Cillian Murphy is set to play genius American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man dubbed “the father of the atomic bomb”, in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming biopic, Oppenheimer.
The three-hour film, which will open in cinemas on July 21, is set to be utterly enthralling: Oppenheimer was not a straightforward character and the ethics of his work were clearly even more opaque.
Robert Downey Jr, who plays American businessman Lewis Strauss in the film, said that when Oppenheimer is released in cinemas, Murphy’s life is going to change – despite it being Murphy’s sixth Nolan film.
“The way your life is changing now as you’re going to be in front of this huge film,” said Downey Jr. to Murphy. “We always have two sets of feelings: one is, ‘that’s great, and I’ll have even more opportunities for roles’, and the other is, ‘what about my privacy?’”
Although Murphy is already rather famous, it’s true that fans of both Nolan and Murphy have been on tenterhooks waiting for the release of Oppenheimer, which is arguably both the actor and director’s biggest project yet.
On the eve of the release of the ambitious black-and-white drama, here is our pick of some of Murphy’s other best films.
28 Days Later (2002)
Danny Boyle’s 2002 drama has become a classic of the Zombie genre. Cillian Murphy is Jim, a bicycle courier who has suffered an accident. While he was in a coma in a London hospital, a highly contagious virus, which has been nicknamed ‘rage’, has ravaged the world, turning people into ravenous zombies, and there are few healthy survivors. Jim wakes up to find the city utterly abandoned and the film follows him and a small crew of people he picks up on the way as he attempts to find safety. No easy task, when it’s not just the zombies you need to worry about... Christopher Eccleston, Naomie Harris and Brendan Gleeson also star.
Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)
Peter Webber’s Oscar-nominated film tells the story behind one of the world’s most famous paintings, with Colin Firth starring as painter Johannes Vermeer and Scarlett Johansson playing Griet, the girl in the painting. Murphy plays Pieter, a butcher’s son who falls for Griet. The film was highly acclaimed by the critics, and picked up tens of awards and award nominations.
It’s a slow burner – The New York Times said, “Viewing this film has been likened to watching paint dry; actually it is more like watching a painting dry” – but the palpable tension between Firth and Johansson makes it a worthwhile watch: “Girl With a Pearl Earring at times surrounds itself with an art-gallery hush, but it is just so ambitious, and intriguing, and beautiful, you will find yourself immobile in front of its canvas, drinking in the details,” said The Guardian.
Red Eye (2005)
In horror director Wes Craven’s well-received thriller Red Eye, Rachel McAdams plays hotel manager Lisa Henrietta Reisert, who meets a man at the airport. To her happy surprise, he ends up sitting next to her on the plane. But Jackson Rippner (Murphy) ends up being a member of a terrorist cell that plans to assassinate the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. Her managerial position at the hotel the politician is staying at makes her a valuable asset. Given that it’s a red-eye flight, Rippner now has hours alone with Reisert where he can frighten and coerce her into enacting his nefarious plan.
Batman Begins (2005)
Christopher Nolan had only made three feature-length films before landing Batman Begins. The blockbuster film, which made $373.7 million worldwide at the Box Office, and turned Nolan into one of Hollywood’s most sought-after directors, also marked the beginning of his decades-long collaboration with Murphy.
The film tells Batman’s origin story, and stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, Michael Caine as his butler and guardian Alfred Pennyworth, and Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard, Bruce’s martial arts trainer, among other things. Murphy plays villain Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka the Scarecrow, a corrupt scientist who plans to release his terrible toxins on Gotham City.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
In this war film from Ken Loach, Cillian Murphy and Pádraic Delaney star as Damien and Teddy O’Donovan, two brothers who sign up to fight in the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921) against the English. Despite winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2006, the film was not a slam dunk with the critics. But Loach successfully painted a complicated picture of the tortuous events of the war – an admirable thing to attempt.
“It is not simply a denunciation of British beastliness, but an evocation of the futility and fratricidal despair Ireland encountered and somehow even embraced on attaining self-government,” explained The Guardian.
Sunshine (2007 film)
Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne and Mark Strong star alongside Michelle Yeoh in this Danny Boyle-directed sci-fi thriller set in 2057. The sun is dying much, much, earlier than expected, so a group of astronauts are sent on a perilous mission to try and reignite it. The idea is a very human one: Planet Earth decides to drop a giant bomb on the sun to jump-start it. But, as always with space, things are wildly precarious, and almost immediately things start to go wrong. Although the film didn’t do brilliantly at the Box Office, and wasn’t heralded by critics either, it certainly gets the heart pumping.
Inception (2010)
Christopher Nolan and Murphy collaborated once again in Inception. The mind-bender of a film turns on the idea that when humans make decisions, these decisions draw on a series of deeply planted ideas and motivations – many of which stretch back to a person’s childhood.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cob, a man who leads a team of “extractors” whose job it is to go into people’s subconscious and either find hidden information, or plant ideas which will later bear fruit. But playing with and entering into people’s minds is a dangerous business and Dom starts to lose track of reality.
Meanwhile, he’s hired to complete a near-impossible job. He must plant an idea so deeply in the mind of business empire heir Robert Michael Fischer (Murphy), that upon his father’s death, Fischer will dissolve his father’s corporation, believing it to be his own decision.
The film was a huge success, making a whopping $836.8 million worldwide and winning four Oscars. It also starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe and Marion Cotillard, and had an extraordinary score composed by Hans Zimmer.
Anna (2019)
Five years after the success of Luc Besson’s action drama Lucy, came Anna. The central character is still an utterly gorgeous blonde (this time it is Sasha Luss rather than Scarlett Johansson), but Anna is far from a helpless bystander. She’s trained as a KGB agent, who is promised that after five years of work, she’ll be permitted to leave the agency. Fleeing a life of poverty and domestic abuse, Anna agrees to join up in order to change her circumstances: she goes undercover as a fashion model, completing missions. But things take a turn when the KGB backs out of their agreement, and the CIA persuades her to become a double agent.
As could be expected from the controversial, action-loving director, the ensuing drama is full-on and thrilling. Murphy plays CIA handler Leonard Miller.
