Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer will gratefully come to theaters despite two major strikes going on in Hollywood. However, while Nolan’s magnum-Oppen-opus is already being hailed as a masterpiece by those who’ve seen it, the name of the group chat of its cast might be an even more flawless gem.
The plot of Oppenheimer, which stars Cillian Murphy as the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, centers around the creation of the first atomic bomb during World War II in which an international team of scientists, led by the titular protagonist, engage in top-secret laboratory experiments in New Mexico called the Manhattan Project.
The historical event itself represented the coming together of a jaw-dropping list of rockstar scientists at the time such as Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller, and Niels Bohr, among many others. Even Albert Einstein himself provided the letter to Franklin Delano Roosevelt that convinced the president to develop the weapon in the first place, though the general relativity theory discoverer was not part of the nuclear bomb’s creation thereafter. It’s no wonder that the cast of the Oppenheimer film also represents an ensemble of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Other than Murphy, the film also stars Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Bennie Safdie, Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Modine, Gary Oldman, and Josh Hartnett, among many others. However, what is arguably more extraordinary than the cast itself is the name of their collective group chat. All of the aforementioned actors are on one giant WhatsApp thread titled “Oppenhomies,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Remarking on Oppenheimer’s unprecedented ensemble, Downey Jr. said: “It was the cast of Ben-Hur […] Everybody would have their moments. There were no small scenes.”
It’s a good thing Oppenheimer is coming out when it is because it seems to have narrowly dodged any kind of consequence from the dual strikes occurring with the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild. As a testament to this close call, Murphy, Damon, and Blunt had to abruptly exit the red carpet premiere of Oppenheimer when the SAG strike commenced Thursday, as we previously reported.