Oppenheimer soundtrack: All the tracks in Christopher Nolan's epic
Swedish musician Ludwig Göransson composed the score for the new film.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has landed in cinemas, gripping viewers with its true tale.
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.
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Oppenheimer soundtrack
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.
- Fission
- Can You Hear the Music
- A Lowly Shoe Salesman
- Quantum Mechanics
- Gravity Swallows Light
- Meeting Kitty
- Groves
- Manhattan Project
- American Prometheus
- Atmospheric Ignition
- Los Alamos
- Fusion
- Colonel Pash
- Theorists
- Ground Zero
- Trinity
- What We Have Done
- Power Stays in the Shadows
- The Trial
- Dr Hill
- Kitty Comes to Testify
- Something More Important
- Destroyer of Worlds
- 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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