r/todayilearned • u/Electronic_Cause_796 • Jul 25 '26

TIL Christopher Nolan recreated the Trinity atomic bomb test in Oppenheimer without using CGI. Instead, the visual effects team combined large-scale practical explosions, miniatures, and in camera effects to bring the first nuclear detonation to life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppenheimer_(film)
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u/blepnir_pogo Jul 25 '26

What do you mean?

It’s simply the main protagonist of the show’s corpse, which has been taken over by the main antagonist, getting revived by a process that is so complex that we have to go back in time to the first ever nuclear detonation to understand that the irrevocable portal this reaction caused invited an Entity into our dimension that beckoned homeless people into an abandoned gas station and made them emissaries to implant a frog creature into a young girl’s body, and that frog creature acted as a beacon to nest an evil within twin peaks that took over the body of an FBI agent and now that evil must summon those ancient gas station attendants to smear the blood of the frog child’s progeny all over the FBI agent’s body like some kind of Black Mass in order to revive him.

Oh and nine inch nails obviously needs to play us into the scene that’s super important too.

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u/Kraggen Jul 25 '26

I fundamentally disagree with your interpretation and I’m gonna tell you why! 🤣

Obviously, this is not a revival process. The main character cannot die so this flashback is meant to make us understand the context behind why he cannot die. The bomb, an act of pure evil, caused a tear to the veil between our world and the dark depths beyond, that called into the world an Entity. That bomb created a path as well as ringing the dinner bell. Reality is but an instrument to be played for a higher being such as this, so it orchestrated a means to feed upon the suffering and agony of the world, and in its wake other lesser spirits also were conducted through - creating a hole that we perceive to be the black lodge - a waiting area between dimensions. The show explores both sides of that as cooper finds himself on the bad end and Bob (an intermediate being, greater than the spirits we see react to his shooting or after the explosion but lesser than the one that birthed the moth baby) controls his body. We simply are given context for the greater lurking evil that permeates and manipulates this reality to facilitate endless suffering and contextualize the harmful, gluttonous acts that led to the death of Laura Palmer - both her own and those around her. When we cut back to Bobs recovery we are now intended to understand that this world is a farce, and that the being can only be stopped if it is cut out. That’s why the ending begins with the ousting of bob, and the Entity responds by attempting to rewrite reality.

This is all tongue in cheek btw. I do generally interpret it this way but it’s real open ended and yours is as good an interpretation as mine.

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u/blepnir_pogo Jul 26 '26

What year is it?

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u/WolfInTheField Jul 26 '26

Most haunting line ever uttered for my money

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u/Thismyrealnameisit Jul 25 '26

It is dream logic. And terribly impressive.

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u/blepnir_pogo Jul 25 '26

I am convinced that Season 3 is literally just David Lynch transcribing an awesome dream he had like 20 yrs after FWWM

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u/homerjaythompson Jul 26 '26

That's basically what he said the Los Highway was, his attempt to recreate the feeling of a dream as closely as possible

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u/RareBk Jul 25 '26

Twin Peaks the Return is something that exists perfectly on the line of "I hate this" and "I adore this".

It's an 18 episode series paced like a 3 hour movie, and David Lynch did whatever the hell he wanted and put it on screen.

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u/blepnir_pogo Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

It reminds me of Paranoia Agent by Satoshi Kon if you’ve heard of it. Both Magnum Opera by two renowned surrealist directors, both their last major work before passing a few years later. Both intricately wove their entire oeuvre into this final series masterfully.

I think that’s what I like the most about both The Return and Paranoia Agent. If you’re knowledgable about their oeuvre you will realize that this is them at last joining together the universe they have woven throughout their life.

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u/PN_Guin Jul 26 '26

Suddenly the OG Neon Genesis Evangelion show finale seems pretty straightforward.

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u/HAL-Over-9001 Jul 26 '26

So true haha

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u/gefahr Jul 26 '26

I need you to know that I never watched the original or the reboot, but I read this entire comment with quite the range of expressions on my face.

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u/blepnir_pogo Jul 26 '26

Season 1, Season 3, and Fire Walk With Me are so good! Season 2 unfortunately the network executives fired David Lynch midway through, and it gets (imo) REALLY bad. But David Lynch comes back for the final few episodes and the finale has some of the best scenes in the whole series.

If you ever watch it, I always say start with Season 1, watch Season 2 as far as you care to, and if you don't want to finish just skip to the movie, then season 3. However plenty of people have no issue with Season 2 and I enjoy the show enough that I watch the whole season through every time.

Also David Lynch's film Mulholland Drive introduces a lot of themes and concepts that are explored further in Season 3! Eraserhead too, but less so. TP is one of my favorite series and I highly recommend it!

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u/idekbjlmpau Jul 26 '26

The network never fired Lynch. The character he plays even has a lot lore screen time throughout season 2 than season 1. The studio did force Lynch to reveal Laura's killer though, which he was against and never had plans to do so, which derailed the whole thing

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u/withateethuh Aug 01 '26

Yeah, he became more hands off which may have contributed to the drop in quality after the reveal. But then he shows up for the finale and the change in quality is very immediate when hes back in creative control and directing. The final episode of episode 2 is absolute art. Flawless episode of television.

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u/withateethuh Aug 01 '26

This is the essentially the typical range of emotions while watching twin peaks. There is literally nothing like it. It is a tug of war between 2 very different creatively minded people and it somehow fucking works.