All language subtitles for Oppenheimer.2023.1080p.BluRay.DD5.1.x264-GalaxyRG_Legendas01.ENG-eng

[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?

Gottingen.

- 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 19477?

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 associations

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 Gottingen,
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]

[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.

[quests 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, itis.

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!

[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.

- l 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
fo 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'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?
- l know him.

Just like I know Walther Bothe,
Von Weizsacker, 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.

lzzy.

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. Godel?
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?

Tellers.

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-1 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] / 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, 19437?

[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 fo 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 fo 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 Gl 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 Il 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 fo detonation.

[static on radio]

[on radio]
Eighty seconds to detonation.

Is it rubbed in?

Yeah.

[on radio]
Sixty seconds fo defonation.

These things are hard on your heart.

[on loudspeaker] Thirty seconds.

[light buzzes]

Detonator's charged.

[on loudspeaker] 77, 76, 75...

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
fo 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 fo 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 7ime.

[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] Loft 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 Il,

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 fest,

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 nuUMerous 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 inferrogated 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 19427

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 1?

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]