MAN: Through another party?
OPPENHEIMER: Yes.
Could we know who?
OPPENHEIMER INHALES I think that would be a mistake.
MAN SIGHS I'll tell you for what reason.
Not to take this person to task in any way.
NARRATOR: In the autumn of 1942, nearly a year after Pearl Harbor,
the United States had entered the race against Germany
to produce an atomic bomb.
The Army were preparing to take over the running of the weapon project.
While scientists, Robert Oppenheimer among them,
were puzzling over theoretical aspects of the weapon,
the Army had begun the search for a man to co-ordinate and supervise
all the various projects that would produce both the explosive material
and the bomb mechanism.
The frontrunner for the job was an engineer -
a career soldier currently in charge
of all Army construction in the United States.
His name was Colonel Leslie Groves.
At the end of September, Groves was summoned to the Pentagon
for an interview with Major General Wilhelm Styer
of the Army Services of Supply.
I'm putting you in charge of The Manhattan Project.
Now, you'll get briefing from people who are more expert than me.
But I can tell you this.
The Manhattan Project is an attempt to develop
a new kind of weapon of shattering power -
the atomic bomb.
You don't seem very excited, Colonel.
Well, I don't know, sir.
The Japs are halfway across the Pacific,
the Germans about to walk into Moscow.
I don't know if I can get interested in some new kind of wonder weapon
at this point, no, sir.
Well, let me put it to you this way, Colonel.
If the Japs controlled the whole Pacific
and if the Germans took all of Russia, AND all of Asia
AND Africa too, and we had this bomb,
we would still win the war.
Oh, and there's one more item that may be of interest to you.
There's a promotion.
Goes with the job.
Is that why you wanted a combat assignment?
And I thought you were a real fire-eater.
All right. Let's get serious.
You're going to have to work for those stars.
The Manhattan Project's in a hell of a mess right now.
You want to take notes?
COLONEL GROVES GRUNTS
The President gave the OK to the project back in 1939.
Since then the whole thing has just diddled along.
These scientists, they're not living in the real world half the time.
For instance, I have got here a project estimate for five plants
that they want to put up.
They put a figure of $85 million on it.
That's ridiculous.
I've just come from a TNT plant we built in Pennsylvania,
cost $128 million - ONE plant.
OK. You see the problem?
There's worse.
They don't even know what process to use
to make the material for this bomb.
Oh, they've got half a dozen different candidates,
but I can't get any sense out of them as to which one is their favourite.
The thing is, Leslie, we've got to get the damn scientists
OUT of this project and get the Army IN.
The problem is...
..we need their brains.
All right.
This is what I want you to do.
Go round the country. Talk to these people.
Where do I start?
The nearest - New York City.
They've got some damned thing going at Columbia University -
gaseous diffusion method for separating the uranium-235 isotope.
Make any sense to you?
Well...
Well, it's GOT to make sense to you.
Look, I'm assigning Ken Nichols to you.
He's a pretty smart fellow, you know, a PhD, etc.
He'll help you out.
Where after New York?
Chicago. You've got Enrico Fermi out there.
You heard of him?
Genius and all that.
Doesn't matter.
Look, you see these people, huh?
Stand up to them.
And make them talk straight.
Right.
After Chicago?
The University of California, Berkeley.
Who do I see out there?
Ernest Lawrence.
Oh, I've heard of him.
Oh, and you should talk to a man called, er,
Robert Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer? Mm-hm. What's his interest?
Oppenheimer? Right now he's heading up a study group out there.
Theoretical aspects of a fission bomb.
I hear he's quite a useful guy.
For a scientist.
Now, the next problem with Washington
is that in order to get the kind of funding we need,
we're going to have to convince them
that this isn't just a slightly larger version of a conventional weapon.
And Oscar, you've done a little work in that area.
I've done a little work, but the British have done considerably more.
Obviously the size of the blast
is going to depend upon the amount of fissionable material
we can obtain for the weapon.
And that we don't know yet.
OK. Then all we can say, very roughly, is that...
..weight for weight,
a fission bomb will produce several thousand times the blast of TNT.
Here are the calculations.
Good.
I've had some of my students look into past large-scale explosions,
see if we can't come up with some equivalent
of what we're trying to produce.
In 1917 an ammunition ship blew up in the harbour
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with 5,000 tonnes of TNT on board.
As you can see, the damage was extensive, to say the least.
The blast was felt over 60 miles away
and half the city was destroyed.
This picture was taken half a mile from the blast.
Now, if we can show that a fission weapon
will approach or even exceed a blast of this magnitude...
We're going to kill a lot of people. Told you.
EDWARD: How dare you say I'm not OK to go in that room...
MAN: I'm sorry... Edward Teller!
ARGUING INTENSIFIES
It's all right. It's all right. He's one of ours.
Oh... How are you, Edward?
Yeah, I'm fine! Fine!
I'm just mad at this cop here.
I come halfway across the country... You're supposed to have one of these.
What? Security.
Oh, I lost that the day it arrived. Anyway, you're here.
Hans Bethe, my dear friend! Hello, Edvard!
I'm late! I'm late! I'm always late!
Aah! This is Oscar.
Yes, now, we've met. Baltimore, '38.
Of course! Yes.
And this is Bob... Oh, Bob, I know your work.
Oh, really? Nice to see you.
Emile Konopinski, how nice... How are you?
Oh, Oppy, what a good group of people!
It's very exciting!
Well, we'll have some fun.
Yes. We hope so.
Now, I've got LOTS to say.
OVERLAPPING SPEECH We have an agenda, Edward. What?
We thought it would be best -
everything in its place, rather than a free-for-all.
Oh, oh, OK. An agenda.
CHUCKLING
So, what have I missed?
We've just been looking at these pictures of the Halifax explosion
and I think we can probably double that at least.
Now, we've obviously got a very interesting
and complicated problem here.
Ah. The best kind.
Agreed, but we're going to have to be very careful in all of this
to keep our discussions focused.
Especially due to our constraints of time.
So right away I'd like to look at one of our fundamental problems,
which is to describe how exactly this weapon is going to look.
Shape, size...
Very roughly, we know that we have a plutonium or a uranium sphere
wrapped in a tight shell...
And Hans, if you would, I'd like you to take us on from there.
Oh, you want me to do a resume of...? VOICE FADES OUT
I don't think there's any problem. I think, you know...
The most important thing they developed in Chicago...
Absolutely, I think this morning
was a miracle!
CHUCKLING
You know, I've never known a meeting go so smoothly.
As a chairman, you are a genius.
Except you wouldn't let me talk.
You talked nonstop for two hours.
I had three hours in me.
CHUCKLING
I'm afraid I won't be able to join you for lunch.
I have one or two things that can't wait.
Bob, you'll look after them, will you?
Yeah, sure.
Just a reminder...
..no discussion of this subject outside the room...
Of course not.
..and we clean up everything before we leave.
Does that include the board? I'm afraid so.
I'll be back on time. Bye-bye. Right.
TYPEWRITER CLACKS DOORBELL RINGS
I can only stay an hour.
Drink?
No, thanks.
Party work?
God, no. Just...stuff.
I couldn't remember if this was one of your days to see Belinsky?
No. Wednesdays and, er, Fridays.
How's it going?
Slow.
I don't know about him.
I am zinking of zwitching head-shrinkers.
To who? Bernstein.
Is he good?
He's cheaper.
You need money?
No.
How's your wife?
Fine.
Does she still butter you up as much as she used to?
She still has a great deal of confidence in me, yes.
Well, bully for her.
I never thought you weren't a big fish, Robert,
I just thought you were in an awfully small pond.
I'll come by another time. No!
I just have to let it out. It doesn't take that long.
Is it out now?
Yup.
All out?
I could murder you.
It's been a long morning.
What've you been doing?
We started a study group today, you know -
talk, talk, talk.
About what?
Oh, nothing special.
The big news today is that we can expect a visit
from the Army brass shortly. Oh boy! Trouble.
Why do they have to get involved?
Well, Hans, they're going to pay for it, we hope.
They're your employers. Not mine.
What are they coming for? To see where we've got,
speed us up a little, I suppose.
Nerve! Oh, I think we could use it.
Who is it who's coming?
Fellow by the name of Groves - General Groves.
Who is it? Nichols, sir.
I'm hungry, Nick.
Sir, I've got some tootsie rolls...
..and chocolate mints and Hershey bars.
I'll have a Hershey bar. Yes, sir.
I liked that fella, Dunning, didn't you?
Sure.
And I liked his method, too.
Straightforward. You could understand it.
But that guy Urey, though, he was a pain in the behind.
I thought he had one or two pretty sound objections, sir.
Go through them.
Right. One - uranium hexachloride gas.
That corrodes everything it touches
and they haven't found a way round that yet.
Two - the amount of U-235 that that process produces is so small,
they'd have to repeat it a hell of a lot of times
to get any appreciable concentration.
General, to get the kind of results we need,
we'd have to build huge plants and the cost would be phenomenal.
Three - Dunning said that...
The problem is, if you listen to all the objections,
you end up so you don't get behind anything.
How do I know if the damn thing'll work?
Nick, we've got to back the men.
So, when all these rods are withdrawn,
we SHOULD have this chain reaction.
But the problem is, without enough uranium,
we are not able to test the theory.
This is what I was saying, this is the biggest problem.
All right, gentlemen, uh,
what we seem to have here, to sum up,
this proposed uranium-graphite pile of Dr Fermi's
will be operational very shortly.
I expect soon to be able to conduct an experiment
which will lead to a controlled nuclear chain reaction.
Good, good. Glad to hear it.
What I want to know is, can we make that soon even sooner?
Uh, for instance, one of the bottlenecks...
What we seem to have here is a bunch of different approaches
to how this thing'll be cooled down.
Now, can't you people get together and decide which approach
is the most likely to work
and throw the rest out the window?
DISAPPROVING MURMURS
Dr Compton?
Well, the point is...
..I feel...
All the approaches are interesting.
I appreciate they may all be interesting, Doctor,
Dr, er, Szilard.
What I'm trying to convey here is that there's a war on
and we're up against a pretty smart enemy.
I don't think that your German opposite numbers
are going to be wasting time
on approaches that are merely interesting.
You don't have to tell me about the Germans. I know about the Germans.
I'm glad to hear that.
Gentlemen...
All I want to know is which approach is the likeliest to work?
Enrico?
There are two approaches which seem most interesting.
Air-cooling and helium.
It's not possible to differentiate between them.
All right. Thank you.
Is it possible that we can agree to restrict research to these two?
Yes, we can do that.
All right. Thank you.
Now, another thing.
This estimate for the amount of fissionable material
needed to build a bomb.
It's awfully imprecise.
As an engineer, I'm used to getting estimates that are correct
between 25 and 50%.
But you've got a statement here that says the figure is accurate
to a factor of ten.
Now, what am I supposed to do with that?
How do you expect me to build a factory based on these figures?
I don't know if I'm designing for three bombs a month
or three-tenths of a bomb.
Or 30 bombs.
Or what!
Dr Fermi?
At present it's not possible to be more precise.
General, it's getting rather late.
Perhaps if there are any more questions,
we could adjourn... Yeah, I've got about one million questions,
but I've got a train to catch.
Dr Compton, I'll be in touch after I get to California.
I'll have done some more reading.
There's just one thing I want to say.
You may know that I don't have a PhD.
Colonel Nichols here has, but I don't have one.
But let me tell you that I had ten years of formal education
after I entered college.
Ten years.
I just studied...
That would be the equivalent of about two PhDs., wouldn't it?
That's all.
Good day to you.
All right, Nichols. I had to say something.
Well, you did.
Goddam experts...trying to run rings around us.
It made me mad.
I'm hungry.
We've still got some Hershey bars.
And I picked up something new you might like to try.
A new Hershey bar with almonds.
An almond in every bite. OK.
A poor bunch, Nick, weren't they?
Wouldn't give you a dime for the lot of them.
Except Fermi. He seemed to be on the ball.
I don't like these. Too brittle.
It's just an experiment.
The whole set-up made me angry.
People walking in and out of each other's offices,
into the labs. No security, none.
Same thing at Columbia.
I'd like to see the whole bunch of them in uniform under strict Army regulations.
Make a note of that.
Right.
Who are we seeing in Berkeley?
Basically Ernest Lawrence.
Oh, and we're supposed to talk to a fellow named Robert Oppenheimer.
I'm looking forward to Lawrence. I hear he's quite a fellow.
At least he's an American.
"You don't have to tell me about Chermans."
"Chermans"!
I bet he's German himself.
Or a "Rooshian".
I think Dr Szilard's Hungarian.
Hungarian.
Apparently he was one of the first to alert the Government about the bomb.
Saying's one thing, doing's another.
That's where the real war is.
CHUCKLES
See? Look.
Lil old Abner wants to get away from Daisy Mae to go fishing.
So he tells her he's...
OK. Homework.
Dr Robert Oppenheimer.
Is he American?
Yes, sir. He was born in New York City. Does that count?
GRUNTS
Damn!
What is it, General?
I think I've got a bad tooth.
All I'm talking about is efficiency.
Yes, Edward... Look, you take a fission bomb,
you explode it, you get your explosion, OK, a big explosion...
Very big! What I'm saying is - and it's not just me,
Fermi's interested too - what WE say is
wrap the uranium in deuterium
and use your fission explosion to create a fusion in the deuterium.
Look, for the same mass of uranium,
you can get an explosive yield five times greater
than the fission will give.
Not just a nuclear, but a thermo-nuclear reaction. Edvard!
Not just a bomb...
..but a SUPER bomb.
Look, you've seen the calculations.
Gentlemen, please! Yes, Edward,
it's obviously an interesting idea and it has to be followed up.
But we've taken it about as far as we can.
Oh! Oppy, please listen to me...
The fact is that, if we're going to have a weapon
that we can use in this war, it has to be the fission.
But that's a simple job!
Oh, I'll order two for Christmas, then!
It's simple science and nothing simple interests me.
In order to get to the fusion weapon,
we have to start with the fission, don't we?
Yes. Well, let's take it step by step -
first the fission, then the super.
It's absurd to neglect the super.
Edward, we're hardly neglecting it.
The point is... The point is that it's taken the scientific community
two years to get to this.
How much longer are you going to fool us around?
OVERLAPPING VOICES GRUMBLE
We have spent the best part of every day for the last three weeks
talking about the super.
And you're obviously going to keep concentrating on it.
Yes. Fine. Fine.
But at the moment, it has just too many problems.
They'd be a joy to solve.
OK.
Let's get a move on. Bob?
Bob has some thoughts for us on the likely problems
we're going to have with plutonium.
Right, I've got something else.
Is it really relevant? Would I mention it otherwise, Oppy?
Last night I did some computations...
..on the likely heat build-up inside an exploding fission bomb..
Now, it was interesting.
Of course, the calculations are rough.
But I said it was interesting.
If those figures are correct... That's right, Oscar.
If they're OK, they seem to indicate that if we explode a fission bomb...
..we have a reasonable chance of setting fire
to the world's atmosphere.
We can't go on until this is settled
Agreed?
Hans, do you want it?
Well, I can't work in here.
No, but do you think you can do it in a hurry, before the military arrives?
Probably.
Thank you.
Watch the steps.
This is it.
Most impressive. Yes.
Calutron - what does that signify, Professor?
It's mostly homage to my employer -
Cal-u-tron,
it's California..University...tron!
This little baby derives from the 184" cyclotron
we were working on before the war.
Now, Dr Lawrence...
Ernest.
Ernest...
I wonder if we could see this thing in operation?
Certainly.
OK, Jimmy, we're ready to go.
If you'd like to come this way...
Watch the steps.
OK, Jimmy, let's switch her on.
Now, then, by using high electrical voltage,
the uranium atoms are accelerated through a vacuum tube
at speeds of many thousands of miles per second.
Come on, Jimmy! Let's goose it up here!
Now, at these speeds, they enter an intensely strong magnetic field.
The magnetic force pulls the atoms into circular paths.
Now, uranium has two kinds of isotopes... 238...
..and 235! Right!
And 235 is... Is lighter!
..is lighter!
OK.
And it's fissionable, which is what we want.
Now, how do we separate it out?
The lighter isotopes are bent into a different circuit from your heavier.
I like to say it's like throwing two stones of different weights
with the same force.
One'll go further than the other!
Sure. Right.
At the end of the electrical arc,
you'll find two separate containers,
one to catch the heavier isotopes,
and one for the... Lighter!
Lighter, and there you have it, sir, electro-magnetic separation.
OK, Jimmy, you can save the taxpayers' money now.
So, how long do you have to keep this thing running
to get any appreciable separation?
Well, it takes a long time
to make a vacuum in the machine
itself - 14 to 24 hours.
And how long do you run it?
Never more than 10 to 15 minutes.
How much separation so far?
How much is in that basket?
Well, as yet we don't have any sizeable separation at all.
You see, this is all still completely experimental.
Are you gentlemen going somewhere? Can I give you a lift?
No, thanks. We have someone else to see. J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Ah, he's right down the hall.
What can you tell us about him? Oh, Oppy?
Well, he's a heck of a guy!
Of course, he's a theorist and I'm an experimentalist
and, you know, they say the two don't mix, but...
..I like him - admire him.
He reads Sanskrit. Sanskrit? Yup, genuine Sanskrit.
Very fond of classical music too.
KNOCK AT DOOR
Oppy! Ernest! Come in.
Can't, but I've brought you some visitors.
Dr Robert Oppenheimer, General Groves. How do you do?
And this is Colonel... Nichols.
Right.
How's the infernal machine, Ernest?
Ohh, very promising!
I heard you were in Berkeley.
Just want a few words, Professor. Sure.
Bob knows every thing I know.
All the same...
It's OK, really, I'm sorry.
You'll be home later? Yeah. I'll call.
You're wrong!
I suppose that seemed unnecessary?
No, we're at war, after all.
Well, I never thought I'd hear a scientist say that!
Can I get you some coffee?
Fine!
I won't be a minute.
Don't bother, Nichols'll get it.
Oh, right.
There's a canteen in the basement of the next building. Thank you.
Got that, Nick? Yes, sir.
I'll have coffee, cream, sugar.
And if there's a danish or a sweet bun or something... Yes, sir.
Tea with lemon for me. Right.
You've had quite a tour, General?
Yeah, New York, Pennsylvania, Chicago, here.
Have you enjoyed it?
To be frank, not much.
Let's get down to business.
I understand your involvement is in the design of this...
..bomb we're working towards. That's right.
I was talking to Dr Lawrence,
he seems to think it's premature to talk of bomb design
before you know what you can put in it.
Sure, it is premature ordinarily.
But if we wait until they produce enough fissionable material
before we even begin to think about the problems of bomb design,
assembly and delivery,
we'd be adding months, years to the programme.
I can see that.
I'll tell you, Professor, that's the way I'm operating.
I'm putting up plants in Tennessee right now,
and I can give the boys only the vaguest specifications.
But if I wait for better ones...
So, how far has your work got?
Well, we're still in the theory stage, I'm afraid.
Sorry, we had a very interesting study group here this summer.
Maybe too interesting.
Huh?
Teller took us down pretty strange paths. Have you met Edward yet?
Amazing man!
For instance, he stopped us cold once with some calculations
that indicated the likely heat build-up
in an exploding fission bomb would create a reaction
between deuterium and nitrogen.
Meaning...?
We could set fire to the world's atmosphere.
My God!
It's OK, Hans Bethe checked the figures,
it turned out Edward had been a little imprecise.
There's no chance, huh?
There's a chance, but not as great as Edward thought.
There is a chance?
Three in a million.
We're going to keep that quiet, aren't we?
We can't let these people shout about setting the world on fire.
You can't stop scientists speculating, General.
Woolly-minded speculation.
And talk, that's what I aim to stop.
I tell you, Professor, I've had a belly-full of fancy thinking...
..experts. Can't pin 'em down on anything.
There really aren't any experts in this field.
What? Not really, it's too new.
That's the best news in weeks.
But for me to be able to do my job,
there are a lot of things I have to know.
Yes, there's plenty to know.
Do you think...you could explain it to me?
Sure. What would you like to know?
How did it go?
He's only a general.
It could be important.
Relax, I played him like a violin. Robert...
I played him like a violin.
Where's Peter?
At home, with a baby-sitter.
Steve Nelson came by, and I didn't know what to do.
I should have told him to go away, but he's been good to me.
I'm sorry.
No.
We've a right to see our friends.
He was at the party when we met, remember?
He gave a speech, we ran off to a bar.
If it hadn't been for that speech...
I should have told him to go away. Dammit! I should! Take it easy.
# There once was a union maid Who never was afraid
# Of the goons and the ginks and the company finks
# And the deputy sheriff who made the raids. #
Excuse me, I guess some people just never grow up.
But I like that song, and so does he, I think!
So do I! Don't you? Good!
Can I get you a drink?
I could do with some coffee!
You've got it.
BABY CRIES
Keep on singing!
Well, now, what's the chorus? Let's sing the chorus!
# You don't get me, I'm sticking to the Union
# Till the day I die
# Till the day I die. #
Hi, Bob. Martha.
I've an important call to make.
Hi, Lloyd? It's Steve.
I bumped into that guy Oppenheimer today...
No, no, just casual. But he was very friendly, very cordial.
That was what I was thinking - but I can't decide...
Well, he was quite active before the war.
Not at all lately, as far as I know.
Well, from what Joe says...
Joe, works up at the radiation lab in Berkeley.
Used to be one of his students.
Well, just sound him out. Just stroke him. Yeah.
Question is - who and where? Yeah.
How about you? Or what's his name? Joe?
He's jumpy enough as it is...
Well, put it out on the cocktail circuit,
I figure it'll get there one way or another. Sure.
Peanuts, General. Oh, thanks, Nick.
I've got a reservation for the second sitting.
They're saving you some mountain trout. Fine!
Any news from Chicago?
It's taking longer to build the pile than expected.
Delay, delay...
If the chain reaction succeeds, they'll transmit a signal.
"The Italian navigator has landed in the New World".
The what?
A humorous reference to Dr Fermi.
I liked that fellow, you know.
That fellow in Berkeley. Lawrence? Oh sure, Lawrence.
That other guy, Oppenheimer.
God, he's a smart fellow.
Yet no fancy stuff. No airs.
I could understand him.
Sanskrit!
Bet he could teach you Sanskrit too if he wanted.
What do we know about him?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer, born 1904,
Educated Harvard University, University of Cambridge...
Summary.
Well...
He's considered a first-class teacher
but not a first-class scientist.
What does that mean? He won't win a Nobel Prize.
Is that important?
In their world, it is.
It's not important to me.
In fact, thank God! We don't need any more prima donnas.
All I know is I can talk to him.
And I like what he has to say.
Can we get him here?
What? Here on the train?
Well...
If he can get a military plane, he could catch us at Chicago.
I'd have to send a wire from Omaha.
Do it. Right.
He understands security, the first one.
And I don't give a damn about any Nobel Prizes.
This is the kind of guy I want to see at the heart of the project.
Maybe not.
What?
Here's information from the FBI.
Oh, for God's sake.
Wife was a member of the Communist Party.
His brother and sister-in-law are current and active members.
His ex-girlfriend Jean Tatlock is thought to be a member.
He himself has had many contacts with left-wing organisations
in the Bay area.
Subscriber to the communist People's World newspaper.
Active in a teachers' union.
Under round-the-clock Bureau surveillance.
Do I forget that telegram?
No.
Send it.
Have a seat.
Good flight? A little bumpy.
Just made it. Yeah!
The reason I asked you here, Professor, is I liked
some of the things you were saying in Berkely,
and there are a few things I'd appreciate talking over. Sure.
My number one headache at the moment is security.
I can't get across to these scientists, you scientists,
how important it is to restrict the flow of information.
Quit blabbing to each other.
Well, you see,
you're asking them to go against their whole tradition.
The heck with tradition, Professor. This is wartime!
Oh, I think they'll come round. Not soon enough for me!
Look, one idea I had to get some kind of control is
get the whole lot of them into the Army.
How does that sound?
All right.
You wouldn't object personally? Uniforms? Ranks?
I don't think so.
But that's not the heart of your problem.
If you cut everybody off from each other, you've got security, but...
..you see...
..scientific research is basically a collaborative art,
especially on a project like this.
One person may come up with part
of the answer,
but he won't get there by himself.
But someone else may have another part which others can add to.
And that's how it works.
But if everybody is shut off in departments in separate centres,
nobody talking to anyone else...
Well, what's the answer?
Cut the knot.
Bring all the specialists together in one laboratory
where they can all talk to each other.
And then cut them off from the rest of the world.
One centre?
A single central laboratory.
And put a wire around it?
Well...
Sure, and guards, and dogs, to screen out the undesirables.
The undesirables?
Nick, take a walk.
What is all this damned nonsense?
I can't understand it,
an intelligent man like you mixed up in all this...
..communistic left-wing garbage.
It's beyond me.
I could understand it if you came
from some godforsaken European slum,
but this is America and you're an American.
An American who's spent a good deal of time abroad.
More's the pity, maybe.
Look, Professor,
I operate from a very simple premise, one that's stood me well.
This is the best country in the world
and there's not another that comes within 100 miles of it.
We have the best businessmen in the world,
we have the best athletes, we have the best...
..movie stars.
I know we've got the best soldiers.
And so go on right down the line.
This is the American century.
You think about it.
In your own field, don't we have the best scientists in the world?
We have some of them.
Millikan, Compton, Lawrence. But not all of them.
Well, who else is there?
Fermi and Segre are from Italy, Hans Bethe's from Germany,
Wigner and Teller are Hungarian, Von Neumann's... All right!
And where are they now, these fellows with funny names? Where?
Now? Right now.
Hans Bethe's in Cornell, Fermi's in Chicago.
They're in the United States.
Yes. And that's it.
The American way.
If we can't grow 'em ourselves, we bring 'em in.
Bring 'em!
They fight to get in...
This is America.
This is the American century.
Maybe you're right.
There's no maybe.
I want to ask you a question.
Are you a communist?
No.
Have you ever been a communist?
No.
Then why are half your damn friends communists?
Not quite half.
If only your ideas weren't so good.
What about this...
..bomb laboratory?
Where do we put it?
What do you need?
Somewhere isolated.
Put it near a city, the bastards'd sneak out every night, I know.
Canada?
Foreign government, there'll be enough red tape as it is.
It's too cold up there, they've got six-month winters.
Hell of a problem with construction.
No, it's got to be in the States.
Somewhere isolated.
And short winters.
What?
I think I may know just the place.
Well, it's isolated anyway.
What are those kids doing up here, Oppy?
Those buildings over there, that's Los Alamos Boys School.
So you've got housing in place already. Hmm. Good.
How many people would we need up here?
Maximum?
150 to 200.
That might be an underestimate.
I don't think so.
Well, sir, on other projects I've...
200 maximum.
I think you're making... OK, Nichols, button it up.
Now look, Oppy...
Oh, heck.
Nichols!
Come on, Nick.
There's a lot of pressure, I've got to kick someone around.
Not in front of anybody else.
No more.
OK. I mean it, General.
JEEP PHONE RINGS
General!
It's a message from Chicago.
Yeah, go ahead. This is he.
Again?
Very good, thank you.
"The Italian navigator has landed in the New World".
God bless Fermi!
We have a chain reaction? You bet!
Well, that is good news! Ha!
You must be relieved Yeah!
There's nothing in our way now.
There's $2 billion.
It's a soundless...?
Silent movie?
Silent movie!
The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse.
Do everything together!
Gangster? Stealing?
ALL TALK AT ONCE
Birth Of A Nation?
Third word.
Doctor? Doctor!
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari.
ALL CHEER
RADIO: Solomon Islands - Navy Department announces
Army and Navy aircraft continue daylight attacks
on enemy positions on Guadalcanal.
Tunisia - British 8th Army continues to advance on Misurata.
Germany - RAF attacks Duisburg for the 56th time.
11 bombers reported missing.
Russia - inside Stalingrad,
Moscow reports 300 to 400-metre advance in factory district.
Heavy Nazi counterattacks repulsed.
However, Berlin radio announces German High Command well satisfied
with the year's fighting in Russia.
They say this has resulted in the destruction or capture
of 10,000 Russian tanks, 10,000 guns,
and a total of one million Red Army prisoners-of-war.
Jesus, what's going on over there?
One million prisoners?
What are those idiots in Washington doing?
They swore there'd be a second front...
Honey, please! I'll tell you what they're doing - nothing.
Sitting on their fat asses while Russia goes down the drain.
Oh stop it, Haakon.
What did I do?
You're set against this, Russia gets in, and what a switch!
Now, Robert! Never mind, Kitty.
The dogs bark but the caravan rolls on. He is a dog too!
It's those Army jerks he spends his time with. Gone to his head!
I'll get the champagne.
You've got four minutes.
CORK POPS
Uh-oh!
I don't even know how to behave.
Robert, he shouldn't even be in the house. It's so dangerous.
We'll be out of here soon. No more problems.
I wish it was now.
Forgive me?
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Can I be of any assistance?
He's all yours!
Two minutes.
Sorry.
Forget it.
I'm edgy, too much work. Sure.
Want a preliminary?
Yes.
Happy New Year.
It's been a good year for you.
Kitty.
Do you ever see Jean these days? Jean?
Once in a while. How is she?
Sad.
Robert? Yeah?
I'd better not.
What is it?
That Russian news, it really...
I'll shut up.
No, it bothers me too.
Really?
What do you think I am nowadays?
Sure it does.
They're having a rough time, poor bastards.
If they break in Stalingrad...
How much can you do for them?
All that stuff you're working on at the Radiation Lab,
it's common knowledge it's pretty big.
Are you able to share it with the Soviets? No.
That's crazy.
Sure it is. You think so? Yeah.
They're our allies.
We should give them our research and get theirs in return.
No question.
You know, it could be done. What?
I know this guy, an Englishman called George Eltenton.
He has contacts with the Soviet Embassy.
If you felt there's something they should have...
Do you know what you're saying?
What's keeping those two love birds?
They'll be well into the champagne.
They would too, the sons of bitches!
Oh!
Kitty! Take it easy!
Let Bob do the running around. Yeah, I'll go.
HE WHISPERS
Sorry! It's one minute to.
Right! Can you bring the bottles, and my glass?
ALL TALK AT ONCE
CLOCK STRIKES
ALL: Happy New Year!
The radio.
Wait a minute. We've got to sing. Yeah!
MUSIC PLAYS ON RADIO
ALL: # Should old acquaintance be forgot
# And never brought to mind
# Should old acquaintance be forgot
# For the sake of Auld Lang Syne? #
THEY SING AND LAUGH
Happy New Year!
Anything happened? Are you kidding me?
You know this is crazy.
We sit here, how the hell do we know what goes on inside?
Relax, will you?
We got a new directive from Washington this morning.
Tomorrow, a couple of the technical boys are going inside
and leave them a few New Year presents scattered around.
In their phones, behind the pictures.
ALL SING AULD LANG SYNE