[MUSIC PLAYING].
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC PLAYING].
Dr. Oppenheimer.
As we begin, I believe you have a statement to read into the record.
Yes, Your Honor.
We're not judges, Doctor.
Your Honor.
Of course.
Who is that the security point?
The so-called interrogatory information.
in your indictment of me cannot be
fairly understood except in the context of my life and my work.
How long did he testify?
Honestly, I forget.
The whole hearing took a month.
An hour to know?
Well, I've only read the transcripts.
[CLEARS THROAT]
I would want to justify their own 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.
I thought.
Oppenheimer still divides America.
The committee's going to want to know where he stood.
Senator Thoreau, don't ask me to say not to feel
like you're on trial.
No, it's coming out differently just sit down.
Really, Mr. Thoreau?
Exactly.
Admiral Thoreau is a visual.
This is a formality.
President Eisenhower's asked you to be in his cabinet.
Senate really has no choice but to confirm him.
And who should they bring up, Oppenheimer?
When they bring up Oppenheimer.
You answer honestly.
No senator can deny.
He did your duty.
It'll be uncomfortable.
We're going to justify their whole life.
[CAMERA SHUTTER]
Why don't you leave the United States?
I wanted to study the new physics.
Was there nowhere here?
I thought Berkeley had the leading theoretical physics department.
Yes, one side built it.
First I had to go to Europe.
I went to Cambridge to study under Patrick Blackett.
Well, you're happier there than in America.
Happier?
Yes.
No.
No, I-- I was homesick, emotionally mature, troubled by visions of a human universe.
You've listened to laugh.
Oi, Oppenheimer.
Have you had any sleep?
Start again.
I need to go to the lecture, sir.
Why?
It smells boring.
I think it's gone.
All right.
Let's go.
Oh, you're not you, Oppenheimer.
You finished Coachman's place.
[LAUGHTER].
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC PLAYING].
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 the world inside our
world, a world of energy and paradox that not everyone can accept.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC PLAYING].
All right.
Fields, meet J. Robert Oppenheimer.
What's the J stand for?
Nothing.
You are at my lecture.
You ask the only good question.
No one's denying his insight.
This is laboratory work that needs a little to be desired.
I heard you gave the same answer.
Yes, and you ask the same question.
Why ask again?
I'd like 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 each beaker's and potion's.
Go somewhere they let you think.
Got to get born.
Get to Germany.
Study under Max Born.
Learn the ways of theory.
I'll send word.
Or more.
How's your mathematics?
Not good enough.
The physicist he wants to be.
Algebrous-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.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC PLAYING].
As Senator from Wyoming,
Admiral Strauss, I'm interested
in your relationship with Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.
You met him in 1947?
Correct.
You were commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission?
I was, but I actually met Robert in my capacity
as board member of the Institute for Advanced Study.
At Princeton, after the war, he was world crowns, the great metaphysics.
And I was determined to get him to run the Institute.
[MUSIC PLAYING].
Dr. Oppenheimer, an honor.
Mr. Strauss.
It's pronounced Strauss.
Open Hagra, the name of the war you served, and the land of the Jewish.
I'm a president of Temple of Manuel in Manhattan.
Strauss is just a sudden pronunciation.
Anyway, welcome to the Institute.
I think you'll be very happy here.
Yes, well, if you love the community,
the procession comes with that house for you and your wife
and your two children.
Yes, two.
I'm a great admirer of your work.
I'm very righteous about training Mr. Strauss.
I'm sorry, calling room four o'clock.
Do you know I'm not trained in physics or anything else, and I'm self-prolonged now.
Oh, I can relate to that.
Really?
Yes, my father was one.
This would be your office.
I'm told he's there most after this.
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.
I remember he's quite a moral and revealed.
God doesn't play dice.
Precisely.
Never thought of studying physics formally, Mr. Strauss.
I had authors, but I chose to sell shoes.
Louis Strauss was once a lordy shoe salesman.
Not just a shoe salesman.
I'd love to introduce you.
Louis.
I've known him for years.
Albert.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
What was that?
What did you say, O?
Well, he's fine.
Mr. Strauss, there are things in my past you'll be aware of.
Well, as chairman of the ADC, I have access to your security file at Red Hood.
You're not worried.
Why would I be worried after everything you've done for your country?
Well, the time has changed, 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, I'm not considering it.
I'll see you at the ADC meeting tomorrow.
This is one of the most prestigious appointments in the country.
Yes.
The great commute.
That's why I'm considering it.
So Dr. Rabinheimer brought your attention
to his past associations before you appointed him?
Yes.
And they didn't concern you?
But just then, I was entirely consumed
with what he must have said to Einstein to sour him on me.
But later?
Well, we all know what happened later.
Dr. Yura, your time in Europe, you.
seem to meet with a wide range of other countries' physicists.
Yes, that's right.
Any Russians?
Not in this thing to mind.
If you'll just allow me to continue with my statement-- Just stay around.
You'll have ample opportunity to cross-exactment.
After getting in, I moved on to Leiden and Halbens where I first met--
Is it all right?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Hi, Yang.
Lecturing on the new physics.
This I have to hear.
I'm an American myself.
Oh, how surprising.
Well, let me know if you need any help with the English.
[SPEAKING SPANISH].
What's he saying?
[INAUDIBLE]
No, thank you.
It's a long way to Zurich.
We get every skin here.
We're going to lose you between the sea cushions.
I'm one of it.
I'm a knight.
I caught your lecture on molecules.
I caught some of it.
We're a couple of new you'll choose.
How do you know that?
Well, I thought I'd better learn it.
But I got here this semester.
You learned enough Dutch in six weeks to get a lecture on quantum mechanics.
I had to challenge myself.
Quantum physics wasn't challenging enough.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
Show off.
Dutch in six weeks, but you never learned yet.
I don't speak it so much my side of the park.
Screw you.
You homesick or you know it.
If you get the feeling all kind isn't entirely welcoming, this is just--
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
They're all Jewish too.
Eat.
This is German you have to seek out.
Hasbro.
Right.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
One might be led to the presumption that behind the
quantum world there still hides the real world in which
causality holds, but such speculations seem to us to say explicitly fruitless.
Thank you.
Have a great day.
What are you thinking?
Dr. Oliver.
Oh my god.
Yes.
I liked your paper and molecules.
Probably because you're inspired.
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 Latin.
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.
Ha ha.
That's him.
No, me and horses.
I don't think so.
Nice to meet you.
Did you ever encounter Harrison Burke again?
Not in person.
No, but, uh, you might say our paths crossed.
I'm returning to America.
I accepted positions at both Caltech and David Burke there.
[MUSIC PLAYING].
Dr. Lawrence, I presume?
You must be off when I work.
Yes.
I hear you want to start a school of quantum theory.
I am starting it next door.
They put you in there.
I thought I'd be close to you experimentalists.
Theory will get you only so far.
We're building a machine to accelerate electrons.
Magnificent.
Would you like to help?
Build it? Oh, no.
Ha ha.
Oh, 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 is trapped of.
But once people start hearing what you can do with it, they're still going back.
Oh, I must have just, uh-- Mr. Lomont?
Not.
Yeah.
Yes.
This is it.
Please.
Take a seat.
What do you know about quantum mechanics?
I have a grasp on the basis.
And you're doing it wrong.
Is light made up of particles or waves?
Quantum mechanics is its focus.
How could it be both?
A.K.
But it is.
It's paradoxical.
And yet, it works.
Thank you.
Mr. Lomont, it's going to be okay.
Mr. Snyder.
Now, let's consider a star.
A star on a vast furnace burning in outer space.
Fire pushing upwards against its own gravity.
It's balanced.
But if that phrase accrues, then gravity starts winning.
It contracts.
Density increases.
Correct.
Increasing gravity.
Increasing density.
And it's a vicious cycle until... What's the limit here?
I don't know.
See, when the math takes us, I guarantee it somewhere no one's been before.
Me?
Yes, you and your math is better than mine.
Dr. Abenheimer's file contained details and activities in Berkeley.
Why would they have started the file on Dr. Abenheimer before the war?
Well, you have to ask Mr. Hoover.
I'm asking you, Admiral Strauss.
Well, my assumption is that he was connected to his left-wing political activities.
You shouldn't have let them write their politics in the classroom, Bobby.
I wrote that.
Lawrence, you've increased the revolution in physics.
Can you see it everywhere else?
Picasso, Stravinsky, Froy, Marx... Well, this is America.
We had our revolution.
Seriously.
Keep it out of the lab.
Well, out of the lab, my landlady's having a discussion about tonight.
Interesting.
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 Friday.
Come on, let's eat.
I'm meeting my brother there.
And how would these activities occur to the intention of the FBI?
Well, if I remember correctly,
the FBI was taking license plates outside
of the suspected communist gatherings in the island.
His name popped up.
Jesus Christ.
Sorry.
Frankly, but... I do remember Jackie.
Good night.
Robert, I want you to meet John.
Dr. Hopin Stavallier, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.
Pleasure.
This is my little brother Frank.
And this is... Still Jackie.
Hello, still Jackie.
Stavallier, you're in languages, and your reputation receives you.
What have you heard?
I'm glad 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, but I'm not.
No, not yet.
Frank and I think you're joining.
I support a range of policies.
It's been a civil war,
a Democratic republic being overthrown by fascist thugs who wouldn't.
A government?
They think that socialism is the biggest threat to them fascists.
Not for long.
A bit of other Nazis are due to the Jews.
I send funds to colleagues in Germany to have a greater eye to do something.
My old work is so abstract.
What are you working on?
What happens to stars when they die?
Do the stars die?
Well, if they do, they'd cool and collapse.
In fact, the bigger the star, the more violent it's demise.
Their gravity gets so concentrated it swallows everything.
Everything you can like.
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.
Sorry, I said you were pleased. I'm Jane.
Robert.
Oh, Conchobelia, you and me in service last month.
Right, right, yes. Thank you.
Robert here says he's not a Communist.
Well, then he doesn't know enough about it.
The wife does cover down all three volumes. Does that count?
It would make you better read the most bloody members' church and stuff.
There's some thinking. Ownership is theft.
Property.
Property?
Property, not pollution.
I'm sorry. I read it in the original German.
Oh.
It's not about the book. It's about the ideas.
And you sound uncommitted.
Well, 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 clean with a room.
You always tell the party line.
I like my level room, too.
What?
Wait, wait, wait.
I expected... What?
For a physicist.
You only have a shelf full of Freud.
Well, I actually have my backgrounds more... Young Ian?
You know analysis.
When I was in post-credit Cambridge, I had a little trouble.
How about you?
I tried to poison my tutor.
Did you hate him?
I liked him very much.
You just need to get laid.
Took my analyst two years, and I don't think they ever put it that succinctly.
You have everyone convinced you you're more complicated than you actually are.
You're all simple souls, I guess.
I'm learning.
What's this?
Sand cream.
You can read this.
I'm learning.
Read this.
Well, in this part, fish do let the low system of the arms... You know.
Read the words.
[music].
And now I have become dead.
Destroyed off worlds.
[music].
This'll do.
A little break before dawn.
Air cools overnight.
Just before dawn.
No breaks.
So, I'm getting married.
Frank, congratulations.
Thanks, Jackie.
Yeah, to Jackie.
The waitress?
I'll be your right.
He's letting up.
I'm gonna see him say stars.
All your talk about the common man.
Jackie's not good enough for you.
We join the party, and you can't hide your discipline now.
Why?
Is that because that's supposed to be worth it?
I haven't joined the party, Frank.
And I don't think she should have convinced you to either.
Half of the faculty is gone.
Yeah, that half.
I'm your brother, Frank, and I want you to be cautious.
And I want to ring 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 are happy that I'm happy.
If you look, I can see one of those dark stars that you're working on.
You can't.
It's the whole point of gravity swallows light.
It's like a kind of hole in space.
Is Frank okay?
Yes.
He just says 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.
A little remote for that?
Yes.
Let's get some sleep.
New Mexico we saw today.
One of my favorite places in the world.
Tomorrow with climate.
What's it called?
Los Alamos.
I didn't expect to see you today.
I'll have to make an appointment.
Robert?
Tommy!
What?
What is it?
They've done it.
They split the uranium nucleus.
How?
I'm worried about neutrons.
It's a nuclear fission.
They did it.
They split the atom.
Stop my skull.
I'm going to try to reproduce it.
See?
Can't be done.
Very elegant.
Quite clear.
There's just one problem.
Where?
Next door.
Alvarez did it.
Look.
These fission pulses, they're massive.
I've seen 30 of these in the past 10 minutes.
Theory will take you only so far.
During the process,
external transport office could be used to submit other uranium atoms.
Chain reaction.
You're thinking what I'm thinking.
You're weird.
Every other physicist around the world has seen you.
I'm just wondering, what are we all thinking?
A bomb, Alvarez.
A bomb.
I told you, Rob, no more fucking flowers.
I don't understand what you want.
I don't want anything from you.
But you say that, and then you call.
Well, don't answer.
I'll always answer.
Fine.
Just no more flowers.
They're coming.
You have to know when you're beaten, Robert.
It's not that simple, ok?
So, Barlier, good to see you.
We don't have Barbara, good to see you.
And illustrious Dr. Rottenheimer.
I'm Alton Tippett.
No.
What should I please, please?
Can I just say a word about organized labor?
Coming through, coming through.
I work at Shell.
We sign up chemists, we sign up engineers.
There's a bit of a science in that position.
(crowd chanting)
(crowd cheering)
Teachers are unionized. Why not? Professors.
Don't you have somewhere to be?
Lawrence, academics of rights too.
Look, it's not that.
I've got a group coming.
Oh, let's get in.
Not this one.
That's it. Dr. Bush. What brings you two up north?
(crowd chanting)
Richard, you tell Ruth that I'll be down to passing you into Thursday.
April Black Holes, it's in!
Where's Harvard?
Get Harvard.
September 1st, 1939. The world's been removing this thing.
Oh, Harlan, our paper, it's in print.
You've been upstaged.
During the Battle of Britain, I found myself increasingly out of sympathy
with the policy of neutrality that Communists advocated.
Relator Hitler invaded Russia and we became allies.
These Communists simply stood their 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, during a previous marriage,
my wife Kitty had been a Communist Party member.
This is right. He's a good stuff.
I love him, Mr. Paulman.
I live with them. I'm a limicantic.
Do you believe anything?
Look at Ruthie.
So, you're a biologist.
Well, somehow I have graduated to housewife.
Can you explain quantum mechanics to me?
It seems badly.
Yes, it is.
Well, it's glass.
It's a drink.
It's countertop.
Our bodies.
All of it.
It's mostly empty space.
Groupings of tiny energy waves bound together.
Of what?
Forces of attraction strong enough to convince us.
that matter is solid.
It's not my body passing through yours.
You're married to Dr. Harrison.
I'm not married.
There is someone that I feel...
She feels that way.
Sometimes, I don't know.
You know, going to New Mexico,
to my ranch with friends, you should come.
I met with your husband.
Yes, you did.
Because you know it won't make a better difference.
Why did you marry him?
I was lost.
He was kind.
Lost?
Well, your previous husband had died.
At 28, it wasn't really ready to be a widow.
Who's your first husband?
Nobody.
My second husband was Joe Dallad.
He was from a money like me,
but he was a union organizer in Youngstown, Ohio.
How hard.
How hard?
Hard enough to spend the next four years living off beans and pancakes,
handing out the Daily Worker back to Regates.
By 36, I just told Joe I couldn't take it anymore.
Quit the party.
Your later on wanted it back.
Him, not the Daily Worker.
He sits well and meets you on my way to Spain.
I'm going to the lawless.
And then he went to the Regates and I waited.
And...
Joe got himself killed the first time he popped his head out of the trench.
My ideology got Joe killed.
For nothing.
What's the kind of Republic? Is it nothing?
My husband offered both our futures to stop one
fascist bullet from embedding itself in a mud bag.
That's the definition of nothing.
This seems a little reductive.
Magnetic.
Now here I am.
Who the hell is this?
Not in one unit heard from anyone else.
At least you didn't bring me flowers.
They're both in a one, not what you want, Jane.
Yeah, but it's the door closing.
No.
Not as far as I'm concerned, no.
You knocked her up. Fast work.
Can't keep a good man down.
Yeah.
I need her.
She knew what you wanted.
What about the husband?
We talked. They're getting a divorce.
So we can get married before she starts showing.
I was civilized.
You idiot. This is your community.
You think the rules don't apply to the Golden Boy?
Brilliant specs have been a lot.
Don't alienate the only people in the world that understand what you do.
One day you might need them.
F.A.E.D.
Federation Department of Dext. Engineers, chemists, technicians.
Luminous.
What do you get paid a month?
It's nothing point-wise.
What do any of you have in common with farm laborers and dock workers?
Plenty.
Everybody out?
No!
Not you.
What are you doing?
It's a trade union.
F.A.E.D.
We've come in it so long.
I would try to pardon you.
They won't let me bring you on with a 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 Sitter's letter to
Roosevelt warning him that Germans could make a bomb.
And I know what it means for the Nazis to have a bond.
But I don't?
It's not your people. They're hurting the 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 rear view mirror,
listen to the sounds on your phone line and stop being so goddamn naive.
I really care what I do.
Because you're not just self-important. You're actually important.
Okay.
I get it.
And if you could just be a little bit pragmatic,
I'll talk to the loaners, I'll talk to the others.
You don't have to worry. It's done.
Alliance.
Then we'll come to the war.
I filled out my first security questionnaire and was
informed that my involvement with left-wing groups
would not prove a lie to my working on the atomic program.
Why were his communist associations not seen as a security rescue during the war?
Senator, I can't possibly answer for a security
clearance Grant years before I ever met him.
What? What about now?
After the war, Dr. Oppenheimer was the most respected scientific voice in the world.
That's why I asked him to join the Institute.
That's why he advised the Atomic Energy Commission.
So who's that?
Really accusing me of it.
I think they just want to 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?
I'm a former staff member of the Joint Congressional
Committee. There's a rabid anti-communist named Borton.
He wrote to the FBI demanding they take action.
FBI wouldn't go to the AEC, Rick.
And get caught holding the knife yourself.
Was it Borton having a son?
This was the McCarthy era.
People hounded out of jobs for him, and he had to rat him.
Reading Oppenheimer's security file was caught on a
minister's brother, sister, and the fiancé, best friend, wife.
Before we even get to the ship on the AEC Institute.
How would Borton have access to Oppenheimer's security file?
Because somebody gave it to him.
Somebody would look at Robert's silence too.
Who?
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 it, Robert, to make me look like a fool.
But, Dr. Oppenheimer, we've already heard from Admiral Stross that these
isotopes could be useful to our enemies in the production of atomic weapons.
Countess Menyuk used a shuttle to make atomic weapons.
And what did you do?
You could use a bottle of beer to make atomic weapons.
In fact, you knew.
I'd say isotopes are less useful than electronic
weapons, but more useful than a sandwich.
Genius is no guarantee of wisdom.
Look at this man who saw so much of me so blind.
[MUSIC]
Kitty?
[MUSIC]
Kitty?
[MUSIC]
Kitty?
Roger.
[MUSIC]
I'm in.
[MUSIC]
I'm in.
Let's celebrate.
[MUSIC]
Shouldn't you go, huh?
[MUSIC]
I have been calling to him all fucking day.
[MUSIC]
I don't know how to say this.
I'm ashamed to ask.
Anything?
Take Peter.
Sure.
I've known for a while, Hulk.
A while.
Does Kitty know you?
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.
[MUSIC]
Everything's changing, Robert.
Harry child was always going to change.
The world is pivoting in some new direction.
Reforming.
This is your moment.
We're putting together a group to study.
We should be doing anything.
You should.
Lawrence won't get this done.
We're told, Monor Ravi, you will.
[MUSIC]
Who are the unicorns?
I thought you might have them.
Roger, Robert, I'm Colonel Brooks.
This is Lieutenant Colonel Nichols.
Have that drag link.
That's how you treat Lieutenant Colonel.
I came to see how you treat a humble, this is his son.
If I ever meet one, I'll let you know.
How much?
Theaters of combat all over the world.
But I have to stay in Washington.
Why?
I built the Pentagon.
Nebraska likes it so much they made me take over the Manhattan Engineer District.
Which is?
Whatever.
Biggest smartass.
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.
1200 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 have 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 brilliance is taken for granted in your circle.
So 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.
And here you are.
You don't take much of 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?
I'll put a Nobel in meant a dynamite.
So how would you proceed?
You're talking about turning theory into a
practical weapon system faster than the Nazis.
We have a 12-month head start.
18.
How could you possibly know that?
Our fast neutron research took six months.
The man they want doubted to put in charge would have made that leap instantly.
Who do you think they put in charge?
Bernard Heisenberg.
He is the most intuitive understanding of atomic structure I have ever seen.
You know his work.
I know him just like I know Walter.
Both of us, Isaac and Diebner, in his straight race, the Germans win.
We've got one hope, which is... anti-Semitism.
What Hitler called quantum physics Jewish science, right to Einstein's face,
our one hope is that Hitler is 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, cause 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 want to be seen downplaying
the importance of security from our communist allies.
We're taking, but no.
You don't get to say no to me.
My job say no to you and you're wrong.
So you have the job now?
I'm considering it.
I'm starting to see where you got your reputation.
My favorite response, Oppenheimer couldn't run a hamburger stand.
I couldn't.
But I can run the Manhattan Project.
Just a way to balance those things.
Keep the right lab here in Berkeley under Lawrence.
Met lab in Chicago under some of the large scale of finding wordages in Tennessee.
And Hanford.
All Americas, industrial, mining, scientific innovation, connected
by a 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 works.
Keep everyone there until it's done.
They'll need a school, a store, or a church.
Why?
If we don't let scientists bring their families, we'll never get the best.
And you want security built in town?
Build it fast.
Where?
[Music]
Welcome to Los Alamos.
There's a boy school that will have two of the common
gear and the local Indians can prepare for buried rights.
But from that, nothing.
40 miles in any direction.
I have to find the perfect spot for success.
[Music]
Build the town fast.
Let's go recruit some scientists.
Why would I need my family?
I told you, you can bring your family.
I'm not a soldier.
I'm a soldier.
This is general.
I've got all the soldier I need.
What can I tell?
How's it looking?
Didn't you?
Both of them bored.
What do these men have in common?
The greatest minds on atomic theory.
Do you understand?
As much as you like.
Do you feel my food on your balls, sir?
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 Nazis to have them.
The news boys 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?
For a year or two or three.
Imagine the country.
Give us a moment.
It's about unleashing the strong force.
Before the Nazis don't.
My God.
The hills won't work for the Nazis.
No, never.
They have them.
We don't.
That's why I need you.
Why would you think I'd do that?
Why?
How about because this is the most important fucking
thing that ever happened in the history of the world?
How about that?
I don't think I'd.
They're not going to let me out of this project.
And failing a security check is not going to be good for a career even after the war.
So you're a fellow traveler.
Someone.
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 bored out of Denmark?
Yeah, 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 of true dance time, Paul?
It really would be quicker to take a plane.
No, a plane's too risky.
The country needs us.
Papa, guys, this ain't a building.
This is all for the cyclotron.
Count together the architects.
When's this place supposed to open?
Two months.
Robin, you're the great improviser, but this... it can't do in your head.
Four emissions.
Experimental.
Theoretical.
Memoir journal.
Overrunning theoretical.
I am?
That's what I was afraid of.
You spread too thin.
So you take theoretical.
I'm not coming here, Robin.
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.
Is he?
I don't know if we can be trusted with such a weapon.
But I know the Nazis can't.
We have no choice.
The second thing you have to do is appoint
Holmes Bethe to run the theoretical division.
Ray, 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.
And the better.
[Music]
This is the only key.
And tellers are already here.
Can I just show him in?
No, let's wait for the others.
Let's get started.
On the right.
Yes, gentlemen.
So we will work here until the T-section at Los Alamos is finished.
Edward, can I?
It is more important.
Can I calculate the chain reaction?
I found a rather troubling possibility.
No, but this can't be a lie.
Show me how you did your population.
Yes.
[Music].
This is fantasy.
Tellers calculations can't be right.
Do you know, sir, what I got at Princeton?
What for?
I talked to Einstein.
Well, there's not much comment on the truth at all.
That's why I should get his view.
[Music].
Albert.
No, Dr. Albert Heidman.
How have you met Dr. Gert?
We walk here most days.
Things are the most inspiring structures.
Albert, I have a word.
No, of course.
Just read.
Some days, he refuses to read.
Even in Princeton, he's convinced that the Nazis can poison his food.
[Music]
Whose world is this?
Tellers.
What do you take it to mean?
Entrance, smash into nucleus, release me.
Entrance, smash into other nuclei.
Criticality, what do no return massive explosive force can do?
It's time the chain reaction doesn't stop.
It would ignite the atmosphere.
We detonate an atomic device, we might start
a chain reaction that destroys the world.
So here we are, huh?
Lost in your quantum world of probabilities and leading certainty.
Can you run the calculations yourself?
No.
About the only thing you and I have in common is a disdain for mathematics.
Who's working on this in Berkeley?
Hans Beidman.
Well, you'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.
Albert,
this is yours, not mine.
Tellers home,
he's home.
When you now tell us critical assumptions, there are any picture emerges.
Outline.
Chances are not before nuclear reaction are near zero.
Near zero?
Oh, this is good news.
Can you run them again?
No, you'll get the same answer.
Until we actually detonate one of these things,
the best assurance you're going to get is this.
Near zero.
The area will take you only so far.
Hello.
We missed him.
You want to adopt?
She's kidding.
We wanted to see you.
What we left.
For parts unknown.
You know who I ran into the other day?
Eltonton.
Oh, McAllister Michelle.
Are you a new guy?
Yeah, the FAACT guy.
He was moaning about how we're handling the war.
Also, lack of cooperation with our allies.
Apparently, the government's not sharing any research with the Russians.
He said most scientists think the policy is stupid.
Yeah.
He mentioned that if anyone had anything they wanted to pass on,
going around official channels, that he could help.
[music].
There would be treason.
Yes, of course.
I just thought you should know.
The bra is down.
We're at the martinis.
Coming right up.
Conversation entered there.
Nothing in our long-standing friendship would have led me to believe.
that Chevelia 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.
The Oppenheimer situation highlights the tension between scientists
and security apparatus in hopes of learning how the
nominee handles such issues during his time in the ABC.
We'll have a scientist appearing before the committee.
They're bringing them.
They haven't said?
Mr. Chairman, if I may, I'm nominated for Commerce Secretary.
Why?
To seek the opinion of scientists.
This is a cabinet post-table.
We seek a wide range of opinions.
I'd like to know the name of the scientists 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're bringing the scientists or what?
You don't know scientists like I do, Counselor.
They resent anyone of questions that have judgement, especially for all of them.
I was chaired at the ABC.
I'm easy to blame for what happened wrong.
But we can't have the Senate taking the scientific community.
It doesn't support you, sir.
Or should we have that?
So what?
An invasive.
I fought Oppenheimer in the U.S. one.
I don't think we need to go there.
Isn't there someone we can call who knows what really happened?
Tell her.
They'll make an impression.
Can you get the name of the scientists they've called?
Probably.
Find out if he was based in Chicago or Los Alamos during the war.
Why does that matter?
Well, if he was based in Chicago, they worked on their
silver to confirm he had not the cult of obvious.
Los Alamos.
Robert built that damn place. He was founder of air sheriff.
Honored him to one.
[music]
Oh, that means it's a salute.
[music]
There's no kitchen.
Billy.
What was that?
[music]
Barbed wire.
Guns.
Okay.
Burned war, Hans.
Halifax.
1917.
Carver ship carrying munitions explodes in the harbor.
[explosion]
A vast and sudden chemical reaction.
[explosion]
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 would be Salsas.
Well then, kill all the tons.
[music]
Using U-235, the bomb will need a...
Sorry.
Gadget will need a 33-pound sphere about this size.
Or using plutonium, the 10-pound sphere.
Here's the amount of uranium Oakwood's refined all of last month.
[music].
And the Hanford plan made this month with Antonio.
[bell ringing]
Now, we can enrich these amounts. We need a way to detonate them.
Are we boring him, Edward?
A little bit, yes.
I asked why.
We all entered this through knowing efficient bomb was possible.
How about we leave it with something new?
Such as?
Instead of uranium or plutonium, we use hydrogen.
Heavy hydrogen.
Deuterium. You see, we compact the arms together
under great pressure to induce a fusion reaction.
And 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 fish of gold.
[applause]
Well, since we're going to need one anyway, we get back to business at hand.
The isotopes issue wasn't your most important
policy disagreement with Dr. Abenheimer.
It was the hydrogen bomb, wasn't it?
Colleagues, we agreed to disagree and agreed many things.
And one of them was the need for a H-bond program.
Yes.
[music]
Banks, convenient and short notice. I can't believe it.
I know we are. Catch me up.
What do we know?
One of our B-29s over in the north of the Pacific has detected radiation.
Do we have the filter papers?
There's no doubt about what this is.
White House officers are down.
Wishful thinking, I'm afraid.
Are those the long-range detection filter papers?
It's an atomic test.
[music].
The Russians have a bomb. We're supposed to be years ahead of them, but...
What were you guys doing in Los Alamos with the security tank?
Of course it was. You weren't there.
Forgive me, Doctor.
But I was there.
We can now consider the actual mechanics of detonation.
Any ideas?
I call this shooting. Fire a chunk of fissionable material
into a larger sphere with enough force to achieve criticality.
What do we think? Anyone?
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. Okay, you blow things up.
Progress.
Nice to see you too.
Meet the British contingent.
It's Oppenheimer. How about Suks?
How long have you been British?
Since Hitler told me I wasn't German.
Ah. Got a Mark in Los Alamos.
Suppose I'm running?
Far? Always running.
And that's a lot of ways we do support the staff.
Is that Mr. Silver?
Yes. I've offered jobs to all the lives of men, librarians, for 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 Grills you're going to hold in
cross-deficient local discussions on a nightly basis.
Shut them down. Compartmentalization is the key to maintaining security.
Only 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.
We'd like to bring my brother here. No.
I'm Nicholas.
I still have the nerve that my security clearance has been approved.
It has, and... Go to Chicago tomorrow.
No, you should wait.
You are aware that the Nazis have a two-year head start.
Doctor Albinheimer, the fact that your security
clearance is proving difficult to obtain is not my fault.
It's yours.
It may not be your fault, but it's your problem.
Because I'm going.
And how many people were in these, uh... open... discussions?
Too many compartmentalizations were supposed to be the protocol.
You're in the race against the Nazis.
No, the race is against the Soviets.
Not unless we started.
Robert, they just fired the starting gun.
What's the nature of the price of their detonators?
Daily indicates that they have been named plutonium explosion devices.
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 other super does Truman even know about it? Do we prefam on that?
Not specifically.
We still don't know if it had a hydrogen ops.
Technically feasible.
Right. My understanding is that the teller proposed it.
Yes.
Tellers designs have always been wildly
impractical. You'd have to deliver by ox cart.
Not airplane.
Not me.
Sir, Doctor Albinheimer.
Coming?
No.
Because if it can put us ahead again, the President
of the United States needs to know about it.
And if the Russians know about it already from
a spy at Los Alamos, then we gotta get going.
There's no proof there was a spy at Los Alamos.
Robert.
Put it under the football stadium.
It feels no use in the morning.
Just as well.
[Dramatic music]
Poppy, time to firmie.
What was that?
My wedding.
Are you, you got a little town?
Yes. I'm at sea.
How could things trade in a place like that? Huh?
Everybody will go crazy.
Thank you for the thought of confidence, Soled.
Do we really, do we really think that on the nose?
Are you gonna try it out?
We did.
Diverse, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
Any groups tell you?
Doctor Albinheimer?
I tried personnel.
I asked if I would type.
Can you?
Harvard forgot to teach that on the graduate chemistry course.
London, put us a sword here.
What the hell are you doing in Chicago?
Visiting the men.
Why?
You can't do it.
Why?
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 mad-ass where nobody can work under these conditions.
You know what?
General Lee Simo, I quit.
Thanks for nothing.
Better off without him.
Aren't you more concerned about his discretion out there?
We'll have him killed.
I'm just kidding.
It's 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 wind past.
You hired me because of it.
So you could control me.
No, 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.
General Groves, were you aware of Dr. Oppenheimer's
left wing association is when you appointed him?
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.
He had complete confidence in his integrity.
That was Alamos.
Yes, which is where I really knew him.
General, your security officers on the project
advised 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 pretty good
knowledge of Dr. Oppenheimer's security file.
I didn't.
Well, there's only really one question I answered here today.
In light of the current AEC guidelines, would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?
Do you have the guidelines?
Under current AEC guidelines, would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?
Physics and New Mexico, huh?
My God.
What a trick.
That's why you need a liaison.
I'm appointing Lominance.
You're gonna be okay.
This way, gentlemen.
Got two hearts.
Ms. Lee, I'd like to remind you what we talked about in Berkeley.
Departmentalization, I understand completely.
[
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.
Okay, gentlemen, business.
There were rumors of espionage, unsubstantiated Los Alamos.
I'm told that there were communists on the project, knowingly involved.
I just want to know were any of them involved in discussions with the super?
I seem to remember you demanding your brother come to Los Alamos.
My brother had left the party by then.
What about Lominance?
Lominance was never employed at Los Alamos.
He was a liaison.
Our security was tight as former Colonel Nichols well known.
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 Gene Tatlock?
Or the Chevalier incident?
Excuse me.
[Phone rings]
One minute. Only one.
Hello, Rusty.
What?
Okay, just calm down.
Lominance 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 Lominance
has been trying to unionize the radiation lab.
You promised to quit all that.
Well, he hasn't.
Security officer at Berkeley is concerned about
communist infiltration through that union to F.A.
F.A.C.D.
Well, I'm there next week. I'll drop in to see him.
Your cue clearance came through.
It's important you not maintain or renew any questionable associations.
Doctor, did you think social contacts between a person
engaged on secret war work and communist was dangerous?
My awareness of the danger would be greater today.
It's fair to say that during the war years, you
felt that such contacts were potentially dangerous.
We're conceivably dangerous, huh?
Really?
No one communists.
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.
You said in your statement that you had to see Gene Tatlock in 1943.
He 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.
What did you have to see her?
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?
She was sitting there with me.
You spent the night together, didn't you?
Yes.
You drop in and out of my life, and you don't have to tell me why.
And 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.
Gene, 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.
Is that a word?
Did you think that consistent with insecurity? As a matter of fact it was.
Not a word.
Well, did you see her after that?
I never saw her again.
Mm-hmm.
I can make the last train back to Princeton.
I didn't say anything that I had already told you.
The day you said it to history, didn't you?
So close to you.
If they don't, we'll use the transcript and show you will.
I'll send her off.
Well, are you wondering after me when you left to see Gene?
No, you... You sit there.
Day after day, letting them pick our lives to pieces.
Why won't you fight?
Father, I'm not putting her out there.
Dr. Rama, it's an art. Please take a seat.
Maybe, um, I just wanted to check whether I should talk to
you in more minutes while I'm here, given your concerns.
I'd say that's really up to you, Professor, but I'd be cautious.
Understood.
Oh, and, um, as regards to Union, I wanted to
give you a heads up and a man named Eltonton.
A heads up?
Yes, just that he might be watching his own.
I'd love to get more details.
I have a point, but now and I'd leave early tomorrow.
I'll come back as early as you like. Since you have the 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.
Colonel Pash, would you please read from your memo dated June 29, 1943?
Results of surveillance conducted on subject indicate
further possible Communist Party connections.
Subject met with and spent considerable time with one
gene, Tatlock, Communist, the record of whom is attached.
The subject being Dr. Raupmanhunde.
Yes.
Whom you had not met.
Not that, 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 luminance, 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, and I can't see.
I have remote control.
So, we actually need you.
I won't take up too much of your time.
No, no, no. I will tell you the truth.
Mr. Johnson told me the conversation you
had yesterday, in which I'm very interested.
He said he worried all day.
Yes, I didn't want to talk to luminance without authorization.
That's not the particular interest that I had, but it's
something a little bit more, uh, 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.
Together, you've heard there are other parties
interested in the work of the radiation lab?
The man attached to the Soviet Council indicated, through intermediate legal,
to people on this project that he was in a position to transmit information.
Well, why would anyone on the project want to do that?
Frankly, I can see that there might be an argument for the Commander-in-Chief informing the
Russians there are allies, after all, but I don't like the idea of it going out the back door.
It might not hurt to be. I'm gonna look out for it.
And you said that to Pash?
I was trying to put it in the context of Russia's not Germany.
Ors 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 him from going through it legally.
Would you be a little more specific?
There's a man whose name was mentioned to me a couple of times. Eltonton.
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 that would be satisfying, then?
I was attempting to give them Eltonton without opening
a can of worms I told them a cock and ghost for you.
Do you let a general grow, too?
No. I admit it to him that I'd like to perish.
Do you recall his conversation about the Chevalier incident?
I've seen so many versions of it. I wasn't confused
before, but I'm certainly getting there now.
Then 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.
Oh, well. Might we know through when the contact is made?
That wouldn't involve people who are not involved in this.
Is that someone a member of the project?
A member of the faculty, yes, but not in the project.
So Eltonton made his approach through a member of the faculty here at Berkeley?
As far as I know, yes. There may have been more than one person involved.
If I seem uncooperative, I think you can understand it's because
of my insistence on not getting innocent people into trouble.
You're trying to protect your friend. Who's protecting you?
You could. If you gave me the name, you order me to. I'll do it.
That's a mistake, Robert. You need to volunteer this name.
Did he give you the name?
He did, but not that, did he?
No. No. In fact, it was some months later, wasn't it?
It wasn't.
You seem his persistence.
Well, you are... you are persistent, but that is your job.
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.
And I'm 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?
It 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.
It's a little early for a Christmas party.
Something's up. I'm told it's been away.
Where?
Ruth's old town.
Come on, you'll think. Can't tell me who can you tell.
How about mentalization, I'll be. What makes you think I know where he is anyway?
Because you're doing a pretty good job of knowing what Mr. Dorman is when it comes.
Like now?
Attention!
Early Christmas present for you all.
[Applause]
The British pilot put me in the ball. They filled me the oxygen, but I messed it up.
When they opened me up in Scotland, I was unconscious.
But I pretended I'd been napping.
He's a choreo party.
He's big enough to end war.
[Music].
Heisenberg sought me out in Copenhagen.
I 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 you mention gaseous diffusion?
He seemed more focused on heavy water.
As a moderator?
Yes, instead of graphite.
[Music].
What?
He took a wrong turn.
Or a head.
And was you here to help us, Nils?
So could you give us a moment, gentlemen?
I was not here to help Robert.
I knew you could do this without me.
Where 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've lift the stone without being ready for the sting 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're an American Prometheus.
The man who gave them the power to destroy themselves.
And they'll respect that.
And your work really begins soon.
I'm sorry, Oppie, but there's a call.
From San Francisco.
Robert!
Robert?
What happened?
My father called.
We found her yesterday in the bath.
Who?
She's taken pills.
Left a note on sight.
She took barbiturates with Nils Cloraleirid in her blood.
There was a note.
She looked out the lock.
We were together.
She said you needed me, I...
I don't know.
I wouldn't.
I don't know.
I can't.
No, it wasn't me. It was me.
You don't get to come in the city when your nose
all feels so every bit of it has consequences.
You poor insult, Dickens.
It'll be clear to bend on you.
Donald, would you like to contribute here, please?
You're on the lookout.
Mom, 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.
Tell me, please.
The approach device is nowhere.
Can't rush everything.
Well, there's rushing and there's getting on with it, so take it.
You're right. The man who is doing his job.
Tell us what's happening.
You're not helping.
I've been asking for detonations under your florsion lenses for weeks.
The British can do it. Fuse.
Absolutely.
It's your job, Tada.
I'm engaged in the research.
We're not hiding them both. We're not even building.
I've brought one for the event.
Oh, no.
Let him go.
He's a prima Donna.
I agree. He should leave right now.
Okay.
Kisti, you replace Metabyte. Seth, I'm putting you on plutonium.
Lily, you go in for Kisti.
Because he needs you, Fuchs, you take Tada's role.
I'm putting you exclusively on the implosion device.
And no one is leaving Los Alamos.
[sirens]
They both would believe.
No. I won't let you leave.
Forget Hans. Forget Fuchs.
Stay here. Research what you want.
Fuchs and 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.
One week. One hour. You and me.
Now raise this fucking barrier.
So the super was an underdevelopment on your watch in Los Alamos.
Yes.
And yet, after the war, you tried to deny it was viable.
No, no, no. I pointed out technical differently.
Didn't you try to kill it at the AEC meeting after the Russian bomb test?
No.
But that was the recommendation of the AEC, was it not?
After hours of discussion about the best response.
An H-bomb is one thousand times the power of an A-bomb.
Its only intended target would be the largest city.
It's a weapon of mass genocide.
Is he dressed in circles on this side of the map,
where they would target us, starting in New York?
As a DC.
It's a weapon of attack. No difference involved in deterrence.
Do we really need more deterrence than our friend, our slow atomic bombs?
You drown in ten feet of water or ten thousand, what's the difference?
We can already drown.
We can only drown in two feet.
[explosion].
As I said, the tellers' designs are still as impractical as they were during the war.
An hydrogen bomb can be made to work, I'll be 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 and nuclear energy.
By which mean world government.
The United Nations has Roosevelt intended it.
Well, I asked what Truman should do, right?
The world's change is 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 spy at Los Alamos?
No spy at Los Alamos.
Gentlemen, let's not get sidetracked.
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've seen convinced they already know.
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 want to get down to this.
With respect, we are the advisory committee. We will give them our advice.
Okay.
Dr. Oppenheimer.
Hi.
William Borden.
Joined committee on atomic energy.
Oh, it is.
During the war, I was a pilot.
One night, flying back from a raid, I saw an amazing sight.
I got a meteor. A V-2 rocket headed England.
I can't help but imagine what it will be for
such an enemy rocket to carry an atomic war.
Quiet.
Let's make sure we're not the ones to make that possible.
Bobby, I don't think you want to go up against Shros.
If we both speak, they listen to me.
When you speak, they hear a prophet.
When Shros speaks, they hear themselves.
They listen to a prophet.
A prophet can't be wrong. Not once.
Did you accuse Oppenheimer of sabotaging the development of the super?
I was never one of those to be any wrong terms like sabotage.
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.
He appears to have had unlimited access to Dr. Oppenheimer's file.
Like Mr. Nichols, I've given him access to the file or someone else at the AEC.
That's very serious accusations.
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 read it until I see very conclusive proof to the opposite.
Do you or do you not believe that Dr. Oppenheimer is a security prisoner?
[Music]
[Inaudible]
Well, 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.
Yes.
Mr. Bonger, the enemy who were the greatest threat to mankind, it's our work.
It was dead. It's true.
With a Japanese fight on.
Their defeat seems assured.
Not if you're a GI prepared to invade.
We can end this war.
But how do we justify using this weapon, she thinks.
We're theorists.
Yes.
We imagine a future and our imaginings horrify us.
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 peace mankind has never seen.
The peace based on the kind of international
cooperation that Roosevelt always envisaged.
[Clapping].
Progress?
Two years and a million dollars worth.
Hard to put a price in your town.
Not really. Just out of the bills.
Rural free deliveries.
Eighty babies delivered the first year.
This year we've had ten a month.
Earth controls that do not align to restriction general.
Clearly.
General.
[Music]
Head down.
Here you are.
Folks, head down.
[Music]
That's the war.
Two viable bombs.
I need a date.
[Music]
September.
July.
That's a sweet one, gentlemen.
August.
July.
Test.
July.
I need my brother.
[Music]
Frank goes to the desert.
He's left politics behind.
He's been working with Mars for two years now.
[Music]
What do we call the test?
A pet of my heart. A three person god.
What?
Truly.
[Music]
You insisted on bringing on your brother Frank.
A known communist.
Former communist.
You brought a known former communist.
On to America's most secret and important defense project.
I knew my brother could be trusted.
Absolutely.
And you felt your judgment was sound at who on the team could be trusted.
Folks, head down.
Everybody ready?
[Music]
I hope you learned something.
We've learned we're going to need to be a lot farther away.
I'll figure it out.
Fast.
We need a Washington in the morning.
We're going to give him a date.
[Music]
You're a long way from Chicago, Leo.
If we don't act now, they're going to use this thing in East Japan.
We booked a meeting with Truman, but somebody killed it.
You were 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 for that.
In Chicago, we put together a petition.
I'm not... I'm not telling you to do that.
[Music].
Just tell me your concerns and I will leave 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.
I guess Germany.
That's not how weapons manufacture works, Cillit.
Hoping 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 America when we do these things and no one protests.
Pearl Harbor and three years of brutal conflict in the Pacific.
Buys a lot of latitude with the American public.
Enough to when we see a target bomb?
The air bomb might not cause as much damage as the Tokyo bombs.
What are we estimating?
In a medium-sized city, 20,000 or 30,000 dead.
But don't underestimate the psychological impact of a atomic explosion.
A pillar of fire 10,000 feet tall.
Deadly neutron effects from a mile in all directions.
From one single device dropped from a barely-known SP-29.
The atomic bomb will be a terrible revelation of divine power.
If that's true, it would be definitive.
World War II would be over.
Our boys would come home.
Military targets.
But 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.
It'd send everything they have up against us.
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 the bomb to Japan to propose surrender?
We intend to demonstrate it in the most unambiguous terms.
Twice.
Once to show the weapons 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.
I'm 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 the longest American and Japanese.
The use of the atomic bomb in Japanese cities will save lives.
If we retain moral advantage.
How so?
If we use this weapon without informing our allies, they'll see it as a threat.
We'll be in an arms race.
How often 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.
Uh, Secretary Simpson, 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 as soon as this 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 scientist from the program.
Wouldn't you agree, Doctor?
If a Russian bomb is inevitable,
perhaps we should invite their top scientist 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.
did 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 boasts at 10,000 yards north, south, and west.
Where do we trigger from?
South 10,000.
And base camp is 10 miles south here.
And there's a further observation post on that hill 20 miles away.
Is that right? Your lines already went in.
The Air Force requested a line of lights for their B-29.
What B-29? Our bombs on the tower.
They want to use the test to confirm the safe operating distance.
It's risky.
But not as risky as dropping one over Japan
and hoping that we were right about the blast radius.
It's a little so astound. We're firing on the 15th.
The 15th? That's the 15th.
15th.
So while we're here in South Observation Point with Frank and Kistiakowsky,
we'll all be assigned to base camp, west observation, or fire observation.
Just a little careful with your eyes.
Your safe distances are based on your calculations.
Time to stand behind your science arms, literally.
[MUSIC]
[PHONE RINGING]
What about the radiation cloud?
Without high winds, it should settle within two to three miles.
Vacuation measures are in place.
But we need good weather for visibility, so it has to be fine.
Everybody out.
You're on the night of the 15th.
It's a hard deadline.
If anyone does anything, speak now.
[INAUDIBLE]
Could you survive an explosion test?
Could not do it.
Is there anything else that might stop us?
[MUSIC]
What's happening, isn't it?
I'll send a message.
It's gone our way.
Take it in the streets.
Robert.
Rick Land.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC].
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC].
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC].
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC].
Three years, 4,000 people, $2 billion.
So it doesn't go off.
We're both finished.
I'm betting on three kilotons.
Anything less?
I won't get what it is.
And what did Fermi mean by atmospheric ignition?
We had a moment where it looked like the chain
reaction from a atomic device might never have stopped.
Setting fire to the atmosphere.
And what was Fermi still taking side bets on it?
Call it gallows humor.
Are we saying there's a chance that when we push that button, we destroy the world?
Nothing in our research over three years was that conclusion.
Except it's the most remote possibility.
How remote?
Chances are near zero.
Near zero.
What do you want from theory alone?
Zero would be nice.
We've been exactly one hour, 58 minutes.
Well done.
It's loading up.
[music]
The Army parties left zero.
They're heading this way.
Throw me switches.
Turn the cars.
Ready for emergency.
After my shoot.
[music]
Everybody take a roller splash.
[music]
Twenty minutes.
[music]
That's twenty.
The ladies.
Come on.
Now.
The glass.
It stops the UV.
It stops the glass.
I had the base 10.
That's the fire.
Robert.
Try to work the world.
[music]
What's that mean?
If the detonator's still charged, the voltage drops by one volt.
You hit that button, you abort.
I'm starting.
[music]
Everybody down.
Do not tilt around until you see what's working on the hills.
Then look at the explosion holding through your wellness glass.
I keep that here.
Do detonator.
Do you second these two detonations?
Do you think I'm in?
Yeah.
[music]
These things are hard in your heart.
Thirty seconds.
Give me your charge.
[music]
I have a game. I have a game. I'm in. I have a game. Four.
[music]
Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Four.
Three. Two. One.
[music]
[music].
And now I am the Conde, the destroyer of worlds.
[music]
It worked.
[cheering]
No interest dollars.
Go on.
I'm good for it, Kisti.
You are.
Yes, you are.
[cheering]
[music]
Give me a pot stand right away.
[cheering]
Hello.
Hi, Kisti.
What?
Charlotte.
Charlotte, go ahead.
Oh, um, oh, I don't know.
Can I help you to bring in the cheese?
[whistling]
Kitty?
[music]
If they did it too high in the air, the blast would be as powerful.
With respect, Dr. Oppenheimer, we'll take it from here.
[music]
The true one, brief stolen, a pot stand.
The brief would be an overstatement.
He referred to a powerful new weapon, stolen.
Hope we use it against Japan.
That's it.
The one where we've given them an ace, it's for them to play the hand.
You're heavy for the six.
It's of the C.O. in the Pacific.
If anything comes through, to Washington.
Before.
When you keep informed.
Of course.
As best I can.
[music]
What did the Japanese surrender if they knew about what was coming?
I don't know.
Everything's here, that's a petition.
How the hell is so no matter Japanese? Not signing an item?
Many people are. A lot of people.
Pidrode.
The fact that we built this bond does not give us any more,
any more right or responsibility to decide how it's used.
And anyone else.
But they're the only people who know about it.
I'm told steps in the various opinions of the community.
But what's your opinion?
Once it's used, it will clear war.
Perhaps all war becomes unthinkable.
Until somebody builds a bigger bond.
[music].
I thought they would call.
It's only that fast.
And it's the sixth.
[music]
Charlotte?
Trigross?
Anything?
Charlotte?
Trubit's on the radio.
[music].
[music]
General?
I'm very proud of you and all of your people.
It went all right.
Apparently it went with a tremendous bang.
You know, 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.
[music]
We asked him for the two billion dollars on the
greatest scientific gamble in history, and we have won.
[music]
[applause]
The world will remember this day.
[applause]
[music].
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.
[applause]
I'm so proud.
So proud of what you have accomplished.
I just wish we had it in time to use against the Germans.
[applause]
[music]
[applause]
[music]
[applause]
Dr. Oppenheimer. Dr. Oppenheimer. Nice picture. Prison criminals need help.
Dr. Oppenheimer, it's an honor. Mr. President, please. Thank you.
Sixteen minutes.
How does 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--
In Nagasaki.
Obviously. Your invention let us bring our boys home.
It was hardly my invention.
Well, it's you on the cover at time.
Jim tells me you're concerned about an arms race for the Soviets.
Yes. Well, it's that now is our chance to secure
international cooperation on atomic energy and I'm concerned.
Did you know when the Soviets are going to have the bomb?
I don't think I could give you--
Never. Never.
Mr. President, the Russians have good physicists and abundant resources.
Abundance?
Yes.
I don't think so.
Well, don't put everything they have in--
I hear you're leaving Los Atoms. What should we do with it?
Give it back to the Indians.
Dr. Oppenheimer, if what you say about the Soviets is
true, we have to build up Los Alamos, not shut it down.
Mr. President, I feel that I have flattened all my hands.
[♪♪♪].
You think anyone in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, gives a shit who built the bomb?
They care who dropped it. I did.
Hiroshima isn't about you.
Dr. Oppenheimer.
Don't let that cry make me back in here.
Robert saw that hand-wringing got him nowhere, and by the time I met him, he fully
embraced his father's bomb reputation and used his profile to influence policy.
Dr. in the years following the war, would you say that you
exerted a great influence on the atomic policies of the USA?
I think great.
We know this, they meant it.
Really? We're going to be sure of isotopes. We're not personally
responsible for destroying all opposition to their export.
Can you, uh, about look beer? Making atomic weapons, in fact, you do.
I was the spokesman, but the opinion among scientists was unanimous.
All along, McCarthy on the rise, he knew he was vulnerable.
His brother was blacklisted by every university in the country.
A woman in the squad working the railroad, laying track.
Like 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 to think of.
I'm glad he didn't live to see what this is all about.
Here comes the birthday boy. Pull out.
Have fun with him.
Robert, my son and his fiancée are best words
to me, the father of the atomic bomb, so...
Suspect. What do you think, Lewis?
I think I must have enveloped you.
To the world.
The world? What does fukes mean to the rest of the world?
Fukes. Class fukes.
Oh, dear. You haven't heard.
Class fukes. They're British scientists that
you put onto the implosion team at Los Alamos.
Turns out he was...
...as fine as it is. Oh, God. I'm sorry.
After the truth about fukes came up, the FBI stepped up surveillance on him.
He knew his phone was tapped.
He's fallen everywhere.
He's trashed big through.
But never stop speaking his mind.
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 maybe likened to two scorpions in a bottle.
Each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.
There are various aspects of his policy.
Modern scientists blame me, but how was I supposed to protect him?
It's a too secret for discussion.
Candor is the only remedy.
Officials in Washington need to start leveling the American media.
That was last straw for Robert Sotomayor.
So he had to lose his security class.
And with it, his credibility.
But how could they do it?
It was a war hero.
He'd already told everyone about his past.
The board wouldn't have drenched it all up.
How could board get access to Oppenheimer's FBI file?
Could it have been Nichols?
No, I can't imagine if I could do that.
Whoever did, at least if I were a storm that burned a
path from the White House, or to my desk, the A.E.C.
You see him in there, right?
I worked my whole life to get here.
To Canada, the United States of America, now and from the entire country.
They're going to put me back in my place.
A low-leaf shoe salesman.
Lewis, we can win this thing.
I think we can get the sun off the grass, but you did your duty.
A painful bill was.
Will Hill's testimony back us up?
Hill will be fine.
I don't really know him, but it was when his Silveridge boys in Chicago
never forgave Robert for not supporting a petition against bombing Japan.
This was taken 31 days after the bombing.
Virtually everyone in the street, nearly a mile around,
was instantly and seriously burned.
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 ritium-like rays emitted in great numbers at the moment of the explosion.
Did you read the scrap in the papers?
The British physicists say the atomic bombings
were not the last act of World War II,
but the first act of this Cold War with Russia.
Which physicist?
I think you knew him. Patrick Blackett.
They may not be wrong. Stimson is now telling me
they bound an enemy that was essentially defeated.
Robert, you have all the influence now.
Please, urge them to continue my research on the super.
Anything can or will, Edward.
Why not? It's not the right use of our resources.
Is that what you really believe?
Gee, Robert Oppenheimer, sphinx thy guru of the atom.
Nobody knows what you believe.
Do you?
One final time, our program director, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.
I hope that it used to come, and we'll 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, I'm wrong.
Stop, doffs, forget this.
Seems pretty favorable.
There's Oppenheimer. What's the caption?
J. Robert Oppenheimer, straw is 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 was 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.
I was about to know how to get things done.
Right.
What was it you said about Borden?
Why get caught holding the knife yourself?
I make it into the thing that Borden was holding the knife for you.
It's gonna come down to how much influence Borden's been able to observe.
Tell her.
Did I say something funny?
It's Borden, Borden, Borden. When we all know that it's straws.
It looks probably the prince's condition.
And then you're familiar with him in front of Congress.
But more useful than a center.
How many of these?
Maybe a little too well, Robert.
It was six years ago.
You know, they're truly vindictive.
Patient to say it's...
Straws has been perfectly clear that he is neutral.
Wake up! It is straws!
It's always been straws and you know it!
Wake up, you'll fight it.
It wasn't Nichols or Hoover, one of Truman's guys. It was you.
You gave the file to Borden. You set him on Oppenheimer. You convinced him... Borden!
Didn't take any convincing.
Take your time using the entire file.
Write up your conclusions. Send them to the FBI.
The material's obviously extensive, but there's nothing new here.
Your conclusions will be in.
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. Hold McCarthy
at bay while you do this with the AEC.
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 we can never again speak on matters of national security.
Then what?
We'll shut you around. Far from the limelight.
A simple bureaucratic procedure has cute clearance. It's 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.
But tell Oppenheimer his security clearance must not be 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, don't let this into a copy.
When he appeals, and trust me, you will, I appoint a board.
They will, of course, have counted.
Prosecutor?
In all of his name.
Who?
Roger Rob.
Ouch. Rob will have security clearance to examine Oppenheimer's file.
As will the great board. Defense counsel will not.
A closed hearing is so-called derogatory information in your indictment.
No audience, no reporters, no burden of proof.
No burden of proof.
We're not convicted.
Just an eye.
What is it you said?
This is just how the game is played.
Well, forgive my naivete.
Amateurs, you 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, tell her she's testifying this morning.
That'll help.
And then Hill is in the afternoon.
Hill is gonna help us too.
As you can see, Robert, it's not your side.
May I keep this?
No.
If you do decide to appeal, then they'll have to send you a copy.
Take my current driver, my sister.
I'm not gonna sell my lawyers for this.
Of course not.
But don't take too long.
I can't keep Nichols a day.
I'm sorry it's come to this, Robert.
I think it's wrong.
Nichols wants me to find him so he can get it all on the record.
Stross wants me to walk away.
Stross 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 an AC Council, I can't represent you.
I'll call Lloyd Garrison.
Oh, he's got 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.
Tap 11.
Thanks for my paragraph.
Have you never said man of the consulate and expert in the use of microfilm?
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
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 first-hand information.
It's his first-hand.
How so, Roger?
There was a recording at the interview.
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 answer.
It was 12 years ago. Can we hear this recording?
You don't have the clearance, Mr. Garrison.
You were giving it to some front-cut.
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. Garris, this isn't a trial because you are
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 with a list of witnesses.
Joanne, you have my words.
She's either from a transcript or not accepted.
I've already explained how I made a recoccan-full story.
Then 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, Paquon Chanaali, here the commist.
He's still your friend?
Yes.
Dr. Rami, thank you for coming.
Now, how has the prosecution has come?
Tell her, obviously, they passed the laws.
What did he say?
He wasn't going down to them.
But Frost told him that you and Ruth Dohmen have been having an affair for years.
The whole time he looked at them in Pasadena, he
convinced Lawrence that Richard died of a broken heart.
Mr. Surd, what's the heart?
A broken heart.
Richard never found out.
As long as it's gonna testify.
I don't know.
Dr. Rabi, what governmental positions do you currently hold?
I'm the chairman of the General Advisory
Committee to the EIC, succeeding Dr. Oppenheimer.
And how long have you known Dr. Oppenheimer?
Since 1928, 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 at which he is part.
Eat.
Who's that?
Nothing to worry about.
After the Russian A-bomb test, Dr. Lawrence came to see you about the hydrogen bomb.
You'd be better off asking him.
What?
What would you 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 off-the-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 the man who
has accomplished with Dr. Oppenheimer's hands?
Look at his record.
We have an A-bomb and all series of it.
We have all series of super bombs.
What more do you want?
My mates.
But I've known Secretary Stoltz for many years, and
I feel the necessity to express the warm support.
For science and scientists, Louis de Chon.
But right now, unless there's any... 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're proceeding with William Borden instead.
Mr. Borden, please take a seat.
Mr. Borden, hearing 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. Gopover, 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.
You actually did recall the letter when in front of me.
Would you please be so kind as to me if so?
Dear Mr. Hoover, the purpose of this letter...
I'm sorry, I'm sorry if I could have...
What is the purpose of the delay? You're simply going to read the letter.
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.
These are 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.
Mr. Garrison, given that we're on the board and have all read
the letter, wouldn't it be better to have it in the record?
Let's proceed.
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 influencing the United States military policy.
I'm sorry, Robert.
Is anyone else ever going to tell the truth about what's happening here?
We will now hear from Dr. David Hill.
Dr. Hill, would you care to make a statement?
Thank you.
I have been asked to testify about Louis Straws, 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. Straws completely out of government.
You're referring to the hostility of certain scientists directed toward Mr. Straws
because of his commitment to security as demonstrated in the Oppenheimer affair?
No. Because of the personal vindictiveness he demonstrated against Dr. Oppenheimer.
Order! Order!
It appears the most scientists around this country, 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 nearing this case.
No board in this country should sit in judgment
of a man because he expressed his strong opinions.
If you want to 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. Straws 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 Louis Straws.
Oppenheimer made men speak out of Straws' position on the shipments of
isotopes to Norway and Straws never forgave him this public humiliation.
Another controversy between them centered around their differences
in judgment on how the age-old would contribute to national security.
Straws turned to the personal security system
in order to destroy Oppenheimer's effectiveness.
And Straws 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 leave it until I see very conclusive truth to the others.
Do you or do you not believe that Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk?
In a great number of cases I've seen Dr. Oppenheimer act
in a way which was to me exceedingly hard to understand.
I thoroughly disagree with him in numerous issues and his
actions frankly appear 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, sir. Thank you.
Sorry.
You shook his fucking hand?
Oh, I could have spit in his face.
I'm not sure the border would have appreciated that.
Isn't that gentlemanly enough for you? I think
you're all being too goddamn gentlemanly.
Gray must see what Rob is doing. Why doesn't it just shut him down?
And you shaking towers again?
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.
Good. Thank you, General. That is all. But I don't
think I'd clear any of those guys. That's all.
Dr. Oppenheimer had no responsibility in the
selection or the clearance of class views, did he?
No. None at all.
And you wouldn't want to leave this board with any suggestion today that you're
questioning his basic loyalty to the United States in the operation of Los Alamos?
By no means. I hope I didn't lead anyone to believe otherwise for an instant.
Thank you, General.
You shouldn't keep them waiting.
She'll be here.
Do you even want her here?
Would her fool or an adolescent presume to know someone
else's relationship? And you neither have a lawyer.
Kitty and I are grown-ups. We've walked through fire together. You will do fine.
Will you describe your views on Communism as pro-anti-neutral?
Very strongly against. I have nothing to do with Communism since 1936,
since before I met Robert.
That's all.
The record demonstrates that Oppenheimer was not interrogated
by impartial and disinterested counsel for the Grey Board.
He was interrogated by a prosecutor who used all
the tricks of a rather ingenious legal background.
You are charging now that the Grey Board permitted a prosecution.
If I were on the Grey 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 Louis Straus.
Who was this?
I'm sorry?
Who was this?
Roger Roberts.
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.
(phone rings)
Sorry.
Yes?
It's just it was all so very long ago.
Mr. Robert wasn't able to do it long enough to have forgotten.
Not really.
Would you return the card or rip it up?
The card whose existence I've forgotten.
The Communist Party membership card.
Having the slightest idea.
Can a distinction be made between Soviet Communism and Communism?
Well, in the days when I was a member, I thought there 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.
They've all things linked together and spread all over the world.
And I've believed this since I left the party.
Sixteen years ago.
Oh, seventeen years ago.
My mistake.
But you... Sorry, eighteen.
Eighteen years ago.
Are you familiar with the fact your husband was making
contributions to the Spanish Civil War's latest national anthem?
The Civil War's latest 1942.
I knew that Robert gave money from time to time.
Did you know this money was going into Communist Party channels?
Don't you mean through?
Pardon?
Thank you. It means through Communist Party channels, don't you?
Yes.
Then would it be fair to say that this meant that by 1942 your
husband did not stop 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.
Why don't you answer that?
Because 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.
The two types of Communists. Intellectual
Communists and your plain old regular Communist.
Well, I couldn't answer that one.
I couldn't either.
Robert, you can't win this thing. It's a kangaroo court with
a predetermined outcome. I put yourself through more of it.
I had my reasons.
He has that point.
I'm not sure you understand, Albert.
No.
I left my country. Never talk with her.
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 haven't been off this country.
Then tell them to go to hell.
Interesting, Leon. There's no longer an information 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 file court.
We're not in court, sir. There's no burden of proof.
Right. They're not convicted.
Just denying. Why would he all come here to tear me down? What's the angle?
Do people need a reason to do the right thing as he sees it?
I told you. Up and under, the court is going to
science this against me, right from that first meeting.
I don't know. But Oppenheimer said to him that day would last time even meet my eye.
Oppenheimer knows how to manipulate his own.
He levels elbows. He prayed on the night of day as scientists
thought they'd get a say in how he used their work.
They'll never think he was that naive himself.
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 worth exploration and was not the preparation of a weapon.
You mean it was more of an academic excursion?
No, it was not an academic thing. It was that you could
build a hydrogen bomb. It was a matter of life and death.
By 1942, you were actively pushing the development of the hydrogen bomb.
Were you pushing the stuff that I'm working on?
Supporting it and working on it. Yes.
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 costs,
without regard to the balance between these
weapons and atomic weapons as part of our arsenal.
What moral qualms have to do with that?
What 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 chain back in the bottle.
Well, I'm here to tell you that I know one.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, 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 means him the most important man who ever lived.
Well, we freely used the atomic bomb.
In fact, Dr. Yew resisted in selecting the target
to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, didn't he?
Yes.
Well, then you knew, did you know that by dropping that atomic bomb on the target,
you selected the thousands of civilians with the killer injured. Is that correct?
Yes. Not as many as turned out.
Oh. How many were killed in it?
Seventy thousand.
Seventy thousand of both Hiroshima and... One hundred and ten thousand of both.
On the day of each bombing.
Yes. One of the weeks and years of follow.
It has been put at somewhere between fifty and one hundred thousand.
Two hundred and twenty thousand dead at least.
Yes.
And moral scoop was about that.
Terrible ones.
But did you testify to me or that the bombing of Hiroshima was very successful?
Technically successful.
Technically it was very successful.
And it is also next to a We cannot go down this road even as human beings.
We act.
Would you have been opposed to the dropping
of a thermal nuclear weapon on Japan because of moral scruples?
You said I would say.
If you were opposed to dropping an atomic
bomb on Hiroshima because of moral scruples.
We set forth our... I know. Yew, yew, yew.
I asked for... I see you.
I should have forced our arguments against dropping it, but I did not endorse them.
You mean after working night and day for three years building the bomb.
You then argued against the instrument.
I was asked by the secretary of war what the views of scientists were.
I gave them the views against and the views for.
You supported the job.
You didn't have a problem with your plan.
You supported it.
I didn't mean support.
Well 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 asking for.
Well then you wouldn't took the H-bomb too, wouldn't you?
I didn't ask you that, Doctor.
And the GAC reported you go off after the show and the target just said.
A super bomb should never be built.
What we meant, what I meant.
I thought you knew what I meant too.
Wouldn't the Russians do anything to increase their strength?
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 school was in 1945 plenty in 1949.
Doctor 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,
J. Robert Oppenheimer the martyr, I gave him exactly what he wanted.
To be remembered for Trinity, not Hiroshima, not Nagasaki.
You should be thanking me.
Well, it is not.
Do we still have enough votes?
Or is the crowning moment in my career about to
become the most public humiliation in my life?
Full sentence about to go.
Don't scrape through. Great, then gather the fucking press.
Doctor J. Robert Oppenheimer, this board, having her 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 incredible lack of candor and 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 coming days.
That is all.
Board member.
Robert.
Don't tell.
Don't take him to sheets.
Is it official?
Well, there were a couple of unexpected holdouts.
I'm denied. Yeah?
I'm afraid so, sir.
All right.
Who were the holdouts?
There were three, led by the junior senator from
Massachusetts, and a guy trying to make a name for himself.
Didn't like what you did to Oppenheimer.
What's his name?
Kennedy.
John F. Kennedy.
Did you think that if you let them talk or
infest you, that the world would forgive you?
It won't.
I'll see.
I'm sorry.
Please.
You told me I'd be okay.
Well, I didn't have all the facts, did I?
Here's the fact.
President Eisenhower pinned the Medal of Freedom on my chest last year,
because I've always done what's right for this country.
They don't want me in the cabinet room.
Well, that's... that's fine.
Maybe they should just invite Oppenheimer instead.
Maybe they will.
I told you, you turned the scientists against me one by one, starting with Einstein.
I told you about that, Einstein. I said by the pond.
You did, but you know, sir,
nobody really knows what they said to each other that
it's impossible they didn't talk about you at all.
It's impossible they spoke about something that...
More important than I know.
(Crowd shouting)
Thank you.
The man of the moment.
You once held a reception for me. In fact, he gave me an award.
Yes.
You all thought that I had lost the ability to understand what had started.
So the award really wasn't for me. It was for all of you.
Now it's your turn to deal with the consequences of your achievement.
And one day, when they punished you enough,
they'll serve you salmon and potato salad.
Thanks, peaches.
If you are made of...
Oh, Frank. You are happy, I'm happy.
I'll turn the back, tell you all is forgiven.
Just remember, it won't be for you.
It will be for them.
Help me.
When I came to you with those calculations,
we thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world.
I am in the world.
What happened?
I believe we did.
[Music].