Where was Oppenheimer filmed?

Christopher Nolan's 2023 epic follows the physicist who led the race to build the atomic bomb, and true to form Nolan avoided soundstages wherever he could. He rebuilt 1940s Los Alamos as a full set out on the New Mexico desert and filmed on the real campuses where the young Oppenheimer taught.

In the town of Los Alamos, scenes were shot around Fuller Lodge, the log-built dining hall of the ranch school the Manhattan Project took over. The wartime town and the Trinity countdown tower were recreated on the red-rock landscape of Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu, the desert retreat Georgia O'Keeffe made famous. Oppenheimer's early professor years play out on the University of California campus at Berkeley.

Santa Fe makes the natural base for New Mexico, with Los Alamos and Ghost Ranch each an easy drive north into high desert of red mesas and enormous skies. Fuller Lodge and the Manhattan Project sites are open in town, and Ghost Ranch welcomes day visitors and hikers. Berkeley sits across the bay from San Francisco, a short ride away.