sends him away, calling him a crybaby.
Berkeley, United States
The scene : The production takes a trip back in time on this campus walkway: antique street lamps and vintage cars bring it back to the 1940s.
Berkeley, United States
The scene : One of the campus buildings chosen for the Berkeley period sequences.
Princeton, United States
The scene : The pond of the estate, where the conversation between Oppenheimer and Einstein takes place that opens the film and returns at the end.
Olden Manor
Princeton, United States
The house was built in 1719 by John Olden, on two hundred of the three hundred thirty-three acres granted to him by his father William. John and Mary Olden raised nine children there and participated in the Quaker life of Stony Brook; a later owner, possibly their son James, enlarged it at the end of the century. The west wing, the lowest part, is the original section. The Institute for Advanced Study owns it and houses its director there.
The scene : The director's residence, where the couple settles after the war; filming takes place in both the rooms and the surroundings.
Princeton, United States
The scene : The vaulted passage that General Groves and the physicist walk through to persuade a young theorist to follow them to New Mexico.
Zürich, Switzerland
The scene : The collegiate church appears for a few seconds in the aerial shot that sets the scene in Zurich.
Switzerland
Dam lake of the Canton of Schwyz.
The scene : It is above this dam lake that the helicopter spent most of its filming day, for the aerial shots of the European segment.