Oppenheimer has been praised for its portrayal of the creation of the atomic bomb. Nature spoke to three scientists involved in the film’s production.
《奥本海默》因其对原子弹制造的描绘而受到称赞。《自然》杂志采访了参与这部电影制作的三位科学家。
Oppenheimer won big at last night’s Oscars, scooping 7 awards out of 13 nominations, including best picture. The film has been lauded for its accurate portrayal of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life, and its examination of both the human and scientific toll of the Manhattan Project, the research programme that developed the atomic bomb in the 1940s at Los Alamos in New Mexico.
《奥本海默》在昨晚的奥斯卡颁奖典礼上大获全胜，在13项提名中获得了7个奖项，包括最佳影片。这部电影因其对物理学家罗伯特·奥本海默（J. Robert Oppenheimer）生平的准确描绘以及对曼哈顿计划（Manhattan Project）的人员和科学损失的考察而受到称赞，曼哈顿计划是1940年代在新墨西哥州洛斯阿拉莫斯（Los Alamos）开发原子弹的研究计划。
To ensure the film was as accurate as possible, director Christopher Nolan turned to several science advisers for information on Oppenheimer and his life, and the project itself, which culminated in the Trinity Bomb nuclear test on 16 July 1945 and the subsequent bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, bringing the Second World War to a close at immense human cost.
为了确保这部电影尽可能准确，导演克里斯托弗·诺兰（Christopher Nolan）向几位科学顾问寻求有关奥本海默及其生平以及项目本身的信息，最终导致1945年7月16日的三一原子弹核试验以及随后对日本广岛和长崎的轰炸，以巨大的人力代价结束了第二次世界大战。
Nature spoke to three of those advisers for some behind-the-scenes insight into the film’s creation.
《自然》杂志采访了其中三位顾问，了解了这部电影创作的幕后花絮。
Robbert Dijkgraaf, a theoretical physicist and currently the Dutch minister for education, was the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, from 2012 to 2022, a job Oppenheimer had also held, from 1947 to 1966. Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is a close friend of Nolan’s and had worked with him on a number of previous projects, including the depiction of the gargantuan black hole in the film Interstellar (2014). And David Saltzberg, a physicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, worked as a scientific consultant for other productions, such as The Big Bang Theory, before applying his expertise to Oppenheimer.
理论物理学家、现任荷兰教育部长罗伯特·迪克格拉夫 （Robbert Dijkgraaf） 于 2012 年至 2022 年担任新泽西州普林斯顿高等研究所所长，奥本海默在 1947 年至 1966 年期间也曾担任过这一职务。帕萨迪纳加州理工学院的理论物理学家基普·索恩（Kip Thorne）是诺兰的密友，曾与他合作过许多以前的项目，包括电影《星际穿越》（2014）中对巨大黑洞的描绘。加州大学洛杉矶分校（University of California， Los Angeles）的物理学家大卫·萨尔茨伯格（David Saltzberg）在将他的专业知识应用于《奥本海默》之前，曾担任《生活大爆炸》等其他作品的科学顾问。
What was your involvement in Oppenheimer?
你在《奥本海默》中参与了什么？
Dijkgraaf: In 2021, Nolan wanted to come and visit, to see the place where Oppenheimer had lived and worked for almost 20 years. I also lived in that house and, for 10 years, worked in the same office that Oppenheimer once used. We had a long discussion about Oppenheimer, but also about physics, which I loved.
迪克格拉夫：2021年，诺兰想来参观，看看奥本海默生活和工作了近20年的地方。我也住在那所房子里，在奥本海默曾经使用的同一间办公室工作了10年。我们讨论了奥本海默，也讨论了我喜欢的物理学。
Thorne: I spoke with Cillian Murphy about his portrayal of Oppenheimer for the movie. I knew Oppenheimer when I was a graduate student at Princeton, from 1962 to 1965, and a postdoc from 1965 to 1966, so there was some discussion about Oppenheimer as a person.
索恩：我和基里安·墨菲（Cillian Murphy）谈过他在电影中对奥本海默的刻画。1962年至1965年在普林斯顿大学读研究生时，我认识了奥本海默，1965年至1966年我做博士后，所以有一些关于奥本海默这个人的讨论。
Saltzberg: I was called in to help out with the production in scenes that were filmed in Los Angeles. I worked mostly with the prop manager. That involved things like deciding what was on the chalkboards, or what equations Oppenheimer handed to Einstein to show whether the atmosphere would catch fire.
萨尔茨伯格：我被要求帮忙制作在洛杉矶拍摄的场景。我主要与道具经理一起工作。这涉及到一些事情，比如决定黑板上有什么，或者奥本海默交给爱因斯坦什么方程式来显示大气层是否会着火。
Tell us about some of your interactions with the director and cast
跟我们谈谈你与导演和演员的一些互动
Dijkgraaf: Nolan visited Princeton twice to tour the premises. I remember we walked from the house to the institute. It’s this beautiful walk with nice trees. I remember telling him it’s the perfect commute, because Einstein and [Austrian physicist] Kurt Gödel always walked along that path. In the movie, Lewis Strauss meets Oppenheimer and he points out the house and says “it’s the perfect commute”. I thought, ‘wait a moment — this is a very familiar scene!’
迪克格拉夫：诺兰曾两次访问普林斯顿大学，参观了该校。我记得我们从房子走到研究所。这是一条美丽的步道，有漂亮的树木。我记得我告诉他这是完美的通勤方式，因为爱因斯坦和（奥地利物理学家）库尔特·哥德尔（Kurt Gödel）总是沿着这条路走。在电影中，刘易斯·施特劳斯遇到了奥本海默，他指着房子说“这是完美的通勤”。我想，’等一下，这是一个非常熟悉的场景！
I was struck that Nolan was really, really interested in what it means to be a physicist.
令我震惊的是，诺兰对成为一名物理学家的意义非常非常感兴趣。
I also remember he really appreciated the pond at the institute. Quite a few of the scenes in the movie are shot near the pond — it’s a favourite place for many people there. It’s a place to think and contemplate.
我还记得他真的很欣赏研究所的池塘。电影中的很多场景都是在池塘附近拍摄的——这是那里许多人最喜欢的地方。这是一个思考和沉思的地方。
Saltzberg: I sometimes had to explain the physics of a line of dialogue to the actors, enough that they knew the emotional truth of the line and why they were saying it. There was one particular line in the script which was incredibly complicated, about off-diagonal matrix elements and quantum mechanics. Even when I read it I had trouble understanding exactly what it was saying. Cillian really wanted me to explain it to him. We got there, I think, but it was difficult.
萨尔茨伯格：有时我不得不向演员解释一句对白的物理原理，让他们知道这句台词的情感真相以及他们为什么要说这句台词。剧本中有一句特别的台词非常复杂，是关于对角线外矩阵元素和量子力学的。即使当我读到它时，我也很难理解它在说什么。Cillian 真的很想让我向他解释。我想，我们到达了那里，但这很困难。
A similar thing happened with Josh Hartnett, who played [American nuclear physicist] Ernest Lawrence. Every time he had a spare moment, he would come and talk to me about physics. It was uncanny because he was already in makeup and costume. I never met Lawrence, but I’ve seen plenty of pictures, and it was just eerie. He looked like Lawrence walking around the room.
乔什·哈奈特（Josh Hartnett）也发生了类似的事情，他扮演了[美国核物理学家]欧内斯特·劳伦斯（Ernest Lawrence）。每次有空闲时间，他都会来和我聊物理。这很不可思议，因为他已经化了妆，穿上了戏服。我从未见过劳伦斯，但我看过很多照片，这简直令人毛骨悚然。他看起来像劳伦斯在房间里走来走去。
What did you make of the science in the movie?
你对电影中的科学有什么看法？
Saltzberg: It was wonderfully accurate. It’s really amazing. Christopher Nolan clearly understood the science.
萨尔茨伯格：这非常准确。真是太神奇了。克里斯托弗·诺兰（Christopher Nolan）清楚地了解科学。
There’s a scene in which Oppenheimer is writing on the chalkboard explaining that nuclear fission is impossible, when Lawrence walks in and says “well, [American physicist Luis Walter] Alvarez just did it next door”. So I had some equations put on the board that Oppenheimer might have had that proved fission is impossible. Most of the audience wouldn’t recognize that, but it made me feel good.
有一个场景是奥本海默在黑板上写字，解释核裂变是不可能的，这时劳伦斯走进来说：“好吧，[美国物理学家路易斯·沃尔特]阿尔瓦雷斯就在隔壁做了”。所以我在棋盘上放了一些奥本海默可能拥有的方程式，证明裂变是不可能的。大多数观众不会意识到这一点，但这让我感觉很好。
Dijkgraaf: It was really well done. I loved that the movie consistently looks through the eyes of Oppenheimer. The physics discussions were very good — the right equations were on the blackboards!
Dijkgraaf：这真的做得很好。我喜欢这部电影始终如一地通过奥本海默的眼睛看。物理讨论非常好——正确的方程式都在黑板上！
What was Oppenheimer like as a person?
奥本海默是一个什么样的人？
Thorne: He was just a superb mentor, extremely effective. He had enormous breadth and an extremely quick mind. He had this amazing ability to grasp things very quickly and see connections, which was a major factor in his success as the leader of the atomic bomb project.
索恩：他只是一个极好的导师，非常有效。他有巨大的广度和极快的头脑。他有这种惊人的能力，可以非常迅速地掌握事物并看到联系，这是他作为原子弹项目领导者成功的主要因素。
Dijkgraaf: He was both a scientific leader and a government adviser. At that time, Einstein, who was quite crucial in starting up the atomic bomb project, really turned into a father of the peace movement. A character who wasn’t in the movie, [Hungarian-American mathematician] John von Neumann, wanted to bomb the Soviet Union, so he was completely on the opposite side. Oppenheimer was trying to walk the reasonable path between those two extremes, and he was punished for it. So I often feel his character generates these mixed feelings. It’s a fascinating example for anyone who wants to be a scientist and play a role in public debate.
迪克格拉夫：他既是科学领袖，又是政府顾问。当时，在启动原子弹项目方面颇为关键的爱因斯坦，真正变成了和平运动之父。电影中没有出现的角色，[匈牙利裔美国数学家]约翰·冯·诺依曼（John von Neumann），想轰炸苏联，所以他完全站在了对立面。奥本海默试图在这两个极端之间走合理的道路，他因此受到了惩罚。所以我经常觉得他的性格产生了这些复杂的感觉。对于任何想成为科学家并在公共辩论中发挥作用的人来说，这都是一个引人入胜的例子。
Is it satisfying to see a science-based film get such recognition at the Oscars?
看到一部基于科学的电影在奥斯卡颁奖典礼上获得这样的认可，是否令人满意？
Thorne: It’s wonderful it’s got this level of attention. It’s a film that has messages that are tremendously important for the era we’re in. Hopefully it raises the awareness of the danger of nuclear weapons and the crucial issue of arms control.
索恩：能得到如此程度的关注真是太好了。这部电影所传达的信息对我们所处的时代非常重要。希望它能提高人们对核武器危险和军备控制这一关键问题的认识。
Dijkgraaf: We often complain there’s no content in popular culture. For me, the biggest surprise was that this difficult movie about a difficult topic and a difficult man, shot in a difficult way, became a hit around the world. I feel that’s very encouraging. The hidden life of physicists has become a part of popular culture, and rightly so.
Dijkgraaf：我们经常抱怨流行文化中没有内容。对我来说，最大的惊喜是，这部关于一个困难的话题和一个困难的人的困难电影，以一种困难的方式拍摄，在世界范围内大受欢迎。我觉得这是非常令人鼓舞的。物理学家的隐秘生活已经成为流行文化的一部分，这是正确的。