Christopher Nolan says the ending of 'Oppenheimer' drives home the idea that we now live in a world created by the father of the atomic bomb and 'we always will'

• Warning: Spoilers below if you haven't seen 'Oppenheimer."
• The ending is a chilling reminder of the world we live in due to J. Robert Oppenheimer's actions.

Like all of Christopher Nolan's movies, "Oppenheimer" concludes with a powerful ending. This one, in particular, will have moviegoers thinking deeply about the world we live in today, and how the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, changed it forever.

Insider spoke to Nolan about the ending of his latest movie. Here's what happens in the final scenes and how they're supposed to make you feel, according to the director himself.

2 things are revealed leading up to the final shots of the movie

The first vital reveal is that Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) was the one who secretly orchestrated the hearings that led to Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) being stripped of his security clearances as a member of the Atomic Energy Commission's General Advisory Council.

The movie shows Strauss felt humiliated by Oppenheimer years earlier when he made a snide remark about Strauss while speaking at a public nuclear hearing. In retaliation, Strauss saw these trials, which crippled Oppenheimer's reputation, as his own mic drop on his way to obtaining a cabinet position in President Eisenhower's administration.

However, things backfired for Strauss, who was denied the position.

The second revelation calls back to an earlier moment from the film.

Earlier in the story, long before the hearings, we see Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein (Tom Conti) speaking by a pond after Strauss offers Oppenheimer to head the Institute for Advanced Study.

We see the conversation only from Strauss' point of view, which is yards away. We cannot hear what is said.

But when Einstein leaves Oppenheimer and walks past Strauss, never addressing him, the egotistical Strauss believes the two said something rude about him.

The ending reveals that conversation. It had nothing to do with Strauss.

In their chat, Oppenheimer reminds Einstein of a time years prior when he brought Einstein his findings that setting off the atomic bomb could begin a chain reaction, potentially igniting the world on fire and destroying it.

Thankfully, that didn't happen.

Or did it?

Oppenheimer tells Einstein that the creation of the atom bomb will, in fact, destroy the world as we know it due to nuclear war.

Einstein, distraught, walks away, right past Strauss without saying a word.

The movie then cuts to many years later. Oppenheimer is an old man, receiving an award from the president and acclaim, just as Einstein predicted he would. A "forgiveness" less for him and what he was put through and more for "them," he told Oppenheimer.

Then come the movie's final moments.

The final shots of the movie are chilling

We're shown an extension of a shot from earlier in the movie where Oppenheimer looks up at a giant nuclear missile.

The extended shot reveals it's not just a single missile, but a row of them. They are launched into the sky.

We see a view of Earth from space, areas of the world are on fire. Nuclear war is destroying the planet.

Insider asked Nolan why he would end the movie in such a chilling way. He admitted he wasn't ready yet to speak about the specific shots, but he did comment on their meaning.

"The ending was one of the first things that was defined for me in how I was going to write the script and everything in the film builds to that," he said. "I am on record as saying I view Oppenheimer as the most important person who has ever lived, and that ending is intended to reflect that."

"He is a person whose actions changed the world irrevocably," he continued. "Like it or not, we live in his world and we always will. And the ending is designed to reflect that and make that clear to people."