I was a US nuclear missile operator. I’m grateful for the Oppenheimer film

‘The questions that the film’s director Christopher Nolan places at the center of Oppenheimer don’t feel theoretical to me.’ Photograph: Album/Alamy

Audiences are rushing to theaters to see Oppenheimer. Early buzz is that this movie will be one of the blockbusters of the summer.

One reason for the interest: the film is loaded with the philosophical questions J Robert Oppenheimer and his team faced while developing the first atomic bomb. Do nuclear weapons make us safer? Will they inspire an arms race that will push humanity into extinction? Is it possible this weapon will lead to the destruction of the world?