Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has landed in cinemas, gripping viewers with its true tale.

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The film follows the story of J Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist who was involved in the creation of the world's first nuclear weapon.

Accompanying the explosive epic is an equally arresting, string-infused soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson, which mirrors the titular character’s rollercoaster of emotions throughout the movie and heightens the intensity and impact of the plot.

“Ludwig’s work on the film is both deeply personal and historically expansive," Nolan, who collaborated previously with Göransson on 2020's Tenet, explained in the film's production notes.

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He added: "It achieves the effect of building out an emotional world to accompany the visual world that Ruth De Jong designed and Hoyte van Hoytema shot, and it draws the audience into the emotional dilemmas of the characters and their interactions with the vast geopolitical situations that they’re confronting."

Nolan further explained that, while he essentially gave Göransson free rein, he did suggest that basing the score on violin might be appropriate.

"There’s something about the violin to me that seemed very apt to Oppenheimer," he said. "The tuning is precarious and totally at the mercy of the playing and emotion of the player. It can be very beautiful one moment and turn frightening or sour instantly.

"So, there’s a tension - a neurosis - to the sound that I think fits the highly strung intellect and emotion of Robert Oppenheimer.”

Read on for the full list of tracks included in the score, as well as everything you need to know about how to listen to the soundtrack.

Oppenheimer soundtrack

Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock in Oppenheimer, crying
Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock in Oppenheimer. YouTube/Universal

When fans of Nolan think of his films, they will often think of the epic music that accompanies them – whether it's Ludwig Göransson's futuristic soundtrack in Tenet or Hans Zimmer’s intense and eerie music in Dunkirk.

And Oppenheimer is no different.

All tracks were written and produced by Ludwig Göransson, while Thomas Kotcheff provided additional writing on Trinity and Something More Important.

  1. Fission
  2. Can You Hear the Music
  3. A Lowly Shoe Salesman
  4. Quantum Mechanics
  5. Gravity Swallows Light
  6. Meeting Kitty
  7. Groves
  8. Manhattan Project
  9. American Prometheus
  10. Atmospheric Ignition
  11. Los Alamos
  12. Fusion
  13. Colonel Pash
  14. Theorists
  15. Ground Zero
  16. Trinity
  17. What We Have Done
  18. Power Stays in the Shadows
  19. The Trial
  20. Dr Hill
  21. Kitty Comes to Testify
  22. Something More Important
  23. Destroyer of Worlds
  24. Oppenheimer

When can I buy the Oppenheimer soundtrack on vinyl?

Göransson’s Oppenheimer score is available to stream on Spotify and other platforms now.

You can also buy the CD on Amazon if you want to own it for yourself, while a vinyl version can be pre-ordered from Mondo.

Oppenheimer is in UK cinemas now. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.

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Authors

Patrick Cremona, RadioTimes.com's senior film writer looking at the camera and smiling
Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer

Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.

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