All language subtitles for Oppenheimer 2023.cht

[rain pattering]

[rhythmic thudding]

[thudding intensifies]

- [thudding stops]
- [sighs]

[chairman] Dr. Oppenheimer.

Dr. Oppenheimer.

As we begin, I believe you have a
statement to read into the record.

Yes, Your Honor.

[board member] We're
not judges, Doctor.

No.

[quietly] Of course.

Members of the security board.

The so-called and derogatory
information in your indictment of me

cannot be fairly understood,

except in the context
of my life and my work.

[Senate aide] How
long did he testify?

Honestly, I forget.

The whole hearing took a month.

An ordeal.

I've only read the
transcripts, but... [clears throat]

Who'd want to
justify their whole life?

- You weren't there?
- As chairman, I wasn't allowed to be.

Are they really
going to ask about it?

It was years ago.

- Four years ago. [chuckles]
- Five.

Oppenheimer still
divides America.

The committee is gonna
want to know where you stood.

Senator Thurmond asked me to
say not to feel that you're on trial.

Aw. Funny, I didn't
till you just said that.

Really, Mr. Strauss--

It's Admiral.

Admiral Strauss.
This is a formality.

President Eisenhower has
asked you to be in his cabinet.

Senate really has no
choice but to confirm you.

And if they bring
up Oppenheimer?

When they bring up
Oppenheimer, you answer honestly.

No senator can deny
you did your duty.

It'll be uncomfortable.
[chuckles]

Who'd want to
justify their whole life?

[loud chattering]

[shutter clicks]

[prosecutor] Why did you
leave the United States?

I, uh, wanted to
study the new physics.

[chairman] Was
there nowhere here?

I thought Berkeley had the leading
theoretical physics department.

Yes. Once I had built it.

But first I had to go to Europe.

I went to Cambridge to
study under Patrick Blackett.

Were you happier
there than in America?

- Happier?
- Yes.

No.

No, I, uh...

I was homesick, um,

emotionally immature,

troubled by visions
of a hidden universe.

[energy pulsing]

Useless in the lab.

[glass shattering]

Christ, Oppenheimer.

Have you had any sleep?

Start again.

I need to go to
the lecture, sir.

Why?

It's Niels Bohr.

I'd completely forgot.

All right. [clears
throat] Let's go.

Oh, no, not you, Oppenheimer.
You finish coating those plates.

[students chattering, laughing]

[cupboard door closes]

[Bohr] Quantum physics
is not a step forward.

It is a new way to
understand reality.

Einstein's opened the door.

Now we are peering through,
seeing a world inside our world.

A world of energy and paradox
that not everyone can accept.

[energy pulsing]

[bell tolling]

[students chattering]

- Yeah-- Are you all right?
- [breathing heavily]

Niels, meet J.
Robert Oppenheimer.

What's the J stand for?

Nothing, apparently.

You were at my lecture. You
asked the only good question.

[Blackett] No one's
denying his insight.

It's his laboratory work that
leaves a little to be desired.

I heard you give
the same lectu--

At Harvard, yes, and you
asked the same question.

Why ask again?

Hadn't liked your answer.

Did you like it
better yesterday?

A lot.

You can lift the stone without being
ready for the snake that's revealed.

Now it seems you're ready.

But you don't enjoy the lab?

So get out of Cambridge
with its beakers and potions.

Go somewhere
they'll let you think.

[whispers] Where?

Göttingen.

- Born.
- Born.

Get to Germany.
Study under Max Born.

Learn the ways of theory.

I'll send word.

- Wormhole.
- [apple clatters]

How's your mathematics?

Not good enough for the
physicist he wants to be.

Algebra's like sheet music.

The important thing isn't
"can you read music?"

It's "can you hear it?"

Can you hear the music, Robert?

Yes, I can.

[no audible dialogue]

[rumbling]

[rhythmic thudding]

The senator from Wyoming.

Admiral Strauss,

I'm interested in your relationship
with Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.

You met him in 1947?

Correct.

You were commissioner of
the Atomic Energy Commission?

I was, but I actually met Robert
in my capacity as board member

of the Institute for
Advanced Study at Princeton,

because after the war
he was world renowned

as the great man of physics,

and I was determined to
get him to run the Institute.

Dr. Oppenheimer. An honor.

Mr. Strauss.

It's pronounced "straws."

Oh-ppenheimer, Oppenheimer.

Whatever way you say
it, they know I'm Jewish.

[chuckles]

I'm president of Temple
Emanu-El in Manhattan.

"Straws" is just the
Southern pronunciation.

Anyway, welcome
to the Institute.

I think you could
be very happy here.

Yes, well, you'll
love the commute.

The position comes with that
house for you and your wife,

and your-- Is it two children?

Yes, two.

I'm a great admirer
of your work.

And you're a physicist
by training, Mr. Strauss?

I'm sorry, common
room, four o'clock tea.

No, I'm not trained in
physics or anything else.

I'm a self-made man.

- Ah. I can relate to that.
- Really?

Yes, my father was one.

And this would be your office.

[birds chirping]

I'm told he's there
most afternoons.

You know, I've always wondered

why you didn't involve him
in the Manhattan Project.

Greatest scientific
mind of our time.

Of his time.

Einstein published
his Theory of Relativity

more than 40 years ago now.

But never embraced the
quantum world it revealed.

"God doesn't play dice."

Precisely.

You never thought of studying
physics formally, Mr. Strauss?

I had offers, but I
chose to sell shoes.

Lewis Strauss was once
a lowly shoe salesman.

No, just a shoe salesman.

[chuckles]

I'd love to introduce you.

No need.

I have known him for years.

Albert.

What was that?

What did you say to him?

Oh, he's fine.

Mr. Strauss, there are things in
my past you ought to be aware of.

Well, as chairman of the AEC, I
have access to your security file.

I've read it.

- You're not worried?
- No.

Why would I be worried after
everything you've done for your country?

Well, times change, Mr. Strauss.

Well, the purpose
of this institute

is to provide a haven
for independent minds.

That's you.

You are the man for the job.

Well, then I'll consider it.

I'll see you at the
AEC meeting tomorrow.

[scoffs]

This is one of the most prestigious
appointments in the country.

Yes, with a great commute.

That's why I'm considering it.

[McGee] So, Dr. Oppenheimer brought
your attention to his past associstions

before you appointed him?

- Yes.
- And they didn't concern you?

Just then I was entirely consumed
with what he must have said to Einstein

- to sour him on me.
- [gallery laughing]

But later?

Well, we all know
what happened later.

[prosecutor] Doctor,
your time in Europe,

you seemed to meet with a wide
range of other countries' physicists.

Yes, that's right.

Any Russians?

None that spring to mind.

If you'll just allow me to
continue with my statement--

Mr. Robb, you'll have ample
opportunity to cross-examine.

After Göttingen, I moved
on to Leiden in Holland,

where I first met Isidor Rabi.

[Rabi clears throat] Excuse me.

A Yank, lecturing
on the new physics?

This I have to hear.

I'm an American myself.

How surprising.

Let me know if you need
any help with the English.

[students laughing]

[speaking Dutch]

Wait, what's he saying?

No, thank you.

It's a long way to Zurich.

You get any skinnier, we're gonna
lose you between the seat cushions.

I'm Rabi.

Oppenheimer.

I caught your
lecture on molecules.

Caught some of it.

We're a couple of New York
Jews. How do you know Dutch?

Well, I thought I'd better learn
it when I got here this semester.

You learned enough Dutch in six weeks
to give a lecture on quantum mechanics?

Wanted to challenge myself.

Quantum physics wasn't
challenging enough.

- Schvitzer.
- Schvitzer?

- Show-off.
- [chuckles]

Dutch in six weeks, but
you never learned Yiddish?

They don't speak it so
much my side of the park.

Screw you.

- You homesick?
- Oh, you know it.

Ever get the feeling our kind
isn't entirely welcome here?

Physicists?

That's funny.

Not in the department.

They're all Jewish too.

Eat.

There's a German
you have to seek out.

- Heisenberg.
- Right.

[Heisenberg speaking German]

One might be led to the presumption
that behind the quantum world,

there still hides a real world
in which causality holds,

but such speculations seem to
us, to say it explicitly, fruitless.

Thank you. Have a great day.

- Werner. Wonderful.
- Thank you.

Dr. Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer, yes. I liked
your paper on molecules.

Probably because
you inspired it.

If I inspire anything else, let me
know. We could publish together.

I have to get back to America.

Why?

There's no one there taking
quantum mechanics seriously.

That's exactly why.

He's pining for the
canyons of Manhattan.

Canyons of New Mexico.

You're from New Mexico?

No. New York, but my brother
and I have a ranch outside Santa Fe.

That's the America
I miss right now.

- Then it's best you get home, cowboys.
- [Oppenheimer, Rabi chuckle]

That's him.

No, me and horses?
I don't think so.

Nice to meet you.

Did you ever encounter
Heisenberg again?

Not in person, no, but, uh...

you might say our paths crossed.

On returning to America,

I accepted positions at both
Caltech and up at Berkeley.

[people chattering]

[equipment clattering]

[sighs]

Dr. Lawrence, I presume?

- You must be Oppenheimer.
- Yes.

I hear you want to start a
school of quantum theory.

I am starting it. Next door.

They put you in there?

I asked for it. Wanted to be
close to you experimentalists.

Theory will get you
only so far, huh?

We're building a machine
to accelerate electrons.

Magnificent.

Would you like to help?

Build it? Oh, no. [chuckles]

No, no.

But I am working on
theories I'd like to test with it.

When do you start teaching?

I've got my first in an hour.

- Seminar?
- Pupil.

One student? That's it?

I'm teaching something
no one here has dreamt of.

But once people start hearing
what you can do with it--

There's no going back.

[door opens]

- Oh. I must have missed the--
- Mr. Lomanitz?

Nah--

Yeah.

Yes, this is it.

Please. Take a seat.

[clears throat]

What do you know about
quantum mechanics?

I have a grasp on the basics.

Then you're doing it wrong.

Is light made up of
particles or waves?

Quantum mechanics says
it's both. How could it be both?

- It can't.
- It can't.

But it is.

It's paradoxical,
and yet, it works.

Now...

Thank you.

Mr. Lomanitz.

You're gonna be okay.

Mr. Snyder.

Now let's consider a star.

A star.

A vast furnace
burning in outer space,

fire pushing outwards
against its own gravity.

Balanced.

But if that furnace cools

and gravity starts
winning, it contracts.

Density increases.

Correct. Increasing gravity.

- Increasing density.
- And?

It's a vicious cycle until...
What's the limit here?

[chuckles] I don't know.
See where the math takes us.

I guarantee it's somewhere
no one's been before.

Me?

Yes, you. Your math
is better than mine.

[students laughing]

[Bartlett]
Dr. Oppenheimer's file

contained details of
his activities in Berkeley.

Why would they have started a file
on Dr. Oppenheimer before the war?

Well, you'd have
to ask Mr. Hoover.

I'm asking you, Admiral Strauss.

Uh, my assumption is

that it was connected to his,
uh, left-wing political activities.

[door opens]

You shouldn't let them bring up
politics in the classroom, Oppie.

I wrote that.

Lawrence, you embrace
the revolution in physics.

Can't you see it
everywhere else?

Picasso, Stravinsky,
Freud, Marx.

Well, this is America,
Oppie. We had our revolution.

Seriously, keep
it out of the lab.

Well, out of the lab, my landlady is
having a discussion group tonight.

Interested?

I have sampled the
Berkeley political scene.

It's all just philosophy postgrads
and communists talking integration.

You don't care
about integration?

I want to vote for
it, not talk about it.

Especially on a Friday.

Come on. Let's eat.

I'm meeting my brother there.

[Bartlett] And how would these activities
have come to the attention of the FBI?

Well, if I remember correctly,

the FBI was taking license plates
outside suspected communist gatherings,

and his name popped up.

- Jesus Christ.
- Sorry.

- Frank.
- Robert.

Uh, you remember Jackie.

Evening.

Let's go.

[people chattering]

[student] Robert.

I want you to meet Chevalier.

Dr. Haakon Chevalier,
Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.

- Pleasure.
- Pleasure.

- This is my little brother, Frank.
- Hello.

- And this is--
- Still Jackie.

Hello, Still Jackie.

Chevalier, you're in languages?

And your reputation
precedes you.

What have you heard?

That you're teaching a
radical new approach to physics

I have no chance of understanding,
but I hadn't heard you're a Party member.

- I'm not.
- Not yet.

Frank and I are thinking of
joining. Just the other day, I was--

I support a range of causes.

The Spanish Civil War?

A democratic republic being
overthrown by fascist thugs, who wouldn't?

Our government. They think that
socialism is a bigger threat than fascism.

Not for long. Look at what
the Nazis are doing to the Jews.

I send funds to colleagues
in Germany to emigrate.

I have to do something.

My own work is so abstract.

- What are you working on?
- What happens to stars when they die.

Do stars die?

Well, if they do, they
cool, then collapse.

In fact, the bigger the star,
the more violent its demise.

Their gravity gets so
concentrated, it swallows everything.

Everything, even light.

Can that really happen?

The math says it can.

If we can get published, then perhaps
one day an astronomer finds one.

But right now, all I have is theory,
which can't impact people's lives.

Well, if you're going to
send money to Spain,

do it through the
Communist Party.

They can get it
to the front lines.

Mary sent me with these.

I'm Jean.

Robert.

Haakon Chevalier.

The union meeting
at Serber's last month.

Right, right, yes.

Oh, thank you.

[Chevalier] Robert here
says he's not a communist.

Well, then he doesn't
know enough about it.

I've read Das Kapital,
all three volumes.

Does that count?

It would make you better
read than most party members.

It's turgid stuff. There's some
thinking, "Ownership is theft."

"Property."

"Property"?

"Property," not "ownership."

I'm sorry, I read it in
the original German.

[chuckles]

- [Chevalier] Well...
- [glasses clink]

It's not about the book.

It's about the ideas.

And you sound uncommitted.

I'm committed to thinking freely
about how to improve our world.

Why limit yourself to one dogma?

You're a physicist. You
pick and choose rules?

Or do you use the discipline to
channel your energies into progress?

I like a little wiggle room.

Do you always
toe the party line?

I like my wiggle room too.

[panting]

- What?
- [laughs]

Wait, wait, wait.

- Unexpected.
- What?

For a physicist.

You only have a
shelf full of Freud?

Well, actually, my
background's more--

Jungian?

You know analysis?

When I was a postgrad at
Cambridge, I had a little trouble.

I'll bite.

I tried to poison my tutor.

Did you hate him?

I liked him very much.

You just needed to get laid.

Took my analyst two years,

and I don't think they
ever put it that succinctly.

You have everyone convinced you're
more complicated than you actually are.

We're all simple souls, I guess.

I'm not.

What's this?

Sanskrit.

You can read this?

I'm learning.

Read this.

Well, in this part, Vishnu
reveals his multi-armed self--

No.

Read the words.

"And now I am become Death."

[thunder rumbling]

"The destroyer of worlds."

[wind whistling]

[Oppenheimer] This'll do.

[wind howling]

It'll break before dawn.

Air cools overnight. Just
before dawn, it breaks.

Come on. Come on.

- [chuckles]
- [Lawrence sighs]

[grunts] So...

I'm getting married.

- Frank. Congratulations.
- Thank you.

To Jackie?

- Yeah, to Jackie.
- [Oppenheimer clears throat]

The waitress.

Oppie, you're
right. It's lettin' up.

I'm gonna go see
if there's any stars.

All your talk about the common man, but
Jackie's not good enough for you, hmm?

We join the Party, and you
can't hide your disapproval, why?

Is that because that's
supposed to be your thing?

I haven't joined
the Party, Frank.

And I don't think she should
have convinced you to either.

Half of the faculty
is communist.

Not that half.

I'm your brother, Frank,
and I want you to be cautious.

And I want to wring your neck.

I won't live my life
afraid to make a mistake.

You're happy, I'm happy.

So then I'm happy you're
happy that I'm happy.

I feel like I could see one of those
dark stars that you're working on.

You can't. That's
the whole point.

Their gravity swallows light.

It's like a kind
of hole in space.

Is Frank okay?

Yes. He just has
a shitty brother.

It is special here.

When I was a kid,

I thought if I could find a way

to combine physics
and New Mexico,

my life would be perfect.

[chuckles]

- Little remote for that.
- Yes.

Let's get some sleep.

That mesa we saw today, one
of my favorite places in the world.

Tomorrow we'll climb it.

[Lawrence] What's it called?

[Oppenheimer] Los Alamos.

I didn't expect
to see you today.

Do I have to make
an appointment?

[store bell jingles]

- Hey! Hey, get back here!
- Alvarez?

[Alvarez] Oppie! Oppie!

[Oppenheimer] What? What is it?

They've done it.
They've done it.

Hahn and Strassmann in Germany.
They split the uranium nucleus.

[Lawrence] How?

Bombarded it with neutrons.

It's a nuclear fission. They
did it, they split the atom.

It's not possible.

I'm gonna try to reproduce it.

See? Can't be done.

[Lawrence] Very elegant.

Quite clear.

- There's just one problem.
- Where?

Next door.

Alvarez did it.

But then look,

these fission pulses,
they're massive.

I've seen 30 of these
in the past ten minutes.

Theory will take
you only so far.

During the process,

extra neutrons boil off, which could
be used to split other uranium atoms.

Chain reaction. You're
thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?

You, me, and every other physicist
around the world who's seen the news.

What? What are we all thinking?

A bomb, Alvarez.

A bomb.

I told you, Robert, no
more fucking flowers.

- I don't understand what you want from me.
- I don't want anything from you.

- Well, you say that and then you call.
- Well, don't answer.

I'll always answer.

Fine. Just no more flowers.

You're not coming?

[Chevalier] You have to know
when you're beaten, Robert.

It's not that simple, Hoke.

- Chevalier, good to see you.
- [students] F-A-E-C-T! F-A-E-C-T!

Barbara, good to see you, and
the illustrious Dr. Oppenheimer.

- I'm Eltenton.
- Pleasure.

Please, please.

Might you say a word about
organized labor on campuses, yes?

Coming through! Coming through.

I work at Shell.

We've signed up chemists,
we signed up engineers,

so why not scientists
in academia?

[students chanting] Oppie!
Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!

[cheering, applauding]

Teachers are unionized.

- Why not professors?
- Don't you have somewhere to be?

Lawrence, academics
have rights too.

Look, it's not that. I've
got a group coming.

Oh. I'll sit in.

Not this one.

[door opens]

Richard. Dr. Bush. What
brings you two up north?

Richard, you tell Ruth I'll be
down to Pasadena Thursday.

[sighs]

Your paper on black holes is in!

Where's Hartland?

Get Hartland. Get Hartland.

September 1st, 1939. The
world's gonna remember this day.

[chuckles]

Oh, Hartland. Our
paper, it's in print.

We've been upstaged.

[Oppenheimer] During
the Battle of Britain,

I found myself
increasingly out of sympathy

with the policy of neutrality
that communists advocated.

But after Hitler invaded
Russia and we became allies,

these communist
sympathies, did they return?

No.

I need to make clear that
my changing views on Russia

did not mean a sharp break from
those who held different views.

For a year or two, and
during a previous marriage,

my wife Kitty had been a
Communist Party member.

[guests chattering, laughing]

This way. This is where
I keep the good stuff.

I thought this was
the Tolmans' house.

I live with them
while I'm at Caltech.

- Do you two need anything?
- [Oppenheimer] We're good, Ruthie.

So, you're a biologist.

Well, somehow I have
graduated to housewife.

Can you explain quantum
mechanics to me? Seems baffling.

Yes, it is.

Well, this glass, this drink,

this countertop, uh, our bodies,

all of it.

It's mostly empty space.

Groupings of tiny energy
waves bound together.

By what?

Forces of attraction strong
enough to convince us

that matter is solid, stop my
body passing through yours.

[chattering]

You're married to Dr. Harrison.

Not very.

There is someone that I feel--

Does she feel the same way?

Sometimes.

Not enough.

You know, I'm
going to New Mexico.

To my ranch, with
friends. You should come.

I meant with your husband.

Yes, you did.

'Cause you know it won't
make a bit of difference.

[Oppenheimer] Why
did you marry him?

I was lost and he was kind.

Lost?

Well, my previous
husband had died

and at 28 I wasn't really
ready to be a widow.

Who was your first husband?

Nobody. But my second
husband was Joe Dallet.

He was, um, from money, like me,

but he was a union organizer
in Youngstown, Ohio.

Fell hard.

[chuckles] How hard?

Hard enough to spend the next four
years living off beans and pancakes,

handing out the Daily
Worker at factory gates.

By 36, I just told Joe I
couldn't take it anymore.

Quit the Party. A year
later, I wanted him back.

Him, not the Daily Worker.

He said, "Swell, I'll meet
you on my way to Spain."

He went to fight
for the Loyalists?

And then he went to the
brigades and I waited, and...

Joe got himself killed first time he
popped his head outta the trench.

Ideology got Joe
killed. For nothing.

Spanish Republic isn't nothing.

My husband offered both our
futures to stop one fascist bullet

from embedding
itself in a mudbank.

That's the
definition of nothing.

- Seems a little reductive.
- Pragmatic.

Now here I am.

Wherever the hell this is.

I didn't want you to
hear it from anyone else.

Least you didn't
bring me flowers.

[sniffles]

[chuckles]

We both know I'm not
what you want, Jean.

Yeah, but it's a door closing.

No.

Not as far as I'm concerned, no.

You knocked her up. Fast work.

- Can't keep a good man down.
- [chuckles]

I meant her.

She knew what she wanted.
What about the husband?

We talked.

They're getting a divorce

so we can get married
before she starts showing.

How civilized.

You idiot. This is
your community.

You think the rules don't
apply to the golden boy?

Brilliance makes up for a lot.

Don't alienate the only people in
the world that understand what you do.

One day you might need them.

[students chanting]
F-A-E-C-T! F-A-E-C-T!

[Oppenheimer] The Federation
of Architects, Engineers,

Chemists and Technicians.

- Lomanitz, what do you get paid a month?
- That's not the point, Lawrence.

What do any of you have in common
with farm laborers and dock workers?

[Lomanitz] Plenty.

Everybody out. Now!

Not you.

[footsteps departing]

[door closes]

What are you doing?

- It's a trade union.
- Filled with communists.

So? I haven't joined the Party.

They won't let me bring you onto
the project because of this shit.

They won't even let me
tell you what the project is.

- Oh, I know what the project is.
- Oh, really?

We've all heard about Einstein
and Szilard's letter to Roosevelt

warning him the Germans
could make a bomb,

and I know what it means
for the Nazis to have a bomb.

And I don't?

It's not your people
they're herding into camps.

It's mine.

You think that I tell
them about your politics.

The next time you're
coming home from a meeting,

why don't you take a
look in the rearview mirror?

Listen to the sounds on your phone
line and stop being so goddamn naive.

Why would they care what I do?

Because you're not just
self-important, you're actually important.

Okay.

- I get it.
- If you could just be a little more--

Pragmatic.

I'll talk to Lomanitz,
I'll talk to the others.

You don't have to worry.
It's done, Lawrence.

Then welcome to the war.

I filled out my first
security questionnaire

and was informed that my
involvement with left-wing groups

would not prove a bar to my
working on the atomic program.

[Pastore] Why were his
communist associations

not seen as a security
risk during the war?

Senator, I can't possibly
answer for security clearance

granted years before
I ever met the man.

Fine. What about after?

After the war,

Dr. Oppenheimer was the most
respected scientific voice in the world.

That's why I asked
him to run the Institute.

That's why he advised the
Atomic Energy Commission.

Simple as that.

What are they accusing me of?

I think they just wanna know what
happened between 1947 and 1954

to change your mind on
Oppenheimer's security clearance.

I didn't.

I was chair of the AEC,

but it wasn't me that brought
the charges against Robert.

Who did?

Some former staff member of
the Joint Congressional Committee.

He was a rabid
anti-communist named Borden.

He wrote to the FBI
demanding they take action.

The FBI? Why not
go to the AEC direct?

Why get caught holding
the knife yourself?

What did Borden have
against Oppenheimer?

This was the McCarthy Era.

People hounded out of
jobs for any hint of red.

And then, reading
Oppenheimer's security file,

his communist brother,
sister-in-law, fiancée,

best friend, wife.

That's before we even get
to the Chevalier incident.

But how would Borden have
access to Oppenheimer's security file?

Because somebody gave it to him.

Somebody who
wanted Robert silenced.

- Who?
- [Strauss] Who knows?

Robert didn't take care not to upset
the power brokers in Washington.

His opinions on the
atom became definitive

and he wasn't always
patient with us mere mortals.

I came in for plenty
of harsh treatment.

There was an AEC vote

on the export of
isotopes to Norway,

and they drafted in Robert
to make me look like a fool.

[congressman] But, Dr. Oppenheimer,
we've already heard from Admiral Strauss

that these isotopes could
be useful to our enemies

in the production
of atomic weapons.

Congressmen, you could use a
shovel in making atomic weapons.

In fact, you do.

You could use a bottle of
beer in making atomic weapons.

In fact, you do.

I say isotopes are less useful
than electronic components,

- but more useful than a sandwich.
- [gallery laughs]

[Strauss] Genius is no
guarantee of wisdom.

How could this man who
saw so much be so blind?

- [crickets chirping]
- [baby crying]

Kitty?

[baby continues crying]

Kitty?

Kitty, the project--

I'm in. I'm in.

Let's celebrate.

Shouldn't you go to him?

I have been going
to him all fucking day.

[baby continues crying]

[engine turns off]

Okay.

- [baby continues crying]
- [knocks on door]

Here.

Come here, darling.

I don't know how to say this.

I-I'm ashamed to ask.

[Chevalier] Anything.

- Take Peter.
- Sure.

No, for a while, Hoke.

A while.

Does Kitty know you're here?

Yes, of course she knows.

Of course she knows.

We're awful people.
Selfish, awful people.

Forget I asked.

Selfish, awful people,

they don't know
they're selfish and awful.

Sit, sit, sit.

Robert, you see beyond
the world we live in.

There is a price
to be paid for that.

Of course we'll help you.

[Kitty] Everything's
changing, Robert.

Having a child was
always going to change--

No, the world, it's pivoting
in some new direction.

It's reforming.

This is your moment.

We're putting together a
group to study feasibili--

"We" shouldn't be doing
anything. You should.

Lawrence won't get this done.

Or Tolman, or Rabi. You will.

[chattering]

[Oppenheimer] Who
are the uniforms?

I thought you might know.

- [door opens]
- [colonel] Dr. Oppenheimer.

I'm Colonel Groves.

This is Lieutenant
Colonel Nichols.

Have that dry cleaned.

Well, if that's how you
treat Lieutenant Colonel,

I'd hate to see how you
treat a humble physicist.

If I ever meet one,
I'll let you know.

[chuckles] Ouch.

Theaters of combat all over the
world but I have to stay in Washington.

- Why?
- I built the Pentagon.

The brass likes it so much they made me
take over the Manhattan Engineer District.

Which is?

Don't be a smart ass.

You know damn well what it is.

You and half of every physics
department across the country.

That's problem number one.

I thought problem number one
would be securing enough uranium ore.

- 1, 200 tons bought the day I took charge.
- Processing?

Just broke ground at
Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Now I'm looking
for a project director.

And my name came up?

Nope.

Even though you brought
quantum physics to America.

Which made me curious.

What've you found out?

You're a dilettante, a womanizer,
a suspected communist--

I'm a New Deal Democrat.

I said "suspected."

Unstable, theatrical,
egotistical, neurotic--

Nothing good, no? Not
even, "He's brilliant, but--"

Well, brilliance is taken for
granted in your circle, so no.

No, the only person who had anything
good to say was Richard Tolman.

Tolman thinks
you have integrity,

but he also strikes me as a guy who
knows more about science than people.

Yet here you are.

You don't take much on trust.

I don't take anything on trust.

Why don't you
have a Nobel prize?

- Why aren't you a general?
- They're making me one for this.

- Perhaps I'll have the same luck.
- A Nobel prize for making a bomb?

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.

So how would you proceed?

You're talking about turning theory
into a practical weapons system

faster than the Nazis.

Who have a 12-month head start.

- Eighteen.
- How could you possibly know that?

Our fast neutron
research took six months.

The man they've undoubtedly put in
charge will have made that leap instantly.

- Who do you think they put in charge?
- Werner Heisenberg.

He has the most intuitive understanding
of atomic structure I have ever seen.

- You know his work?
- I know him.

Just like I know Walther
Bothe, Von Weizsäcker, Diebner.

In a straight race,
the Germans win.

We've got one hope.

Which is?

Anti-Semitism.

What?

Hitler called quantum
physics "Jewish science."

Said it right to
Einstein's face.

Our one hope is that Hitler
is so, so blinded by hate

that he's denied
Heisenberg proper resources,

because it'll take
vast resources.

Our nation's best
scientists, working together.

Right now, they're scattered.

Which gives us
compartmentalization.

All minds have to see the
whole task to contribute efficiently.

Poor security may
cost us the race.

Inefficiency will.

The Germans know
more than us anyway.

The Russians don't.

Remind me, who
are we at war with?

Somebody with your past doesn't
wanna be seen downplaying

the importance of security
from our communist allies.

Point taken. But, no.

You don't get to say "no" to me.

It's my job to say "no" to
you when you're wrong.

So you have the job now?

Uh, I'm considering it.

I'm starting to see where
you got your reputation.

My favorite response?

"Oppenheimer couldn't
run a hamburger stand."

[chuckles] I couldn't.

But I can run the
Manhattan Project.

There's a way to
balance these things.

Keep the Rad Lab here at
Berkeley under Lawrence.

Met Lab in Chicago
under Szilard.

Large scale refining, where
did you say? Tennessee.

- And Hanford.
- And Hanford.

All America's industrial
might and scientific innovation,

connected by rail.

Focused on one goal.

One point in space and time.

And it comes together here.

A secret laboratory.

In the middle of nowhere,
secure, self-sufficient,

equipment, housing, the works.

Keep everyone
there until it's done.

- I'll need the schools, stores, a church.
- Why?

If we don't let scientists bring their
families, we'll never get the best.

You want security,
build a town, build it fast.

Where?

Welcome to Los Alamos.

Now, there's a boys' school
we'll have to commandeer

and the local Indians
come up here for burial rites.

But, apart from that, nothing.

Forty miles. Any direction.

Enough to find the perfect spot.

- What for?
- Success.

Build him a town. Fast.

Let's go recruit
some scientists.

- Why would I leave my family?
- I told you, you can bring your family.

I'm not a soldier, Oppie.

A soldier? He's a general.

I've got all the soldier I need.

What can I tell them?

Heisenberg,
Diebner, Bothe, Bohr.

What do these men
have in common?

The greatest minds
on atomic theory.

- Yes, and?
- Uh...

As much as you like...

until you feel my
boot on your balls.

You know isotopes

and you know explosives,
better than anyone in the world.

But you can't tell
us what you're doing.

- I don't know.
- The Nazis have them.

- Niels Bohr's in Copenhagen.
- Under Nazi occupation.

Did they stop printing
newspapers in Princeton?

Why would we go to the middle of
nowhere for who knows how long?

A year or two. Or three.

General, could you
give us a moment?

It's about unleashing
the strong force

before the Nazis do.

Oh, my God.

- Niels won't work for the Nazis.
- No, never.

But while they
have him, we don't.

That's why I need you.

Why would you think I'd do that?

Why? Why?

How about because this is
the most important fucking thing

to ever happen in the
history of the world.

How about that? Fuck.

They are not gonna
let me onto this project.

And failing a security check is not gonna
be good for a career, even after the war.

So you're a fellow traveler.

So what? This is a
national emergency.

I've got some skeletons,
they put me in charge.

They need us.

Until they don't.

Is there any chance of
getting Bohr out of Denmark?

[Groves] Nah, no dice.

I checked with the British.

Until we get Allied boots
back onto the continent,

there's just no way.

Is he that important?

How many people do you know
who've proved Einstein wrong?

You know, it really would
be quicker to take a plane.

No, plane's too risky.

Country needs us.

[construction
equipment whirring]

The Harvard guys, they say the
building's too small for the cyclotron.

Get them together
with the architects.

When's this place
supposed to open?

Two months.

Robert, you're the great
improviser, but this...

you can't do in your head.

Four divisions.

Experimental, Theoretical,
Metallurgical, Ordnance.

Who's running Theoretical?

I am.

That's what I was afraid
of. You're spread too thin.

So you take Theoretical.

I'm not coming here, Robert.

Why not?

You drop a bomb and it falls
on the just, and the unjust.

I don't wish the culmination
of three centuries of physics

to be a weapon of
mass destruction.

Izzy.

I don't know if we can be
trusted with such a weapon.

But I know the Nazis can't.

We have no choice.

Then...

the second thing you'll have
to do is appoint Hans Bethe

to run the theoretical division.

Wait, what was the first?

Take off that ridiculous
uniform. You're a scientist.

Groves is insisting we join.

Tell Groves to
go shit in his hat.

They need us for who we are.

So be yourself. Only better.

- This is the only key.
- [keys jangle]

And Teller's already here.
Shall I just show him in?

- No, let's wait for the others.
- [door opens]

Let's get started.

Hello, Edward.

Yes.

Gentlemen, so, we will work here

until the T-section at
Los Alamos is finished.

Edward, can I please--

It is more important.

When I calculated the chain reaction,
I found a rather troubling possibility.

No. This can't be right.

Show me how you
did your calculations.

[Edward] Yes.

- It's exponential.
- No. No, no, no. No.

This is fantasy.

Teller's calculations
can't be right.

Do them yourself
while I go to Princeton.

- What for?
- To talk to Einstein.

There's not much common
ground between you two.

That's why I
should get his view.

- Albert.
- Mmm?

Ah, Dr. Oppenheimer. [chuckles]

Well, have you met Dr. Gödel?
We walk here most days.

Trees are the most
inspiring structures.

Albert, might I have a word?

Of course. Excuse me, Kurt.

You know, some days,
Kurt refuses to eat.

Even in Princeton.

He's convinced that the
Nazis can poison his food.

Hmm?

Wha--

Whose-- Whose work is this?

Teller's.

What do you take it to mean?

Neutrons smash into nucleus,

releasing neutrons to
smash into other nuclei.

Criticality, a point of no
return, massive explosive force.

But this time, the chain
reaction doesn't stop.

It would ignite the atmosphere.

When we detonate
an atomic device,

we might start a
chain reaction that...

destroys the world.

So here we are, hmm?

Lost in your quantum
world of probabilities

and needing certainty.

Can you run the
calculations yourself?

About the only thing you and I have in
common is a disdain for mathematics.

- Who's working on this in Berkeley?
- Hans Bethe.

Well, he'll get to the truth.

And if the truth
is catastrophic?

Then you stop.

And you share your
findings with the Nazis.

So neither side
destroys the world.

Robert.

This is yours, not mine.

[Bethe] Teller's wrong.

- He's wrong.
- Shh, shh, shh...

[keys jangling]

[lock clicks]

[lock clicks]

[Bethe] When you know
Teller's critical assumptions,

the real picture emerges.

Bottom line?

The chances of an uncontrolled
nuclear reaction are near zero.

Near zero.

Oppie, this is good news.

Mmm.

- Can you run them again?
- No, you'll get the same answer.

Till they actually detonate
one of these things,

the best assurance
you're going to get is this.

Near zero.

- [sighs] Theory will take you only so far.
- Mmm.

- [Chevalier] Hello!
- Hello, you. We missed him.

- You want to adopt?
- She's kidding.

We wanted to see
you before we left.

For parts unknown.

You know who I ran into
the other day? Eltenton.

[Oppenheimer] Huh.

The chemist from
Shell? The union guy?

[Chevalier] Yeah. The FAECT guy.

He was moaning about
how we're handling the war.

How so?

Lack of cooperation
with our allies.

Apparently our government's not
sharing any research with the Russians.

Well, he said, "Most scientists
think the policy is stupid."

- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah.

He mentioned that if anyone had
anything they wanted to pass on,

going around official
channels, that he could help.

That would be treason.

Yes, of course.

I just thought you should know.

The brat is down.
Where are the martinis?

Coming right up.

[Oppenheimer] The
conversation ended there.

Nothing in our long-standing
friendship would have led me to believe

that Chevalier was
actually seeking information,

and I am certain that he had no idea
of the work in which I was engaged.

It has long been clear to me

that I should have reported
this incident at once.

[McGee] The Oppenheimer
situation highlights the tension

between scientists and
the security apparatus.

In hopes of learning how the
nominee handled such issues

during his time at the AEC,

we'll have a scientist
appearing before the committee.

- Who are they bringing in?
- They haven't said.

Mr. Chairman, if I may,

I'm nominated for
commerce secretary.

Why seek the
opinion of scientists?

This is a cabinet post, Admiral.

We seek a wide range of opinion.

Well, I'd like to know the
name of the scientist testifying,

I'd like the chance
to cross-examine.

This is not a court.

Formality, huh?

No presidential Cabinet nominee
has failed to be confirmed since 1925.

This is just how
the game is played.

It's in the bag,
Lewis. So play nice.

They bring in a
scientist, so what?

You don't know scientists
like I do, Counselor.

They resent anyone who
questions their judgment,

especially if you're
not one of them.

I was chair of the AEC.

I'm easy to blame for
what happened to Robert.

We can't have the Senate
thinking the scientific community

doesn't support you, sir.

- Or should we pivot?
- [Senate aide] To what?

And embrace it.

"I fought Oppenheimer
and the US won."

I-I don't think we
need to go there.

Isn't there someone we can call
who knows what really happened?

- Teller.
- He'll make an impression.

Can you get the name of
the scientist they've called?

Probably.

Find out if he was based in
Chicago or Los Alamos during the war.

Why does that matter?

If he was based in Chicago, he
worked under Szilard and Fermi,

not the cult of
Oppie at Los Alamos.

Robert built that damn place.

He was founder, mayor,
sheriff, all rolled into one.

- [officer chattering on loudspeaker]
- [Peter crying]

All it needs is a saloon.

[Peter continues crying]

[murmurs]

Let's go and see.

There's no kitchen.

Really? We'll fix that.

Barbed wire? Guns? Oppie.

[Oppenheimer]
We're at war, Hans.

Halifax, 1917.

A cargo ship carrying
munitions explodes in the harbor.

A vast and sudden
chemical reaction.

The biggest man-made
explosion in history.

Now let's calculate how much
more destructive it would have been

if it were a nuclear, and
not a chemical, reaction.

Expressing power in
terms of tons of TNT.

But it will be thousands.

Well, then... kilotons.

- Using U-235, the bomb will need--
- Ah...

Right, sorry.

Gadget will need a 33-pound
sphere about this size.

Or using plutonium,
the ten-pound sphere.

Here's the amount of uranium
Oak Ridge refined all of last month.

And the Hanford plant
made this much plutonium.

Now, if we can enrich these amounts,
we need a way to detonate them.

[paper rips]

Are we boring you, Edward?

A little bit, yes.

May I ask why?

We all entered this room knowing
a fission bomb was possible.

- How about we leave it with something new?
- Such as?

Instead of uranium or
plutonium, we use hydrogen.

[all murmuring]

Heavy hydrogen.

Deuterium.

You see?

We compact the atoms
together under great pressure

to induce a fusion reaction.

Then we'll get not kilotons,

but megatons.

Okay, hang on, hang on.

So how do you generate enough
force to fuse hydrogen atoms?

A small fission bomb.

- Ah...
- There we are!

[applause, laughter]

Well, since we're going
to need one anyway,

can we get back to
the business at hand?

[Bartlett] The isotopes issue

wasn't your most important policy
disagreement with Dr. Oppenheimer,

it was the hydrogen
bomb, wasn't it?

As colleagues, we agreed to
disagree on a great many things, uh,

and, well, one of them was the
need for an H-bomb program, yes.

[siren wailing]

[Strauss] Thanks for
convening on short notice.

I can't believe it.

Here we are.

Catch me up. What do we know?

One of our B-29s over the North
Pacific has detected radiation.

Do we have the filter paper?

- There's no doubt what this is.
- White House says there's a doubt.

Wishful thinking, I'm afraid.

Are those the long-range
detection filter papers?

It's an atomic test.

The Russians have a bomb.

We're supposed to be years
ahead of them, but some--

What were you guys doing at
Los Alamos? Wasn't security tight?

- Of course it was. You weren't there.
- [Nichols] Forgive me, Doctor...

but I was there.

We can now consider the
actual mechanics of detonation.

[Oppenheimer] Any ideas?

[Serber] I call this "shooting."

We fire a chunk of fissionable
material into a larger sphere

with enough force
to achieve criticality.

What do we think? Anyone?

[Tolman] I've been
thinking about implosion.

Explosives around the sphere
blast inwards, crushing the material.

I'd like to
investigate that idea.

I'll talk to Ordnance, get
you blowing things up.

- [Groves] Progress?
- Nice to see you too.

Meet the British contingent.

Dr. Oppenheimer, Klaus Fuchs.

How long have you been British?

- Since Hitler told me I wasn't German.
- Aha.

Come, welcome to Los Alamos.

School's up and running.

Bar... always running.

And I thought of a way
to reduce support staff.

- Is that--
- [Oppenheimer] Mrs. Serber, yes.

I've offered jobs to all the wives.
Admin, librarians, computation.

We cut down on staff,
keep families together.

Are these women qualified?

Don't be absurd. These are some of
the brightest minds in our community.

And they're already
security cleared.

I've informed General Groves

you've been holding cross-divisional,
open discussions on a nightly basis.

Shut them down.

Compartmentalization is the
key to maintaining security--

[Condon] It's only the top men.

Who presumably
communicate with subordinates.

These men aren't stupid.
They can be discreet.

I don't like it.

You don't like anything
enough for that to be a fair test.

Once a week. Top men only.

- I'd like to bring my brother here.
- No.

Nichols...

I still haven't heard that my security
clearance has been approved.

- It hasn't.
- We're going to Chicago tomorrow.

Well, you should wait.

You are aware that the Nazis
have a two-year head start?

Dr. Oppenheimer, the fact
that your security clearance

is proving difficult to
obtain is not my fault.

It's yours.

May not be your fault,
but it's your problem.

Because I'm going.

[Strauss] And how many
people were in these, uh,

open discussions?

Too many. Compartmentalization
was supposed to be the protocol.

We were in a race
against the Nazis.

- And now the race is against the Soviets.
- Not unless we start it.

Robert, they just
fired a starting gun.

What's the nature of the
device they detonated?

The data indicates it may have
been a plutonium implosion device.

Like the one you
built at Los Alamos.

The Russians have a bomb,
Truman needs to know what's next.

What's next? Arms talks.

- Arms talks.
- Obviously.

What about the Super?

Does Truman even know
about it? Did we brief him on that?

Not specifically.

We still don't know if a hydrogen
bomb's technically feasible.

My understanding is
that Teller proposed it?

- [Oppenheimer] Yes.
- At Los Alamos?

Teller's designs have
always been wildly impractical.

You'd have to
deliver by ox cart.

- Not airplane.
- [Lawrence] Oppie.

I'm sorry, Dr. Lawrence.
Do you want to comment?

No.

Because if it can
put us ahead again,

the President of the United
States needs to know about it.

[scoffs]

And if the Russians know about it
already from a spy at Los Alamos,

then we've gotta get going.

There's no proof there
was a spy at Los Alamos.

Robert.

They put it under
the football stadium?

The field's not in use anymore.

Just as well.

- Oppie.
- Dr. Fermi.

Come stai? Va bene?

- I hear you got a little town.
- Yes. Come and see.

[Szilard chuckles]

Who could think straight
in a place like that? Huh?

Everybody will go crazy.

Thank you for the vote
of confidence, Szilard.

Do we really-- Do we
really need that in the notes?

When are you
going to try it out?

We did.

[Fermi] The first self-sustaining
nuclear chain reaction.

Didn't Groves tell you?

- [Geiger counter humming]
- No.

[soldier] One at a time,
please. One at a time.

Dr. Oppenheimer?

I tried Personnel. They
asked if I could type.

Can you?

Harvard forgot to teach that on
the graduate chemistry course.

Condon, put Mrs. Hornig
here on the plutonium team.

What the hell were
you doing in Chicago?

Visiting the Met?

Why?

- Why?
- Because we have every right--

You have just the rights that
I give you. No more, no less.

We are adults trying
to run a project here.

This is ridiculous.

Tell him.

Compartmentalization is
the protocol we agreed to.

Enough of this madhouse.

Nobody can work
under these conditions.

You know what, Generalissimo?

I quit.

Thanks for nothing.

[Groves] Better off without him.

[door slams]

Aren't you more concerned
about his discretion out there?

We'll have him killed.

I was just kidding. [chuckles]

No, he hates me, not America.

You know, General, not everyone
has levers to pull like mine.

I don't think I understand.

You didn't hire me
despite my left-wing past,

you hired me because of it.

So you could control me.

Well, I'm not that subtle.

I'm just a humble soldier.

You're neither humble,
nor just a soldier.

- You studied engineering at MIT.
- Guilty as charged.

Well, now we
understand each other,

perhaps you can get
me my security clearance

so I can perform
this miracle for you.

[attorney] General Groves, were
you aware of Dr. Oppenheimer's

left-wing associations
when you appointed him?

[Groves] I was aware that
there were suspicions about him.

I was aware he had a very
extreme, liberal background.

In your opinion, would he ever
consciously commit a disloyal act?

I would be amazed if he did.

[attorney] So you had complete
confidence in his integrity?

At Los Alamos, yes, which
is where I really knew him.

General, did your security
officers on the project

advise you against the
clearance of Dr. Oppenheimer?

They could not and would
not clear him until I insisted.

And it's safe to say that you
had a pretty good knowledge

of Dr. Oppenheimer's
security file.

I did.

There's only really one question
I need answered here today.

In light of the current AEC guidelines,
would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?

Do you have the guidelines?

[Robb] Under current AEC guidelines,
would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?

- [rooster crows]
- [car approaching]

[car door opens, closes]

Physics and New Mexico, huh?

[chuckles]

My God.

What a trek.

That's why you need a liaison.

I'm appointing Lomanitz.

You're gonna be okay.

This way, gentlemen.

[beakers clinking]

[gas hissing]

- Dr. Lawrence.
- Leslie.

I'd like to remind you what
we talked about in Berkeley.

Compartmentalization.
I understand completely.

[chattering]

Thank you.

[all cheering]

[Lawrence] Greetings
from Berkeley.

I am here to update you on our
progress and solicit your input.

To do so, I am going to
have to share a few things

that General Groves
told me not to.

Sorry, General, I said I
understood, not that I agreed.

- [all chuckling]
- [Lawrence] Okay.

Gentlemen, to business.

There were rumors of
espionage at Los Alamos.

Unsubstantiated.

[Strauss] I'm told that there
were communists on the project.

We didn't knowingly
employ any communists.

Were any of them involved
in discussions of the Super?

I seem to remember you demanding
your brother come to Los Alamos.

My brother had left
the Party by then.

What about Lomanitz?

Lomanitz was never employed
at Los Alamos. He was a liaison.

Our security was tight, as
former Colonel Nichols well knows.

Our security was as tight as it could
be given the personalities involved,

but attempts were made.

- What is that supposed to mean?
- We've all read his file here.

Do we need to talk
about Jean Tatlock?

Or the Chevalier incident?

Excuse me.

- [phone ringing]
- [secretary] That's Lomanitz, on line one.

Hello, Rossi.

What? Okay, just calm down.

There's been another screw-up.

Lomanitz just got drafted.

- We are at war, Doctor.
- Don't be an asshole, Nichols.

We need this
kid. Fix it, will you?

It wasn't a mistake.

Your friend Lomanitz has been
trying to unionize the Radiation Lab.

He promised to quit all that.

Well, he hasn't.

Security officer at Berkeley's
concerned about communist infiltration

through that union, the FA--

FAECT.

Well, I'm there
next week, I'll...

drop in to see him.

Your Q clearance came through.

It's important you not maintain or
renew any questionable associations.

[Robb] Doctor, did
you think social contacts

between a person engaged on secret
war work and communists was dangerous?

My awareness of the danger
would be greater today.

I mean, it's fair to say
that during the war years,

you felt that such contacts
were potentially dangerous?

[elevator bell dings]

[Oppenheimer] Were
conceivably dangerous, yes.

[Robb] I mean, really?
Known communists?

[Oppenheimer] Look...

I've had a lot of secrets
in my head for a long time.

Doesn't matter who I associate
with. I don't talk about those secrets.

[Robb] You said
in your statement

that you had

to see Jean Tatlock in 1943.

You left.

Not a word.

What did you think
that would do to me?

I wrote.

Pages of nothing.

Where did you go?

- I can't tell you.
- Why not?

Because you're a communist.

Why did you have to see her?

Because she had indicated a
great desire to see me before we left.

At that time, I couldn't, but I
felt that she had to see me.

She was undergoing
psychiatric treatment.

She was extremely unhappy.

Did you find out why
she had to see you?

Because she was
still in love with me.

Spent the night
together, didn't you?

[Oppenheimer] Yes.

You drop in and out of my life

and you don't
have to tell me why.

Now, that's power.

Not that I enjoy.

I'd rather be here
for you as you need.

But you have
other priorities now.

I have a wife and child.

That's not what either
of us is talking about.

Jean.

You asked me to come.

And I'm glad I did.

But I can't see you again.

But what if I need you?

You said you would
always answer.

Not a word.

[Robb] Did you think that
consistent with good security?

- [rhythmic thudding]
- As a matter of fact, it was. Not a word.

[thudding intensifies]

[Robb] When did
you see her after that?

[thudding stops]

I never saw her again.

I can make the last
train back to Princeton.

Kitty, I didn't say anything
that I hadn't already told you.

- Today you said it to history, didn't you?
- This is a closed hearing.

If they don't release the
transcript, I'm sure you will.

I was under oath.

Well, you were under an oath to
me when you went to see Jean.

You know, you...

you sit there,

day after day,

letting them pick
our lives to pieces.

Why won't you fight?

[attorney] Robert, I'm
not putting her up there.

Dr. Oppenheimer, it's an
honor. Please, take a seat.

No need, I just wanted to check

whether I should talk to Lomanitz
while I'm here, given your concerns.

Well, I'd say that's really up to
you, Professor, but I'd be cautious.

Uh-huh. Understood.

Oh, and, um... [clears throat]
...as regards to the union,

I wanted to give you a heads-up
on a man named Eltenton.

- A heads-up?
- Yes.

Just that he might
merit watching, is all.

I'd love to get more details.

Well, I have an appointment
now, and I leave early tomorrow.

Well, come back as early as you
like. Since you haven't time now.

You went back the next morning.

I did. I had to, really.

This time there was another man.

He said his name was Pash.

Pash. You met Colonel Pash?

[Robb] Colonel Pash, could you please
read from your memo dated June 29, 1943?

[Pash] "Results of surveillance
conducted on subject

indicate further possible
Communist Party connections.

Subject met with, and
spent considerable time with,

one Jean Tatlock, communist,

the record of whom is attached."

- The subject being Dr. Oppenheimer?
- [Pash] Yes.

[Robb] Whom you had not met?

[Pash] Not then, but soon after.

He's the head of security for
the project. Shouldn't I know him?

No, he should know you. I would
never put you in a room with Pash.

Why not?

When Pash first
heard about Lomanitz,

he told the FBI he
was gonna kidnap him,

take him out on a boat,

and interrogate him
in the Russian manner.

General Groves has placed
in me a certain responsibility,

and it's like having a
child who I can't see.

By remote control.

So to actually meet you is...

- I won't take up too much of your time.
- No, not at all.

Whatever time you choose.

Mr. Johnson told me of a
conversation you had yesterday

in which I'm very interested.

It's had me worried all day.

Yes, well, I didn't want to talk to
Lomanitz without authorization.

That's not the particular
interest that I have.

It's something
a little bit more...

in my opinion, more serious.

Now, when the FBI pointed
out that such information

wouldn't be admissible in court,

Pash made it clear he had no intention
of leaving any witness left to prosecute.

Now, the FBI talked him down, but
that's the man you're dancing with.

I gather you've heard
there are other parties

interested in the work
of the Radiation Lab?

A man attached to the Soviet Consul
indicated through intermediate people

to people on this project that he was
in a position to transmit information.

Why would anyone on
the project wanna do that?

Frankly, I can see that
there might be an argument

for the commander-in-chief
informing the Russians.

They're our allies after all.

But I don't like the idea of
it going out the back door.

It might not hurt to
be on the lookout for it.

And you said that to Pash?

I was trying to put it in the
context of "Russia's not Germany."

Boris Pash is the son of a
Russian Orthodox bishop.

Born here, but in 1918,

he went back to Russia
to fight the Bolsheviks.

This is a man who has killed
communists with his own hands.

I'm not the judge of who should
or should not have information.

It's my business to stop it
from going through illegally.

Would you be a
little more specific?

There's a man whose name was
mentioned to me a couple of times.

Eltenton.

Uh, I believe he's a
chemist who works at Shell.

He talked to a friend of his

who's an acquaintance
of someone on the project.

And you thought Pash
would be satisfied with that?

I was attempting to give them
Eltenton without opening a can of worms.

I told them a
cock-and-bull story.

Did you lie to
General Groves too?

No. I admitted to him
that I'd lied to Pash.

[attorney] Do you
recall this conversation

about the Chevalier incident?

[scoffs] I've seen so
many versions of it,

I wasn't confused before but
I'm certainly getting there now.

[attorney] What
was your conclusion?

That he was under the influence of
the typical American schoolboy attitude

that there's something
wicked about telling on a friend.

Well, now...

Might we know through
whom the contact was made?

That would involve people
who are not to be involved in this.

Is that someone a
member of the project?

A member of the faculty,
yes, but not in the project, no.

Ah.

So Eltenton made his approach through
a member of the faculty here at Berkeley?

As far as I know--
As far as I know, yes.

But... [stammers]...there
may have been...

more than one person involved.

Gentlemen, if I-- If I seem
uncooperative, I think you can understand

it's because of my insistence

in not getting innocent
people into trouble.

You're trying to protect your
friend. Who's protecting you?

- Well, you could.
- If you gave me the name.

If you order me to, I'll do it.

That is a mistake, Robert.
You need to volunteer this name.

- [Robb] And did he give you the name?
- [Groves] He did.

- [Robb] But not then, did he?
- No.

No. In fact, it was some
months later, wasn't it?

It was.

- You see me as persistent.
- Well, you are--

You are persistent,
but that is your job.

And-And my job is to protect
the people that work for me.

Instead of us going on certain steps,
which may come to your attention...

and be disturbing to you,

I would like to discuss
those with you first.

I'm not formulating a plan. I'll
just have to digest the whole thing.

In the months in between your
interview with Dr. Oppenheimer

and his eventual
naming of Chevalier,

did you expend resources trying to
find the name of the intermediary?

Considerable resources, yes.

Without the name, our
job was extremely difficult.

And when did you
receive the name?

I was gone by the time
Oppenheimer finally offered it up.

Gone?

They felt my time would
be better spent in Europe

determining the status
of the Nazi bomb project.

Who did?

General Groves.

He transferred me to London.

[marbles clattering]

[Serber] It's a little early
for a Christmas party.

Something's up.
Tolman's been away.

Where?

Ruth won't tell.

[chattering]

Hey!

Come on, Ruthie. Can't
tell me, who can you tell?

Compartmentalization, Oppie.

What makes you think I
know where he is anyway?

'Cause you do a pretty
good job of knowing

where Mr. Tolman
is when it counts.

Like now?

[Groves] Attention!

[chattering stops]

[Groves] Early Christmas
present for you all.

[scattered laughter]

[cheering]

[Bohr] The British pilots
put me in the bomb bay.

Showed me the-the oxygen,
you know, but I messed it up.

[scattered laughter]

When they opened me up in
Scotland, I was unconscious.

- But I pretended I'd been napping.
- [laughing]

[Bohr] Please enjoy your party.

Is it big enough?

To end the war?

To end all war.

- Heisenberg sought me out in Copenhagen.
- [marbles clattering]

It was chilling, my old
student working for the Nazis.

He told me some
things to draw me out.

Sustained fission
reactions in uranium.

That sounds more like
a reactor than a bomb.

Did he mention
gaseous diffusion?

He seemed more
focused on heavy water.

As a moderator?

Yes, instead of graphite.

[Bethe laughs]

What?

He took a wrong
turn. We're ahead.

And with you here
to help us, Niels...

Sorry, could you-- could you
give us a moment, gentlemen?

[glasses clinking]

I am not here to help, Robert.

I knew you could
do this without me.

- Then why did you come?
- To talk about after.

The power you're about to
reveal will forever outlive the Nazis.

And the world is not prepared.

"You could lift the stone without being
ready for the snake that's revealed."

We have to make the
politicians understand,

this isn't a new weapon.

It's a new world.

I'll be out there doing
what I can, but you...

You are an American Prometheus.

The man who gave them the
power to destroy themselves,

and they'll respect that.

Then your work really begins.

I'm sorry, Oppie,
but there's a call.

From San Francisco.

Robert?

Robert?

Robert. Robert.

Oh, my God. What's the matter?

What happened?

[both breathing heavily]

Her father called.

They found her
yesterday in the bath.

Who?

She'd taken pills.

Left a note, not signed.

She took barbiturates, but there
was chloral hydrate in her blood.

[gasping]

There was a note.

Jean Tatlock?

We were together.

She said she needed me. I...

I told her I... [breathing
shakily] ...I wouldn't--

I told her I couldn't--

No, it was-- it was me--

[breathing heavily] You
don't get to commit the sin

and then have us all feel sorry
for you that it had consequences.

You pull yourself together.

You know, people
here depend on you.

[Serber] Donald, would you
like to contribute here, please?

[Donald] You're
on your own, pal.

Bob, I'm not quitting my job
because plutonium is radioactive.

We just don't know what it might do
to the female reproductive system--

Your reproductive system is more
exposed than mine, presumably.

Can we please? The
implosion device is nowhere.

You can't rush
everything. Oppie, please.

Well, there's rushing and there's
getting on with it, so, pick one.

Wait. Neddermeyer's
doing his job.

Teller's not helping.
You're not helping.

I've been asking for calculations
on the implosion lenses for weeks.

- The British can do it. Fuchs.
- Absolutely.

- It's your job, Teller.
- I'm engaged in research.

On a hydrogen bomb
we're not even building.

[scattered laughter]

I won't work for that man.

[jeering]

Let him go. He's a prima donna.

[Serber] I agree. He
should leave Los Alamos.

Okay.

Kisty, you replace Neddermeyer.
Seth, I'm putting you on plutonium.

Lilli, you go work for Kisty,
because he needs you.

Fuchs, you take Teller's role.

I'm putting you exclusively
on the implosion device.

And no one is
leaving Los Alamos.

[vehicle engine starting]

[chattering on loudspeaker]

They won't let me leave.

No. I won't let you leave.

Forget Hans. Forget fission.

Stay here, research
what you want.

Fusion, the hydrogen
bomb, whatever.

We'll meet to discuss.

You don't have time to meet.
You're a politician now, Robert.

You've left physics behind
many, many years ago.

Once a week.

One hour, you and me.

Now raise this fucking barrier.

[Robb] So the Super was under
development on your watch at Los Alamos?

Yes.

And yet, after the war, you
tried to deny it was viable.

No, no, no. I-I pointed out
technical difficulties with it.

Didn't you try to kill
it at the AEC meeting

- after the Russian bomb test?
- No.

[Robb] But that was the
recommendation of the AEC, was it not?

After hours of discussion
about the best response.

An H-bomb is 1,000 times
the power of an A-bomb.

Its only intended target
would be the largest cities.

It's a weapon of mass genocide.

Izzy, draw some circles on this side
of the map where they would target us.

Starting with New York.

- [Rabi] That's fair.
- [Strauss] DC.

It's a weapon of attack
with no defensive value.

- Deterrence.
- [Bush] "Deterrence"?

Do we really need more deterrence
than our current arsenal of atomic bombs?

Y-You drown in ten feet of water
or 10,000, what's the difference?

We can already drown
Russia. They know it.

- Now they can drown us.
- [Rabi] We're just escalating.

- [feet stamping]
- [Strauss, distant] Robert? Robert.

- [stamping stops]
- [teaspoon clinks]

As I said,

Teller's designs are still as
impractical as they were during the war.

A hydrogen bomb can be made
to work, Oppie, you know that.

I don't believe we should commit
all our resources to that chance.

Then how would you have Truman
reassure the American people?

Simply by limiting the
spread of atomic weapons

through international
control on nuclear energy.

By which you mean
world government.

The United Nations,
as Roosevelt intended.

Well, I asked what
Truman should do, right?

The world's changed.

It's not fascism but communism
that now threatens our survival.

Lewis, do you understand,

if we build a hydrogen bomb,

the Russians will have no
choice but to build their own?

Could they be
working on one already,

based on information gathered
from a spy at Los Alamos?

No spy at Los Alamos.

- Gentlemen. Let's not get sidetracked.
- There wasn't?

I say we use this moment to gain
concessions from the Russians

by committing that we will
not build a hydrogen bomb.

Thereby revealing its existence.

Which you seem
convinced they already know.

[clears throat] All right. At this
point, I'd like the committee members

to meet in privacy to
finalize our recommendations.

I'm just not sure you
wanna go down this road.

Lewis, with respect,

we are the advisory committee,
we will give them our advice.

Dr. Oppenheimer?

Hi.

William Borden. Joint
Committee on Atomic Energy?

Oh, yes, yes.

During the war, I was a pilot.

One night, flying
back from a raid,

I saw an amazing sight,

like a meteor.

A V-2 rocket headed to England.

I can't help but imagine what it
will be for such an enemy rocket

to carry an atomic warhead.

[feet stamping]

[rocket rumbling]

[stamping intensifies, stops]

Well, let's make sure we're not
the ones to make that possible.

Oppie, I don't think you
wanna go up against Strauss.

If we both speak,
they listen to me.

When you speak,
they hear a prophet.

When Strauss speaks,
they hear themselves.

They'll listen to a prophet.

A prophet can't be wrong.

Not once.

[McGee] Didn't you accuse Oppenheimer
of sabotaging the development of the Super?

I was never one of those to
bandy around terms like "sabotage."

[McGee] But Mr. Borden was?

As I understand it, possibly.

How was Mr. Borden able to put
together such a detailed indictment?

He was no longer a
government employee,

yet he appears to have
had unlimited access

to Dr. Oppenheimer's file.

Might Mr. Nichols have
given him access to the file?

Or someone else at the AEC?

That's a very serious
accusation, Senator.

Is it your intention to suggest

that Dr. Oppenheimer is
disloyal to the United States?

I've always assumed,
and still assume,

that he's loyal to
the United States.

I believe this.

And I shall believe it until I see
very conclusive proof to the opposite.

[Robb] Do you, or do you not, believe
that Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk?

[Hornig] And if I may, when Hitler
blew his brains out in that bunker,

it is my humble opinion that there
is no need for that bomb to be seen

anywhere except
for that test site.

[scattered applause]

[Lilli] We at least have to
take a moment to think about

whether the means justify
the ends any longer, because--

Germany is about to surrender.

[members cheering, applauding]

It's no longer the enemy who
are the greatest threat to mankind.

It's our work.

Hitler is dead, it's true.

But the Japanese fight on.

Their defeat seems assured.

Not if you're a GI
preparing to invade.

We can end this war.

But how do we justify using
this weapon on human beings?

[scattered applause]

We're theorists, yes?

We imagine a future, and
our imaginings horrify us.

But they won't fear it
until they understand it,

and they won't understand
it until they've used it.

When the world learns the
terrible secret of Los Alamos,

our work here will ensure a
peace mankind has never seen.

A peace based on the kind
of international cooperation

that Roosevelt always envisaged.

- [Oppenheimer] Progress?
- Two years and a billion dollars' worth?

Well, hard to put a price on it.

Not really. Just
add up the bills.

"Rural free deliveries." Eighty
babies delivered the first year.

This year we've had ten a month.

Birth control is a little out
of my jurisdiction, General.

- Clearly.
- [Kitty] General.

Kiddo.

Head down, every--
Fuchs. Head down.

That's the one. [grunts]

Two viable bombs. I need a date.

September.

July.

That's the sweet
spot, gentlemen.

August.

July.

Test in July. But I
need my brother.

Frank knows the desert,
he's left politics behind,

he's been working with
Lawrence for two years now.

What do we call the test?

"Batter my heart,
three person'd God."

What?

Trinity.

[Robb] You insisted on
bringing on your brother Frank,

a known communist.

Former communist.

You brought a known
former communist

onto America's most secret
and important defense project.

I knew my brother could
be trusted. Absolutely.

And you felt your judgment was sound
on who on the team could be trusted.

Fuchs, head down.
Okay, everybody ready.

I hope you learned something.

Yeah, we learned we're gonna
need to be a lot further away.

Well, figure it out. Fast.

We leave for Washington in the
morning. We're gonna give them a date.

[elevator bell dings]

[chattering]

[phone ringing]

[service bell dinging]

You're a long way
from Chicago, Leo.

If we don't act now, they're going
to use this thing against Japan.

We booked a meeting with
Truman, but somebody killed it.

You're meeting
the secretary of war.

Just because we're building it

doesn't mean we get
to decide how it's used.

History will judge us, Robert.

In Chicago, we put
together a petition.

I'm not getting into that.

[clipboard clatters]

Just tell me your
concerns and I'll relay them.

My concerns?

Germany's defeated. Japan's
not going to hold out alone.

How could you know
that? You got us into this.

You and Einstein with your letter to
Roosevelt saying we could build a bomb.

Against Germany.

That's not how weapons
manufacture works, Szilard.

[Szilard] Oppie,
you have to help.

Fermi's in the meeting.
Lawrence is in the meeting.

They're not you. You're the
great salesman of science.

You can convince
anyone of anything.

Even yourself.

Excuse me.

The firestorm in Tokyo
killed 100,000 people.

Mostly civilians.

I worry about an America where we
do these things and no one protests.

Pearl Harbor and three years
of brutal conflict in the Pacific

bought us a lot of latitude
with the American public.

[Stimson] Enough to
unleash the atomic bomb?

[Fermi] The A-bomb might not cause
as much damage as the Tokyo bombings.

What are we estimating?

In a medium-sized city,
20,000 or 30,000 dead.

Yes, but don't underestimate

the psychological impact
of an atomic explosion.

A pillar of fire
10,000 feet tall.

Deadly neutron effects
for a mile. In all directions.

From one single device.

Dropped from a
barely noticed B-29,

the atomic bomb will be a
terrible revelation of divine power.

If that's true, it
would be definitive.

World War II would be over.

Our boys would come home.

Military targets?

Uh... There aren't
any big enough.

Perhaps a vital war plant

with workers housed nearby?

And we could issue a warning
to reduce civilian casualties.

They'd send everything
they have up against us,

and I'd be up in that plane.

But if we announce
it and it fails to go off,

we'd scupper any chance
of a Japanese surrender.

Is there no way to demonstrate a
bomb to Japan to provoke surrender?

We intend to demonstrate it in
the most unambiguous terms. Twice.

Once, to show the
weapon's power,

and a second to show that we can
keep doing this until they surrender.

We have a list of 12
cities to choose from--

Sorry, 11.

I've taken Kyoto off the list

due to its cultural significance
to the Japanese people.

Also, my wife and I
honeymooned there.

It's a magnificent city.

Let me make this
simple for you, gentlemen.

According to my intelligence,
which I cannot share with you,

the Japanese people will not
surrender, under any circumstances,

short of a successful and total
invasion of the home islands.

Many lives will be lost,
American and Japanese.

The use of the atomic bomb
on Japanese cities will save lives.

If we retain moral advantage.

How so?

Well, if we use this weapon
without informing our allies,

they'll see it as a threat,
and we'll be in an arms race.

How open can we
be with the Soviets?

Secrecy won't stop the Soviets from
becoming part of the atomic world.

We've been told
they have no uranium.

You've been misinformed. A
Russian bomb is a matter of time.

The program needs to
continue at full pace after the war.

Secretary Stimson, if I may,

not all scientists on the
project are in agreement.

In fact, this might be a moment to
consider other opinions. If you talk--

The Manhattan Project has
been plagued from the start

by certain scientists
of doubtful discretion

and uncertain loyalty.

One of them just tried to
meet with the president.

Now, we need these men,
but as soon as it's practical,

we should sever any such
scientists from the program.

Wouldn't you agree, Doctor?

[Marshall] If a Russian
bomb is inevitable,

perhaps we should invite
their top scientists to Trinity?

President Truman has no
intention of raising expectations

that Stalin be included
in the atomic project.

Informing him of
our breakthrough

and presenting it as a
means to win the war

need not make
unkeepable promises.

But the Potsdam
peace conference in July

will be President Truman's last
chance to have that conversation.

Can you give us a
working bomb by then?

Absolutely. We will test
fire before the conference.

Ground Zero, observation posts at
10,000 yards north, south and west.

Where do we trigger from?

South, 10,000.

And Base Camp is
ten miles south here.

And there's a further observation
post on-- on that hill 20 miles away.

What's that, Frank?
Trigger lines already went in.

The Air Force requested a
line of lights for their B-29.

What B-29? Our
bomb's on the tower.

They wanna use the test to
confirm a safe operating distance.

- That's risky.
- Not as risky as dropping one over Japan

and hoping that we were
right about the blast radius.

Don't let them slow us
down. We're firing on the 15th.

- The 15th? That's not--
- [Groves] The 15th.

The 15th.

[Oppenheimer] So I'll be
here at South Observation point

with Frank and Kistiakowsky.

You'll all be assigned to
Base Camp, West Observation,

or Far Observation.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Careful
with the knife. There, carefully.

- Are those safe distances?
- They're based on your calculations.

Time to stand behind your
science, Hans. Literally.

Yeah.

What about the radiation cloud?

Without high winds, it should
settle within two to three miles.

Evacuation measures
are in place. [inhales]

But we need good weather
for visibility, so it has to be fine.

Everybody out.

We go on the night of the 15th.

It's a hard deadline, so if
anyone has anything, speak now.

Little, little more.
Okay, stop, stop.

Everybody, mattresses.
Put the mattress underneath.

Could use a final
implosion test.

- It couldn't hurt.
- Do it.

Is there anything else
that might stop us?

[thunderclap]

[sheets flapping]

It's happening, isn't it?

I'll send a message.

If it's gone our way...

take in the sheets.

Robert.

Break a leg.

Okay.

[Fermi] Oppie's taken a
very modest three kilotons.

- Teller's in with 45.
- [Rabi] Twenty.

20,000 tons of TNT.

And does anyone want the side
action on atmospheric ignition?

[laughter]

- Are you saying we'll have to delay?
- I'm saying it would be prudent.

This weather, has
it reached the site?

[phone ringing]

Bethe is calling to tell you
the implosion test failed.

Hello, Hans. Yes, he's here.

Yes.

[handset settles in cradle]

- Is he wrong?
- No.

- No?
- No.

- So we're about to fire a dud?
- No.

- Explain.
- Well, I can't. I just-- I just know.

I know the implosion
lenses will work.

If we fire these detonators
and they don't trigger a reaction,

two years' worth of plutonium will
be scattered across White Sands.

A month of my salary
against ten bucks says it lights.

Jesus.

[weatherman] The wind's
picking up at Zero, not the rain.

Lightning circling.

You think it might be
time to tell your men

to get away from the steel
tower with the atomic bomb?

[laughter]

- Let's get to South Observation.
- Pull 'em out.

[Oppenheimer] We can
make our determination there.

[thunderclap]

[Oppenheimer] The team
hasn't slept in two nights.

If we stand down, make the bomb
safe, we won't be back here for weeks.

Then we'll miss Potsdam. I
gotta get word to Truman by 7:00.

Our window's closing.
What is this doing?

Raining, blowing, lightning.

- For how long, damn it?
- It's holdin' strong.

- It'll break before dawn.
- How could you know that?

I know this desert.
Storm cools overnight.

Just before dawn,
the storm breaks.

He could be right, but
schedule as late as possible.

5:30.

Sign your forecast. If
you're wrong, I'll hang you.

- Frank, tell them all, 5:30.
- 5:30.

- 5:30.
- 5:30.

Three years,

4,000 people,

two billion dollars.

Well, if it doesn't go off,

we're both finished.

[thunder rumbling]

I'm betting on three kilotons.

Anything less, they
won't get what it is.

What did Fermi mean
by "atmospheric ignition"?

Well, we had a moment

where it looked like the chain reaction
from an atomic device might never stop.

Setting fire to the atmosphere.

Why is Fermi still
taking side bets on it?

Call it gallows humor.

Wait, are we saying there's a
chance that when we push that button,

we destroy the world?

Nothing in our research over
three years supports that conclusion.

Except as the most
remote possibility.

- How remote?
- Chances are near zero.

Near zero.

What do you want
from theory alone?

[scoffs]

Zero would be nice.

In exactly one hour,
58 minutes, we'll know.

It's letting up.

The arming party's left
Zero, they're heading this way.

Throwing the switches.

Turn the cars. Ready
for emergency evacuation.

[wind howling]

[soldier] Take
your welder's glass.

Everybody, take your places.

Everybody take a welder's glass!

Everybody take a welder's glass.

[timer ticking]

Twenty minutes.

[Fermi] Twenty minutes.

[Feynman] That's 20.

On the leg, please.

- Feynman.
- No.

- For your eyes, sir.
- The glass stops the UV.

And what stops the glass?

I'm gonna head to
Base Camp. Best of luck.

Robert...

try not to blow up the world.

Watch that needle.

If the detonators don't charge, or
the voltage drops below one volt,

you hit that button, you abort.

Understood?

Understood.

[soldier on loudspeaker]
Two minutes to detonation.

Everybody down.

Do not turn around until you
see light reflected on the hills.

Then look at the explosion
only through your welder's glass.

[on loudspeaker] Ninety
seconds to detonation.

[static on radio]

[on radio] Eighty
seconds to detonation.

Is it rubbed in?

Yeah.

[on radio] Sixty
seconds to detonation.

These things are
hard on your heart.

[on loudspeaker] Thirty seconds.

[light buzzes]

Detonator's charged.

[on loudspeaker] 17, 16, 15...

14, 13, 12, 11...

Ten...

[detonator hums]

...nine,

eight...

seven...

six...

five...

four...

three...

two...

one.

[Oppenheimer breathing deeply]

[gasps]

[gasps]

[grunts]

[exhales]

[breathing deeply]

[deep breathing continues]

[breathing heavily]

[Oppenheimer] "And
now I am become Death."

"The destroyer of worlds."

[shock wave thunders]

[shock wave thunders]

[shock wave thunders]

[objects rattling]

It worked.

[scattered laughter]

[cheers, laughs]

[cheering, applauding]

[applauding, cheering]

[Kistiakowsky cheers]

- You owe me ten dollars!
- Oh!

[both laughing]

Come on!

I-- I'm good for
it, Kisty. [laughs]

You are. [laughs]

Yes, you are! [laughs]

[cheering, applauding]

[cheering, applauding]

[chattering]

We did it! Well done.

[Groves] Get me
Potsdam right away.

- Get a message to Kitty.
- We can't say anything.

Tell her to take in the sheets.

- [baby screaming]
- [phone ringing]

Shh.

- Hello?
- [Charlotte] Hi. Kitty?

What-- What? Charlotte.
Charlotte, go ahead, go ahead.

Oh, um, well, I don't know, he just
said to tell you to "bring in the sheets."

Kitty?

Kitty? Kitty, are
you still there?

If they detonate it too high in the
air, the blast won't be as powerful.

With respect, Dr. Oppenheimer,

we'll take it from here.

Did Truman brief
Stalin at Potsdam?

A brief would be
an overstatement.

He referred to a
powerful new weapon.

Stalin hoped we'd
use it against Japan.

That's it?

Robert, we've given them an ace,

it's for them to play the hand.

You're aiming for the 6th?

Well, it's up to the
CO in the Pacific.

Should I come with
you to Washington?

What for?

Well, you'll keep me informed.

Of course.

As best I can.

- [truck engine starts]
- [people applauding]

[chains rattling]

Would the Japanese surrender
if they knew what was coming?

I don't know.

[Teller] Have you
seen Szilard's petition?

What the hell does Szilard
know about the Japanese?

You're not signing it, are you?

Many people have.
A lot of people have.

Edward,

the fact that we built this bomb

does not give us any
more right or responsibility

to decide how it's
used than anyone else.

But we're the only
people who know about it.

I've told Stimson the various
opinions of the community.

But what's your opinion?

Once it's used...

nuclear war, perhaps all war...

becomes unthinkable.

Until somebody
builds a bigger bomb.

I thought they would call.

It's only the 5th.

In Japan, it's the 6th.

Charlotte.

Try Groves.

Anything?

Charlotte?

[Charlotte] Truman's
on the radio.

[Truman on radio]
Sixteen hours ago,

an American airplane dropped
one bomb on Hiroshima...

[feedback squealing]

[on loudspeaker]... and destroyed
its usefulness to the enemy.

[soldiers cheering]

The bomb had more power
than 20, 000 tons of TNT.

It is an atomic bomb.

- [truck horns honking]
- [soldiers cheering]

It is a harnessing of the
basic power of the universe.

[Charlotte] Groves on one.

[Truman] We are now
prepared to destroy,

more rapidly and
completely, the Japanese--

[clears throat] General?

[Groves] I'm very proud of
you and all of your people.

It went all right?

Apparently, it went
with a tremendous bang.

Well, everyone here is feeling
reasonably good about it.

It's been a long road.

I think one of the
wisest things I ever did

was when I selected the
director of Los Alamos.

- [horn honking]
- [cheering]

[Truman] We have spent
more than two billion dollars

on the greatest scientific
gamble in history,

and we have won.

[cheering]

[all] Oppie! Oppie!
Oppie! Oppie!

Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!

Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!

Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!

Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!

Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!

[cheering, applauding]

[feet stamping]

[stamping intensifies]

[cheering, whistling]

[whooping]

The world...

will remember this day.

[cheering]

[rumbling]

It's too soon to--

It's too soon to determine what
the results of the bombing are.

But I'll bet the
Japanese didn't like it.

[cheering]

[person screaming]

[no audible dialogue]

[no audible dialogue]

I'm so proud.

So proud of what you
have accomplished.

[no audible dialogue]

I just wish we had it in time
to use against the Germans.

[no audible dialogue]

- [laughing, distorted]
- [crowd cheering]

[laughing]

[sobbing]

[scream, distorted]

[sobbing]

[laughter]

[distorted wailing continues]

[footsteps approaching]

Dr. Oppenheimer?

Dr. Oppenheimer?

[chuckles]

Nice picture.

President Truman
will see you now.

Dr. Oppenheimer. It's an honor.

- Mr. President.
- Please.

Thank you.

Secretary Byrnes.

How's it feel to be the most
famous man in the world?

You helped save a
lot of American lives.

- What we did at Hiroshima was a--
- And Nagasaki.

Well, obviously.

Your invention let us
bring our boys home.

Well, it was hardly...

my invention.

It was you on the cover of Time.

[Truman, Byrnes laughing]

Jim tells me you're concerned
about an arms race with the Soviets.

Oh, yes, uh...

Well, um...

It's that, uh,

now is our chance to secure...

international cooperation on...
[clears throat]...atomic energy

a-a-and I'm concerned--

Do you know when the Soviets
are gonna have the bomb?

I don't think I could
give a precise--

Never.

Never.

Mr. President, the Russians
have good physicists

- a-a-and abundant resources.
- Abundant?

- [Truman chuckles]
- Yes.

- I don't think so.
- [chuckles]

Well, they'll put
everything they have in...

I hear you're leaving
Los Alamos. [sniffles]

What should we do with it?

Give it back to the Indians.

Um, Dr. Oppenheimer,

if what you say about
the Soviets is true,

we have to build up Los
Alamos, not shut it down.

Mr. President...

Um...

I feel that I have
blood on my hands.

You think anyone in
Hiroshima or Nagasaki

gives a shit who built the bomb?

They care who dropped it.

I did.

Hiroshima isn't about you.

Dr. Oppenheimer.

[clears throat]

Don't let that
crybaby back in here.

[Strauss] Robert saw that
hand-wringing got him nowhere.

By the time I met him,

he'd fully embraced his
"father of the bomb" reputation.

And he used his profile
to influence policy.

[chattering]

[camera shutter clicks]

[Robb] Doctor, in the
years following the war,

would you say that you
exerted a great influence

on the atomic
policies of the USA?

[Oppenheimer] I think "great"
would be an overstatement.

[Robb] Really? If we look
at the issue of isotopes,

were you not personally responsible for
destroying all opposition to their export?

- You could use a bottle of beer...
- [gallery laughing]

...when making atomic weapons.

In fact, you do.

I was the spokesman,

but the opinion among
scientists was unanimous.

All along with McCarthy on the
rise, he knew he was vulnerable.

His brother was blacklisted by
every university in the country.

Lomanitz wound up working
the railroad, laying track.

And Chevalier went into exile.

But none of that stopped
Robert from pushing the GAC

to recommend arms control
instead of the H-bomb.

He was devastated when Truman
rejected their recommendation.

I miss Richard
more than I can bear.

I know, Ruth, I know.

Part of me's glad he didn't live
to see where this is all going.

Here comes the birthday boy.

To gloat.

Have fun.

Robert, uh, my
son and his fiancée

are desperate to meet the father
of the atomic bomb, and so...

Well... good day.

Is this a bad time?

What do you think, Lewis?

Well, I think it must
have been a blow for you.

For the world.

The world? What does Fuchs
mean to the rest of the world?

Fuchs?

Klaus Fuchs?

Oh, dear. You haven't heard.

Klaus Fuchs, the
British scientist

that you put onto the
implosion team at Los Alamos...

turns out he was spying for
the Soviets the whole time.

I'm sorry.

[Strauss] After the truth
about Fuchs came out,

the FBI stepped up
surveillance on him.

He knew his phone was tapped,

he was followed everywhere,

his trash picked through.

- But never stopped speaking his mind.
- A man of conviction.

And maybe he thought fame
could actually protect him.

When Eisenhower took
office, he saw one more chance.

He took it.

America and Russia may be
likened to two scorpions in a bottle,

each capable of killing the other,
but only at the risk of his own life.

Now, there are various
aspects of this policy--

[Strauss] Lot of scientists blame me,
but how was I supposed to protect him?

...are too secret for discussion,
candor is the only remedy.

Officials in Washington need to
start leveling with the American people.

[murmuring]

That was the last straw
for Robert's enemies.

So he had to lose
his security clearance?

- And with it, his credibility.
- [knocks on window]

But how could they do it?

He was a war hero. He'd already
told everyone about his past.

Borden dredged it all up.

How could Borden get access
to Oppenheimer's FBI file?

- Could it have been Nichols?
- No, I can't imagine he'd do that.

But whoever did
unleashed a firestorm

that burned a path from the White
House back to my desk at the AEC.

You see him in there, right?

I've worked my
whole life to get here,

Cabinet of the United
States of America,

and now, in front of the entire country,
they're gonna put me back in my place.

A lowly shoe salesman.

Lewis, we can win this thing.

I-I think we can get the Senate
to grasp that you did your duty,

painful though it was.

- Now, will Hill's testimony back us up?
- Hill will be fine.

I don't really know him,

but he was one of
Szilard's boys in Chicago,

and they never forgave Robert

for not supporting the
petition against bombing Japan.

[projector clicks]

[Morrison] This was taken
31 days after the bombing.

Virtually everyone in the
street for nearly a mile around,

was instantly and
seriously burned.

[audience gasping]

[Morrison] The Japanese spoke
of people who wore striped clothing

upon whom, the skin
was burned in stripes.

There were many who
thought themselves lucky,

who climbed out of the ruins of
their homes, only slightly injured.

But they died anyway.

They died days or weeks
later from the radium-like rays

emitted in great numbers at
the moment of the explosion.

Did you read this
crap in the papers?

A British physicist is saying

the atomic bombings were
not the last act of World War II,

but the first act of this
cold war with Russia.

Which physicist?

I think you knew
him. Patrick Blackett.

[scoffs]

He may not be wrong.

Stimson is now telling me

we bombed an enemy that
was essentially defeated.

Robert, you've all
the influence now.

Please.

Urge them to continue
my research on the Super.

I neither can nor will, Edward.

Why not?

It's not the right
use of our resources.

Is that what you really believe?

J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Sphinx-like guru of the atom.

Nobody knows what you believe.

Do you? Hmm?

[Groves] One final time,
our program director,

Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.

[Oppenheimer] I hope
that, in years to come,

you will look back on
your work here with pride.

But today that pride must be
tempered with a profound concern.

If atomic weapons are to be added
to the arsenals of a warring world,

then the day will come when people
will curse the name of Los Alamos.

Sorry, Admiral.
Stopped off to get this.

It seems pretty favorable.

There's Oppenheimer.
What's the caption?

Uh, "J. Robert Oppenheimer,
Strauss fought...

and the US won."

That'll work.

Those were your
words from the other day.

We needed to pivot.

But how would you know what
Time magazine's gonna write?

Henry Luce is a friend.

You sat here and let
me tell you how it's done,

but you've been
far ahead all along.

Survival in Washington

is about knowing
how to get things done.

Right.

What was it you
said about Borden?

"Why get caught holding
the knife yourself?"

I'm beginning to think Borden
was holding the knife for you.

It's gonna come down to how much influence
Borden's been able to exert on Teller.

[Kitty laughing]

[attorney] Did I say
something funny?

Just "Borden, Borden, Borden"
when we all know that it's Strauss.

Lewis brought me
to Princeton, Kitty.

And then you humiliated
him in front of Congress.

- But more useful than a sandwich.
- [gallery laughing]

How'd I do?

Maybe a little too well, Robert.

That was six years ago.

You know the truly
vindictive, patient as saints.

Strauss has been perfectly
clear that he is neutral.

- [glass shatters]
- Wake up! It is Strauss!

It's always been
Strauss, and you know it.

Why won't you fight him?

Christ's sake.

It wasn't Nichols, or Hoover,
or one of Truman's guys.

It was you. You gave
the file to Borden.

You set him on Oppenheimer.
You convinced him to--

Borden didn't take
any convincing.

Take your time,
use the entire file.

Write up your conclusions,
send them to the FBI.

The material is obviously extensive,
but there's nothing new here.

[Strauss] Your
conclusions will be.

And they'll have to be answered.

Hoover passes them to McCarthy?

Oppenheimer's too slippery
for that self-promoting clown.

I've talked it over with Hoover,
he'll hold McCarthy at bay

while you do this with the AEC.

A trial.

No. No trial.

You can't give
Oppenheimer a platform.

You can't martyr him.

We need a systematic destruction
of Oppenheimer's credibility

so he can never again speak
on matters of national security.

Then what?

A shabby little room,
far from the limelight.

[chattering]

[Strauss] A simple,
bureaucratic procedure.

His Q clearance
is up for renewal.

You send your
accusations to the FBI...

Hoover sends them to the
AEC, you're forced to act.

You write up an indictment.

You tell Oppenheimer his security
clearance is not being renewed.

But offer him the
chance to appeal.

As you can see,
Robert, it's not yet signed.

- May I keep this?
- No.

If you do decide to appeal,
they'll have to send you a copy.

When he appeals,
and trust me, he will,

- I appoint a board.
- [chattering]

They will, of course,
have counsel.

- [Nichols] Prosecutor?
- In all but name.

- Who?
- Roger Robb.

Ouch.

Robb will have security clearance
to examine Oppenheimer's file.

As will the Gray board.

Defense counsel will not.

A closed hearing.

"The so-called and derogatory
information in your indictment of me..."

No audience. No reporters.
No burden of proof.

No burden of proof?

We're not convicting.

We're just denying.

What is it you said?

"This is just how
the game is played."

Well, forgive my naivete.

Amateurs seek
the sun... get eaten.

Power stays in the shadows.

But, sir, you're out
of the shadows now.

Yeah, that's why
this has to work.

Well...

Teller's testifying this
morning. That'll help.

And then...

Hill is in the afternoon.

Hill is gonna help us too.

[Strauss] As you can see,
Robert, it's not yet signed.

- May I keep this?
- [Nichols] No.

If you do decide to appeal, then
they'll have to send you a copy.

Take my car
and driver. I insist.

I'll have to consult
my lawyers, Lewis.

Of course. But
don't take too long.

I can't keep Nichols at bay.

I'm sorry it's come
to this, Robert.

I think it's wrong.

[Oppenheimer] Nichols wants me to
fight so he can get it all on the record.

Strauss wants me to walk away.

Strauss knows that you can't do
that. You'd be accepting the charges.

You'll lose your job.

You will lose your reputation.
We'll lose our house.

Robert, we have to fight.

As AEC counsel, I
can't represent you.

I'll call Lloyd Garrison.

- He's good.
- The best, but...

I have to warn you...

this won't be a fair fight.

During your interview
with Boris Pash in 1943,

did you refer to microfilm?

- No.
- Tab 11, page one, paragraph three.

You never said,
"Man of the consulate

expert in the use of microfilm."

- [Garrison] I'm sorry.
- No.

I would like to know what
document Mr. Robb is quoting from

and if we might be
furnished with a copy.

The document is
classified, Mr. Garrison.

I think we should get back
to firsthand information.

- This is firsthand.
- How so, Roger?

There was a recording
of the interview.

[Garrison] You let my client sit
here and potentially perjure himself

and all this time,
you had a recording?

Nobody told your client to
misrepresent his former answers.

Misrepres-- It was 12 years ago.

Can we hear this recording?

You don't have the
clearance, Mr. Garrison.

- But you're reading it into the record.
- Please, please.

Is this proceeding interested
in entrapment or in truth?

If it's truth, where's the
disclosure? Where's the witness list?

Mr. Garrison, this isn't a
trial, as you're well aware.

Evidentiary rules do not apply.
We are dealing with national security.

Yes, sir, with all due respect,

I fail to see how national
security prevents the prosecution

- from providing us a list of witnesses.
- Perhaps we are in need of a brief recess.

[Oppenheimer] Gentlemen,
you have my words.

If you say they're from a
transcript, then I'll accept it.

I've already explained I
made up a cock-and-bull story.

But why would anyone make
up such an elaborate story?

Because I was an idiot.

Why lie?

Well, clearly with the intention of not
revealing who the intermediary was.

Your friend, Haakon
Chevalier, the communist?

Is he still your friend?

Yes.

[Garrison] Dr. Rabi,
thank you for coming.

Do you know who else
the prosecution has called?

Teller, obviously.

- They've asked Lawrence.
- What did he say?

- He wasn't going to help them, but...
- But?

Strauss told him that you and Ruth Tolman
have been having an affair for years.

The whole time you lived
with them in Pasadena.

He convinced Lawrence that
Richard died of a broken heart.

- That's absurd.
- What part?

The broken heart.

Richard never found out.

Is Lawrence gonna testify?

I don't know.

[Garrison] Dr. Rabi, what governmental
positions do you currently hold?

I am the chairman of the General
Advisory Committee to the AEC,

succeeding Dr. Oppenheimer.

And how long have you
known Dr. Oppenheimer?

Since 1928. I...

I know him quite well.

Well enough to speak to the
bearing of his loyalty and character?

Dr. Oppenheimer is a man
of upstanding character.

And he is loyal to the
United States, to his friends,

to the institutions
of which he is part.

Eat.

- [door opens]
- [footsteps approaching]

- [Oppenheimer] What was that?
- Nothing to worry about.

[Robb] After the
Russian A-bomb test,

did Dr. Lawrence come to see
you about the hydrogen bomb?

You'd be better off asking him.

Well, I fully intend to.

Would you say that Dr. Oppenheimer
was unalterably opposed to the H-bomb?

No, he thought that
a fusion program

would come at the expense of
our awfully good fission program.

- But that proved not to be the case.
- In the event, both could be done.

Suppose that this board
did not feel satisfied that,

in his testimony here,
Dr. Oppenheimer had been wholly truthful.

What would you say whether
or not he should be cleared?

Why go through all
this against a man

who has accomplished
what Dr. Oppenheimer has?

Look at his record.

We have an A-bomb
and a whole series of it.

We have a whole
series of Super bombs.

What more do you want? Mermaids?

[Teller] But I've known
Secretary Strauss for many years,

and I feel it a necessity to
express the warm support

for science and scientists
Lewis has shown.

We'll break now, unless
there's any immediate business.

[Strauss] Senator, I'd
like to once again request

that we're furnished
with a list of witnesses.

And I will remind the nominee

that we don't always have
that information in advance.

We do know that Dr. Hill
will be here after lunch.

Mr. Chairman, our next
scheduled witness, Dr. Lawrence,

has apparently come
down with colitis.

So we'll proceed with
William Borden instead.

Mr. Borden, welcome.
Please take a seat.

Mr. Borden, during your
investigation into Dr. Oppenheimer,

- did you reach certain conclusions?
- I did.

And did there come a time when
you expressed those conclusions

in a letter to Mr. J. Edgar Hoover of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation?

- That is correct.
- Prior to the writing of the letter,

did you discuss the writing of
the letter with anybody attached

to the Atomic Energy Commission?

- I did not.
- [Robb] Do you have a copy of the letter?

I have one in front of me.

Would you please be
so kind as to read it, sir?

"Dear Mr. Hoover, the
purpose of this letter is to state"--

[Garrison] I'm sorry, I'm
sorry, if I could have a--

What is the purpose of the delay?
He's simply gonna read the letter.

[chuckles] Mr. Chairman, this
is the first I've seen of this letter,

and I see statements
here, at least one,

of a kind that I don't think anyone
would like to see go into the record.

These are accusations that
have not previously been made.

That are not part of the
indictment from Nichols.

Accusations of a kind that
I don't think belong here.

The witness wrote this
letter on his own initiative,

laying out evidence that has
already been before the board.

His conclusions
are valid testimony,

just like the positive conclusions
of friends of Dr. Oppenheimer.

It cuts both ways.

How long has counsel been
in possession of this letter?

I don't think I should be subject to
cross-examination by you, Mr. Garrison.

[Gray] Mr. Garrison, given that we
on the board have all read the letter,

wouldn't it be better
to have it in the record?

Let's proceed.

[Borden] "Dear Mr. Hoover,

the purpose of this letter
is to state my opinion

based upon years of study of
the available classified evidence,

that more probably than not

J. Robert Oppenheimer is
an agent of the Soviet Union.

The following
conclusions are justified.

One, between 1929 and
1942, more probably than not,

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a
sufficiently hardened communist,

that he volunteered
information to the Soviets.

Two, more probably than not,

he has since been functioning
as an espionage agent.

Three, more probably than not,

he has since acted
under a Soviet directive

in influencing United
States military policy"...

- I'm sorry, Robert.
- ..."atomic energy, intelligence"...

Is anyone ever going to tell the
truth about what's happening here?

[chairman] We will now
hear from Dr. David Hill.

[shutters clicking]

[shutter clicks]

Dr. Hill, would you care
to make a statement?

Thank you.

I've been asked to testify
about Lewis Strauss.

A man who has given years of
service in high positions of government

and who is known to be earnest,
hardworking and intelligent.

The views I have to
express are my own,

but I believe that much I
have to say will help to indicate

why most of the
scientists in this country

would prefer to see Mr. Strauss
completely out of government.

[gallery murmuring]

You're referring to the
hostility of certain scientists

directed toward Mr. Strauss
because of his commitment to security,

as demonstrated in
the Oppenheimer affair?

No.

Because of the personal vindictiveness
he demonstrated against Dr. Oppenheimer.

[murmuring intensifies]

- [chairman] Order.
- [gavel rapping]

Order.

It appears to most
scientists around this country

that Robert Oppenheimer
is now being pilloried

and put through an ordeal because
he expressed his honest opinions.

Dr. Bush, I thought I was
performing a service to my country

when hearing this case.

No board in this country
should sit in judgment of a man

because he expressed
strong opinions.

If you wanna try that
case, you should try me.

Excuse me, gentlemen,
if I become stirred.

But I am.

Dr. Hill, we've already heard that
Mr. Strauss did not bring the charges,

or participate in the hearings
against Dr. Oppenheimer.

The Oppenheimer matter
was initiated and carried through

largely through the
animus of Lewis Strauss.

[gallery murmuring]

Oppenheimer made mincemeat
out of Strauss's position

on the shipment of
isotopes to Norway,

and Strauss never forgave
him this public humiliation.

Another controversy between them centered
around their differences in judgment

on how the H-bomb would
contribute to national security.

Strauss turned to the
personnel security system

in order to destroy
Oppenheimer's effectiveness.

And Strauss was able to
find a few ambitious men

who also disagreed with
Oppenheimer's positions

and envied him his prestige
in government circles.

I've always assumed, and still assume,
that he's loyal to the United States.

I believe this.

And I shall believe it until I see
very conclusive proof to the opposite.

Do you, or do you not, believe that
Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk?

In a great number of cases,

I have seen Dr. Oppenheimer
act in a way which was, to me,

exceedingly hard to understand.

I thoroughly disagreed
with him in numerous issues,

and his actions, frankly, appeared
to me confused and complicated.

To this extent, I feel,

I want to see the vital
interests of this country

in hands which I
understand better,

and therefore trust more.

- Thank you, Doctor.
- [Robb] Thank you.

I'm sorry.

[Kitty] You shook
his fucking hand?

Oh, I would have
spit in his face.

Not sure the board would
have appreciated that.

Is it not gentlemanly
enough for you?

I think you're all being
too goddamn gentlemanly.

Gray must see
what Robb is doing.

Why doesn't he
just shut him down?

And you shaking Teller's hand.

You need to stop
playing the martyr.

Under the current AEC guidelines,
would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?

Under my interpretation
of the Atomic Energy Act,

which did not exist when I
hired Dr. Oppenheimer in 1942,

I would not clear him today
if I were on the commission.

[Robb] Good, thank
you, General, that is all.

But I don't think I'd
clear any of those guys.

That's all.

[Garrison] Dr. Oppenheimer
had no responsibility

in the selection or the
clearance of Klaus Fuchs, did he?

No. None at all.

And you wouldn't want to leave
this board with any suggestion today

that you're here questioning his
basic loyalty to the United States

and the operation of Los Alamos.

By no means.

I hope I didn't lead anyone to
believe otherwise for an instant.

[Gray] Thank you, General.

[door opens]

Okay. We shouldn't
keep them waiting.

She'll be here.

Do you even want her here?

Only a fool or an adolescent

presumes to know
someone else's relationship,

and you're neither, Lloyd.

- [door opens]
- [footsteps approaching]

Kitty and I, we're grown-ups.

We've walked
through fire together.

She'll do fine.

[Garrison] Would you describe your
views on communism as pro, anti, neutral?

[Kitty] Very strongly against.

I've had nothing to do with
communism since 1936, since...

since before I met Robert.

That's all.

[Hill] The record
demonstrates that Oppenheimer

was not interrogated by
impartial and disinterested counsel

for the Gray board.

He was interrogated
by a prosecutor

who used all the tricks of a
rather ingenious legal background.

You are charging now that the
Gray board permitted a prosecution.

If I were on the Gray board,

I would have protested against the
tactics of the man who served, in fact,

as the prosecuting counsel.

A man appointed,
not by the board...

but by Lewis Strauss.

[gallery murmuring]

Who was this?

I'm sorry?

[McGee] Who was this?

Uh, Roger Robb.

Mrs. Oppenheimer.

Did you have a Communist
Party membership card?

I'm--

I'm not sure.

Not sure?

Well--

Well?

I mean, presumably,
the act of joining the Party

required sending some
money and receiving a card, no?

Yeah.

[sighs]

Sorry.

[Robb] Yeah.

It's just it was all so very
long ago, Mr. Robb, wasn't it?

- Not really.
- Long enough to have forgotten.

- Did you return the card or rip it up?
- The card whose existence I've forgotten?

- Your Communist Party membership card.
- Haven't the slightest idea.

Can a distinction be made between
Soviet communism and communism?

In the days when I was a member, I
thought they were definitely two things.

I thought that the Communist
Party of the United States

was concerned with
our domestic problems.

I now no longer believe this.

I believe the thing's linked together
and spread all over the world,

and I have believed this since
I left the Party, 16 years ago.

- But--
- 17 years ago. My mistake.

- But you sai--
- Sorry, 18.

18 years ago.

Are you familiar with the fact your
husband was making contributions

to the Spanish Civil
War as late as 1942?

I knew that Robert gave
money from time to time.

Did you know this money was
going into Communist Party channels?

- Don't you mean "through"?
- Pardon?

I think you mean "through
Communist Party channels," don't you?

- Yes!
- Yes?

- Yes!
- Yes.

Then would it be fair to say
that this meant that by 1942,

your husband had not stopped having
anything to do with the Communist Party?

You don't have to answer that yes or
no. You can answer that any way you wish.

I know that, thank you.

It's your question.

It's not properly phrased.

- Do you understand what I'm getting at?
- I do.

- Then why don't you answer it that way?
- 'Cause I don't like your phrase.

"Having anything to do
with the Communist Party."

Because Robert never had anything
to do with the Communist Party as such.

I know he gave money
to Spanish refugees.

I know he took an intellectual
interest in communist ideas--

Are there two types
of communists?

Intellectual communists and
your plain, old, regular commie?

[laughs]

Well, I couldn't
answer that one.

[Evans chuckles]
I couldn't either.

Good evening.

Robert, you can't
win this thing.

It's a kangaroo court with
a predetermined outcome.

- Why put yourself through more of it?
- I have my reasons.

All right.

Good night.

[car door closes]

He has a point.

I'm not sure you
understand, Albert.

No?

I left my country
never to return.

You served your country well.

If this is the reward
she offers you, then...

perhaps you should
turn your back on her.

Damn it, I happen
to love this country.

Then tell them to go to hell.

Interestingly enough,

this is no longer a
confirmation hearing,

it's now a trial about a trial!

It's not good he's telling
everyone you initiated the hearings.

He can't prove a goddamn thing.

He certainly can't prove
that I gave the file to Borden.

We're not in court, sir.
There's no burden of proof.

Right. They're not convicting...

just denying.

But why would Hill come here to
tear me down? What's his angle?

Do people need a reason
to do the right thing?

As he sees it.

I told you, Oppenheimer
poisoned the scientists against me,

right from that first meeting.

I don't know what Oppenheimer
said to him that day,

but Einstein wouldn't
even meet my eye.

[no audible dialogue]

[Strauss] Oppenheimer knows
how to manipulate his own.

And at Los Alamos, he preyed
on the naivete of scientists

who thought they'd get a
say in how we used their work.

Don't ever think he
was that naive himself.

[Robb] Doctor.

During your work on the hydrogen bomb,
were you deterred by any moral qualms?

Yes, of course.

But you still got on with
your work, didn't you?

Yes, because this was work of exploration.
It was not the preparation of a weapon.

You mean it was more
of an academic excursion?

No, it is not an academic thing
whether you can build a hydrogen bomb.

It's a matter of life and death.

By 1942,

you were actively pushing the development
of the hydrogen bomb, weren't you?

Pushing's not the right word.
Supporting it and working on it, yes.

So when did these moral
qualms become so strong

that you actively opposed the
development of the hydrogen bomb?

When it was suggested that it
be the policy of the United States

to make these things at all
cost, without regard to the balance

between these weapons and
atomic weapons as part of our arsenal.

What do moral qualms
have to do with that?

- What do moral qualms have to do with it?
- Yes.

Oppenheimer wanted
to own the atomic bomb.

He wanted to be the
man who moved the Earth.

He talks about putting the
nuclear genie back in the bottle.

Well, I'm here to tell you that I
know J. Robert Oppenheimer,

and if he could do it all
over, he'd do it all the same.

You know he's never once
said that he regrets Hiroshima?

He'd do it all over. Why?

Because it made him the most
important man who ever lived.

[stammering] Well, we've
freely used the atomic bomb--

[Robb] In fact, Doctor, you
assisted in selecting the target

to drop the atomic bomb
on Japan, didn't you?

- Yes.
- [Robb] Then you knew, did you not,

that by dropping that atomic
bomb on the target you selected,

that thousands of civilians would
be killed or injured, is that correct?

- Yes, not as many as turned out--
- [feet stamping]

Oh. Well, how many
were killed or injured?

70,000.

70,000 at both Hiroshima and--

110,000 at both.

[Robb] On the day
of each bombing?

- Yes.
- And in the weeks and years that followed?

It has been put at somewhere
between 50,000 and 100,000.

- 220,000 dead, at least.
- [Oppenheimer] Yes.

Any moral scruples about that?

Terrible ones.

Yet you testified in here that the
bombing of Hiroshima was very successful.

- Technically successful.
- Oh! Technically, it was very successful.

And it is also alleged to
have helped end the war.

Would you have been supportive of the
dropping of a hydrogen bomb on Hiroshima?

- That would make no sense at all.
- Why?

[stammering] The
target is too small.

Well, supposing there had
been a target in Japan big enough

for a thermonuclear weapon,

would you have been
opposed to the dropping of it?

This was not a problem
with which I was confronted--

I'm confronting
you with it now, sir.

It was all part of his plan.

He wanted the glorious,
insincere guilt of the self-important

to wear like a fucking crown.

Say, "No, we cannot go down this
road," even as he knew we'd have to.

Would you have been
opposed to the dropping

of a thermonuclear weapon on
Japan because of moral scruples?

- Yes, I believe I would, sir.
- [feet stamping]

Did you oppose the dropping

of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima
because of moral scruples?

- We set forth our arg--
- No, you.

- I'm asking you. You!
- I set--

I set forth our arguments
against dropping it,

- but I did not endorse them.
- [stamping intensifies]

You mean after working night and
day for three years building the bomb,

you then argued against
the use of it. [laughs]

I was asked by the secretary of
war what the views of scientists were.

I gave him the views
against and the views for.

You supported the dropping
of the atom bomb on Japan.

- What do you mean, "support"?
- [Robb] You supported it.

- You helped pick the target, didn't you?
- I did my job.

I was not in a policy-making
position at Los Alamos.

I would have done
anything I was asked to do.

Then you would have built
the H-bomb too, wouldn't you?

- I couldn't.
- I didn't ask you that, Doctor.

And the GAC report,

which you co-authored
after the Soviet atomic test,

- said a Super bomb should never be built.
- [stamping intensifies]

What we meant--
What I meant was--

- What you? Who? Who?
- What I meant--

And wouldn't the Russians do
anything to increase their strength?

- [stamping stops]
- If we did it, they would have to do it.

Our efforts would only fuel their efforts,
just as it had with the atomic bomb.

"Just as it had with the
atomic bomb," exactly!

No moral scruples in
1945, plenty in 1949.

[Gray] Dr. Oppenheimer...

when did your strong
moral convictions develop

with respect to the
hydrogen bomb?

When it became clear to me...

that we would tend to
use any weapon we had.

[Strauss] J. Robert
Oppenheimer the Martyr.

I gave him exactly
what he wanted.

To be remembered for
Trinity, not Hiroshima.

Not Nagasaki.

He should be thanking me.

Well, he's not.

Do we still have enough votes,

or is the crowning
moment of my career

about to become the most
public humiliation of my life?

Full Senate's about to
vote. You'll scrape through.

Great, then gather
the fucking press.

[Gray] Dr. J. Robert
Oppenheimer.

This board, having
heard testimony from you

and many of your current
and former colleagues,

has come to the unanimous
conclusion that you are a loyal citizen.

However, in the light of
your continuing associations

and disregard for the security
apparatus of this country,

together with your
somewhat disturbing conduct

on the hydrogen bomb program,

and the regrettable
lack of candor

in certain of your
responses to this board,

we have voted two-to-one

to deny the renewal of
your security clearance.

A full written opinion, with
a dissent from Mr. Evans,

will be issued to the
AEC in the coming days.

That is all.

Gordon.

[indistinct]

[Kitty on phone] Robert.

Robert.

Don't, uh...

Don't take in the sheets.

[reporters clamoring]

- [reporter] Sir.
- [Senate aide] Two minutes. Two minutes.

You'll get your shot.

[clamoring continues]

[Strauss] Is it official?

[Senate aide] Well, there were
a couple of unexpected holdouts.

I'm denied. Yeah?

- I'm afraid so, sir.
- All right.

Who were the holdouts?

Um... There were three,

led by the junior senator
from Massachusetts.

Young guy trying to
make a name for himself,

didn't like what you
did to Oppenheimer.

What's his name?

Uh, Kennedy. John F. Kennedy.

Kitty?

Did you think that if you
let them tar and feather you,

that the world
would forgive you?

It won't.

We'll see.

Goddamn it.

[muttering]

You told me I'd be okay.

Yeah, well, I didn't
have all the facts, did I?

Here's a fact.

President Eisenhower
pinned the Medal of Freedom

on my chest last year,

'cause I've always done
what's right for this country.

They don't want me
in the Cabinet room?

Oh, that's-- That's fine.

Maybe they should just
invite Oppenheimer instead.

Maybe they will.

I told you, he turned the
scientists against me one by one,

starting with Einstein.

I told you about Einstein.
I saw him by the pond.

You did, but you know, sir,

since nobody really knows what
they said to each other that day,

is it possible they didn't
talk about you at all?

Is it possible they
spoke about something...

more important?

- [reporter] Mr. Strauss!
- [all clamoring]

[camera shutters clicking]

Oh! [chuckles]

Thank you. [chuckles]

Albert.

- Ah...
- [clears throat]

The man of the moment.

You once held a
reception for me.

- In Berkeley. You gave me an award, mmm?
- Yes.

You all thought that I had
lost the ability to understand

what I'd started.

So, the award
really wasn't for me.

It was for all of you, hmm?

Now it's your turn

to deal with the consequences
of your achievement.

And one day,

when they've
punished you enough...

they'll serve you
salmon and potato salad.

Make speeches...

[no audible dialogue]

...give you a medal.

Hello, Frank.

You're happy, I'm happy.

[Einstein] Pat you on the
back, tell you all is forgiven.

Just remember...

it won't be for you.

It'll be for them.

Albert.

When I came to you
with those calculations,

we thought we might start
a chain reaction that would

destroy the entire world?

Mmm. I remember
it well. What of it?

I believe we did.

[feet stamping]

[stamping continues]