Oppenheimer/Transcript

== Chapter One ==
[A Young Me watches RAINDROPS scintillate a PUDDLE...]
[A VAST SPHERE OF FIRE, the fire of a thousand suns, slowly eats the night-time desert. A line of black type appears:]
PROMETHEUS STOLE FIRE FROM THE GODS AND GAVE IT TO MAN.
[And the sound of DOZENS OF FEET STAMPING RHYTHMICALLY...]
FOR THIS HE WAS CHAINED TO A ROCK AND TORTURED FOR ETERNITY.
[ROILING PLASMA expands, the sound of STAMPING GROWS OPPRESSIVE, the STAMPING FASTER and FASTER OVER-]
[A FACE. Gaunt, tense, EYES TIGHTLY SHUT. The face SHUDDERS- the sound CEASES AS MY EYES OPEN, STARING INTO THE CAMERA:]
[Peer into my soul- J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, aged fifty, close- cropped greying hair. The gentle sounds of bureaucracy...]
[SUPER TITLE: "1. FISSION"]
Voice: Dr. Oppenheimer. Dr. Oppenheimer?
[I shake out of my stupor.]
Voice: (Cont'd.) As we begin, I believe you have a statement to read into the record.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, Your Honor.
[I glance down at my notes.]
Second Voice: We’re not judges, Doctor.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No. Of course... (I start reading) "Members of the security board, the so-called interrogatory information in your indictment of me cannot be fairly understood except in the context of my life, and my work."
Senate Aide: (V.O.) How long did he testify?
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (BLACK-AND-WHITE SEQUENCE) ===
[CLOSE: on a prosperous sixty-three-year-old man, LEWIS STRAUSS, as he takes a cup of coffee from a SENATE AIDE...]
[SUPER TITLE: "2. FUSION"]
Lewis Strauss: Honestly, I forget. The whole hearing took a month.
Senate Aide: An ordeal.
Lewis Strauss: Well, I’ve only read the transcripts. Who would want to justify their whole life?
Senate Aide: You weren’t there?
Lewis Strauss: As chairman, I wasn’t allowed to be. Are they really going to ask about it? It was years ago.
Senate Aide: Four years ago.
Lewis Strauss: Five.
Senate Aid: Oppenheimer still divides America. The committee’s going to want to know where you stood.
==== INT. CORRIDOR, SENATE BUILDING -- MOMENTS LATER (B&W) ====
[The Senate Aide leads Strauss along the corridor.]
Senate Aide: Senator Thurmond asked me to say not to feel that you’re on trial.
Lewis Strauss: Oh, funny. I didn’t, 'til you just said that.
Senate Aide: Really, Mr. Strauss, it's--
Lewis Strauss: It’s Admiral.
Senate Aide: Admiral. Admiral Strauss, this is a formality. President Eisenhower has asked you to be in his cabinet. The Senate really has no choice but to confirm you.
[They arrive at the door.]
Lewis Strauss: And if they bring up Oppenheimer?
Senate Aide: When they bring up Oppenheimer, you answer honestly, no senator can deny you did your duty. It’ll be uncomfortable. (he smiles) Who’d want to justify their whole life?
[The door to the VAST committee room opens- they enter, FLASHBULBS POPPING as PRESS and PUBLIC see Strauss.]
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[The room is SMALL, SHABBY.]
Roger Robb: Why did you leave the United States?
[Surprised, I look up from my statement at the prosecutor, Roger ROBB. Then turn to the THREE BOARD MEMBERS (GRAY, EVANS, MORGAN).]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I, uh, I wanted to study the new physics.
Gordon Gray: Was there nowhere here? I thought Berkeley had the leading theoretical physics department.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, once I built it. But first I had to go to Europe. I went to Cambridge, to study under Patrick Blackett.
Roger Robb: Were you happier there than in America?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: "Happier"?
Roger Robb: Yes.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No. No, I, uh… I was homesick and… emotionally immature… Troubled by visions of a… hidden universe.
[INSERT CUT: A YOUNG ME (TWENTY-ONE) LIES IN BED STARING UP, CRYING... PARTICLES WITH THE VASTNESS OF THE STARS MOVE LIKE FIREFLIES...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Useless in the lab.
=== INT. LABORATORY, CAMBRIDGE -- DAY ===
[I accidentally swipe a beaker, it SHATTERS. PATRICK BLACKETT looks over, FROWNING. He picks up an APPLE and takes a LARGE BITE.]
Patrick Blackett: (through apple) Christ, Oppenheimer! Have you had any sleep? Start again.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I need to go to the lecture, sir.
Patrick Blackett: Why?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (pleading) It’s Niels Bohr.
[Blackett checks his watch- starts packing up-]
Patrick Blackett: I completely forgot. Alright! Let’s go.
[I start to pack up with the other students.]
Patrick Blackett: Oh no, not you, Oppenheimer. You finish coating those plates.
[I clean up as Blackett and the other students leave- one leaves an APPLE for Blackett- GREEN WITH STEM AND TINY LEAF.]
[I pause at a bottle: "Potassium Cyanide"... CLUMSY HANDS SHAKING, I draw CYANIDE into a syringe. I INJECT the apple and leave the room...]
==== EXT. QUADRANGLE, CAMBRIDGE -- EVENING ====
[I HURRY across the quad. A lonely figure pelted by rain.]
Niels Bohr: (V.O.) Quantum physics is not a step forward. It is a new way to understand reality.
==== INT. LECTURE HALL, CAMBRIDGE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[I sneak into the back of the auditorium. Standing, SPELLBOUND, as NIELS BOHR, a charismatic Dane, lectures.]
Niels Bohr: Einstein’s opened the door. Now we are peering through, seeing a world inside our world, a world of energy and paradox that not everyone can accept.
[I RAISE my hand to ask a question...]
==== INT. ROOMS AT CAMBRIDGE -- DAY ====
[The Young Me lies on the floor, STARING UP.]
[INSERT CUT: POINTS OF LIGHT MOVE LIKE SPARKS, BUT IN A WAVE.]
[INSERT CUT: STARS. SPARKS FROM A CAMPFIRE. I PAT THE NOSE OF A HORSE IN THE DARKNESS AS I FEED IT AN APPLE.]
[I grow calm, my eyelids lowering...]
[INSERT CUT: AN APPLE- GREEN WITH STEM AND A TINY LEAF...]
[I open MY EYES- JUMP out of bed- SCRAMBLE to dress-]
==== EXT. QUADRANGLE, CAMBRIDGE -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[I RUN, DESPERATE, AGAINST the crowd-]
==== INT. LABORATORY, CAMBRIDGE -- DAY ====
[I BURST in- Blackett LOOKS UP. ANOTHER MAN has his back to me. Between them on the workbench- the POISONED APPLE...]
Patrick Blackett:: You alright?
[I nod awkward, trying to control my BREATHING...]
Patrick Blackett: Niels, meet J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Niels Bohr: What’s the 'J' stand for?
[The other man TURNS, offers his hand- Niels Bohr.]
Patrick Blackett: Nothing, apparently.
[Bohr takes me in- this strange, BREATHLESS young man...]
Niels Bohr: You were at my lecture. You asked the only good question.
Patrick Blackett: No one’s denying his insight. It’s his laboratory work that leaves a little to be desired.
[Bohr picks up the POISONED APPLE from Blackett’s desk...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I heard you give the same answer…
Niels Bohr: At Harvard, yes, and you asked the same question. Why ask again?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I hadn’t liked your answer.
Niels Bohr: Did you like it better yesterday?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: A lot.
[Bohr GESTICULATES with the apple as he talks- I watch it bob around- a kitten following a ball of string...]
Niels Bohr: You can lift a stone without being ready for the snake that’s revealed. Now it seems you’re ready. But you don’t enjoy the lab.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well--
Niels Bohr: So get out of Cambridge, with its beakers and potions. Go somewhere they’ll let you think. "Where?" Göttingen.
Patrick Blackett: Born.
Niels Bohr: Born. Get to Germany, study under Max Born, learn the ways of theory. I’ll send word.
[Bohr raises the apple to take a bite- I GRAB it.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Worm hole.
[-DROP it into the wastebasket. Blackett peers at it, curious.]
Niels Bohr: How’s your mathematics?
Patrick Blackett: Not good enough for the physicist he wants to be.
Niels Bohr: Algebra’s like sheet music, the important thing isn’t can you read music, it’s can you hear it. Can you hear the music, Robert?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, I can.
== Chapter Two ==
[SPARKS explode in WAVES, WAVES of FIRE CRASHING on a SHORE of GLASS, FLYING OVER the MEDIEVAL SPIRES of Gottingen, I watch BORN and BOHR and DIRAC, GALAXIES of PARTICLES DISPERSE and REFORM, a CUBIST PAINTING transfixes the Young Me, an ORCHESTRA plays STRAVINSKY, I read THE WASTE LAND, I WRITE FURIOUSLY at a desk, I WRITE FURIOUSLY on a chalkboard, I SMASH a glass, and ANOTHER, and ANOTHER, WATCHING the SHARDS skid across the floor, CATCHING and REFRACTING LIGHT, I watch RAINDROPS scintillate a PUDDLE, STREAM down a windowpane, I disturb the surface of a sink full of WATER, watching RIPPLES propagate and INTERFERE, I BOUNCE a ball against a corner of my room, studying its trajectory...]
[CUT TO:]
=== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss sits facing the Committee, COUNSEL beside him, PRESS, CAMERAS and PUBLIC behind...]
Chairman Donald Magnuson: The senator from Wyoming.
Senator McGee: Admiral Strauss, I’m interested in your relationship with Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer. You met him in 1947?
Lewis Strauss: Correct.
Senator McGee: You were a commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission?
Lewis Strauss: I was, but I actually met Robert in my capacity as board member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. It was… after the war, he was world-renowned as the great man of physics, and I was determined to get him to run the Institute.
=== EXT. INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss, younger, fifty-one, bustles out of the Institute to welcome the rail-thin figure of Oppenheimer (forty- three), emerging from a TAXI in HAT and coat, PIPE in mouth. ICONIC.]
Lewis Strauss: Dr. Oppenheimer. An honor.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Mr. Strauss.
Lewis Strauss: It’s pronounced “straws”.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: “Ope-penheimer”, “Ah-penheimer”, any way you say it, they know I’m Jewish.
Lewis Strauss: I’m president of Temple Emmanuel in Manhattan. “Strauss” is just a Southern pronunciation.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Ah.
Lewis Strauss: Anyway, welcome to the Institute. I think you can be very happy here. Yes, well, you’ll love the commute. The position comes with that house for you and your wife, and your -- is it two? -- children,
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, two.
==== INT. INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON -- CONTINUOUS (B&W) ====
[Strauss leads Oppenheimer through the Institute.]
Lewis Strauss: I’m a great admirer of your work.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You’re a physicist by training, Mr. Strauss?
Lewis Strauss: I’m sorry, uh, (he indicates) common room, four o’clock tea. No, I’m not trained in physics or anything else. I’m a self-made man.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Ah, I can relate to that.
Lewis Strauss: Really?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (dry) Yes, my father was one.
==== INT. PRESIDENT’S OFFICE, INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY -- MOMENTS LATER (B&W) ====
[Strauss shows Oppenheimer into the well-appointed office.]
Lewis Strauss: And this would be your office.
[Oppenheimer drifts to the windows- a LAWN rolls down to a POND. He spots a FIGURE- long grey hair poking from under his hat-]
Lewis Strauss: I’m told he’s there in most afternoons.
[The figure gently tosses a stone into the water.]
Lewis Strauss: You know, I’ve always wondered why you didn’t involve him in the Manhattan Project.
[Oppenheimer turns to Strauss, interested.]
Lewis Strauss: Greatest scientific mind of our time.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Of his time. Einstein published his Theory of Relativity more than 40 years ago now. Could never embrace the quantum world it revealed.
Lewis Strauss: “God doesn’t play dice.”
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Precisely. You never thought of studying physics formally, Mr. Strauss?
Lewis Strauss: I had offers, but… I chose to sell shoes.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Lewis Strauss was once a lowly shoe salesman?
Lewis Strauss: No, just a shoe salesman.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Ah.
[Oppenheimer turns back to the window.]
Lewis Strauss: I’d love to introduce you.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No need. I’ve known him for years.
==== EXT. INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON -- DAY (B&W) ====
[Strauss, awkward, stays in the doorway and WATCHES...]
[FROM AFAR: as Oppenheimer approaches, Einstein’s HAT BLOWS off his head, unleashing a MESS OF GREY HAIR, hat rolling across the grass to where Oppenheimer SCOOPS it up. After a while, he approaches.]
[Einstein TURNS, walking towards Strauss with a GRIM EXPRESSION. ]
Lewis Strauss: Albert.
[Einstein PASSES without acknowledging Strauss. Strauss reaches Oppenheimer-]
Lewis Strauss: What was that? What did... you say to him?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh, he’s fine. Mr. Strauss, there are… things in my past you ought to be aware of.
Lewis Strauss: Well, as chairman of the AEC, I have access to your security file. I’ve read it.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You’re not worried?
Lewis Strauss: No. Why would I be worried, after everything you’ve done for your country?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, times change, Mr. Strauss.
Lewis 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.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, then I’ll consider it. I’ll see you at the AEC meeting tomorrow.
[Oppenheimer turns, heads back up the hill.]
Lewis Strauss: (taken aback) This is one of the most prestigious appointments in the country.
[Oppenheimer looks back at Strauss, GRINS-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, and a great commute. That’s why I’m considering it.
[Strauss watches him go, crossing his arms.]
Senator McGee: (V.O.) So Dr. Oppenheimer brought your attention to his past associations before you appointed him?
=== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ===
Lewis Strauss: Yes.
Senator McGee: And they didn’t concern you?
Lewis Strauss: Just then I was entirely consumed with what he must have said to Einstein to sour him on me.
[A few CHUCKLES from the room.]
Senator McGee: But later?
Lewis Strauss: Well, we all know what happened later.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
Roger Robb: Doctor, your time in Europe, you seem to meet with a wide range of other countries’ physicists.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, that’s right.
[Robb looks up at me...]
Roger Robb: Any Russians?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: None that spring to mind. If you’ll just allow me to continue with my statement…
Gordon Gray: Mr. Robb, you’ll have ample opportunity to cross-examine.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: "After Göttingen, I moved on to Leiden, in Holland..."
=== INT. LECTURE HALL, LEIDEN -- DAY ===
[A packed hall. The Young Me nervously checks my notes.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: "...where I first met Isidor Rabi."
Isidor Rabi: Excuse me.
[A stocky young man, ISIDOR RABI (thirty), plonks down next to a DUTCH STUDENT who reluctantly shifts, giving him room.]
Isidor Rabi: A Yank, lecturing on the new physics. This I have to hear. I’m an American myself.
Dutch Student: How surprising.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Um...
Isidor Rabi: Let me know if you need any help with the English.
[A few scattered laughs echo through the room. I start lecturing... IN DUTCH. Ravi, confused, leans in.]
Isidor Rabi: Wait, what’s he saying?
=== INT. TRAIN, LEIDEN TO ZURICH -- NIGHT ===
[I stare out the window at dark trees, steam and shadows, Rabi dumps his bags down, slumps opposite, sizes me up. Offers me an orange-] 
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No, thank you.
Isidor Rabi: It’s a long way to Zurich. If you get any skinnier, we’re gonna lose you between the seat cushions. I’m Rabi.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oppenheimer.
Isidor Rabi: I caught your lecture on molecules. Caught some of it. We’re a couple of New York Jews, how do you know Dutch?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, I thought I’d better learn it when I got here this semester.
Isidor Rabi: You learned enough Dutch in six weeks to give a lecture on quantum mechanics?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I like to challenge myself.
Isidor Rabi: Quantum physics wasn’t challenging enough? Schvitzer.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: "Schvitzer"?
Isidor Rabi: "Show-off." Dutch in six weeks, but you never learned Yiddish.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (smiles) They don’t speak it so much, my side of the park.
Isidor Rabi: Screw you. You homesick?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh, you know it.
[Rabi turns serious.]
Isidor Rabi: Ever get the feeling our kind isn’t entirely welcome here?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Physicists?
Isidor Rabi: That’s funny.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Not in the department.
Isidor Rabi: They’re all Jewish, too.
[Rabi hands me a slice of orange.]
Isidor Rabi: Eat.
[I take the orange, 'sipping' at it.]
Rabbi: There’s this German you have to seek out.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Heisenberg.
Rabbi: Right.
=== INT. LECTURE HALL, ZURICH -- DAY ===
[A tall man of twenty-six speaks to a crowd gathered in a rotunda- HEISENBERG. I study his every move. Rabi LEANS over, 'See?'...]
Werner Heisenberg: One might be led to the presumption that behind the quantum world there still hides a real world in which causality holds, but such speculations seem to us, to say it explicitly, fruitless. Thank you. Have a great day.
[The class disperses. Rabi walks up, offering his hand.]
Isidor Rabi: Wonderful.
Werner Heisenberg: Thank you.
Isidor Rabi: Dr. Oppenheimer.
Werner Heisenberg: Oppenheimer, yes! I liked your paper on molecules.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Probably because you inspired it.
Werner Heisenberg: If I inspire anything else, let me know. We could publish together.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I have to get back to America.
Werner Heisenberg: Why? There’s no one there taking quantum mechanics seriously.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That’s exactly why.
Werner Heisenberg: He’s pining for the canyons of Manhattan.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Canyons of New Mexico.
Werner Heisenberg: You’re from New Mexico?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No, New York. But my brother and I have a ranch outside Santa Fe. That’s the America I miss right now.
Werner Heisenberg: Then it’s best you get home, cowboys.
Isidor Rabi: (laughs) That’s him. No, me and horses? I don’t think so.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Nice to meet you.
Gordon Gray: (V.O.) Did you ever encounter Heisenberg again?
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Not in person, no, but… you might say our paths crossed. "On returning to America, I accepted positions at both Caltech and up at Berkeley."
== Chapter Three ==
=== EXT. BERKELEY -- DAY ===
[I walk across campus to the physics department...]
==== INT. CORRIDOR, BERKELEY -- CONTINUOUS ====
[I struggle to unlock a door... it opens-]
==== INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- CONTINUOUS ====
[A DUSTY storage space. Scattered tables and chairs. A piano.]
==== EXT. CORRIDOR, BERKELEY -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[I step out of the classroom. Look NEXT DOOR...]
==== INT. RAD LAB, BERKELEY -- DAY ====
[I enter. A handsome young scientist, ERNEST LAWRENCE, works on an assemblage of curved pipes and wiring with students, including Luis ALVAREZ.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Dr. Lawrence, I presume?
Ernest Lawrence: You must be Oppenheimer.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes.
Ernest Lawrence: I hear you want to start a school of quantum theory.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I am starting it, next door.
Ernest Lawrence: They put you in there?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I asked for it. Wanted to be close to you experimentalists.
Ernest Lawrence: Theory will get you only so far. We’re building a machine to accelerate electrons.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Magnificent.
Ernest Lawrence: Would you like to help?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Build it? Oh, no. No, no. But I am working on theories I’d like to test with it.
Ernest Lawrence: When do you start teaching?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’ve got my first in an hour.
Ernest Lawrence: Seminar?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Pupil.
Ernest Lawrence: One student? That’s it?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m teaching something no one here has dreamt of. But once people start hearing what you can do with it…
Ernest Lawrence: (grins) There’s no going back.
==== INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- LATER ====
[I stand there, expectant. A student opens the door, looks around, embarrassed-]
Student: Oh, I must have missed the…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No, this is it! Mr. Lomanitz?
Rossi Lomanitz: Yeah.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, this is it. Please, take a seat.
[LOMANITZ (twenty-one) nods, takes a seat.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What do you know about quantum mechanics?
Rossi Lomanitz: I have a grasp on the basics.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Then you’re doing it wrong.
[I stride over to the chalkboard.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Is life made up of particles or waves?
[Lomanitz opens his mouth to speak- too slow-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Quantum mechanics says it’s both. How can it be both?
Rossi Lomanitz: It can’t--
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It can’t. But it is. It’s paradoxical, and yet, it works.
[Lomanitz is hooked. I turn to the board, chalk out an equation... when I turn back]
[There are now FIVE students (including SERBER and SNYDER) listening intently... I hand out papers.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Thank you.
[I move to Lomanitz to hand him his paper. I pat his shoulder.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Mr. Lomanitz... You’re gonna be okay. Mr. Snyder.
[A PACKED CLASSROOM, hanging on my every word as I- now thirty- two, slim, well-dressed, confident- teach in the round. Lawrence listens at the edge, fascinated.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Now, let’s consider a star.
[INSERT CUT: A STAR. A SUN. BURNING, ROILING.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: A star, a vast furnace burning in outer space, fire pushing outwards against its own gravity, balanced. But if that furnace cools, and gravity starts winning, it contracts.
[INSERT CUT: THE SUN IS SHRINKING, MORE AND MORE RAPIDLY...]
Hartland Snyder: Density increases.
[I look around. Make eye contact with Hartland SNYDER.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Correct. Increasing gravity.
Hartland Snyder: Increasing density.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: And?
Hartland Snyder: It’s a vicious cycle until… What’s the limit here?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I don’t know. See where the math takes us. I guarantee it’s somewhere no one’s been before.
Hartland Snyder: Me?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, you. Your math is better than mine.
[The room chuckles.]
==== EXT. BERKELEY -- DAY ====
[Energetic, dashing, I STRIDE across campus, a group of students, including Snyder and Lomanitz, following me, hanging on my every word...]
Senator Bartlett: (V.O.) Dr. Oppenheimer’s file contained details of his activities at Berkeley.
=== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss looks at the senator, cautious...]
Senator Bartlett: Why would they have started a file on Dr. Oppenheimer before the war?
Lewis Strauss: Well, you’d have to ask Mr. Hoover.
Senator Bartlett: I’m asking you, Admiral Strauss.
Lewis Strauss: Uh, my assumption is that it was connected to his, uh, left-wing political activities.
=== INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- DAY ===
[Lawrence comes in, frowns at the board: "SATURDAY 2:00pm, RALLY FOR LOYALIST SPAIN".]
Ernest Lawrence: You shouldn’t let them bring their politics in the classroom, Oppie.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I wrote that. Lawrence, you embraced the revolution in physics. Can’t you see it everywhere else? Picasso, Stravinsky, Freud, Marx...
Ernest Lawrence: Well, this is America, Oppie. We had our revolution. Seriously, keep it out of the lab.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, out of the lab, my landlady is having a discussion group tonight. Interested?
Ernest Lawrence: I have sampled the Berkeley political scene. It’s all just philosophy post-grads and communists talking integration.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You don’t care about integration?
Ernest Lawrence: I want to vote for it, not talk about it. Especially on a Friday. Come on, let’s eat.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m meeting my brother there.
Senator Bartlett: (V.O.) And how would these activities have come to the attention of the FBI?
=== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ===
Lewis Strauss: Well, if I remember correctly, the FBI was taking license plates outside suspected communist gatherings, and his name popped up.
=== EXT. HOUSE PARTY, SHASTA ROAD, BERKELEY -- NIGHT (COLOUR) ===
[As I get out of my car, I spot TWO MEN checking the license plates of cars on the street... I am GRABBED-]
Frank Oppenheimer: Gotcha!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Jesus Christ!
[My younger brother FRANK (twenty-five) and his date, JACKIE.]
Frank Oppenheimer: Sorry.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Frank!
Frank Oppenheimer: Uh, you remember Jackie?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Evening.
==== INT. LIVING ROOM, HOUSE PARTY, SHASTA ROAD, BERKELEY -- NIGHT ====
[We ENTER the bustling room- I spot a beguiling young woman-]
[Mary WASHBURN grabs my tie and leads us to Haakon CHEVALIER.]
Mary Washburn: Robert! I want you to meet Chevalier. Dr. Haakon Chevalier, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Pleasure! Pleasure. This is my little brother, Frank. And this is…
Jackie Quann: Still Jackie.
Haakon Chevalier: Hello, Still Jackie.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Chevalier, you’re in languages?
Haakon Chevalier: And your reputation precedes you.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What have you heard?
Haakon Chevalier: That you’re teaching a radical new approach to physics I have no chance of understanding, but I haven’t heard you’re a party member.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Uh, I’m not.
Frank Oppenheimer: Oh, not yet.
Jackie Quann: Frank and I are thinking of joining. Just the other day I was saying…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (ignoring Jackie) I support a range of causes.
Haakon Chevalier: Spanish Civil War?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: A democratic republic being overthrown by fascist thugs. Who wouldn’t?
[Jackie, put out, leads Frank away.]
Haakon Chevalier: Our government. They think that socialism is a bigger threat than fascism.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Not for long. Look at what the Nazis are doing to the Jews. I send funds to colleagues in Germany to emigrate. I-- I have to do something. My own work is so… abstract.
Haakon Chevalier: What are you working on?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What happens to stars when they die?
Haakon Chevalier: Do stars die?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, if they do, they’d cool, then collapse. In fact, the bigger the star, the more violent its demise.
[INSERT CUT: THE SUN SHRINKS. THE LIGHT OF THE DISTANT STARS BEHIND IS TUGGED TOWARDS THE DYING STAR, BENDING, STRETCHING.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Their gravity gets so concentrated, it swallows everything. Everything, even light.
Haakon Chevalier: Can that really happen?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: 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.
Haakon Chevalier: Well, if you’re going to send money to Spain, do it through the Communist Party. They can get it to the front lines.
[The beguiling young woman is there with a tray of martinis. This is Jean TATLOCK...]
Jean Tatlock: Mary sent me with these. I’m Jean.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Robert.
Haakon Chevalier: Haakon Chevalier. That union meeting at Serber’s last month?
[Tatlock nods. I take a glass.]
Jean Tatlock: Right, right, yes. Oh, thank you.
Haakon Chevalier: Robert here says he’s not a communist.
Jean Tatlock: Well, then he doesn’t know enough about it.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh, I’ve read Das Kapital, all three volumes. Does that count?
Haakon Chevalier: It would make you better-read than most party members.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It's turgid stuff. There’s some thinking, um… “Ownership is theft.”
Jean Tatlock: Property.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Property?
Jean Tatlock: Property, not ownership.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m sorry, I read it in the original German.
[Chevalier laughs, delighted, and clinks my drink before he leaves us alone.]
Jean Tatlock: It’s not about the book. It’s about the ideas. And you sound uncommitted.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m committed to thinking freely about how to improve our world. Why limit yourself to one dogma?
Jean Tatlock: You’re a physicist. Do you pick and choose rules? Or do you use the discipline to channel your energies into progress?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I like a little wiggle room. Do you always toe the party line?
[Tatlock considers this. Sizes me up.]
Jean Tatlock: I like my wiggle room, too.
==== INT. BEDROOM -- LATER ====
[We are FUCKING. Hot, sweaty, a little brutal. Tatlock GIVES UP.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What?
[She climbs off me.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Wait, wait, wait--
[I catch my breath, watching her STUDY my shelves.]
Jean Tatlock: Unexpected.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What?
Jean Tatlock: For a physicist.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You only have a shelf full of Freud?
Jean Tatlock: Well, actually, my background’s more…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Uh, Jungian?
Jean Tatlock: You know analysis?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: When I was in post-grad at Cambridge, I had a little trouble.
[She turns to me.]
Jean Tatlock: I’ll bite.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I tried to poison my tutor.
Jean Tatlock: Did you hate him?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I liked him very much.
[Tatlock turns back to the books.]
Jean Tatlock: You just needed to get laid.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It took my analysts two years, and I don’t think they ever put it that succinctly.
Jean Tatlock: You have everyone convinced you’re more complicated than you actually are.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We’re all simple souls, I guess.
Jean Tatlock: I’m not.
[She pulls a book from the shelf: THE BHAGAVAD GITA. She opens the book to find INCOMPREHENSIBLE CHARACTERS.]
Jean Tatlock: What’s this?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Sanskrit.
Jean Tatlock: You can read this?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m learning.
[She climbs on top of me, opens the book in my face.]
Jean Tatlock: Read this.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, in this part, Vishnu reveals his multi-armed self…
Jean Tatlock: No. Read the words.
[I study the page as Tatlock starts to move.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: “And now I am become Death…
[She nods, impressed, starts moving again...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: ...the destroyer of worlds.”
=== EXT. NEW MEXICO -- DAY ===
[Moving over the VAST landscape to find three tiny figures. I lead Lawrence and Frank on horseback up a mountain trail.]
==== EXT. CAMPSITE -- EVENING ====
[THUNDER. Lawrence climbs off his horse. The wind WHIPS as we set up our tent...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: This’ll do. It’ll break before dawn. Air cools overnight. Just before dawn, it breaks.
==== INT./EXT. TENT -- NIGHT ====
[Lawrence, Frank and I huddle in the BUFFETING TENT, trying to keep a fire going in the WIND and RAIN outside the tent.]
Frank Oppenheimer: Well, so, I’m getting married.
Ernest Lawrence: Frank! congratulations!
Frank Oppenheimer: Thank you, thank you.
[I look at Frank, sardonic with drink.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: To Jackie?
Frank Oppenheimer: Yeah, to Jackie. The waitress?
Ernest Lawrence: (sensing tension) Oppie, you’re right. It’s letting up. I’m gonna go see if there’s any stars.
[Frank watches Lawrence go, then pounces-]
Frank Oppenheimer: All your talk about the common man, but Jackie’s not good enough for you, hmm? We joined the party, and you can’t hide your disappointment. Why? Is that because that’s supposed to be your thing?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I haven’t joined the party, Frank. And I don’t think she should have convinced you to either.
Frank Oppenheimer: Half of the faculty is communist.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Not that half.
[I point in the direction Lawrence wondered off.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m your brother, Frank, and I want you to be cautious.
Frank Oppenheimer: And I want to wring your neck.
[I smile at this.]
Frank Oppenheimer: I won’t live my life afraid to make a mistake.
[I grab Frank’s shoulder. Frank looks up...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You’re happy… I’m happy.
Frank Oppenheimer: So then I’m happy you’re happy that I’m happy.
==== EXT. PERRO CALIENTE -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[I approach Lawrence, who stares up at the stars.]
Ernest Lawrence: I feel like I can see one of those dark stars that you’re working on.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You can’t. That’s the whole point. Their gravity swallows light. It’s like a kind of hole in space.
[INSERT CUT: AN EXPANDING DARKNESS EATS THE STARS...]
Ernest Lawrence: Is Frank okay?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes. He just has a shitty brother.
[Lawrence smiles at this. Looks around, then-]
Ernest Lawrence: It is special here.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: When I was a kid… I thought if I could find a way… to combine physics and New Mexico, my life would be perfect.
Ernest Lawrence: Little remote for that.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes. Let’s get some sleep.
[I turn, heading to the tent. Lawrence follows.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That mesa we saw today, one of my favorite places in the world. Tomorrow we’ll climb it.
Ernest Lawrence: What’s it called?
[My response is so soft it is almost swallowed by the dark...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Los Alamos.
== Chapter Four ==
=== EXT. STREET, BERKELEY -- DAY ===
[Tatlock and I walk down the sidewalk. I try to take her hand- she folds her arms.]
Jean Tatlock: I didn’t expect to see you today.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Do I have to make an appointment?
[Across the street a young man BURSTS out of the BARBER SHOP, towel across chest, NEWSPAPER in hand... the barber runs out- the young man rips off the towel, TOSSES it to him and RUNS-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Alvarez?
[I leave Tatlock on the sidewalk, take off after Alvarez-]
==== EXT. BERKELEY CAMPUS -- DAY ====
[Alvarez SPRINTS, newspaper in hand- I follow-]
==== INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- CONTINUOUS ====
[I BURST in- Lawrence is trying to calm Alvarez-]
Luis Alvarez: Oppie! Oppie!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What? What is it?
Luis Alvarez: They’ve done it. They’ve done it. Hahn and Strassmann in Germany. They split the uranium nucleus.
Ernest Lawrence: How?
[INSERT CUT: Sparks of fire.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (reading) "Bombard it with neutrons."
Luis Alvarez: It’s a nuclear fission. They did it. They split the atom.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That’s not possible.
[I put down the paper, take up my chalk like it’s a weapon, move to the board. Alvarez grabs the paper-]
Luis Alvarez: I’m gonna try to reproduce it.
[Alvarez and Lawrence leave. I write and write...]
==== INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- LATER ====
[Lawrence enters. I turn. Point at the board.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: See? Can’t be done.
Ernest Lawrence: Very elegant. Quite clear. There’s just one problem.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Where?
Ernest Lawrence: Next door. Alvarez did it.
==== INT. RAD LAB, BERKELEY -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[I peer at Alvarez’s oscilloscope...]
Luis Alvarez: And look. These fission pulses, they’re massive. I’ve seen 30 of these in the past ten minutes.
Ernest Lawrence: "Theory will take you only so far."
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: During the process… extra neutrons boil off, which could be used to split other uranium atoms...
Ernest Lawrence: Chain reaction. You’re thinking what I’m thinking.
[I stand, moving away...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You, me, and every other physicist around the world who’s seen the news.
Luis Alvarez: I just… what, what are we all thinking?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: A bomb, Alvarez. A bomb.
=== EXT. TATLOCK HOUSE, BERKELEY -- NIGHT ===
[Tatlock GRABS a bouquet out of my hands-]
Jean Tatlock: I told you, Robert, no more fucking flowers.
[She dumps them in the trash. I just stare.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I don’t understand what you want from me.
Jean Tatlock: I don’t want anything from you!
[I pause. Then, gently...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, you say that, and then you call.
Jean Tatlock: Well, don’t answer!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’ll always answer.
[She looks at me.]
Jean Tatlock: Fine. Just no more flowers.
[She goes inside-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You’re not coming?
[Slams the door shut behind her. I stand there.]
Haakon Chevalier: (O.S.) You have to know when you’re beaten, Robert.
[I turn. Chevalier and his wife, BARBARA, wait in the car.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It’s not that simple, Haak.
=== INT. MEETING HALL, BERKELEY -- NIGHT ===
[Chevalier and Barbara lead me into the crowded hall. A BANNER: "FEDERATION OF ARCHITECTS, ENGINEERS, CHEMISTS AND TECHNICIANS".]
[A man with a British accent greets us. This is ELTENTON.]
Eltenton: Chevalier! Good to see you. Barbara, good to see you. And the illustrious Dr. Oppenheimer. I’m Eltenton.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh, pleasure.
[Eltenton guides me towards the stage...]
Eltenton: Please, please. Why don’t you say a word about organized labor on campuses? Yes? Coming through, coming through! I work at Shell. We’ve signed up chemists, we’ve signed up engineers. So why not sciences and academia?
[I spot Lomanitz, who grins and waves... Eltenton pushes me onto the stage. People start APPLAUDING at the very sight of me. I can’t quite not smile about this.]
Crowd: Oppie! Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!
=== INT. RAD LAB, BERKELEY -- DAY ===
[I watch Lawrence examine his cyclotron.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Teachers are unionized. Why not professors?
Ernest Lawrence: Don’t you have somewhere to be?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Lawrence, academics have rights too.
Ernest Lawrence: Look, it’s not that. I’ve got a group coming.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh. I’ll sit in.
Ernest Lawrence: Not this one.
[The door opens. Richard TOLMAN and Vannevar BUSH enter-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Richard, Dr. Bush. What brings you two up north?
[They exchange glances with Lawrence. Awkward SILENCE. I rise, letting them off the hook-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Richard, you tell Ruth I’ll be down in Pasadena Thursday.
==== INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- CONTINUOUS ====
[As I enter, a magazine FLAPS into my hands from across the room. Students are all reading copies...]
Robert Serber: Paper on black holes, it’s in!
[I open the magazine as I turn to a STUDENT-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Where’s Hartland? Get Hartland. Get Hartland.
Rossi Lomanitz: September 1st, 1939? The world’s gonna remember this day.
[Snyder comes in with a newspaper. Glum.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh, Hartland, our paper, it’s in print.
Hartland: You’ve been upstaged.
[He holds up the paper: "HITLER INVADES POLAND".]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (V.O.) During the Battle of Britain...
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
[Robb looks on intently as I turn the page on my statement...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: ...I found myself increasingly out of sympathy with the… policy of neutrality that communists advocated.
Roger Robb: But after Hitler invaded Russia and we became allies, these communist sympathies, do they return?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: 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.
[Behind me, on a couch, is KITTY (forty-six), listening intently...]
=== INT. HOUSE PARTY, TOLMAN HOUSE, PASADENA -- NIGHT ===
[Kitty (thirty-one) watches as I EXPERTLY open the liquor cabinet-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: This is where I keep the good stuff.
Kitty Harrison: Well, I thought this was the Tolmans’ house.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I live with them while I’m at Caltech.
[I turn to see RUTH TOLMAN (forty-five) looking at me, mischievous.]
Ruth Tolman: Do you two need anything?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We’re good, Ruthie. (to Kitty) So, you’re a biologist.
[I thump a glass onto the cabinet- pour a drink-]
Kitty Harrison: Well, somehow I have graduated to housewife. Can you explain quantum mechanics to me? Seems baffling.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, it is. Well, this glass, this drink… this countertop… Uh, our bodies.
[I hand her the glass- fingers touching...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: All of it. It’s mostly empty space. Groupings of tiny energy waves bound together.
Kitty Harrison: By what?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Forces of attraction strong enough to convince us that matter is solid. 
[I push the palm of my hand up against hers.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Stop my body passing through yours.
[Kitty pushes her fingers through mine, interlacing our hands. I look at a GREY-HAIRED MAN in conversation with Tolman...]
[As Ruth looks our way I let Kitty’s hand go.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You’re married to Dr. Harrison.
Kitty Harrison: Not very.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: There is someone that I feel…
Kitty Harrison: Does she feel that way?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Sometimes. Not enough. You know, I’m going to New Mexico. To my ranch, with friends. You should come.
[Kitty looks meaningfully over her glass at me.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I meant, with your husband.
Kitty Harrison: Yes, you did. Because you know it won’t make a bit of difference.
=== EXT. PERRO CALIENTE -- DAY ===
[Kitty and I THUNDER along on horseback, climbing a ridge. I shout ahead to Kitty-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Why did you marry him?
[Kitty pulls up. I come alongside.]
Kitty Harrison: I was lost, and… he was kind.
[Kitty DISMOUNTS. I follow.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Lost?
Kitty Harrison: Well, my previous husband had died, and… at 28, I wasn’t really ready to be a widow.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Who was your first husband?
Kitty Harrison: Nobody. My second husband was Joe Dallet. He was, um... from money, like me, but he was a union organizer in Youngstown, Ohio. I fell hard.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: How hard?
Kitty Harrison: Hard enough to spend the next four years living off beans and pancakes, handing out the Daily Worker at factory gates.
[Kitty takes out a hip flask. SWIGS.]
Kitty Harrison: By ’36, I just told Joe I couldn’t take it anymore. Quit the party. A year later, I wanted him back. Him, not the Daily Worker. And… he said: “Swell, I’ll meet you on my way to Spain.”
[She hands me the flask. I take a drink.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Went to fight for the Loyalists?
Kitty Harrison: And then he went to the brigades and I waited. And… Joe got himself killed first time he popped his head out of the trench. Ideology got Joe killed, for nothing.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: The Spanish Republic isn’t nothing.
Kitty Harrison: My husband offered both our futures to stop one fascist bullet from embedding itself in a mud bank. That’s the definition of nothing.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Seems a little reductive.
Kitty Harrison: Pragmatic. Now here I am...
[She looks around at the wilderness...]
Kitty Harrison: Wherever the hell this is.
[I grab her. Kiss her, hard.]
=== INT. TATLOCK’S BEDROOM -- DAY ===
[Tatlock and I sit on the floor, backs to the bed like kids. Tatlock has been crying.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I didn’t want you to hear it from anyone else.
Jean Tatlock: At least you didn’t bring me flowers.
[I reach into my pocket- she GRABS the small posy from me, TOSSING it aside.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We both know I’m not what you want, Jean.
Jean Tatlock: Yeah, but it’s a door closing.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No. Not as far as I’m concerned, no.
[Tatlock looks at me. Appreciating the sentiment.]
Jean Tatlock: You knocked her up. Fast work.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Can’t keep a good man down.
Jean Tatlock: I meant her. She knew what she wanted. What about the husband?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We talked, um... They’re getting a divorce, so we can get married before she starts showing.
Jean Tatlock: How civilized. You idiot. This is your community. You think the rules don’t apply to the golden boy?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Brilliance makes up for a lot.
Jean Tatlock: Don’t alienate the only people in the world that understand what you do. One day you might need them.
== Chapter Five ==
=== INT. RAD LAB, BERKELEY -- DAY ===
[I write "F.A.E.C.T." on the board, Lomanitz hands out FLIERS.]
Students: F-A-E-C-T!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians.
[Lawrence enters, GRABBING a flyer from the nearest student: "UNIONIZE THE RADIATION LAB". ]
Ernest Lawrence: Lomanitz, what do you get paid a month?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That’s not the point, Lawrence.
Ernest Lawrence: What do any of you have in common with farm laborers and dock workers?
Rossi Lomanitz: Plenty.
Ernest Lawrence: Everybody out. Now!
[The students file out. I hold my hands up, try to follow-]
Ernest Lawrence: Not you.
[Lawrence turns on me-]
Ernest Lawrence: What are you doing?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It’s a trade union.
Ernest Lawrence: Filled with communists!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: So? I haven’t joined the party.
Ernest Lawrence: They won’t let me bring you onto the project because of this shit. They won’t even let me tell you what the project is.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh, I know what the project is.
Ernest Lawrence: Oh, really?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We’ve all heard about Einstein and Szilard’s letter to Roosevelt warning him the Germans could make a bomb, and I know what it means for the Nazis to have a bomb.
Ernest Lawrence: And I don’t?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It’s not your people they’re herding into camps. It’s mine.
Ernest Lawrence: You think that I tell them about your politics? The next time you’re coming home from a meeting, why don’t you take a look in the rearview mirror? Listen to the sounds on your phone line, and stop being so goddamn naive?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Why would they care what I do?
Ernest Lawrence: Because you’re not just self-important, you’re actually important.
[I see the reality. Shift gears-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Okay. I get it.
Lawrenc: If you could just be a little more…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Pragmatic. I’ll talk to Lomanitz, I’ll talk to the others. You don’t have to worry, it’s done. Lawrence.
[Lawrence looks at me. Sees this is real.]
Ernest Lawrence: Then welcome to the war.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I filled out my first security questionnaire and was informed that my involvement with left-wing groups would not prove a bar to my working on the atomic program.
Senator John Pastore: (V.O.) Why were his communist associations not seen as a security risk during the war?
=== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss suppresses his irritation at the line of questioning.]
Lewis Strauss: Senator, I can’t possibly answer for security clearance granted years before I ever met the man.
Senator John Pastore: Fine. What about after?
Lewis Strauss: After the war, Dr. Oppenheimer was the most respected scientific voice in the world. That’s why I asked him to run the Institute. That’s why he advised the Atomic Energy Commission. Simple as that.
==== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ====
[Strauss loosens his tie -- his noose -- paces-]
Lewis Strauss: What are they accusing me of?
Senate Aide: I think they just want to know what happened between 1947 and 1954 to change your mind on Oppenheimer’s security clearance.
Lewis Strauss: I didn’t. I was chair of the AEC, but it wasn’t me that brought the charges against Robert.
Senate Aide: Who did?
Lewis Strauss: Some former staff member of the Joint Congressional Committee. He was a rabid anti-communist named Borden.
[INSERT CUT: A YOUNG MAN LEAFS THROUGH A FILE, COLLECTING HIS THOUGHTS... THIS IS WILLIAM BORDEN... HE STARTS TYPING...]
Lewis Strauss: He wrote to the FBI demanding they take action.
Senate Aide: The FBI? Why not go to the AEC direct?
Lewis Strauss: Why get caught holding the knife yourself?
Senate Aide: What did Borden have against Oppenheimer?
Lewis Strauss: This is the McCarthy era. People hounded out of jobs for any hint of red, and then… Reading Oppenheimer’s security file, his communist brother, sister-in-law, fiancée, best friend, wife. That’s before we even get to the Chevalier incident.
Senate Aide: But how would Borden have access to Oppenheimer’s security file?
Lewis Strauss: Because somebody gave it to him. Somebody who wanted Robert silenced.
Senate Aide: Who?
Lewis Strauss: Who knows? Robert didn’t take care not to upset the power brokers in Washington. His opinions on the atom became definitive, and he wasn’t always patient with us mere mortals. I came in for plenty of harsh treatment. There was an AEC vote on the export of isotopes to Norway...
=== INT. CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Oppenheimer sits at the witness table with Joe VOLPE, the AEC lawyer. Strauss is in the audience.]
Lewis Strauss: ...and they drafted in Robert to make me look like a fool.
Congressman: But Dr. Oppenheimer, we’ve already heard from Admiral Strauss that these isotopes could be useful to our enemies in the production of atomic weapons.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Congressman, you could use a shovel in making atomic weapons. In fact, you do.
[LAUGHTER. Strauss squirms, embarrassed.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You could use a bottle of beer in making atomic weapons. In fact, you do. I’d say isotopes are less useful than electronic components, but more useful than a sandwich.
[Volpe looks at Strauss, who SMILES, GOOD-HUMOURED...]
Lewis Strauss: (V.O.) Genius is no guarantee of wisdom.
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
Lewis Strauss: How could this man who saw so much be so blind?
=== INT. OPPENHEIMER HOUSE, BERKELEY -- NIGHT (COLOUR) ===
[I come in. The lights are off. A BABY’S CRIES echo...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Kitty? Kitty?
[She is in the dining room, in the dark, drink in hand.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Kitty. The project. I’m in. I’m in!
Kitty Let’s celebrate.
[As the baby CRIES, Kitty comes to me, pulling at my clothes-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Shouldn’t you go to him?
[She PUSHES me away- GRABS her drink...]
Kitty Oppenheimer: I have been going to him all fucking day.
=== EXT./INT. CHEVALIER HOUSE -- NIGHT ===
[I pull up to the house, carry the crying infant, PETER, to the front door. Knock. Barbara opens it- sees my distraught face and takes Peter.]
==== INT. LIVING ROOM, CHEVALIER HOUSE -- MOMENTS LATER ====
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I don’t know how to say this. I’m ashamed to ask.
Haakon Chevalier: Anything.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Take Peter.
Haakon Chevalier: Sure.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No, for a while, Haak. A while.
Haakon Chevalier: Does Kitty know you’re here?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, of course she knows. Of course she knows. We’re awful people. Selfish, awful people. Forget I asked.
[I stand.]
Haakon Chevalier: Selfish, awful people, they don’t know they’re selfish and awful. Sit, sit, sit.
[I do.]
Haakon Chevalier: Robert, you see beyond the world we live in. There is a price to be paid for that. Of course we’ll help you.
=== EXT. NEW MEXICO -- EVENING ===
[Kitty and I GALLOP through the trees, EMERGING into the twilight overlooking a valley. Kitty turns to the wind.]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Everything’s changing, Robert.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Having a child was always going to change--
Kitty Oppenheimer: No, the world is pivoting in some new direction. Reforming. This is your moment.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We’re putting together a group to study feasibil…
Kitty Oppenheimer: We shouldn’t be doing anything. You should. Lawrence won’t get this done. Or Tolman or Rabi. You will.
== Chapter Six ==
=== INT. PRESIDENT’S DINING HALL, BERKELEY -- DAY ===
[A crowded and lavish lunch. I notice a large man in ARMY UNIFORM, Colonel GROVES, sitting next to another soldier (NICHOLS) with Bush and Tolman. I sidle up to Lawrence at the buffet.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Who are the uniforms?
[The husky GROVES spills sauce on his tunic, wipes at it.]
Ernest Lawrence: I thought you might know.
==== INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- AFTERNOON ====
[I am working. Groves and Lieutenant Colonel NICHOLS enter.]
Leslie Groves: Dr. Oppenheimer. I’m Colonel Groves. This is Lieutenant Colonel Nichols.
[Groves pulls off his uniform jacket, TOSSES it to Nichols.]
Leslie Groves: Have that dry cleaned.
[I watch Nichols leave.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, if that’s how you treat a lieutenant colonel, I’d hate to see how you treat a… humble physicist.
Leslie Groves: If I ever meet one, I’ll let you know.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Ouch.
Leslie Groves: Theaters of combat all over the world, but I have to stay in Washington.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Why?
Leslie Groves: I built the Pentagon. The brass likes it so much, they made me take over the Manhattan Engineer District.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Which is?
Leslie Groves: Don’t be a smartass. You know damn well what it is- You and half of every physics department across the country. That’s problem number one.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I thought problem number one would be securing enough uranium ore.
Leslie Groves: Twelve hundred tons, bought the day I took charge.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Processing?
Leslie Groves: Just broke ground at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Now I’m looking for a project director.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: And my name came up?
Leslie Groves: Nope. Even though you brought quantum physics to America, which made me curious.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What have you found out?
Leslie Groves: You’re a dilettante, a womanizer, a suspected communist.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m a New Deal Democrat.
Leslie Groves: I said “suspected”. Unstable, theatrical, egotistical, neurotic...
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Nothing good, no? Not even “he’s brilliant, but…”
Leslie Groves: Well, brilliance is taken for granted in your circle, so no. No, the only person that had anything good to say was Richard Tolman. Tolman thinks you have integrity, but he also strikes me as the guy who knows more about science than people.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yet here you are. You don’t take much on trust.
Leslie Groves: I don’t take anything on trust.
[Beat.]
Leslie Groves: Why don’t you have a Nobel Prize?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Why aren’t you a general?
Leslie Groves: They’re making me one for this.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Perhaps I’ll have the same luck.
Leslie Groves: The Nobel Prize for making a bomb?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.
Leslie Groves: So how would you proceed?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You’re talking about turning theory into a practical weapon system faster than the Nazis.
Leslie Groves: Who have a twelve month head start.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Eighteen.
Leslie Groves: How could you possibly know that?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Our fast neutron research took six months. The man they’ve undoubtedly put in charge will have made that leap instantly.
Leslie Groves: Who do you think they put in charge?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Werner Heisenberg. He has the most intuitive understanding of atomic structure I have ever seen.
Leslie Groves: You know his work?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I know him, just like I know Walther Bothe, von Weizsäcker, Diebner. In a straight race, the Germans win. We’ve got one hope.
Leslie Groves: Which is?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Antisemitism.
Leslie Groves: What?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Hitler called quantum physics “Jewish science”. Said it right to Einstein’s face. Our one hope is that Hitler is so-- so blinded by hate that he’s denied Heisenberg proper resources, because it’ll take vast resources. Our nation’s best scientists working together. Right now, they’re scattered.
Leslie Groves: Which gives us compartmentalization.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: All minds have to see the whole task to contribute efficiently. Poor security may cost us the race. Inefficiency will. The Germans know more than us anyway.
Leslie Groves: The Russians don’t.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Remind me, who are we at war with?
Leslie Groves: Somebody with your past doesn’t want to be seen downplaying the... importance of security from our communist allies.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Point taken, but… no.
Leslie Groves: You don’t get to say no to me.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It’s my job to say no to you when you’re wrong.
Leslie Groves: So you have the job now?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Uh, I’m considering it.
[Beat.]
Leslie Groves: I’m starting to see where you got your reputation. My favorite response: “Oppenheimer couldn’t run a hamburger stand.”
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I couldn’t. But I can run the Manhattan Project.
[I turn to the blackboard. Take up my chalk.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: There’s a way to balance these things. (I draw) Keep the Rad Lab here at Berkeley, under Lawrence. Met Lab in Chicago, under Szilard. Large-scale refining, where did you say, Tennessee?
Leslie Groves: And Hanford.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: And Hanford. All America’s industrial-minded scientific innovation, connected by rail, focused on one goal, one point in space and time.
[I have drawn a cross at the centre of the diagram.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: And it comes together here,
[INSERT CUT: A BARBED-WIRE FENCE IS STRUNG OUT...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (V.O.) A secret laboratory, in the middle of nowhere. Secure, self-sufficient.
=== INT. TRAIN, BERKELEY TO WASHINGTON, DC -- DAY ===
[I talk to Groves as Nichols looks on...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Equipment, housing, the works. Keep everyone there until it’s done.
[INSERT CUT: A SCHOOLHOUSE IS ERECTED. A CHURCH. A STORE...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It'll need a school, stores, a church.
Leslie Groves: Why?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: If we don’t let scientists bring their families, we’ll never get the best. You want security? Build a town. Build it fast.
Leslie Groves: Where?
=== EXT. CAR, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ===
[Groves emerges, squinting into the brightness, taking in the stark beauty. I greet him, arms spread wide.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Welcome to Los Alamos. There’s a boys’ school we’ll have to commandeer, and the local Indians come up here for burial rites, but apart from that, nothing. 40 miles. Any direction. We’ll have to find the perfect spot.
Leslie Groves: For?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Success.
[Groves scans the horizon. Sniffs the air... turns to Nichols.]
Leslie Groves: Build him a town. Fast. (to Oppenheimer) Let’s go recruit some scientists.
=== BEGIN MONTAGE ===
==== INT. CORRIDOR, MIT -- DAY ====
[Groves and I walk with CONDON.]
Edward Condon: Why would I leave my family?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I told you, you can bring your family.
==== INT. LECTURE HALL, HARVARD -- DAY ====
[Groves and I sit talking to BAINBRIDGE and DONALD.]
Kenneth Bainbridge: I’m not a soldier, Oppie.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: A soldier? (I point at Groves) He’s a general. I’ve got all the soldier I need.
==== INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO BOSTON -- MIDDAY ====
[I watch Groves go over a file.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What can I tell them?
==== INT. QUADRANGLE, PRINCETON -- DAY ====
[Groves and I flank FEYNMAN as he hurries across the quad-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Heisenberg, Diebner, Bothe and Bohr. What do these men have in common?
Richard Feynman: Uh, the greatest minds on atomic theory.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, and?
Richard Feynman: Uh...
==== INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO BOSTON -- MIDDAY ====
Leslie Groves: As much as you like. Until you feel my boot on your balls.
=== INT. LECTURE HALL, HARVARD -- DAY ===
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (to Bainbridge) You know isotopes, and you- (to Donald) know explosives better than anyone in the world.
Donald: But you can’t tell us what you’re doing.
[I glance at Groves. Then CROSS my legs.]
==== INT. QUADRANGLE, PRINCETON -- DAY ====
Richard Feynman: I don’t know.
Leslie Groves: The Nazis have them.
Richard Feynman: Niels Bohr’s in Copenhagen.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Under Nazi occupation. Did they stop printing newspapers in Princeton?
==== INT. CORRIDOR, MIT -- DAY ====
Edward Condon: Why would we go to the middle of nowhere for who knows how long?
Edward Condon: For a year or two. Or three.
==== INT. OFFICE, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN -- NIGHT ====
[Groves and I sit across the desk from a CONCERNED SCIENTIST.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: General, could you… give us a moment?
[Groves looks at me. Gets up and goes.]
==== INT. LECTURE HALL, HARVARD -- DAY ====
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It’s about unleashing a strong force. Before the Nazis do.
Kenneth Bainbridge: Oh my god.
==== INT. QUADRANGLE, PRINCETON -- DAY ====
Richard Feynman: Niels won’t work for the Nazis.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No, never. But while they have him, we don’t. That’s why I need you.
==== INT. CORRIDOR, MIT -- DAY ====
Edward Condon: Why would you think I’d do that?
[Groves SNAPS like a bulldog-]
Leslie Groves: Why? Why? How about because this is the most important fucking thing to ever happen in the history of the world? How about that? Fuck.
[I look at Groves, then SHRUG at Condon.]
==== INT. OFFICE, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN -- NIGHT ====
Concerned Scientist: They’re not gonna let me onto this project. And failing a security check is not going to be good for a career even after the war.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: So you’re a fellow traveler. So what? This is a national emergency. I’ve got some skeletons. They put me in charge. They need us!
Concerned Scientist: Until they don’t.
=== END MONTAGE ===
=== INT. TRAIN, PRINCETON TO SANTA FE -- NIGHT ===
[Groves is napping. I just start talking.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Is there any chance of getting Bohr out of Denmark?
Leslie Groves: 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?
[INSERT CUT: BOHR IN THE CLASSROOM]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: How many people do you know who proved Einstein wrong?
[The train BUMPS. I look out the window, impatient.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You know, it really would be quicker to take a plane.
Leslie Groves: A plane’s too risky. The country needs us.
=== EXT. LOS ALAMOS UNDER CONSTRUCTION -- DAY ===
[Dressed in ARMY UNIFORM, I show Rabi and Condon the CHAOTIC SNOWY and MUDDY mesa. CONSTRUCTION CREWS at work. Feynman approaches-]
Richard Feynman: The Harvard guys -- they say the building’s too small for this cyclotron.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (to Condon) Get them together with the architects.
[Condon hurries off with Feynman. Rabi turns to me.]
Isidor Rabi: When’s this place supposed to open?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Two months.
Isidor Rabi: Robert, you’re the great improviser, but this… you can’t do in your head.
==== INT. CONSTRUCTION CABIN, LOS ALAMOS -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[I draw on the board.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Four divisions. Experimental, Theoretical, Metallurgical, Ordinance--
Isidor Rabi: Who’s running theoretical?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I am.
Isidor Rabi: That’s what I was afraid of. You’re spread too thin.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: So you take Theoretical.
Isidor Rabi: I’m not coming here, Robert.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Why not?
[Rabi, seldom at a loss for words, is lost for words...]
Isidor Rabi: 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.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Izzy… I don’t know if we can be trusted with such a weapon. But I know the Nazis can’t. We have no choice.
Isidor Rabi: Then… The second thing you have to do is appoint Hans Bethe to run the Theoretical Division.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Wait, what was the first?
Isidor Rabi: Take off that ridiculous uniform. You’re a scientist.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Groves is insisting we join.
Isidor Rabi: Tell Groves to go shit in his hat. They need us for who we are. So be yourself... Only better.
==== INT. OPPENHEIMER’S OFFICE, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[I pull on a jacket. Run a hand through newly shorn close- cropped dark hair. Put on a PORK PIE HAT. Pick up my pipe...]
==== EXT. LOS ALAMOS UNDER CONSTRUCTION -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[I walk the main drag like a SHERIFF, nodding at construction workers as I pass... THE ICONIC J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER.]
== Chapter Seven ==
=== EXT. BERKELEY -- DAY ===
[I step out, walking into Berkley's hallowed halls.]
==== INT. RAD LAB, BERKELEY -- DAY ====
[I look down onto the bustle of students. Lomanitz looks up and waves- then is ERASED by WHITEWASH as workers COVER the windows... Serber tosses me a key.]
Robert Serber: This is the only key. And Teller’s already here. Shall I just show him in?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No, let’s wait for the others.
[The door BURSTS OPEN and a stooped, slightly heavy young man shuffles in. This is EDWARD TELLER.]
Edward Teller: Let’s get started.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Hello, Edward.
Edward Teller: Yes.
==== INT. SAME -- DAY ====
[I stand at the front. The scientists include Lawrence, Serber, Teller, BETHE, Condon, Tolman, Feynman, Donald, Bainbridge, NEDDERMEYER and Alvarez.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Gentlemen, so, we will work here until the T Section at Los Alamos is finished.
[I see Teller waving a piece of paper-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Edward, can I please…?
Edward Teller: This is more important.
[Teller’s paper is passed around the room, scientists PALING...]
Edward Teller: When I calculated the chain reaction, I found a rather troubling possibility.
[Hans Bethe hands me the paper, turns to Teller.]
Hans Bethe: No, this can’t be right. Show me how you did your calculations.
Edward Teller: Yes.
[I look up from the paper, grave. Teller watches the ruckus he’s caused with evident satisfaction. Bethe approaches.]
Edward Teller: Exponential.
Hans Bethe: No, no, no. No. This is fantasy. Teller’s calculations can’t be right.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Do them yourself while I go to Princeton.
Hans Bethe: What for?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: To talk to Einstein.
Hans Bethe: Well, there’s not much common ground between you two.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That’s why I should get his view.
=== EXT. WOODS, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY -- DAY ===
[I walk through the trees, gaining on two figures. The two men turn. One of them is Einstein.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Albert.
Albert Einstein: Hmm? Ah, Dr. Oppenheimer. Have you met Kurt Gödel?
Kurt Gödel: We walk here most days. Trees have the most inspiring structures.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Albert, might I have a word?
[Einstein senses the gravity.]
Albert Einstein: Of course. Excuse me, Kurt.
[We leave Gödel staring up at the bare trees.]
Albert Einstein: Some days Kurt refuses to eat. Even in Princeton, he’s convinced that the Nazis can poison his food.
==== EXT. LAKE, INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[Einstein and I emerge from the trees. I pull a piece of paper from my breast pocket. Einstein takes it.]
Albert Einstein: Whose, whose work is this?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Teller’s.
Albert Einstein: What do you take it to mean?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Neutrons smash into the nucleus, releasing neutrons to smash into other nuclei.
[INSERT CUT: DARKNESS SPLIT BY GLOWING PARTICLES FIRING INTO EACH OTHER IN AN INCREASINGLY VIOLENT DISPLAY...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Criticality. A point of no return. Massive explosive force. But this time, the chain reaction doesn’t stop.
Albert Einstein: It would ignite the atmosphere.
[The air around us CATCHES FIRE...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: When we detonate an atomic device, we might start a chain reaction that… destroys the world.
[INSERT CUT: THE PLANET EARTH, LONELY IN VAST DARKNESS, IS SUDDENLY ENGULFED IN FIRE.]
Albert Einstein: So here we are, hmm? Lost in your quantum world of probabilities, and needing certainty.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Can you run the calculations yourself?
Albert Einstein: About the only thing you and I have in common is a disdain for mathematics. Who’s working on this in Berkeley?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Hans Bethe.
Albert Einstein: Well, he’ll get to the truth.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: And if the truth is catastrophic?
Albert Einstein: Then you stop, and you share your findings with the Nazis. So neither side destroys the world.
[I turn to leave.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Robert. This is yours, not mine.
=== INT. CORRIDOR, BERKELEY -- DAY ===
[I come past the secretaries. Bethe is there, excited.]
Hans Bethe: Teller’s wrong. He’s wrong.
[I gesture SILENCE as I unlock the Rad Lab-]
==== INT. RAD LAB, BERKELEY -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Bethe runs to the cabinet- takes out some papers- hands them to me, excited. I start to scan them-]
Hans Bethe: When you know Teller’s critical assumptions, the real picture emerges.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Bottom line?
Hans Bethe: The chances of an out-of-control nuclear reaction are near-zero.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Near-zero?
Hans Bethe: Oppie, this is good news.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Mm-hmm. Can you run them again?
Hans Bethe: Oh, you’ll get the same answer. Until they actually detonate one of these things, the best assurance you’re going to get is this. Near-zero.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Theory will take you only so far.
=== INT. OPPENHEIMER HOUSE, BERKELEY -- NIGHT ===
[Kitty opens the door to the Chevaliers, finger to her lips - I am holding the sleeping Peter.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Hello!
Barbara Chevalier: Hi. We missed him.
Kitty Oppenheimer: You want to adopt?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: She’s kidding.
[Kitty shakes her head, 'not kidding'. Barbara takes Peter. I lead Chevalier to the kitchen...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We wanted to see you before we left.
Haakon Chevalier: For parts unknown.
==== INT. KITCHEN, OPPENHEIMER HOUSE, BERKELEY -- CONTINUOUS ====
[I mix a tray of martinis. Chevalier watches, distracted.]
Haakon Chevalier: You know who I ran into the other day? Eltenton.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That chemist from Shell? The union guy?
Haakon Chevalier: Yeah, the FAECT guy. He was moaning about how we’re handling the war.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: How so?
Haakon Chevalier: Lack of cooperation with our allies. Apparently, our government’s not sharing any research with the Russians. He said most scientists think the policy is stupid.
[My hands SLOW...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh, yeah?
Haakon Chevalier: Yeah. He mentioned that if anyone had anything they wanted to pass on, going around official channels, that he could help.
[I look up at Chevalier, grave.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That would be treason.
Haakon Chevalier: Yes, of course. I just thought you should know.
[We STARE at each other... BANG- Kitty barges in.]
Kitty Oppenheimer: The brat is down. Where are the martinis?
[She sees us having a moment...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Coming right up.
[I pick up the tray.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (V.O.) "The conversation ended there."
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Nothing in our long-standing friendship would have led me to believe that Chevalier was actually seeking information, and I am certain that he had no idea of the work in which I was engaged.
[I steal a glance at Robb, then look directly at the board-]
Oppenhemer: It has long been clear to me that I should have reported this incident at once.
Senator McGee: (V.O.) The Oppenheimer situation highlights the tension between scientists and the security apparatus.
[CUT TO:]
==== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ====
[Strauss is at the witness table facing the Senate Committee.]
Senator McGee: In hopes of learning how the nominee handled such issues during his time at the AEC, we’ll have a scientist appearing before the committee.
Lewis Strauss: (private) Who are they bringing in?
Senate Aide: (private) They hadn’t said.
Lewis Strauss: Mr. Chairman, if I may, I’m nominated for Commerce Secretary. Why seek the opinion of scientists?
Chairman Donald Magnuson: This is a cabinet post, Admiral. We seek a wide range of opinion.
Senate Aide: Well, I’d like to know the name of the scientist testifying. I’d like the chance to cross-examine.
Chairman Donald Magnuson: (irritated) This is not a court.
==== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- MOMENTS LATER (B&W) ====
Lewis Strauss: Formality, huh?
Senate Aide: No presidential cabinet nominee has failed to be confirmed since 1925. This is just how the game is played.
Counsel: It’s in the bag, Lewis. So play nice. They bring in a scientist, so what?
[Strauss remembers-]
[INSERT CUT: STRAUSS APPROACHES EINSTEIN AND OPPENHEIMER- EINSTEIN BLOWS PAST WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGING STRAUSS...]
Lewis Strauss: You don’t know scientists like I do, Counselor. They resent anyone who questions their judgment, especially if you’re not one of them.
[INSERT CUT: STRAUSS STARES- THE CROWD AT THE ISOTOPES HEARING LAUGHS...]
Lewis Strauss: I was chair of the AEC. I’m easy to blame for what happened to Robert.
Senate Aide: We can’t have the Senate thinking the scientific community doesn’t support you, sir.
Lewis Strauss: Or should we pivot?
Senate Aide: To what?
Lewis Strauss: And embrace it. “I fought Oppenheimer, and the US won.”
Senate Aide: I- I don’t think we need to go there. Isn’t there someone we can call who knows what really happened?
Lewis Strauss: Teller.
Senate Aide: He’ll make an impression.
Lewis Strauss: Can you get the name of the scientist they’ve called?
Senate Aide: Probably.
Lewis Strauss: Find out if he was based in Chicago or Los Alamos during the war.
Senate Aide: Why does that matter?
Lewis Strauss: Well, if he was based in Chicago, they worked under Szilard and Fermi, not the Cult of Oppie in Los Alamos. Robert built that damn place. He was founder, mayor, sheriff. All rolled into one.
== Chapter Eight ==
=== INT./EXT. CAR DRIVING THROUGH LOS ALAMOS -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[I DRIVE Kitty and Peter through the 'town'... Kitty STARES at the newly built BASIC WOODEN STRUCTURES...]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Now all it needs is a saloon.
==== INT. OPPENHEIMER HOUSE, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[I stand in the hall, holding Peter, NERVOUS, as Kitty inspects the house... she pokes her head back in-]
Kitty Oppenheimer: There’s no kitchen.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Really? We’ll fix that.
==== EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[I walk Bethe through the security gate.]
Hans Bethe: Barbed wire? Guns? Oppie…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We’re at war, Hans.
==== INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[I step up to join Serber- throw up a slide. Condon, Neddermeyer, Kistiakowsky, Donald, Tolman, Bainbridge and Feynman, amongst other SCIENTISTS, are in attendance.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Halifax. 1917. A cargo ship carrying munitions explodes in the harbor.
[INSERT CUT: WOOD AND CONCRETE FRAGMENTS FLY...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: A vast and sudden chemical reaction.
[INSERT CUT: A SHOCKWAVE DRIFTS ACROSS THE TOPS OF THE CHOPPY WATER. SPLINTERED WOOD SPLASHES INTO THE LAKE...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: 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.
Hans Bethe: But it will be thousands.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, then, kilotons.
[I switch the lights on, step down to let Serber-]
Robert Serber: Using U-235, the bomb will need a…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Uh… (I wave)
Robert Serber: Sorry. Gadget will need a 33-pound sphere about this size...
[Serber reaches below the table, brings up a GOLDFISH BOWL-]
Robert Serber: ...or using plutonium, a ten-pound sphere.
[He puts a large BRANDY GLASS next to the aquarium.]
Robert Serber: Here’s the amount of uranium Oak Ridge refined all of last month.
[Serber drops THREE MARBLES into the bowl. The scientists stare at the almost-empty goldfish bowl.]
Robert Serber: And the Hanford plant made this much plutonium.
[He drops TWO MARBLES into the brandy glass.]
Robert Serber: Now, if we can enrich these amounts, we need a way to detonate them.
[Teller is in the back, folding a paper plane.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Are we boring you, Edward?
Edward Teller: A little bit, yes.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: May I ask why?
Edward Teller: We all entered this room knowing a fission bomb was possible. How about we leave it with something new?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Such as?
Edward Teller: Instead of uranium or plutonium, we use hydrogen.
[MURMURS of dissent-]
Edward Teller: Heavy hydrogen. Deuterium. You see, we compact the atoms together under great pressure to induce a fusion reaction. Then we’ll get not kilotons, but megatons.
[A HUBBUB develops- I process quickly, then-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Okay, hang on, hang on. So how do you generate enough force to fuse hydrogen atoms?
[Teller smiles a small self-satisfied smile.]
Edward Teller: A small fission bomb.
[GROANS all around...]
Scientist: There we are!
[Teller shrugs.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, since we’re going to need one anyway, can we get back to the business at hand?
==== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ====
Senator Barlett: The isotopes issue wasn’t your most important policy disagreement with Dr. Oppenheimer. It was the hydrogen bomb, wasn’t it?
Lewis Strauss: Uh, well, as colleagues, we agreed to disagree on a great many things, uh… And, well, one of them was the need for an H-bomb program, yes.
[As Strauss REMEMBERS we hear a SIREN and we-]
=== EXT. NEW YORK STREET -- NIGHT (B&W) ===
[Strauss is in a car, barreling along behind a POLICE ESCORT-]
=== INT. HOTEL, NEW YORK -- NIGHT (B&W) ===
[Strauss and his ASSISTANT rush down the corridor to a door-]
==== INT. HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM -- NIGHT (B&W) ====
[Strauss enters- a table surrounded by AEC members- Oppenheimer is slouched at the table, pipe blazing, Bush presides... Strauss removes his overcoat, revealing a tuxedo...]
Lewis Strauss: Thanks for convening on short notice. I can't believe it, but here we are. Catch me up -- what do we know?
[Rabi uses a compass to indicate an area on the map...]
Vannevar Bush: One of our B-29s over the North Pacific has detected radiation.
Lewis Strauss: Do we have the filter papers?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: There's no doubt what they say it is.
Lewis Strauss: White House says there's a doubt.
[Rabi uses a compass to indicate an area on the map...]
Vannevar Bush: Wishful thinking, I'm afraid.
Lewis Strauss: Are those the long range detection filter papers?
[Oppenheimer begrudgingly slides them over to Strauss.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It's an atomic test.
Lewis Strauss: The Russians have a bomb. We’re supposed to be years ahead of them, but this… What were you guys doing in Los Alamos? Wasn’t security tight?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Of course it was. You weren’t there.
Kenneth Nichols: Forgive me, Doctor.
[Strauss leans around the FLOWERS in the centre of the table to see who is speaking- Nichols, now a civilian.]
Kenneth Nichols: But I was there.
=== INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ===
[Bethe, Teller, Condon, Kistiakowsky, Donald, Bainbridge, Fuchs and Feynman and other scientists listen to-]
Robert Serber: We can now consider the actual mechanics of detonation.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Any ideas?
Robert Serber: I call this 'shooting'. We fire a chunk of fissionable material into a larger sphere with enough force to achieve criticality.
[INSERT CUT: A URANIUM "BULLET" IS FIRED INTO A SPHERE-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What do we think? Anyone?
Richard Tolman: I’ve been thinking about implosion. Explosives around the sphere blast inwards, crushing the material.
[INSERT CUT: A SPHERICAL ARRAY OF EXPLOSIVES BLASTS INWARD-]
Seth Neddermeyer: I’d like to investigate that idea.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’ll talk to ordnance. Get you blowing things up.
==== EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY (COLOUR) ====
[Condon, Nichols and I watch cars pull up. Groves emerges.]
Leslie Groves: Progress?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Nice to see you too.
Leslie Groves: Meet the British contingent.
[SCIENTISTS emerge. A THIN YOUNG MAN offers his hand-]
Klaus Fuchs: Dr. Oppenheimer. Klaus Fuchs.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: How long have you been British?
Klaus Fuchs: Since Hitler told me I wasn’t German.
Oppeneheimer: Ah. Come, welcome to Los Alamos.
==== EXT. "MAIN STREET", LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[Condon, Nichols and I show Groves the GROWING TOWN...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: The school’s up and running. The bar. Always running. And I thought of a way to reduce support staff...
[I open the door to the cabin containing my office-]
==== INT. OUTER OFFICE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Groves notices the YOUNG WOMAN working behind the desk-]
Leslie Groves: Is that…?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Mrs. Serber, yes. I’ve offered jobs to all the wives. Admin, librarians, computation. We cut down on staff, keep families together.
==== INT. OPPENHEIMER’S OFFICE, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ====
[I slump into my chair. Groves is perplexed-]
Leslie Groves: Are these women qualified?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Don’t be absurd. These are some of the brightest minds in our community.
Edward Condon: And they’re already security cleared.
Kenneth Nichols: I’ve informed General Groves you’ve been holding cross-divisional open discussions on a nightly basis.
Leslie Groves: Shut them down. Compartmentalization is the key to maintaining security…
Edward Condon: It's only the top men.
Kenneth Nichols: Who presumably communicate with subordinates.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: These men aren’t stupid. They can be discreet.
Leslie Groves: I don’t like it.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You don’t like anything enough for that to be a fair test.
[Groves considers it.]
Leslie Groves: Once a week. Top men only.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’d like to bring my brother here.
Leslie Groves: No.
[Groves and Condon leave- I corner Nichols-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Uh, Nichols? I still haven’t heard that my security clearance has been approved.
Kenneth Nichols: It hasn’t.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m going to Chicago tomorrow.
Kenneth Nichols: Well, you should wait.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You are aware that the Nazis have a two-year head start?
Kenneth Nichols: Dr. Oppenheimer, the fact that your security clearance is proving difficult to obtain is not my fault. It’s yours.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It may not be your fault, but it’s your problem. Because I’m going.
[CUT TO:]
=== INT. HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM -- NIGHT (B&W) ===
[Strauss reaches to the centre of the table to move the flowers from between him and Nichols-]
Lewis Strauss: And how many people were in these, uh… open discussions?
Kenneth Nichols: Too many. Compartmentalization was supposed to be the protocol.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We were in a race against the Nazis.
Lewis Strauss: And now the race is against the Soviets.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Not unless we start it.
[Strauss holds up the filter papers.]
Lewis Strauss: Robert, they just fired a starting gun. What’s the nature of the device they detonated?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Data indicates it may have been a plutonium implosion device.
Lewis Strauss: Like the one you built at Los Alamos. The Russians have a bomb. Truman needs to know what’s next.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What’s next? Arms talks.
Ernest Lawrence: Arms talks?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Obviously.
Lewis Strauss: What about the Super? Does Truman even know about it? Did we brief him on that?
Kenneth Nichols: Not specifically.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We still don’t know if a hydrogen bomb is technically feasible.
Lewis Strauss: Right, my understanding is that Teller proposed it?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes.
Lewis Strauss: At Los Alamos?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Teller’s designs have always been wildly impractical. You’d have to deliver by oxcart, not airplane.
Ernest Lawrence: Oppie!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Sorry, Dr. Lawrence, do you want to comment?
Ernest Lawrence: No.
Lewis Strauss: 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’ve got to get going.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: There’s no proof there was a spy at Los Alamos.
Lewis Strauss: Robert.
[Strauss holds up the filter papers, raises his eyebrows...]
=== EXT. FOOTBALL STADIUM, CHICAGO -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[Condon and I are led across the field by J. Ernest WILKINS...]
Edward Condon: They put it under the football stadium?
Ernest Wilkins: The field’s not in use anymore.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Just as well.
==== INT. ATOMIC PILE, UNDERNEATH THE STADIUM, CHICAGO -- DAY ====
[Wilkins shows us to SZILARD and FERMI. A scientist with GLASSES takes notes. The group approaches the atomic pile...]
Enrico Fermi: Oppie!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Dr. Fermi.
Enrico Fermi: Como estai? I hear you’ve got a little town.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, come and see.
Leo Szilard: Who could think straight in a place like that, huh? Everybody will go crazy.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Thank you the vote of confidence, Szilard.
[I spot Glasses SCRIBBLING - I GRAB his pen- he FLINCHES- I drop it in his pocket-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Do we really… do we really need that in the notes? (to Fermi) Are you gonna try it out?
Enrico Fermi: We did. The first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. Didn’t Groves tell you?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No.
=== EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ===
[Condon and I have just passed through-]
Lilli Hornig: Dr. Oppenheimer?
[We turn to see a twenty-three-year-old young woman on the other side of the barrier. This is Lilli HORNIG.]
Lilli Hornig: I tried personnel. They asked if I could type.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Can you?
Lilli Hornig: Harvard forgot to teach that on the graduate chemistry course.
[I smile at this. Turn to Condon.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Condon, put Mrs. Hornig here on the plutonium team.
==== INT. CYCLOTRON BUILDING, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Condon and I peer up at the equipment. Groves STORMS in-]
Leslie Groves: What the hell were you doing in Chicago?!
Edward Condon: Visiting the Met Lab--
Leslie Groves: Why?!
Edward Condon: You can’t…
Leslie Groves: Why?!
Edward Condon: Because we have, we have every right…
Leslie Groves: You have just the rights that I give you! No more, no less.
Edward Condon: We are adults trying to run a project here. This is ridiculous. (to me) Tell him!
[Condon looks at me. I look steadily at Groves.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Compartmentalization is the protocol we agreed to.
Edward Condon: Enough of this madhouse, nobody can work under these conditions! (to Groves) You know what? Generalissimo, I quit. (to me) Thanks for nothing.
[Condon storms out. Groves turns to me.]
Leslie Groves: Better off without him.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Aren’t you more concerned about his discretion out there?
Leslie Groves: We’ll have him killed. (off Oppenheimer's look) I’m just kidding. No, he hates me, not America.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You know, General, not everyone has levers to pull like mine.
Leslie Groves: I don’t think I understand.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You didn’t hire me despite my left-wing past. You hired me because of it. So you could control me.
Leslie Groves: No, I... I’m not that subtle. I’m just a humble soldier.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You’re neither humble, nor just a soldier. You studied engineering at MIT.
Leslie Groves: Guilty as charged.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, now we understand each other, perhaps you can get me my security clearance, so I can perform this miracle for you.
[General Groves looks at me. Nods.]
Lloyd Garrison: (V.O.) General Groves, were you aware of Dr. Oppenheimer’s left-wing associations when you appointed him?
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
[Groves, in CIVILIAN CLOTHES, testifies. I watch...]
Leslie Groves: I was aware that there were suspicions about him. I was aware he had a very extreme liberal background.
Lloyd Garrison: In your opinion, would he ever consciously commit a disloyal act?
Leslie Groves: I would be amazed if he did.
Lloyd Garrison: So you had complete confidence in his integrity?
Leslie Groves: At Los Alamos, yes. Which is where I really knew him.
Roger Robb: General, did your security officers on the project advised you against the clearance of Dr. Oppenheimer?
Leslie Groves: They could not, and would not, clear him until I insisted.
Roger Robb: And it’s safe to say that you had pretty good knowledge of Dr. Oppenheimer’s security file.
Leslie Groves: I did.
Roger Robb: Well, then there’s only really one question I need answered here today.
[Groves shifts, knowing what’s about to be asked...]
Roger Robb: In light of the current AEC guidelines, would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?
Leslie Groves: Do you have the guidelines?
[Robb walks over and hands him the file.]
== Chapter Nine ==
=== EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ===
Roger Robb: (V.O., forcefully) Under current AEC guidelines, would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?
[I greet Lawrence and Lomanitz as they get out of a car-]
Ernest Lawrence: Physics and New Mexico, huh? My god. What a trek.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That’s why you need a liaison.
Ernest Lawrence: I’m appointing Lomanitz.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (to Lomanitz) You’re gonna be okay. This way, gentlemen.
==== INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- LATER ====
[As the group assembles, General Groves speaks to Lawrence.]
Leslie Groves: Dr. Lawrence.
Ernest Lawrence: Leslie.
Leslie Groves: I’d like to remind you what we talked about at Berkeley.
Ernest Lawrence: Compartmentalization, I understand completely.
[Oppenheimer theatrically drops three marbles into the quarter- full goldfish bowl, then ADDS TWO MORE- the room APPLAUDS. Oppenheimer BOWS, steps down. Lawrence BOUNCES up-]
Ernest Lawrence: Greetings from Berkeley. I am here to update you on our progress and solicit your input. To do so, I am going to have to share a few things that General Groves told me not to. (to Groves) Sorry General, I said I understood, not that I agreed. Okay. Gentlemen, to business!
[Groves looks at me. I shrug. He leaves.]
=== INT. HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM -- NIGHT (B&W) ===
[Strauss places the filter papers back down on the table...]
Lewis Strauss: There were rumors of espionage...
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Unsubstantiated.
Lewis Strauss: ...at Los Alamos.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Unsubstantiated.
Lewis Strauss: I’m told that there were communists on the project.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We didn’t knowingly employ any communists…
Lewis Strauss: I just want to know, were any of them involved in discussions of the Super?
Kenneth Nichols: I seem to remember you demanding your brother come to Los Alamos.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: My brother had left the party by then.
Lewis Strauss: What about Lomanitz?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Lomanitz was never employed at Los Alamos. He was a liaison. Our security was tight, as former Colonel Nichols well knows.
Kenneth Nichols: Our security was as tight as it could be given the personalities involved, but attempts were made.
Vannevar Bush: What is that supposed to mean?
Kenneth Nichols: We’ve all read his file here! Do we need to talk about Jean Tatlock? Or the Chevalier incident?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Excuse me.
[I leave. Oppenheimer watches me go.]
[CUT TO:]
=== INT. OPPENHEIMER’S OFFICE, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
Secretary: (over intercom) Lomanitz, line one!
[I pick up the phone-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Hello, Rossi. What? Okay, just calm down.
==== INT. COLONEL NICHOLS’ OFFICE -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[I stand at Nichols’ desk.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: There’s been another screwup. Lomanitz just got drafted.
Kenneth Nichols: We are at war, Doctor.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Don’t be an asshole, Nichols. We need this kid. Fix it, will you?
Kenneth Nichols: It wasn’t a mistake. Your friend Lomanitz has been trying to unionize the radiation lab.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: He promised to quit all that.
Kenneth Nichols: Well, he hasn’t. The security officer at Berkeley is concerned about communist infiltration through that union, the FA…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: FAECT. (thinking) While I’m there next week, I’ll… drop in to see him.
Kenneth Nichols: Your Q clearance came through. 
[Nichols presents the badge. I go to grab it, but he swipes it away at the last second.]
Kenneth Nichols: It’s important you not maintain or renew any questionable associations.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
[I testify, Kitty behind me...]
Roger Robb: Doctor, did you think social contacts between a person engaged on secret war work and communists was dangerous?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: My awareness of the danger would be greater today.
Roger Robb: I mean, it’s fair to say that during the war years...
=== EXT. HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO -- DAY ===
[A TAXI pulls up. I get out, carrying a bag.]
Roger Robb: ...you felt that such contacts were potentially dangerous.
[I enter, without seeing a CAR FOLLOWING. The PASSENGER jumps out, while the DRIVER checks the time, makes a note.]
==== INT. HOTEL LOBBY, SAN FRANCISCO -- CONTINUOUS ====
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (V.O.) Were conceivably dangerous, yes.
[I move to the elevators, watched by the passenger.]
==== INT. CORRIDOR, HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO -- CONTINUOUS ====
[At the door to 805 I reach into my bag...]
Roger Robb: (V.O.) And really! Known communists.
[...and remove a small BUNCH OF FLOWERS. I knock...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (V.O.) 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...
[The door opens to reveal JEAN TATLOCK.]
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION - DAY ===
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: ...talk about those secrets.
=== INT. ROOM 805, HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO -- CONTINUOUS ===
[Tatlock GRABS the flowers. As I follow her in, she DUMPS them in the wastebasket...]
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
[Robb refers to his papers- Kitty watches...]
Roger Robb: You said in your statement that you "had" to see Jean Tatlock in 1943.
=== INT. ROOM 805, HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO -- NIGHT ===
[Tatlock and I sit across the room from each other, naked.]
Jean Tatlock: You left. Not a word. What did you think that would do to me?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I wrote.
Jean Tatlock: Pages of nothing. Where did you go?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I can’t tell you.
Jean Tatlock: Why not?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Because you’re a communist.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
[I sit at the table, self-conscious, testifying...]
Roger Robb: Why did you have to see her?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: 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...
[Kitty watches me testify. I am NAKED...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: She was undergoing psychiatric treatment. She was extremely unhappy.
Roger Robb: Did you find out why she had to see you?
Oppenheimer; Because she was still in love with me.
[Kitty watches Tatlock, also naked, STRADDLE me, head on my shoulder, facing Kitty...]
Roger Robb: You spent the night together, didn’t you?
[As Tatlock GRINDS on me she locks eyes with Kitty...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes.
=== INT. ROOM 805, HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO -- NIGHT ===
[Tatlock studies me from across the room.]
Jean Tatlock: You drop in and out of my life, and you don’t have to tell me why. Now that’s power.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Not that I enjoy. I’d rather be here for you as you need.
Jean Tatlock: But you have other priorities now.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I have a wife and child.
Jean Tatlock: That’s not what either of us is talking about.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Jean… you asked me to come. And I’m glad I did. But I can’t see you again.
Jean Tatlock: But what if I need you?
[I slowly shake my head.]
Jean Tatlock: You said you would always answer. Not a word?
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
[All eyes on me, clothed and alone again...]
Roger Robb: Did you think that consistent with good security?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: As a matter of fact, it was. Not a word.
[Behind me, Kitty’s face is stone...]
Roger Robb: When did you see her after that?
[INSERT CUT: HOT BATH RUNNING. PILL BOTTLE. DOWNTURNED HEAD IN THE WATER. THE SOUND OF FEET STAMPING, STAMPING...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I never saw her again.
==== INT. SAME -- DAY ====
[As the room breaks up, Kitty speaks privately to me through CLENCHED TEETH as she gathers her things. No eye contact.]
Kitty Oppenheimer: I can make the last train back to Princeton.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Kitty, I didn’t say anything that I hadn’t already told you.
Kitty Oppenheimer: Today you said it to history, didn’t you?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: This is a closed hearing.
[She DROPS her bag, spilling the contents. Garrison spots a small FLASK as Kitty sweeps it into her purse. I CROUCH-]
Kitty Oppenheimer: If they don’t release the transcript, I’m sure you will.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I was under oath.
Kitty Oppenheimer: Well, you were under an oath to me when you went to see Jean. You know, you…
[She STANDS- I follow- she TURNS back- in my face-]
Kitty Oppenheimer: You sit there, day after day, letting them pick our lives to pieces. Why won’t you fight?
[I don’t answer. She leaves. Garrison steps up.]
Lloyd Garrison: Robert, I’m not putting her up there.
== Chapter Ten ==
=== EXT. BERKELEY CAMPUS -- DAY ===
[I stroll across the campus, enter an administrative building.]
==== INT. LT. JOHNSON’S OFFICE -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[I knock. Johnson opens the door, SURPRISED.]
Lyall Johnson: Dr. Oppenheimer! This is an honor. Please, take a seat.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No need, um, I just wanted to check whether I should… talk to Lomanitz while I’m here, given your concerns.
Lyall Johnson: I’d say that’s really up to you, Professor, but I’d be cautious.
Understood. Oh, and, um, as regards to the union, I wanted to give you a heads up on a man named Eltenton.
Lyall Johnson: A heads up?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, just that he might bear watching, is all.
Lyall Johnson: I’d love to get more details.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, I... I have an appointment now, and I leave early tomorrow.
Lyall Johnson: Well, come back as early as you like. Since you haven’t time now.
Leslie Groves: (V.O.) You went back the next morning.
=== INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY ===
[Groves sits opposite. I stare out the window.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I did. I had to, really.
=== INT. LT. JOHNSON’S OFFICE -- MORNING ===
[Johnson smiles, beckons me in. Indicates a SECOND MAN-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (V.O.) This time there was another man.
=== INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY ===
[I stare out the window. Groves sits opposite.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: He said his name was Pash.
Leslie Groves: Pash. You met Colonel Pash?
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
[Alone on the couch, I glance up, NERVOUS, as a man in uniform walks past. As he sits, I study the back of his head.]
Roger Robb: Colonel Pash, could you please read from your memo dated June 29, 1943?
Boris Pash: “Results of surveillance conducted on subject indicate further possible Communist Party connections.”
[INSERT CUT: OPPENHEIMER WALKING DOWN THE HOTEL LOBBY.]
Boris Pash: “Subject met with and spent considerable time with one Jean Tatlock, a communist, the record of whom is attached.”
Roger Robb: The subject being Dr. Oppenheimer?
Boris Pash: Yes.
Roger Robb: Whom you had not met?
Boris Pash: Not then, but soon after.
=== INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY ===
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: He’s the head of security for the project. Shouldn’t I know him?
Leslie Groves: No, he should know you. I would never put you in a room with Pash.
Oppeneheimer: Why not?
When Pash first heard about Lomanitz, he told the FBI he was going to kidnap him, take him out on a boat, and interrogate him "in the Russian manner."
=== INT. LT. JOHNSON’S OFFICE -- DAY ===
[Pash sits down next to me, opposite Johnson.]
Boris Pash: General Groves has placed in me a certain responsibility, and it’s like having a child who I can’t see, by remote control. So to actually meet you is… I won’t take up too much of your time.
[The disarming friendliness of the truly dangerous.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh, no. No, not at all. Whatever time you choose.
Boris Pash: Mr. Johnson told me of the conversation you had yesterday, which I’m very interested in. It’s had me worried all day.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, well, I didn’t want to talk to Lomanitz without authorization.
Boris Pash: That’s not the particular interest that I have. It’s something a little bit more… In my opinion, more serious.
=== INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY ===
Leslie Groves: And then 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.
=== INT. LT. JOHNSON'S OFFICE -- DAY ===
Boris Pash: I gather you’ve heard there are other parties interested in the work of the radiation lab?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: A man attached to the Soviet consul indicated, through intermediate people, to people on this project, that he was in a position to transmit information.
Pash; Well, why would anyone on the project want to do that?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Frankly, I can see that there might be an argument for the Commander-in-Chief informing the Russians, they’re our allies, after all, but… I don’t like the idea of it going out the back door. It might not hurt to be on the lookout for it.
=== INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY ===
Leslie Groves: And you said that to Pash.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I was trying to put it in the context of “Russia’s not Germany”.
Leslie Groves: Boris Pash is the son of a Russian Orthodox bishop. Born here, but in 1918 he went back to Russia to fight the Bolsheviks. This is a man who has killed communists with his own hands.
=== INT. LT. JOHNSON'S OFFICE -- DAY ===
[Pash spreads his palms...]
Boris Pash: I’m not the judge of who should or should not have information. It’s my business to stop it from going through illegally. Could you be a little more specific?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: There’s a man whose name was mentioned to me, a couple of times, Eltenton. 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.
=== INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY ===
[Groves is staring at me like I just crapped my pants.]
Leslie Groves: And you thought Pash would be satisfied with that?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I was attempting to give them Eltenton without opening a can of worms. I told them a cock-and-bull story.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
[I am up front. Robb questioning-]
Roger Robb: Did you lie to General Groves, too?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No. I admitted to him that I’d lied to Pash.
=== INT. SAME -- DAY ===
[Groves is on the stand, in civilian clothes-]
Lloyd Garrison: Do you recall this conversation about the Chevalier incident?
Leslie Groves: I’ve seen so many versions of it, uh… Wasn’t confused before, but I’m certainly getting there now.
Lloyd Garrison: And what was your conclusion?
Leslie Groves: That he was under the influence of the typical American schoolboy attitude that there’s something wicked about telling on a friend.
=== INT. LT. JOHNSON’S OFFICE -- DAY ===
[Pash gazes, unblinking, into my eyes...]
Boris Pash: Well now, might we know through whom the contact was made?
That would involve people who are not to be involved in this.
Boris Pash: Is that someone a member of the project?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: A member of the faculty, yes, but not in the project, no.
Boris Pash: Ah… So Eltenton made his approach through a member of the faculty here at Berkeley.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: As far as I know, as far as I know, yes. But there… may have been… more than one person involved. Gentlemen, if I… if I seem uncooperative, I think you can understand it’s because of my insistence on not getting innocent people into trouble.
[Pash stares at me. I finally keep my mouth shut.]
=== INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY ===
[Groves takes in the story.]
Leslie Groves: You’re trying to protect your friend. Who’s protecting you?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, you could.
Leslie Groves: If you gave me the name…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: If you order me to, I’ll do it.
Leslie Groves: That’s a mistake, Robert. You need to volunteer this name.
[I turn to watch the scenery trundle past.]
Roger Robb: (V.O.) Did he give you the name?
Leslie Groves: (V.O.) He did.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
Roger Robb: But not then, did he?
Leslie Groves: No.
Roger Robb: No, in fact, it was some months later, wasn’t it?
Leslie Groves: It was.
=== INT. LT. JOHNSON’S OFFICE -- DAY ===
Boris Pash: You see me as persistent.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, you are… you are persistent, but that is your job. And, and my job is to protect the people that work for me.
Boris Pash: Instead of us going on certain steps, which may come to your attention… and be disturbing to you, I would like to discuss those with you first. I’m not formulating a plan, I’ll just have to digest the whole thing.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
Roger Robb: 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?
Boris Pash: Considerable resources, yes. Without the name, our job was extremely difficult.
Roger Robb: And when did you receive the name?
Boris Pash: I was gone by the time Oppenheimer finally offered it up.
Roger Robb: Gone?
Boris Pash: They felt my time would be better spent in Europe, determining the status of the Nazi bomb project.
Roger Robb: Who did?
Boris Pash: General Groves. He transferred me to London.
[I lift my head at this.]
== Chapter Eleven ==
[INSERT CUT: MARBLES DROP INTO THE BOWL... THREE-QUARTERS FULL...]
=== EXT. LOS ALAMOS -- NIGHT ===
[Serber and I walk down the street. Snow falling.]
Robert Serber: It’s a little early for a Christmas party.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Something’s up. Tolman’s been away.
Robert Serber: Where?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Ruth won’t tell.
==== INT. FULLER LODGE, LOS ALAMOS -- LATER ====
[A CHRISTMAS PARTY. DEBAUCHED. Kitty, in SANTA HAT, serves/spikes the EGGNOG. Bethe, Teller, Charlotte Serber, Neddermeyer, Kistiakowsky, Donald, Hornig, Bainbridge, Fuchs, Feynman amongst the revelers. I have Ruth cornered, glancing over at Kitty, who pretends she wasn’t looking at me and GRABS at the nearest male arm- pushing eggnog...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Come on, Ruthie. If you can’t tell me, who can you tell?
Ruth Tolman: Compartmentalization, Oppie. What makes you think I know where he is, anyway?
[I take her glass. Sip from it...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Because you do a pretty good job of knowing where Mr. Tolman is when it counts.
Ruth Tolman: Like now?
[I turn- Tolman and Groves enter, brushing off snow...]
Leslie Groves: Atten-shun! Early Christmas present for you all.
[They step aside to reveal... NIELS BOHR. I grin as the room bursts into applause.]
Niels Bohr: (V.O.) The British pilot put me in the bomb bay.
==== INT. SAME -- LATER ====
[Bohr holds court. I listen at the back.]
Niels Bohr: He showed me the oxygen, you know, but I messed it up. Um, when they opened me up in Scotland, I was unconscious. But I pretended I’d been napping.
[The crowd LAUGHS, loving it.]
Niels Bohr: Please enjoy your party.
[Bohr peels off to talk to me.]
Niels Bohr: Is it big enough?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: To end the war?
Niels Bohr: To end all war.
==== INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION -- LATER ====
[I sip my drink, watching Bohr read the boards. Tolman, Teller, Bethe and Serber sprawl, party hats, TINSEL scarves...]
Niels Bohr: Uh, Heisenberg sought me out in Copenhagen. It was chilling, my old student working for the Nazis. He told me some things to draw me out. Sustained fission reactions in uranium.
Richard Tolman: That sounds more like a reactor than a bomb.
Edward Teller: Did he mention gaseous diffusion?
Niels Bohr: He seemed more focused on heavy water.
Edward Teller: As a moderator?
Niels Bohr: Yes, instead of graphite.
[Serber and Tolman GRIN. I nod. Bohr notices us relax...]
Niels Bohr: What?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: He took a wrong turn. We’re ahead. And with you here to help us, Niels…
[Bohr turns to Teller and the others-]
Niels Bohr: Sorry, could you give us a moment, gentlemen?
[They shuffle out. Bohr looks at the MARBLES. Turns to me...]
Niels Bohr: I am not here to help, Robert. I knew you could do this without me.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Then why did you come?
Niels Bohr: To talk about after. The power you’re about to reveal will forever outlive the Nazis. And the world is not prepared.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: “You can lift the stone without being ready for the snake that’s revealed.”
Niels Bohr: We have to make the politicians understand this isn’t a new weapon. It’s a new world. I’ll be out there doing what I can, but you… You are an American Prometheus. The man who gave them the power to destroy themselves. And they’ll respect that. Then your work really begins.
[I take this in. Charlotte Serber enters-]
Charlotte Serber: I’m sorry, Oppie, but there’s a call. [Off my irritated shrug:] From San Francisco.
==== EXT. SNOWY WOODS, LOS ALAMOS -- DAWN ====
[Kitty, on horseback, finds my horse, tied up. She dismounts, moving into the trees...]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Robert!
[She finds me curled up at the base of a tree in the SNOW, distraught.]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Robert? Robert. Robert. God, what’s the matter? What happened?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Her father called. He found her yesterday in the bath.
[INSERT CUT: A WOMAN, FACE-DOWN IN THE BATH, A CUSHION BELOW...]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Who?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: She’d taken pills. Left a note, not signed.
[INSERT CUT: TATLOCK KNEELS IN THE BATH, POPPING PILLS. SINKS SERENELY ONTO CUSHIONS UNDER THE WATER...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: She took barbiturates, but there was chloral hydrate in her blood.
[INSERT CUT: GLOVED HANDS HOLD TATLOCK’S STRUGGLING HEAD UNDERWATER...]
[I SHAKE OFF the image...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: There was a note.
Kitty Oppenheimer: Jean Tatlock?
[INSERT CUT: OPPENHEIMER, NAKED, SHAKES HIS HEAD AT TATLOCK.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We were together. She said she needed me. I… I told her I… I wouldn’t… I told her I… No, it was me, it was me.
[Kitty SLAPS me in the face. I look up at her, bleary-eyed...]
Kitty Oppenheimer: You don’t get to commit the sin and then have us all feel sorry for you that it had consequences. Now you pull yourself together. (She rises) You know, people here depend on you.
=== INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ===
[I vacantly preside over a shambles- the goldfish bowl is FILLED with marbles. As is the glass tumbler... Donald, Bainbridge, Feynman watch the others squabble-]
Robert Serber: Donald, would you like to contribute here? Please, help me out.
Donald: You’re on your own, pal.
Lilli Hornig: Bob, I’m not quitting my job because plutonium is radioactive.
Robert Serber: We just don’t know what it might do to the female reproductive system--
Lilli Hornig: Your reproductive system is more exposed than mine, presumably.
Kistiakowski: Can we please? The implosion device is nowhere.
Neddermyer: We can’t rush everything. Oppie, please.
Kistiakowski: Well, there’s rushing and there’s getting on with it, so pick one.
Hans Bethe: Wait, wait, wait. Neddermeyer is doing his job! Teller’s not helping! You’re not helping! I’ve been asking for calculations on the implosion lenses for weeks.
Edward Teller: The British can do it. Fuchs.
Klaus Fuchs: Absolutely.
Hans Bethe: It’s your job, Teller.
Edward Teller: I’m engaged in research.
Hans Bethe: On a hydrogen bomb we’re not even building!
[Teller simply walks away. As he passes me-]
Edward Teller: I won’t work with that man.
Hans Bethe: Oh. Let him go. He’s a prima donna!
Robert Serber: I agree. He should leave Los Alamos.
[I sigh. RISE, clear and direct-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Okay. Kisti, you replace Neddermeyer. Seth, I’m putting you on plutonium. Lilli, you go on for Kisti, (off her look) because he needs you. (to Fuchs) Fuchs, you take Teller’s role. I’m putting you exclusively on the implosion device.
[I head for the door-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: And no one is leaving Los Alamos.
=== EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ===
[Teller is held at the gate. I approach. We face off in the 'street' like gunslingers.]
Edward Teller: They won’t let me leave!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No, I won’t let you leave. Forget Hans, forget fission. Stay here, research what you want. Fusion, the hydrogen bomb, whatever. We’ll meet to discuss it.
Edward Teller: You don’t have time to meet. You’re a politician now, Robert. You’ve left physics behind many, many years ago.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Once a week. One hour, you and me.
[Teller considers this. Nods, turns to the GUARD-]
Edward Teller: Now raise this fucking barrier!
Roger Robb: (O.S.) So the Super was under development on your watch at Los Alamos?
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes.
Roger Robb: And yet, after the war, you tried to deny it was viable.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No, no, no. I-I pointed out technical difficulties with it.
Roger Robb: Didn’t you try to kill it at the AEC meeting after the Russian bomb test?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No.
Roger Robb: But that was the recommendation of the AEC, was it not?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: After hours of discussion...
=== INT. HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM -- NIGHT (COLOUR) ===
[Me, Bush, Nichols (CIVILIAN), Rabi, Fermi, Strauss and others.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (V.O.) ...about the best response.
[Rabi opens his compasses wider...]
Isidor Rabi: An H-bomb is one thousand times the power of an A-bomb.
[He draws a circle around Moscow...]
Isidor Rabi: Its only intended target would be the largest cities.
[And a circle around St Petersburg...]
Isidor Rabi: It’s a weapon of mass genocide.
Lewis Strauss: Izzy, draw some circles on this side of the map?
[He points at the USA...]
Lewis Strauss: Where they would target us, (gestures around them) starting with New York.
Isidor Rabi: That’s fair.
Lewis Strauss: D.C.
[As I listen to them I hear the sound of FEET STAMPING...]
Enrico Fermi: It’s a weapon of attack with no defensive value.
Lewis Strauss: Deterrence.
Vannevar Bush: Deterrence? Do we really need more deterrence than our current arsenal of atomic bombs?
[I tense up as the STAMPING SOUND gets LOUDER and LOUDER...]
Isidor Rabi: You, you, you drown in ten feet of water or 10,000, what’s the difference? We can already drown Russia. They know it…
[INSERT CUT: DOZENS OF FEET STAMPING, FASTER AND FASTER...]
Lewis Strauss: Now they can drown us with…
Ernest Lawrence: We’re just escalating…
[INSERT CUT:... SO FAST THE FEET BREAK RHYTHM, CAUSING CACOPHONY...]
Lewis Strauss: ...Robert? Robert.
[I SNAP my eyes OPEN, SHAKE OFF the image- the sound STOPS-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: As I said, Teller’s designs are still as impractical as they were during the war.
Ernest Lawrence: A hydrogen bomb can be made to work, Oppie. You know that.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I don’t believe we should commit all our resources to that chance.
Lewis Strauss: Then how would you have Truman reassure the American people?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Simply by limiting the spread of atomic weapons through international control on nuclear energy.
Lewis Strauss: By which you mean world government.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: The United Nations, as Roosevelt intended.
Lewis Strauss: Well, I-- I asked what Truman should do, right? The world’s changed. It’s not fascism but communism that now threatens our survival.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Lewis, do you understand, if we build a hydrogen bomb, the Russians will have no choice but to build their own?
Lewis Strauss: Could they be working on one already? Based on information gathered from the spy at Los Alamos…
Oppenheimre: There was no spy at Los Alamos.
Lewis Strauss: There wasn’t?
Vannevar Bush: Gentlement! Let’s not get sidetracked.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I say we use this moment to gain concessions from the Russians by committing that we will not build a hydrogen bomb.
Lewis Strauss: Thereby revealing its existence.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Which you seem convinced they already know.
Vannevar Bush: Alright. At this point, I’d like the committee members to meet in privacy to finalize our recommendations.
[Strauss nods. Rises. Much of the room follows suit, leaving.]
Lewis Strauss: I’m just not sure you want to go down this route.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Lewis, with respect, we are the advisory committee. We will give them our advice.
Lewis Strauss: Good night.
[As he, Lawrence and Nichols leave together, Borden approaches.]
William Borden: Dr. Oppenheimer? Hi. William Borden. Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh, yes, yes.
William Borden: During the war, I was a pilot. One night, flying back from a raid, I saw an amazing sight. Like a meteor. 
[INSERT CUT: BORDEN SPEEDS THROUGH THE NIGHT...]
William Borden: A V2 rocket headed to England.
[INSERT CUT: A ROCKET STREAKS PAST, RIPPING APART THE DARK...]
William Borden: I can’t help but imagine what it will be for such an enemy rocket to carry an atomic warhead.
[INSERT CUT: A MISSILE RISES THROUGH THE CLOUDS... I hear the sound of FEET STAMPING...]
[INSERT CUT: DOZENS OF FEET STAMPING FASTER AND FASTER... I peer into the future...]
[INSERT CUT: HUNDREDS OF MISSILES RISE THROUGH THE CLOUDS...]
[I look at the map... Rabi’s circles EXPAND like raindrops in a puddle...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, let’s make sure we’re not the ones to make that possible.
[But that’s not the answer Borden wanted. He leaves. Fermi and Bush remain. Rabi leans over to me.]
Isidor Rabi: Oppie, I don’t think you want to go up against Strauss.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: If we both speak, they listen to me.
Isidor Rabi: When you speak, they hear a prophet. When Strauss speaks, they hear themselves.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: They’ll listen to a prophet.
Isidor Rabi: A prophet can’t be wrong. Not once.
Senator McGee: (V.O.) Did you accuse Oppenheimer of sabotaging the development of the Super?
[CUT TO:]
=== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss shifts uneasily in his chair.]
Lewis Strauss: I was never one of those to bandy around terms like sabotage.
Senator McGee: But Mr. Borden was?
Lewis Strauss: As I understand it, possibly.
Senator McGee: How was Mr. Borden able to put together such a detailed indictment?
[INSERT CUT: BORDEN, CLACKING AWAY...]
Senator McGee: He was no longer a government employee, yet he appears to have had unlimited access to Dr. Oppenheimer’s file.
[INSERT CUT: BORDEN FLIPPING THROUGH THE FILE, IN FRONT OF NICHOLS...]
Senator McGee: Might Mr. Nichols have given him access to the file? Or someone else at the AEC?
Lewis Strauss: That’s a very serious accusation, Senator.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[I watch Teller testify.]
Roger Robb: Is it your intention to suggest that Dr. Oppenheimer is disloyal to the United States?
Edward Teller: I’ve always assumed, and still assume, that he’s loyal to the United States. I believe this, and I shall believe it, until I see very conclusive proof to the opposite.
[CUT TO:]
=== EXT. LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ===
Roger Robb: (V.O.) Do you or do you not believe that Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk?
[RAIN. I ride my horse through the outskirts. Spot a FLIER stapled to a telegraph pole, ink running: "THE IMPACT OF THE GADGET ON CIVILIZATION - DISCUSSION, BLDG T31 SUNDAY, 11AM".]
Philip Morrison: If I may, look, when Hitler blew his brains out in that bunker, it is my humble opinion that there is no need for that bomb to be seen anywhere except that test site.
Hornig: 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. It’s no longer the enemy who are the greatest threat to mankind; it’s our work.
[Heads turn to notice me.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Hitler’s dead. It’s true. But the Japanese fight on.
Hornig: Their defeat seems assured.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Not if you’re a G.I. preparing to invade. We can end this war.
Philip Morrison: But how do we justify using this weapon on human beings?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: 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 a peace mankind has never seen. A peace based on the kind of international cooperation that Roosevelt always envisaged.
[Some of the scientists nod. Scattered applause...]
== Chapter Twelve ==
[INSERT CUT: THE GOLDFISH BOWL IS FULL OF MARBLES...]
==== EXT. LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[I walk down the main drag with Groves.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Progress?
Leslie Groves: Two years and a billion dollars’ worth.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Hard to put a price on it.
Leslie Groves: Not really, just add up the bills. (points) 'Rural free deliveries'. 80 babies delivered the first year. This year we’ve had ten, a month.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Birth control is a little out of my jurisdiction, General.
[Groves watches Kitty approach- she’s HEAVILY PREGNANT.]
Leslie Groves: Clearly.
Kitty Oppenheimer: General.
==== EXT. CANYON, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
Kistiakowski: Head down, everybody. Fuchs, head down.
[An IMPLOSION DEVICE ROCKS the canyon. Groves, Fuchs and I raise our heads- Kistiakowsky and Hornig rush to the device-]
Kistiakowski: That’s the one!
[I put my PIPE on the wall as we CLIMB out of the bunker...]
Leslie Groves: Two viable bombs. I need a date.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: September.
Leslie Groves: July.
[Kistiakowsky waves a trail of ticker tape-]
Kistiakowski: That’s the sweet spot, gentlemen!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: August.
Leslie Groves: July.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Tests in July.
[Fuchs hands me my pipe. I dust it off...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: But I need my brother. (off his look) Frank knows the desert. He’s left politics behind. He’s been working with Lawrence for two years now.
[INSERT CUT: FLYING OVER DESERT TO FIND FRANK STANDING BY A JEEP WITH AN ARMY OFFICER.]
Leslie Groves: What do we call the test?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (thinking) “Batter my heart, three-person’d God.”
Leslie Groves: What?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Trinity.
[INSERT CUT: A STEEL TOWER IS RAISED IN THE DESERT...]
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
[I testify, lighting a cigarette.]
Roger Robb: You insisted on bringing on your brother Frank, a known communist.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Former communist.
Roger Robb: You brought a known former communist… onto America’s most secret and important defense project.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I knew my brother could be trusted. Absolutely.
Roger Robb: And you thought your judgment was sound on who on the team could be trusted?
=== EXT. BERM -- DAY ===
[Behind a berm, Groves, Fuchs, Frank and I watch Kistiakowsky and Hornig arm a detonator. Fuchs shuffles lower.]
George Kistiakowsky: Fuchs, head down. Okay. Everybody ready?
[Kistiakowsky triggers A VAST EXPLOSION, SPLINTERING THE TOWER, SENDING A MASSIVE PLUME OF FIRE INTO THE AIR... the SHOCKWAVE throws DEBRIS onto me and Groves...]
Leslie Groves: I hope you learned something.
George Kistiakowsky: Yeah, we’ve learned we’re gonna need to be a lot further away.
Leslie Groves: Well, figure it out, fast. (to me) We leave for Washington in the morning. We’re going to give him a date.
=== INT. HOTEL LOBBY, WASHINGTON, DC -- DAY ===
[I walk across the lobby- someone GRABS my arm- Szilard, with the Scientist with Glasses in tow. I glance out the window, where Groves is getting into a car, waiting for me...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You’re a long way from Chicago, Leo.
Leo Szilard: If we don’t act now, they’re going to use this thing against Japan. We booked a meeting with Truman, but somebody killed it. You’re meeting the Secretary of War.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Just because we’re building it, doesn’t mean we get to decide how it’s used.
Leo Szilard: History will judge us, Robert. In Chicago, we put together a petition.
[Glasses holds out a paper- I PUSH it back- Glasses FLINCHES-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m not… I’m not getting into this. Just tell me your concerns, and I’ll relate them.
Leo Szilard: My concerns? Germany’s defeated. Japan’s not going to hold out alone.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: How could you know that? You got us into this. You and Einstein, with your letter to Roosevelt saying we could build a bomb.
Leo Szilard: Against Germany.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That’s not how weapons manufacture works, Szilard.
Leo Szilard: Oppie, you have to help. Fermi’s in the meeting. Lawrence is in the meeting.
Leo Szilard: They’re not you. You’re the great salesman of science. You can convince anyone of anything. Even yourself. Excuse me.
[He walks away.]
=== INT. SECRETARY OF WAR’S OFFICE -- DAY ===
[I sit on a couch next to Fermi- Lawrence, Groves and Bush in chairs. Secretary of War STIMSON presides. Military, scientists and officials are scattered through the room.]
Henry Stimson: The firestorm in Tokyo killed 100,000 people, mostly civilians. I worry about America when we do these things and no one protests.
George Marshall: Pearl Harbor and three years of brutal conflict in the Pacific buys a lot of latitude with the American public.
Henry Stimson: Enough to unleash the Atomic Bomb?
Enrico Fermi: Uh, the A-bomb might not cause as much damage as the Tokyo bombings.
Henry Stimson: What are we estimating?
Vannevar Bush: In a medium-sized city, uh… 20,000 or 30,000 dead.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, but, uh, don’t underestimate the psychological impact of, uh, of an atomic explosion. A pillar of fire, 10,000 feet tall, deadly neutron effects for a mile, in all directions, from one single device. Dropped from a barely-noticed B-29, the atomic bomb will be… a terrible revelation of divine power.
[Groves carefully monitors my effect on the room...]
George Marshall: If that’s true, it would be definitive. World War II would be over. Our boys would come home.
Vannevar Bush: Military targets?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: But there aren’t any big enough.
Contant: Perhaps a vital war plant, with workers housed nearby.
Enrico Fermi: And we could issue a warning to reduce civilian casualties.
Air Force Officer: They’d send everything they have up against us, and I’d be up in that plane.
Vannevar Bush: But if we announce it, and it fails to go off, we’d scupper any chance of a Japanese surrender.
Ernest Lawrence: Is there no way to demonstrate a bomb to Japan to provoke surrender?
Leslie Groves: We intend to demonstrate it in the most unambiguous terms. Twice. Once to show the weapon’s power, and a second to show that we can keep doing this until they surrender.
Henry Stimson: We have a list of 12 cities to choose from. Sorry, 11. I’ve taken Kyoto off the list, due to its cultural significance to the Japanese people. Also, my wife and I honeymooned there. It’s a magnificent city.
[Stimson senses the unease in the room...]
Henry Stimson: Let me make this simple for you, gentlemen. According to my intelligence, which I cannot share with you, the Japanese people will not surrender, under any circumstances, short of a successful and total invasion of the home islands. Many lives will be lost, American and Japanese. The use of the atomic bomb on Japanese cities will save lives.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: If we retain moral advantage.
[Groves registers the pivot...]
Henry Stimson: How so?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, if we use this weapon without informing our allies, they’ll see it as a threat, and we’ll be in an arms race.
George Marshall: How open can we be with the Soviets?
Vannevar Bush: Secrecy won’t stop the Soviets from becoming part of the atomic world.
[A politician, BYRNES, clears his throat politely-]
James Byrnes: We’ve been told they have no uranium.
Vannevar Bush: You’ve been misinformed. A Russian bomb is a matter of time.
Ernest Lawrence: The program needs to continue at full pace after the war.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Ah, 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 to scientists--
Leslie Groves: The Manhattan Project has been plagued from the start by certain scientists of… doubtful discretion, and uncertain loyalty. One of ’em just tried to meet with the President. Now, we need these men, but as soon as it’s practical, we should sever any such scientists from the program. Wouldn’t you agree, Doctor?
[I meet Groves’ gaze. Stay silent...]
George Marshall: If a Russian bomb is inevitable, perhaps we should invite their top scientist to Trinity.
James Byrnes: President Truman has no intention of raising expectations that Stalin be included in the atomic project.
Henry Stimson: Informing him of our breakthrough, and presenting it as a means to win the war, need not make unkeepable promises. But, the Potsdam Peace Conference in July will be President Truman’s last chance to have that conversation. Can you give us a working bomb by then?
Leslie Groves: Absolutely. We will test fire before the conference.
== Chapter Thirteen ==
=== EXT. BASE OF STEEL TOWER, TRINITY TEST SITE -- DAY ===
[Frank shows Groves and me the site plan...]
Frank Oppenheimer: Ground zero. Observation posts at ten thousand yards, north, south, and west.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Where do we trigger from?
Frank Oppenheimer: South, ten thousand. And base camp is ten miles south here. And there’s a further observation post on that hill, twenty miles away.
[I point to a crew digging a trench from the base of the tower.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What’s that, Frank? Trigger lines already went in.
Frank Oppenheimer: The Air Force requested a line of lights for their B-29.
Leslie Groves: What B-29? Our bomb’s on the tower.
Frank Oppenheimer: They want to use the test to confirm a safe operating distance.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That’s risky.
Frank Oppenheimer: But not as risky as dropping one over Japan, and hoping that we were right about the blast radius.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Don’t let ’em slow us down, we’re firing on the 15th.
Frank Oppenheimer: The 15th? That’s not…
Leslie Groves: The 15th!
[Frank sees my expression.]
Frank Oppenheimer: 15th.
==== EXT. BASE OF STEEL TOWER, TRINITY TEST SITE -- LATER ====
[A truck with the bomb in its pickup pulls up alongside the base of the tower, covered in tarp. A soldier takes a knife and prepares to cut the material off the bomb-]
George Kistiakowsky: Hey, whoa, whoa! Careful with that knife.
[The soldier cuts, more carefully, and frees the bomb from its cocoon.
==== INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[I show the plan to the division heads.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: So I’ll be here at South Observation Point with Frank and Kistiakowsky. You’ll all be assigned to Base Camps, West Observation, or Far Observation.
Hans Bethe: Are those safe distances?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: They’re based on your calculations.
Isidor Rabi: Time to stand behind your science, Hans. Literally.
[INSERT CUT: I ENTER A TENT AT THE BASE OF THE TOWER- THE SILVER SPHERE OF THE BOMB IS SURROUNDED BY THE TEAM. KISTIAKOWSKY AND BETHE CAREFULLY INSERT THE BOMB'S CORE...]
Edward Teller: What about the radiation cloud?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Without high winds, it should settle within 2-3 miles. Evacuation measures are in place. But we need good weather for visibility, so it has to be fine.
==== INT. TENT AT BASE OF STEEL TOWER, TRINITY TEST SITE -- DAY ====
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Everybody out!
[I watch, nervous, as the top of the bomb is carefully sealed up.]
==== INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We go on the night of the 15th. It’s a hard deadline. So if anyone has anything, speak now.
[The team exchanges looks-]
==== EXT. BASE OF STEEL TOWER, TRINITY TEST SITE -- DAY ====
[The bomb is lifted several inches above the ground.]
George Kistiakowsky: Okay, stop, stop! Everybody, mattresses. Put the mattress there, underneath.
[When this is done, the bomb is hoisted up into the tower.]
==== EXT. BASE OF STEEL TOWER, TRINITY TEST SITE -- LATER ====
[Scientists remove tape around the holes in the surface of the bomb and insert implosion devices.]
==== INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
Hans Bethe: We could use a final implosion test.
George Kistiakowsky: It couldn’t hurt.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Do it. Is there anything else that might stop us?
[A THUNDERCLAP takes us into-]
==== EXT. OPPENHEIMER HOUSE, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[White sheets FLAP CRAZILY in the wind... through the window we see Kitty put her drink down reluctantly. She comes out to grab a sheet that has come loose from the line... notices a JEEP idling at the gate, ARMED GUARDS patiently waiting.]
[I emerge from the house carrying an overnight bag. Kitty, one hand on the washing line, turns to look at me, curious.]
Kitty Oppenheimer: It’s happening, isn’t it?
[I watch the sheets flapping. Glance at the guards...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’ll send a message. If it’s gone our way: “Take in the sheets.”
[She nods. I head towards the waiting jeep.]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Robert.
[I turn, looking at Kitty amongst the FLAPPING SHEETS...]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Break a leg.
==== EXT. CANYON, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[A BANG as the final implosion test goes off... Kistiakowsky and Fuchs raise their heads... Kistiakowsky shows Fuchs the tape, grave.]
Kiskatowsky: Look.
==== EXT. STEEL TOWER, TRINITY TEST SITE -- EVENING ====
[I watch the last TECHNICIAN come down. I nod at the man, then start my lonely climb... I stare at the silver sphere of the first atomic bomb, its surface STUDDED with detonators, WIRES DRAPED across it like spaghetti. Thunder RUMBLES. I watch the approaching storm...]
==== EXT. BASE CAMP, TRINITY TEST SITE -- EVENING ====
[Army tents. A WINDMILL SPINS FURIOUSLY...]
==== INT. BASE CAMP, TRINITY TEST SITE -- EVENING ====
[Fermi moves through the team, taking bets...]
Enrico Fermi: Oppie’s taken a very modest three kilotons. Teller’s view is forty-five.
[Rabi pulls out some bills.]
Isidor Rabi: Twenty!
Enrico Fermi: Twenty-thousand tons of TNT! And does anyone want the side action on atmospheric ignition?
[The scientists groan and laugh. Soldiers look at each other: 'What the hell?' Groves corners the army WEATHERMAN.]
Leslie Groves: Are you saying we’ll have to delay?
Weatherman: I’m saying it would be prudent.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: This weather, has it reached the site?
[The weatherman gets on his radio. The phone rings. Kistiakowsky BURSTS in-]
Kiskatowsky: Bethe is calling to tell you that the implosion test failed.
[I have the phone to my ear -]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Hello, Hans? Yes, he’s here. Yes. [I hang up the phone] Is he wrong?
Kiskatowsky: No.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No?
Kiskatowsky: No.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: So we’re about to fire a dud?
Kiskiatowski: No.
Leslie Groves: Explain!
Kiskiatowski: Well, I can’t. I just, I… I just know, I know the implosion lenses will work.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: If we fire these detonators and they don’t trigger a reaction, two years’ worth of plutonium will be scattered across White Sands.
Kiskiatowski: (holds out his hand) A month of my salary against ten bucks says it lights.
Leslie Groves: Oh, Jesus!
[I study Kistiakowsky. Take the bet.]
Weatherman: The wind’s pickin’ up at zero, not the rain. Lightning’s circling.
[THUNDER. Rabi calls over-]
Isidor Rabi: Think it might be time to tell your men to get away from the steel tower with the atomic bomb?
[The weatherman laughs. Then GRABS the radio -]
Weatherman: Let’s get to South Observation.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Pull ’em out, and we can make our determination there.
==== EXT. STEEL TOWER, TRINITY TEST SITE -- NIGHT ====
[The last trucks drive away, lightning on the horizon. The bomb sits there, impervious to peals of DRY THUNDER...]
==== EXT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- NIGHT ====
[Groves, the weatherman and I watch rain LASH the desert...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: The team hasn’t slept in two nights! If we stand down and make the bomb safe, we won’t be back here for weeks!
Leslie Groves: And then we’ll miss Potsdam! (checks watch) I gotta get word to Truman by seven, our window’s closing. (to weatherman) What is this doing?
Weather: Raining, blowing, lightning.
Leslie Groves: For how long, damnit?
Weatherman: Holdin’ strong!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It’ll break before dawn.
Leslie Groves: How could you know that?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I know this desert. Storm cools overnight. Just before dawn, storm breaks.
Weatherman: You could be right, but schedule as late as possible.
[Groves considers this. Turns to the weatherman.]
Leslie Groves: Five-thirty. Sign your forecast. If you’re wrong, I’ll hang you.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Tell ’em all. Five-thirty.
Weatehrman: (to his team) Five-thirty, five-thirty!
==== INT. BUNKER, SOUTH OBSERVATION POST -- NIGHT ====
[Groves and me, alone. Rain pelting down outside.]
Leslie Groves: Three years, 4,000 people, two billion dollars. Well, if it doesn’t go off, we’re both finished.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m betting on three kilotons.
Leslie Groves: Anything less, they won’t get what it is. Now, what did Fermi mean by, uh, "atmospheric ignition"?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, we had a moment where it looked like the chain reaction from an atomic device might never stop. Setting fire to the atmosphere.
Leslie Groves: Why’s Fermi still taking side bets on it?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Call it gallows humor.
[Groves takes this in. Picks the scab-]
Leslie Groves: Wait, are we saying there’s a chance that when we push that button, we destroy the world?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Nothing in our research over three years supports that conclusion, except as the most remote possibility.
Leslie Groves: How remote?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Chances are near-zero.
Leslie Groves: Near-zero?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What do you want from theory alone?
Leslie Groves: Zero would be nice!
[I check my watch.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: In exactly one hour… and 58 minutes, we’ll know.
[I look outside at the rain steadily dribbling over the doorway.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It’s letting up.
== Chapter Fourteen ==
==== EXT. TRINITY TEST SITE -- NIGHT ====
[Searchlights settle on the gleaming steel tower. A line of lights leading from the blackness of the night-time desert to the tower comes on...]
==== EXT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Groves and I come out into gentle rain. The wind has fallen off. Frank comes up to meet us.]
Frank Oppenheimer: The arming party’s left zero, they’re heading this way. Throw on your switches. (to the soldiers) Turn the cars! Ready for emergency evacuation.
==== EXT. SOUTH 1500 POST -- NIGHT ====
[Kistiakowsky and military personal, including BAINBRIDGE, get out of a truck. Kistiakowsky THROWS a SWITCH on the ground...]
==== EXT. BASE CAMP, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Rabi, Fermi and Bethe come outside. A SOLDIER hands them WELDER’S GLASS...]
Soldier: …welder’s glass. Everybody take their places. Everybody take a welder’s glass! Everybody take a welder’s glass!
==== EXT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- NIGHT ====
Kistiakowsky and Bainbridge get out of the truck and enter the bunker.
==== INT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Bainbridge pulls out a key. UNLOCKS the arming switches. Kistiakowsky nods, Bainbridge THROWS THE SWITCHES.]
Kenneth Bainbridge: Twenty minutes.
==== EXT. TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[A SIGNAL ROCKET flares up into the air...]
==== EXT. BASE CAMP, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Rabi, Fermi and the others watch the rocket go up-]
Enrico Fermi: Twenty minutes!
==== EXT. HILLTOP DISTANT OBSERVATION POINT -- CONTINUOUS ====
[A group of scientists, including Teller, Feynman and Lawrence, watch the distant rocket sputter...]
Richard Feynman: That’s twenty!
[Teller, in dark glasses, is APPLYING SUNSCREEN at night-]
Edward Teller: On the leg, please.
[DARK GLASSES are handed out. Feynman refuses, jumping up into the cab of a truck-]
Soldier: Feynman?
Richard Feynman: No.
[Feynman TAPS the windshield-]
Richard Feynman: The glass stops the UV.
Edward Teller: What stops the glass?
[Feynman looks at Teller. Looks at the glass, shakes his head, grinning...]
==== INT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Groves moves to me-]
Leslie Groves: I’m gonna head to base camp. Best of luck. Robert? Try not to blow up the world.
==== INT. SAME -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[I watch Bainbridge take his place at the KILL SWITCH.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Watch that needle. If the detonators don’t charge, and the voltage drops below one volt, you hit that button, you abort. Understood?
Kenneth Bainbridge: Understood.
[Bainbridge watches the meter of the X-unit like a hawk. A nervous hawk.]
==== EXT. BASE CAMP, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[A loudspeaker broadcasts the countdown-]
Loudspeaker: Two minutes to detonation.
[The two-minute rocket goes up-]
Soldier: Everybody down!
[The observers lie on the ground, facing away from the site.]
Soldier: Do not turn around until you see light reflected on the hills. Then look at the explosion only through your welder’s glass.
Loudspeaker: 90 seconds to detonation.
==== EXT. DISTANT OBSERVATION POINT -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Feynman TUNES the radio into the countdown relay-]
Loudspeaker: 80 seconds to detonation.
[Lawrence jumps in next to Feynman. The scientists peer into the distance through the windshield... Teller, pale with sunscreen, adjusts his dark glasses...]
Edward Teller: Is it rubbed in?
Richard Feynman: Yeah.
Loudspeaker: Sixty seconds to detonation.
==== INT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Bainbridge PEERS at the X-unit... Frank and I peer at the tower... The electronic counter STARTS: 45, 44, 43, 42...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: These things are hard on your heart.
Loudspeaker: Thirty seconds.
[FOUR RED LIGHTS flicker on-]
==== EXT. STEEL TOWER, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[The bomb WAKES, detonators on its surface HUMMING...]
==== INT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[The NEEDLE on the X-unit SHOOTS to the right-]
Kenneth Bainbridge: Detonators charged!
[I pull on a pair of WELDER’S GOGGLES...]
==== EXT. BASE CAMP, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Rabi lifts his head to peek around, welder’s glass over his eyes... Groves shakes hands with Bush...]
Loudspeaker: Seventeen. Sixteen. Fifteen. Fourteen.
==== EXT. DISTANT OBSERVATION POINT -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Feynman peers through the windshield. Teller studies the horizon...]
Loudspeaker: Thirteen. Twelve. Eleven.
==== INT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[A GONG sounds at T-minus 10- Bainbridge peers at the needle, which BOBBLES- his hand FLINCHES- the needle settles...]
Loudspeaker: Ten. Nine. Eight.
[Frank and I peer through the holes in the concrete.]
Loudspeaker: Seven. Six.
[Kistiakowsky SCRAMBLES out of the bunker-]
==== EXT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[-and up onto the embankment, eyes locked on the tiny glow of the distant tower...]
Loudspeaker: Five. Four. Three.
==== INT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[I stare straight ahead...]
Loudspeaker: Two. One.
[Bainbridge watches the needle as the counter goes down to- ... zero.]
[My breath stops- an agonizing instant before- SILENT LIGHT. FULL BRIGHT NOON SUNNY DAYLIGHT.]
==== EXT. BASE CAMP, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Rabi sees SUDDEN DAYTIME- turns to the LIGHT, peers through the welder’s glass at BLINDING SILENT WHITE...]
==== EXT. DISTANT OBSERVATION POINT -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Lawrence is stepping out of the car as Feynman SHUTS his eyes against INSTANT DAYLIGHT... a HUSHED INTAKE OF BREATH from the crowd of sunglasses-clad distant observers...]
==== INT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[All we can hear is my TREMULOUS BREATHING as the LIGHT becomes less BLINDING, resolving into a FIREBALL, BRIGHT AS THE SUN, BUT GIANT... I YANK off my goggles... watch the ROILING PLASMA become more visible in its HELLISH CONTORTIONS... CLIMBING into the sky like the DEVIL’S CLAW...]
[My PUPILS are PINPRICKS-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: “And now I am become Death… the destroyer of worlds.”
[And then- CRACK!!... !!!... !!!!... !!!!!...]
[I am hit by the WIND and DUST of the SHOCKWAVE-]
[THE THUNDER OF A THOUSAND STORMS ROLLS OVER, DEAFENING-]
==== EXT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Kistiakowsky is BLOWN OFF HIS FEET...]
==== INT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[With the wave of DARK THUNDER, TERRIBLE BEAUTY GIVES WAY TO FEAR... I TREMBLE as I watch the glowing cloud climb to its full height, its inner fire dimming to a HELLISH SCARLET... DUST CLOUD RISING, CRACKLING WITH PURPLISH ENERGY...]
[As the sound diminishes to a RUMBLE and night REGAINS the desert floor, Frank turns to me-]
Frank Oppenheimer: It worked.
[I nod, awestruck...]
==== EXT. BASE CAMP, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Startled murmurs, then a few claps... then CRAZY, CHEERING, CLAPPING, DANCING... in the middle of it all Rabi tries to understand what just happened...]
==== EXT. SAME -- CONTINUOUS ====
[ECSTATIC CHEERING... even Teller SMILES... Feynman pulls out some BONGOS and hops onto the hood of the truck... people DANCE to his PAGAN RHYTHM as the dawn CREEPS IN...]
==== EXT. SOUTH OBSERVATION POST, TRINITY TEST SITE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Kistiakowsky GRABS me in a big HUG-]
George Kistiakowsky: You owe me ten dollars! Come on!
[He steps back- holding out his hand for payment. I pat my jacket pockets. Nothing.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I… I’m good for it, Kisti.
George Kistiakowsky: You are! Yes, you are!
==== EXT. BASE CAMP, TRINITY TEST SITE -- MOMENTS LATER ====
[Rabi, still amidst the celebration, watches a car pull up.]
[I get out, walking like GARY FUCKING COOPER- the crowd spots me... goes NUTS.]
[Groves turns to an AIDE -]
Leslie Groves: Get me Potsdam right away.
[I nod at Groves, move through the sea of congratulations to find Serber...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Get a message to Kitty.
[Serber’s face falls, perturbed-]
Robert Serber: We can’t say anything.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Tell her to take in the sheets.
[Serber grins. I spot Groves on a FIELD TELEPHONE- then am HOISTED ONTO JOYFUL SHOULDERS...]
==== INT. OPPENHEIMER HOUSE, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[Kitty wrangles the kitchen phone while she feeds our baby daughter and young son-]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Shhhh. Hello?
Charlotte Serber: (over phone) Hi, Kitty?
Kitty Oppenheimer: What? What? Charlotte? Charlotte, go ahead. Go ahead.
Charlotte Serber: (over phone) Oh, um, well, I don’t know, he just said to tell you to bring in the sheets.
[Kitty freezes, letting the phone come off her ear...]
Charlotte Serber: (over phone) Kitty? Kitty? Kitty, are you still there?
[FADE OUT.]
== Chapter Fifteen ==
[FADE IN.]
==== EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[I watch CRATES hoisted on trucks by the army...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (V.O.) If they detonate it too high in the air...
==== INT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[I am talking to the AIR FORCE OFFICER who is supervising the crating of equipment-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: ...the blast won’t be as powerful.
Air Force Officer: With respect, Dr. Oppenheimer, we’ll take it from here.
==== EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[I lose sight of the bomb as THE CRATE IS CLOSED.]
[Groves appears at my side, watching the loading...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Did Truman brief Stalin at Potsdam?
Leslie Groves: “Brief” would be an overstatement. He referred to a powerful new weapon. Stalin… hoped we’d use it against Japan.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That’s it?
Leslie Groves: Robert, we’ve given them an ace. It’s for them to play the hand.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You’re aiming for the sixth?
Leslie Groves: It’s up to the CO in the Pacific.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Should I come with you to Washington?
Leslie Groves: What for?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, you keep me informed.
[Groves turns to leave -]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Of course. (turns back) As best I can.
[I watch Groves leave, uneasy. A truck pulls out, REVEALING TELLER. He crosses, watching the loaded truck move away...]
Edward Teller: Would the Japanese surrender if they knew what was coming?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I don’t know.
Edward Teller: Have you seen Szilard’s petition?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: How the hell does Szilard know about the Japanese?
[I look at Teller.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: You’re not signing it, are you?
Edward Teller: Many people have. A lot of people.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Edward… the fact that we built this bomb does not give us any more, any more right or responsibility to decide how it’s used than anyone else.
Edward Teller: But we’re the only people who know about it.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I have told Stimson the various opinions of the community.
Edward Teller: But what’s your opinion?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Once it’s used… nuclear war, perhaps… all war… becomes unthinkable.
[I watch another truck pull out...]
Edward Teller: Until somebody builds a bigger bomb.
==== INT. OPPENHEIMER HOUSE, LOS ALAMOS -- NIGHT ====
[Kitty comes downstairs to find me sitting at the kitchen table. The phone in front of me.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I thought they would call.
Kitty Oppenheimer: It’s only the fifth.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: In Japan, it’s the sixth.
INT. OPPENHEIMER’S OFFICE, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY
[I pace my office, agitated.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Charlotte? Try Groves. Anything? Charlotte?
Charlotte Serber: (O.S.) Truman’s on the radio.
[I BOLT into-]
==== INT. FOYER, OPPENHEIMER’S OFFICE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Charlotte is patching the PA to the radio-]
Harry Truman: (over radio) 16 hours ago, an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy.
==== INT. OFFICE, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
[Frank is doing paperwork when the PA WHISTLES-]
Harry Truman: (over radio) The bomb has more power than 20,000 tons of TNT.
==== INT. CORRIDOR, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ====
[As Frank emerges, others DRIFT into the corridor, shocked...]
Harry Truman: (over radio) It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe.
[He hears BANGING and CHEERING- through the window SOLDIERS BEAT on trash-can lids. Frank and the scientists try uncertain smiles and handshakes...]
==== INT. OPPENHEIMER’S OFFICE, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ====
Charlotte Serber: Groves on one.
[I white-knuckle the phone.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: General?
Leslie Groves: (over phone) I’m very proud of you, and all of your people.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It went alright?
Leslie Groves: (over phone) Apparently it went with a tremendous bang.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, everyone here is feeling reasonably good about it. It’s been a long road.
Leslie Groves: (over phone) I think one of the wisest things I ever did was when I selected the director of Los Alamos.
[I gently put down the phone...]
==== EXT. LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ====
[I walk in a relieved daze...]
Harry Truman: (over radio) We have spent more than two billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history, and we have won.
[Horns HONK, soldiers CHEER... people WAVE... I nod back...]
==== INT. FULLER LODGE, LOS ALAMOS -- NIGHT ====
[A restless, excitable CROWD is packed into the bleachers, like a HIGH-SCHOOL PEP RALLY...]
==== INT. LOBBY, FULLER LODGE, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Kitty reaches forward and adjusts my tie. We hear the sound of DOZENS OF FEET STAMPING RHYTHMICALLY...]
==== INT. FULLER LODGE, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ====
[The impatient crowd is STAMPING IN UNISON...]
==== INT. LOBBY, FULLER LODGE, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Kitty nods at me, I take a breath and PUSH through the door-]
==== INT. FULLER LODGE, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ====
[As I walk past the rear bleachers I get a close view of DOZENS OF FEET STAMPING IN UNISON... the STAMPING FEET GET FASTER as I approach the stage...]
Crowd: Oppie! Oppie! Oppie!
[The STAMPING GROWS OPPRESSIVE- FASTER and FASTER until RHYTHM BREAKS, causing CACOPHONY which PEAKS as I step up...]
[I raise my hands in a theatrically victorious gesture- the crowd CHEERS...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: The world… will remember this day.
[LOUDER CHEERING... silence.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: 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!
[CHEERS. CHEERS. CHEERS. THEN... A SINGLE SCREAM. SOUND CUTS OUT. As I look out at the EXCITED FACES I can hear my own BREATHING... I carry on-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m so proud. So proud of what you have accomplished.
[The crowd seems to go NUTS, but all we hear is the QUIET CREAKING OF SEATS and SHUFFLE OF FEET as they REACT, HANDS SILENTLY CLAPPING, MOUTHS SILENTLY JAWING... I try again-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I just wish we had it in time to use against the Germans!
[The CHEERING AND CLAPPING PEOPLE GET TO THEIR FEET in MORTIFYING SILENCE...]
I stare at them, straining to hear something, then-
[INSTANT DAYLIGHT POURS IN THE WINDOWS- BRIGHTER AND BRIGHTER-]
[My eyes are pinpricks as I see CHEERING/SCREAMING MOUTHS STRETCHED GROTESQUELY WIDE-]
CRACK!!... !!!... !!!! ... THE THUNDER OF A THOUSAND STORMS ROLLS OVER, DEAFENING-
[I see FLESH RIPPED FROM THE SMILING YOUNG FACES... I see PLASMA ROILING and the DEVIL’S CLAW reach into the night sky... I see piles of ASHES where the young crowd was cheering...]
==== INT. SAME -- LATER ====
[I DRIFT through a SILENT, KINETIC WHIRLWIND OF CELEBRATION CLAPPED on the back, KISSED... NODDING and HOLLOW SMILES...]
[I see a YOUNG WOMAN LAUGHING... I STEP on something, look down to see my foot inside a CHARRED CORPSE... I look up, SHAKING OFF THE IMAGE... I see young people MAKING OUT under the bleachers, a hand up a sweater... I see the young woman again but NOW SHE JUST CRIES AND CRIES AND CRIES...]
==== INT. LOBBY, FULLER LODGE, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ====
[DRIFTING through... I see a young man sitting, back to the wall, WEEPING, a woman trying to console him...]
==== EXT. FULLER LODGE, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS ====
[As I exit, REVELERS RUN PAST, JOYFUL... turning, I see a young physicist at the wall, bent double...]
[As I pass, he looks up, DISTRAUGHT, VOMIT AROUND HIS MOUTH. FADE OUT.]
== Chapter Sixteen ==
=== INT. LOBBY, OVAL OFFICE, THE WHITE HOUSE -- DAY ===
[Relief. Gentle formality. I look at the coffee table: Time Magazine- me on the cover: "FATHER OF THE ATOMIC BOMB".]
Female Voice: (O.S.) Dr. Oppenheimer? Dr. Oppenheimer?
[An AIDE on softly clicking heels, points at the magazine.]
Aide: Nice picture.
[I look up at her, blank.]
Aide: President Truman will see you now.
==== INT. OVAL OFFICE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Truman comes from behind his desk to shake my hand-]
Harry Truman: Dr. Oppenheimer, it’s an honor.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Mr. President.
[He gestures for me to sit.]
Harry Truman: Please.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Thank you. Secretary Byrnes.
[Byrnes nods, sits. I take a seat. Truman leans on the desk.]
Harry Truman: How’s it feel to be the most famous man in the world?
[I can’t think of an answer.]
Harry Truman: You helped save a lot of American lives. What we did at Hiroshima was…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: And Nagasaki.
Harry Truman: Obviously. Your invention let us bring our boys home.
[Your country owes you a great debt.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, it was hardly… my invention.
Harry Truman: It was you on the cover of Time. (indicates Byrnes) Jim tells me you’re concerned about an arms race with the Soviets.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Ah, yes, ah… Well, um… it’s that, uh, now is our chance to secure… international cooperation on atomic energy, and-and-and I’m concerned…
Harry Truman: Do you know when the Soviets are gonna have the bomb?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I don’t think I could give a preci…
Harry Truman: Never! Never.
[I look at the President, incredulous...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Mr. President, the Russians have-- have good physicists, and, and, and abundant resources…
Harry Truman: "Abundant"?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes.
Harry Truman: I don’t think so.
Well, they’ll-- they'll put everything they have in…
[I taper off.]
Harry Truman: I hear you’re leaving Los Alamos. What should we do with it?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Give it back to the Indians.
[Truman looks over to Byrnes for help.]
James Byrnes: Um, Dr. Oppenheimer… if what you say about the Soviets is true, we have to build up Los Alamos, not shut it down.
[I WRING my hands, deeply uncomfortable...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Mr. President... Umm... I feel that I have blood on my hands.
[Truman looks at me differently. Pulls the crisp white handkerchief from his breast pocket and offers it-]
Harry Truman: You think anyone in Hiroshima, or… Nagasaki, gives a shit who built the bomb? They care who dropped it. I did. Hiroshima isn’t about you.
[Truman gestures to Byrnes, they both RISE. I get to my feet. Awkward.]
James Byrnes: Dr. Oppenheimer.
[As I leave I hear -]
Harry Truman: Don’t let that crybaby back in here!
[The door of the Oval Office CLOSES on me...]
Lewis Strauss: (V.O.) Robert saw that hand-wringing got him nowhere.
==== INT. LOBBY, OVAL OFFICE, THE WHITE HOUSE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Walking past I notice my face staring back at me from the cover of the magazine on the table...]
Lewis Strauss: (V.O.) By the time I met him, he’d fully embraced his “Father of the Bomb” reputation...
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss sits talking with the Senate Aide.]
Lewis Strauss: ...and used his profile to influence policy.
[INSERT CUT: LIFE MAGAZINE- "OPPENHEIMER, NO. 1 THINKER ON ATOMIC ENERGY"... OPPENHEIMER RUNS A GAUNTLET OF FLASHBULBS... OPPENHEIMER AND KITTY ARE PHOTOGRAPHED AT OLDEN MANOR...]
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[I sit there testifying. Robb checks his notes...]
Roger Robb: Doctor, in the years following the war, would you say that you exerted a great influence on the atomic policies of the USA?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I think “great” would be an overstatement.
Roger Robb: Really? I mean, look at the issue of isotopes.
Roger Robb: Were you not personally responsible for destroying all opposition to their export?
[I think back to my congressional testimony...]
==== INT. CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ROOM -- DAY ====
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: …could use a bottle of beer in making atomic weapons. In fact, you do!
==== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ====
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I was the spokesman, but the-- the opinion among scientists was unanimous.
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
Lewis Strauss: All along, with McCarthy on the rise, he knew he was vulnerable. His brother was blacklisted by every university in the country.
[INSERT CUT: FRANK WORKS A RANCH IN COLORADO...]
Lewis Strauss: Lomanitz wound up working the railroad, laying track.
[INSERT CUT: LOMANITZ SWINGS A HAMMER...]
Lewis Strauss: Chevalier went into exile.
[INSERT CUT: CHEVALIER CARRIES SHOPPING, STEPPING AROUND CHICKENS IN A RURAL FRENCH ALLEY...]
Lewis Strauss: But none of that stopped Robert from pushing the GAC to recommend arms control, instead of the H-Bomb.
[INSERT CUT: STRAUSS MOVES THE FLOWERS ON THE TABLE IN THE HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM, WATCHING OPPENHEIMER...]
Lewis Strauss: He was devastated when Truman rejected their recommendation.
[CUT TO]
=== INT. BALLROOM, PLAZA HOTEL -- NIGHT (COLOUR) ===
[I read the headline: "TRUMAN ANNOUNCES H-BOMB PROGRAM"]
[Drink in hand, I watch the room sing 'Happy Birthday' to Strauss. Ruth Tolman is next to me, staring at the NEWSPAPER.]
Ruth Tolman: I miss Richard more than I can bear.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I know, Ruth. I know.
Ruth Tolman: I’m just glad he didn’t live to see where this is all going.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Here comes the birthday boy, to gloat…
Ruth Tolman: Have fun.
[I nod, understanding. She downs her drink and leaves.]
Lewis Strauss: Robert, my son and his fiancée are desperate to meet the father of the atomic bomb, so…
[Strauss is there with his adult children- I glance at them, raise a glass, then turn away. Strauss stands there, humiliated. The couple awkwardly moves off.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Hello.
Lewis Strauss: Is this a bad time?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What do you think, Lewis?
Lewis Strauss: Well, I think it must have been a blow for you.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: For the world.
Lewis Strauss: The world? What does Fuchs mean to the rest of the world?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Fuchs? Klaus Fuchs?
Lewis Strauss: Oh dear. You haven’t heard. Klaus Fuchs, the British scientist that you put onto the implosion team at Los Alamos?
[INSERT CUT: FUCHS HANDS OPPENHEIMER HIS PIPE...]
Lewis Strauss: Turns out he was… He was spying for the Soviets the whole time. I’m sorry.
[Strauss moves off. I stand there. Frozen.]
Lewis Strauss: (V.O) After the truth about Fuchs came out...
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
Lewis Strauss: ...the FBI stepped up surveillance on him.
[INSERT CUT: FBI AGENTS SITTING IN A CAR WITH A TAPE REEL PROPPED ON THEIR LAP.]
Lewis Strauss: He knew his phone was tapped.
[INSERT CUT: OPPENHEIMER, DRIVING, CHECKS HIS REAR-VIEW MIRROR, SPOTS A SEDAN FOLLOWING HIM...]
Lewis Strauss: He was followed everywhere.
[INSERT CUT: KITTY, FROM THE KITCHEN WINDOW, SPOTS A SUITED MAN PICKING THROUGH THEIR TRASH...]
Lewis Strauss: His trash picked through. But he never stopped speaking his mind.
Senate Aide: A man of conviction.
Lewis Strauss: And maybe he thought fame could actually protect him.
[INSERT CUT: OPPENHEIMER WALKING DOWN THE HALL, SHADOWS CASCADING OVER HIS FACE.]
Lewis Strauss: When Eisenhower took office, he saw one more chance. He took it.
=== INT. CORPORATE AUDITORIUM -- NIGHT (B&W) ===
[Oppenheimer is lecturing... Strauss is in the crowd...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: America and Russia may be likened… to two scorpions in a bottle. Each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life. Now, there are various aspects of this policy…
Lewis Strauss: (V.O.) A lot of scientists blame me, but how was I supposed to protect him?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: …are too secret for discussion. Candor is the only remedy. Officials in Washington need to start leveling with the American people.
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
Lewis Strauss: That was the last straw for Robert’s enemies.
Senate Aide: So he had to lose his security clearance.
Lewis Strauss: And with it, his credibility.
[A Secretary knocks on the window. It's time to return.]
Senate Aide: But how could they do it? He was a war hero. He’d already told everyone about his past.
Lewis Strauss: Borden dredged it all up.
Senate Aide: How could Borden get access to Oppenheimer’s FBI file? Could it have been Nichols?
Lewis Strauss: No, I can’t imagine he’d do that. Whoever did unleashed a firestorm that burned a path in the White House, right to my desk at the AEC. You see ’em in there, right? I’ve worked my whole life to get here. The cabinet of the United States of America, and now, in front of the entire country, they want to put me back in my place. A lowly shoe salesman.
Counsel: Lewis, we can win this thing.
Senate Aide: I think we can get the Senate to grasp that you did your duty, painful though it was. Now, will Hill’s testimony back us up?
Counsel: Hill will be fine.
Lewis Strauss: I don’t really know him, but he was one of Szilard’s boys in Chicago. And they’d never forgave Robert for not supporting the petition against bombing Japan.
[CUT TO:]
== Chapter Seventeen ==
=== INT. LECTURE HALL, LOS ALAMOS -- NIGHT (COLOUR) ===
[Serber and MORRISON lecture using slides we never see. I watch as a large part of the audience.]
Philip Morrison: This was taken 31 days after the bombing. Virtually everyone in the streets, for nearly a mile around, was instantly and seriously… burned.
[Serber changes the slide. I react slightly.]
Philip Morrison: The, uh. Japanese spoke of people who wore striped clothing, upon whom the skin was burned in stripes.
[Changes slide. I LOOK AWAY from the screen. I hear the sound of FEET STAMPING as Morrison continues...]
Philip Morrison: There were many who thought themselves lucky, who climbed out of the ruins of their homes, only slightly injured. But they died anyway. They died days, or weeks later, from the radium-like rays emitted in great numbers at the moment of the explosion.
==== EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- NIGHT ====
[I light my pipe. Teller comes up.]
Edward Teller: Did you read this crap in the papers? A British physicist is saying the atomic bombings were not the last act of World War II, but the first act of this cold war with Russia.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Which physicist?
Edward Teller: I think you knew him. Patrick Blackett.
[I remember-]
[INSERT CUT: BLACKETT TAKES A MOUTHFUL OF APPLE...]
[I smile to myself, rueful...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: He may not be wrong. Stimson is now telling me we bombed an enemy that was essentially defeated.
Edward Teller: Robert, you’ve all the influence now.
[I look at Teller.]
Edward Teller: Please, urge them to continue my research on the Super.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I neither can nor will, Edward.
Edward Teller: Why not?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It’s not the right use of our resources.
Edward Teller: Is that what you really believe? 
[I say nothing.]
Edward Teller: J. Robert Oppenheimer, sphinx-like guru of the atom... Nobody knows what you believe. Do you? Hm?
=== EXT. FULLER LODGE, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY ===
[I give my leaving address, Groves by my side. The THOUSANDS of members of the Los Alamos community listen...]
Leslie Groves: One final time, our program director, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I hope that in years to come, you will look back on your work here with pride. But today, that pride must be tempered with a profound concern. If atomic weapons are to be added to the arsenals of a warring world, then the day will come when people will curse the name of Los Alamos.
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- MORNING (B&W) ===
[Strauss and Counsel drink coffee. The Senate Aide BURSTS in-]
Senate Aide: Uh, sorry, Admiral. Stopped off to get this.
[The Senate Aide holds up TIME MAGAZINE: Strauss is on the cover- "THE STRAUSS AFFAIR, SENATE V. PRESIDENT".]
Senate Aide: Seems pretty favorable.
[The Counsel looks over Senate Aide’s shoulder-]
Counsel: There’s Oppenheimer. What’s the caption?
Senate Aide: Uh, “J. Robert Oppenheimer. Strauss fought him… and the US won.”
Counsel: That’ll work!
[The Senate Aide is perturbed. Looks up at Strauss.]
Senate Aide: Those were your words from the other day.
Lewis Strauss: We needed to pivot.
Senate Aide: But how would you know what Time Magazine was gonna write?
Lewis Strauss: Henry Luce is a friend.
[The Senate Aide sits. Stares at Strauss, realizing...]
Senate Aide: You sat here and let me tell you how it’s done, but you’ve been far ahead all along.
Lewis Strauss: Survival in Washington is about knowing how to get things done.
Senate Aide: Right. What was it you said about Borden? "Why get caught holding the knife yourself?" I’m beginning to think Borden was holding the knife for you.
[Strauss leans back in his seat.]
=== INT. HOTEL ROOM, WASHINGTON, DC -- NIGHT (COLOUR) ===
[I sit on the bed, Garrison and his team go over notes. Kitty raids the mini-bar.]
Lloyd Garrison: It’s gonna come down to how much influence Borden’s been able to exert on Teller.
[Kitty is laughing as she opens a miniature.]
Lloyd Garrison: Did I say something funny?
Kitty Oppenheimer: Just “Borden, Borden, Borden”, when we all know that it’s Strauss.
Opptenheimer: Lewis brought me to Princeton, Kitty.
Kitty Oppenheimer: And then you humiliated him in front of Congress.
=== INT. CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ROOM -- DAY ===
[The room is all chuckles and smiles at my performance...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: ...but-- but more useful than a sandwich!
[The room LAUGHS appreciatively. I lean over to Volpe-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: How’d I do?
[Volpe glances back at Lewis Strauss, eyes down, ENRAGED...]
Joe Volpe: Maybe a little too well, Robert.
=== INT. HOTEL ROOM, WASHINGTON, DC -- NIGHT ===
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That was six years ago.
Kitty Oppenheimer: You know, the truly vindictive, are patient as saints.
Lloyd Garrison: Strauss has been perfectly clear that he is neutral.
[Kitty THROWS the miniature at me- it SMASHES into the wall-]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Wake up! It is Strauss! It’s always been Strauss, and you know it! Why won’t you fight him?! Christ's sake...
[She stalks into the bathroom, SLAMMING the door.]
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- MORNING (B&W) ===
[The Senate Aide stares at Strauss in morbid fascination...]
Senate Aide: It wasn’t Nichols, or Hoover, or one of Truman’s guys. It was you. You gave the file to Borden. You set him on Oppenheimer. You convinced him--
Lewis Strauss: Borden! Didn’t take any convincing.
=== INT. NICHOLS’ OFFICE, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- NIGHT (B&W) ===
[Nichols is behind the desk, but Strauss commands the room, instructing Borden...]
Kenneth Nichols: Take your time, use the entire file. Write up your conclusions, send them to the FBI.
William Borden: The material’s obviously extensive, but there’s nothing new here.
Lewis Strauss: Your conclusions will be. And they’ll have to be answered.
Kenneth Nichols: Hoover passes them to McCarthy?
Lewis Strauss: Oppenheimer’s too slippery for that self-promoting clown. I’ve talked it over with Hoover. He’ll hold McCarthy at bay while you do this with the AEC.
Kenneth Nichols: Trial?
Lewis Strauss: No, no trial. You can’t give Oppenheimer a platform. You can’t martyr him. We need a systematic destruction of Oppenheimer’s credibility, so he can never again speak on matters of national security.
William Borden: Then what?
Lewis Strauss: A shabby little room. Far from the limelight.
[INSERT CUT: ROOM 2022 IS OPENED UP. DUSTED, TABLES ARRANGED...]
Lewis Strauss: A simple bureaucratic procedure -- his Q clearance is up for renewal. You send your accusations to the FBI…
[INSERT CUT: BORDEN PULLS PAPER FROM HIS TYPEWRITER. HE SEALS AN ENVELOPE...]
Lewis Strauss: Hoover sends them to the AEC. (points at Nichols) You’re forced to act. You write up an indictment.
=== INT. FRONT HALL, STRAUSS RESIDENCE -- NIGHT (B&W) ===
[Strauss opens the door to Oppenheimer...]
Lewis Strauss: (V.O.) You tell Oppenheimer his security clearance is not being renewed.
==== INT. LIVING ROOM, STRAUSS HOUSE -- NIGHT (B&W) ====
[Nichols hands the indictment to Oppenheimer, who sits and reads. Strauss hands Oppenheimer a drink...]
Lewis Strauss: (V.O.) But offer him the chance to appeal.
[Oppenheimer looks up from the letter.] 
Lewis Strauss: As you can see, Robert, it’s not yet signed.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: May I keep this?
Kenneth Nichols: No.
[Oppenheimer rises. In a daze. Strauss takes his arm...]
Lewis Strauss: If you do decide to appeal, they’ll have to send you a copy...
=== INT. NICHOLS’ OFFICE, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- NIGHT (B&W) ===
Lewis Strauss: When he appeal - and trust me, he will - I appoint a board.
[INSERT CUT: THE GRAY BOARD TAKE THEIR SEATS IN ROOM...] 
Lewis Strauss: They will, of course, have counsel.
[INSERT CUT: ROGER ROBB TAKES HIS SEAT...]
Kenneth Nichols: A prosecutor?
Lewis Strauss: In all but name.
Kenneth Nichols: Who?
Lewis Strauss: Roger Robb.
Kenneth Nichols: Ouch.
Lewis Strauss: Robb will have security clearance to examine Oppenheimer’s file.
[INSERT CUT: ROBB OPENS A MASSIVE BLACK BINDER...] 
Lewis Strauss: As will the Gray Board.
[INSERT CUT: A BLACK BINDER IS PLACED IN FRONT OF EACH BOARD MEMBER...]
Lewis Strauss: Defense counsel will not.
[INSERT CUT: GARRISON, AT HIS TABLE IN ROOM 2022, LOOKS COVETOUSLY AT THE BLACK BINDERS GRACING EACH PLACE BUT HIS...]
Lewis Strauss: A closed hearing.
[INSERT CUT: OPPENHEIMER IS SEATED AT THE WITNESS TABLE...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: "The so-called interrogatory information in your indictment of me…"
Lewis Strauss: No audience, no reporters, no burden of proof.
Kenneth Nichols: No burden of proof?
[Strauss leans back, cool.]
Lewis Strauss: We’re not convicting. We’re just denying.
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- MORNING (B&W) ===
[The Senate Aide looks like he ate a bad nut.]
Senate Aide: What is it you said? "This is just how the game is played." Well, forgive my naivete.
Lewis Strauss: Amateurs seek the sun, get eaten. Power stays in the shadows.
Senate Aide: But, sir, you’re… you’re out of the shadows now.
Lewis Strauss: Yeah, that’s why this has to work.
Senate Aide: Well… Teller’s testifying this morning. That’ll help. And then… Hill is in the afternoon.
Counsel: Hill is gonna help us too.
=== INT. LIVING ROOM, STRAUSS HOUSE -- NIGHT (COLOUR) ===
[CLOSE ON: A LETTER- AEC LETTERHEAD- "DEAR DR OPPENHEIMER..."]
Lewis Strauss: As you can see, Robert, it’s not yet signed.
[I look up from Nichols’ letter- SHELL-SHOCKED.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: May I keep this?
Kenneth Nichols: No.
Lewis Strauss: If you do decide to appeal, then they’ll have to send you a copy.
[I hand the letter back to Nichols. Strauss takes my arm...]
==== EXT. STRAUSS HOUSE -- CONTINUOUS ====
[Strauss gently guides me down the steps...]
Lewis Strauss: Take my car and driver, I insist.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’ll have to consult my lawyers, Lewis.
Lewis Strauss: Of course. But don’t take too long. I can’t keep Nichols at bay. I’m sorry it’s come to this, Robert. I think it’s wrong.
[Strauss, like a parent, puts me into the back of his car.]
==== INT. STRAUSS CAR -- NIGHT ====
[I sit in the back, shadows flicking across my face...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: (V.O.) Nichols wants me to fight, so he can get it all on the record.
=== INT. VOLPE’S HOUSE -- NIGHT ===
[Kitty and I sit with Joe Volpe.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Strauss wants me to walk away.
Kitty Oppenheimer: Strauss knows that you can’t do that. You’d be accepting the charges. You’ll lose your job. You will lose your reputation. We’ll lose our house! Robert, we have to fight.
[I look at Kitty. Nod.]
Joe Volpe: As AEC counsel, I can’t represent you. I’ll call Lloyd Garrison.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Oh, he’s good.
Joe Volpe: The best, but I have to warn you... This won’t be a fair fight.
Roger Robb: (V.O.) During your interview with Boris Pash...
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ===
[I watch Garrison scramble to make notes...]
Roger Robb: ...in 1943, did you refer to microfilm?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No.
[Robb consults a paper in his black binder.]
Roger Robb: Tab 11, page one, paragraph three. You never said, “man of the consulate, expert in the use of microfilm”?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No.
Lloyd Garrison: 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.
Roger Robb: The document is classified, Mr. Garrison.
Lloyd Garrison: I think we should get back to firsthand information.
Roger Robb: This is firsthand.
Lloyd Garrison: How so, Roger?
[Robb looks at Gray. Who nods.]
Roger Robb: There was a recording of the interview.
[Garrison is shocked. I shake my head.]
Lloyd Garrison: You let my client sit here and potentially perjure himself, and all this time, you had a recording?
Roger Robb: Nobody told your client to misrepresent his former answers.
Lloyd Garrison: Misrepres...? It was 12 years ago! (to the board) Can we hear this recording?
Roger Robb: You don’t have the clearance, Mr. Garrison.
[I SNAP at the absurdity-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: But you’re reading it into the record!
Lloyd Garrison: (to me) Please, please. (to the board) Is this proceeding interested in entrapment or in truth? If it’s truth, where’s the disclosure? Where’s the witness list?
Gordon Gray: Mr. Garrison, this isn’t a trial, as you are well aware. Evidentiary rules do not apply. We are dealing with national security.
Lloyd Garrison: Yes, sir, with all due respect, I fail to see how national security prevents the prosecution from providing us with a list of witnesses!
[Gray looks at Garrison, stony-faced.]
Gordon Gray: Perhaps we are in need of a brief recess.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Gentlemen. You have my words. If you say they’re from a transcript, then I’ll accept it. I’ve already explained I made up a cock-and-bull story.
Roger Robb: And why would anyone make up such an elaborate story?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Because I was an idiot.
Roger Robb: Why lie?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well, clearly with the intention of not revealing who the intermediary was.
Roger Robb: Your friend, Haakon Chevalier, the communist. Is he still your friend?
[I look from smug Robb to the expectant board members...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes.
[Robb backs down, SATISFIED.]
==== INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ROOM 2022 -- DAY ====
[Oppenheimer and Garrison take a break. Rabi approaches.]
Lloyd Garrison: Dr. Rabi, thank you for coming.
[Garrison looks around to see Robb conferring with his team.]
Lloyd Garrison: (lowered voice) You know who else the prosecution has called?
Isidor Rabi: Teller, obviously. (looks at Oppenheimer) They’ve asked Lawrence.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What did he say?
Isidor Rabi: He wasn’t going to help them, but…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: But?
Isidor Rabi: Strauss told him that you and Ruth Tolman had been having an affair for years. The whole time you lived with them in Pasadena.
[INSERT CUT: I SIP FROM RUTH’S DRINK AT THE CHRISTMAS PARTY. RICHARD ENTERS, BANGING SNOW OFF HIS SHOULDERS...]
Isidor Rabi: He convinced Lawrence that Richard died of a broken heart.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That’s absurd.
Isidor Rabi: What part?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: A broken heart. Richard never found out.
[Rabi tries not to smile. Shakes his head.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Is Lawrence gonna testify?
Isidor Rabi: I don’t know.
==== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ====
[Rabi is testifying.]
Lloyd Garrison: Dr. Rabi, what governmental positions do you currently hold?
Isidor Rabi: I am the chairman of the general advisory committee to the AEC, succeeding Dr. Oppenheimer.
Lloyd Garrison: And how long have you known Dr. Oppenheimer?
Isidor Rabi: Since 1928. I… I know him quite well.
Lloyd Garrison: Well enough to speak to the bearing of his loyalty and character?
Isidor Rabi: Dr. Oppenheimer is a man of upstanding character. And he is loyal to the United States, to his friends, to the institutions of which he is part.
==== EXT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ROOM 2022 -- DAY ====
[I sit, exhausted. A segment of orange drops into my lap -]
Isidor Rabi: Eat.
[I 'sip' at the orange. Rabi spots Lawrence coming down the corridor- Rabi straightens to his full height- STARES DOWN Lawrence, who looks from Rabi to me. Then TURNS and leaves.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Who was that?
Isidor Rabi: Nothing to worry about.
==== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- LATER ====
[Robb cross-examines Rabi-]
Roger Robb: After the Russian A-bomb test, did Dr. Lawrence come to see you about the hydrogen bomb?
Isidor Rabi: You’d be better off asking him.
Roger Robb: Well, I fully intend to. Would you say that Dr. Oppenheimer was unalterably opposed to the H-bomb?
Isidor Rabi: No, he, he thought that a fusion program would come at the expense of our awfully good fission program.
Roger Robb: But that proved not to be the case.
Isidor Rabi: In the event, both could be done.
Isidor Rabi: 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?
Isidor Rabi: Why go through all this against a man who has accomplished what Dr. Oppenheimer has? Look at his record. We have an A-bomb, and a whole series of it. We have a whole series of Super bombs. What more do you want? Mermaids?
[CUT TO:]
==== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ====
[Strauss watches with satisfaction as Teller testifies.]
Edward Teller: ...But I’ve known Secretary Strauss for many years. And I feel it a necessity to express the warm support for science and scientists Lewis has shown.
Chairman Donald Magnuson: We’ll break now. Unless there’s any immediate business?
Lewis Strauss: Senator, I’d like to once again request that we’re furnished with a list of witnesses.
Chairman Donald Magnuson: 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.
[With that, the Chairman BANGS his gavel...]
[CUT TO:]
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[Robb addresses the board...]
Roger Robb: Mr. Chairman, our next scheduled witness, Dr. Lawrence, has apparently come down with... colitis.
[I glance sideways at Garrison, who almost smiles-]
Roger Robb: So we’ll proceed with William Borden instead. Mr. Borden, welcome. Please take a seat.
[I watch as Borden is sworn in.]
Roger Robb: Mr. Borden, during your investigation into Dr. Oppenheimer, did you reach certain conclusions?
Lloyd Garrison: I did.
Roger Robb: And did there come a time when you expressed those conclusions in a letter to Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation?
William Borden: That is correct.
Roger Robb: Prior to the writing of the letter, did you discuss the writing of the letter with anybody attached to the Atomic Energy Commission?
William Borden: I did not.
Roger Robb: Excellent. Do you have a copy of the letter?
William Borden: I have one in front of me.
[Robb’s assistant distributes copies of the letter...]
Roger Robb: Would you please be so kind as to read it, sir?
William Borden: “Dear Mr. Hoover, the purpose of this letter is to state…”
[Garrison holds up a finger, FRANTICALLY reading ahead-]
Lloyd Garrison: I’m sorry, I’m sorry, if I could have…
Gordon Gray: What is the purpose of the delay? He’s simply going to read the letter.
Lloyd Garrison: Mr. Chairman, this is the first I’ve seen of this letter. And I see statements here, at least one, of a kind that I don’t think anyone would like to see go into the record. These are accusations that have not previously been made, that are not part of the indictment from Nichols. Accusations of a kind that I don’t think belong here.
Roger Robb: 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.
Lloyd Garrison: How long has counsel been in possession of this letter?
Roger Robb: I don’t think I should be subject to cross-examination by you, Mr. Garrison.
Gordon Gray: Mr. Garrison, given that we on the board have all read the letter, wouldn’t it be better to have it in the record?
[Garrison says nothing. He looks at me, frustrated.]
Gordon Gray: Let’s proceed.
William Borden: “Dear Mr. Hoover, the purpose of this letter is to state my opinion, based upon years of study of the available classified evidence, that, more probably than not, J. Robert Oppenheimer is an agent of the Soviet Union.
[I watch the STENOGRAPHER calmly type this into the record...]
William Borden: 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.
[Devastated, I cannot meet the eye of anyone in the room. Garrison gets up from his place. Sits down next to me.]
William Borden: Three. More probably than not, he has since acted under a Soviet directive in influencing United States military policy, atomic energy, intelligence and diplomatic policy…”
Lloyd Garrison: I’m sorry, Robert.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Is anyone ever going to tell the truth about what’s happening here?
[CUT TO:]
== Chapter Eighteen ==
=== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss and his Counsel take their seats as the Chairman calls to order. Strauss looks around the room, CHEERFULLY. ]
Chairman Donald Magnuson: We will now hear from Dr. David Hill.
[Strauss peers at a FAMILIAR man in GLASSES, DAVID HILL- Szilard’s note-taking scientist WHOSE PEN OPPENHEIMER GRABBED... ]
Chairman Donald Magnuson: Dr. Hill, would you care to make a statement?
[Strauss glances at Counsel, satisfied.]
David Hill: Thank you. I have been asked to testify about Lewis Strauss, a man who has given years of service in high positions of government, and who is known to be earnest, hard-working, and intelligent. The views I have to express are my own, but I believe that much I have to say will help to indicate why... most of the scientists in this country would prefer to see Mr. Strauss completely out of government.
Senator John Pastore: Y-You're... You’re referring to the hostility of certain scientists directed toward Mr. Strauss because of his commitment to security, as demonstrated in the Oppenheimer affair?
[Beat.]
David Hill: No. Because of the personal vindictiveness he demonstrated against Dr. Oppenheimer.
[Counsel turns to Strauss, who is FIXATED on Hill. The Senate Aide REACTS, surprised. MURMURS echo through the chamber- the Chairman BANGS the gavel-]
Chairman Donald Magnuson: Order! Order!
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[Vannevar Bush is sworn in.]
Vannevar Bush: It appears to most scientists around this country that Robert Oppenheimer is now being pilloried, and put through an ordeal, because he expressed his honest opinions.
Ward Evans: Dr. Bush, I thought I was performing a service to my country when hearing this case.
Vannevar Bush: No board in this country, should sit in judgment of a man because he expressed his strong opinions. If you wanna try that case, you should try me! Excuse me, gentlemen, if I’ve… become stirred. But I am.
=== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss fumes.]
Sen. Pastore: Dr. Hill, we’ve already heard that Mr. Strauss did not bring the charges, or participate in the hearings against Dr. Oppenheimer.
David Hill: The Oppenheimer matter was… initiated, and carried through, largely through the animus of Lewis Strauss.
[The audience REACTS- Strauss SHAKES his head-]
David Hill: Oppenheimer made mincemeat out of Strauss’s position on the shipments of isotopes to Norway, and Strauss never forgave him this public humiliation. Another controversy between them centered around their differences in judgment on how the H-bomb would contribute to national security. Strauss turned to the personnel security system in order to destroy Oppenheimer’s effectiveness, and Strauss was able to find a few ambitious men who also disagreed with Oppenheimer’s positions and envied him his prestige in government circles.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[I watch Teller testify.]
Edward Teller: I’ve always assumed, and still assume, that he is loyal to the United States. I believe this, and I shall believe it, until I see very conclusive proof to the opposite.
Roger Robb: Do you or do you not believe that Dr. Oppenheimer is a security risk?
[Beat.]
Edward Teller: In a great number of cases, I have seen Dr. Oppenheimer act in a way which was, to me, exceedingly hard to understand. I thoroughly disagreed with him in numerous issues, and his actions frankly appeared to me confused and complicated. To this extent, I feel I want to see the vital interests of this country in hands which I understand better, and therefore trust more.
Gordon Gray: Thank you, Doctor.
Roger Robb: Thank you.
[Teller gets up from the table, as he walks past me he holds out his hand...]
I’m sorry.
[I shake his hand.]
Kitty Oppenheimer: (V.O.) You shook his fucking hand!?
=== INT. DINING ROOM, OLDEN MANOR, PRINCETON -- NIGHT ===
Kitty Oppenheimer: Oh, I would have spit in his face...
Lloyd Garrison: I’m not sure the Board would have appreciated that.
Kitty Oppenheimer: Is it not gentlemanly enough for you? Well, I think you’re all being too goddamn gentlemanly.
Joe Volpe: Gray must see what Robb is doing. Well, why doesn’t he just shut him down?
Kitty Oppenheimer: And you, shaking Teller’s hand... You need to stop playing the martyr.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[Groves is testifying.]
Roger Robb: Under the current AEC guidelines, would you clear Dr. Oppenheimer today?
Leslie Groves: 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.
Roger Robb: Good. Thank you, General. That is all.
Leslie Groves: But I don’t think I’d clear any of those guys.
Roger Robb: That’s all.
Lloyd Garrison: Dr. Oppenheimer had no responsibility in the selection or the clearance of Klaus Fuchs, did he?
Leslie Groves: No. None at all.
Lloyd Garrison: And you wouldn’t want to leave this board with any suggestion today that you’re here questioning his basic loyalty to the United States in the operation of Los Alamos?
Leslie Groves: By no means. I hope I didn’t lead anyone to believe otherwise for an instant.
Gordon Gray: Thank you, General.
[Groves gets up, walks past me with a formal nod.]
=== INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ROOM 2022 -- DAY ===
[Garrison checks his watch.]
Lloyd Garrison: Okay. We shouldn’t keep them waiting.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: She’ll be here.
Lloyd Garrison: Do you even want her here?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Only a fool or an adolescent presumes to know someone else’s relationship, and you’re neither, Lloyd.
[Kitty comes around the corner. Unsteady. I watch her walk towards us, not entirely straight... she catches my eye-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Kitty and I... we're grown-ups. We’ve walked through fire together. She will do fine.
==== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY ====
[Kitty is at the witness table. From behind I can see her fiddling distractedly with her purse...]
Lloyd Garrison: Would you describe your views on communism as pro, anti, neutral?
Kitty Oppenheimer: Very strongly against. I’ve had nothing to do with communism in, since… since 1936. Since… Since before I met Robert.
Lloyd Garrison: That’s all.
David Hill: (V.O.) The record demonstrates that Oppenheimer was not interrogated by impartial and disinterested counsel for the Gray Board. He was interrogated by a prosecutor who used all the tricks of a rather ingenious legal background.
[Robb gets up to cross-examine...]
[CUT TO:]
=== INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss watches Hill continue to answer questions...]
Senator Scott: You are charging now that the Gray Board permitted a prosecution.
[Hill takes a beat to consider this.]
David Hill: If I were on the Gray Board, I would have protested against the tactics of the man who served in fact as the prosecuting counsel. A man appointed not by the Board, but by Lewis Strauss.
Senator Scott: Who was this?
David Hill: I’m sorry?
Senator Scott: Who was this?
David Hill: Uh, Roger Robb.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[Robb tries to put himself in Kitty’s eyeline...]
Roger Robb: Mrs. Oppenheimer...
[She will not meet his gaze.]
Roger Robb: Did you have a Communist Party membership card?
Kitty Oppenheimer: I’m… I’m not sure.
[Kitty fiddles with her purse...]
Roger Robb: Not sure?
Kitty Oppenheimer: Well…
Roger Robb: Well?
[She FREEZES. The Board members look at her. Garrison looks at me...]
Roger Robb: I mean, presumably, the act of joining the party required sending some money and receiving a card, no?
[Kitty is focused on her purse...]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Sorry.
Roger Robb: Yes.
[And then Kitty LOOKS UP at Robb, pure STEEL-]
Kitty Oppenheimer: It’s just, it was all so very long ago, Mr. Robb, wasn’t it?
Roger Robb: Not really.
Kitty Oppenheimer: Long enough to have forgotten.
Roger Robb: Did you return the card, or rip it up?
Kitty Oppenheimer: The card whose existence I’ve forgotten?
Roger Robb: Your Communist Party membership card?
Kitty Oppenheimer: Haven’t the slightest idea.
Roger Robb: Can a distinction be made between Soviet communism and communism?
Kitty Oppenheimer: Well, in the days when I was a member, I thought they were definitely two things.
[Garrison and I hang on her every word...]
Roger Robb: Oh?
Kitty Oppenheimer: I thought that the Communist Party of the United States was concerned with our domestic problems. I now no longer believe this. I believe the whole thing’s linked together and spread all over the world, and I have believed this since I left the party sixteen years ago.
Roger Robb: But…
Kitty Oppenheimer: Seventeen years ago. My mistake.
Roger Robb: But you said…
Kitty Oppenheimer: Sorry, eighteen. Eighteen years ago.
[Robb sighs patiently.]
Roger Robb: Are you familiar with the fact your husband was making contributions to the Spanish Civil War as late as 1942?
Kitty Oppenheimer: I knew that Robert gave money from time to time.
Roger Robb: Did you know this money was going into Communist Party channels?
[Kitty smiles sweetly.]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Don’t you mean "through"?
Roger Robb: Pardon?
Kitty Oppenheimer: I think you mean "through Communist Party channels", don’t you?
Roger Robb: Ye-Yes,
Kitty Oppenheimer: Yes?
Roger Robb: Yes!
Kitty Oppenheimer: Yes.
Roger Robb: Then would it be fair to say that this meant that by 1942, your husband had not stopped having anything to do with the Communist Party? You don’t have to answer that "yes" or "no", you can answer that any way you wish.
Kitty Oppenheimer: I know that, thank you. It’s your question. It’s not properly phrased.
Roger Robb: Do you understand what I’m getting at?
Kitty Oppenheimer: I do.
Roger Robb: Then why don’t you answer it that way?
Kitty Oppenheimer: 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.
Roger Robb: The two types of communists? Intellectual communists, and your plain old regular commie?
[Kitty laughs the laugh of the free.]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Well, I couldn’t answer that one.
Ward Evans: (delighted) I couldn’t either.
[Gray shoots a look at Evans. Garrison looks at me. Nods. She did good.]
=== EXT. OLDEN MANOR, PRINCETON -- NIGHT ===
Lloyd Garrison: Good evening.
[Garrison drives off. Volpe turns to me...]
Joe Volpe: Robert, you can’t win this thing. It’s a kangaroo court with a predetermined outcome. Why put yourself through more of it?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I have my reasons.
Joe Volpe: Alright. Good night.
[Volpe shrugs. Embraces me. Gets in his car. Einstein steps into the light.]
Albert Einstein: He has a point.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I’m not sure you understand, Albert.
Albert Einstein: No? I left my country, never to return. You served your country well. If this is the reward she offers you, then… perhaps you should turn your back on her.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Damn it, I happen to love this country.
[Einstein considers this. Nods slowly.]
Albert Einstein: Then tell them to go to hell.
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss BURSTS in, fuming...]
Lewis Strauss: Interestingly enough, this is no longer a confirmation hearing. It’s now a trial… about a trial!
[He knocks the coat hanger over.]
Lewis Strauss: For god’s sakes!
[Counsel closes the room's blinds.]
Senate Aide: It’s not good he’s telling everyone you initiated the hearings.
Lewis Strauss: He can’t prove a goddamn thing. He certainly can’t prove that I gave the file to Borden.
Senate Aide: We’re not in court, sir. There’s no burden of proof.
[Strauss realizes. Shakes his head at himself.]
Lewis Strauss: Right, they’re not convicting. They’re just denying.
[The Senate Aide nods.]
Lewis Strauss: Why would Hill come here to tear me down? What’s his angle?
Senate Aide: Do people need a reason to do the right thing?
[Strauss GLARES at the Senate Aide.]
Senate Aide: As he sees it.
Lewis Strauss: I told you. Oppenheimer’s been poisoning the scientists against me right from that first meeting.
[INSERT CUT: STRAUSS WATCHES OPPENHEIMER HAND EINSTEIN HIS HAT AS THEY SPEAK DOWN AT THE LAKE...]
Lewis Strauss: I don’t know what Oppenheimer said to him that day, but Einstein wouldn’t even meet my eye.
[INSERT CUT: AS STRAUSS APPROACHES, EINSTEIN WALKS PAST WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGING HIM, CLEARLY UPSET...]
Lewis Strauss: Oppenheimer knows how to manipulate his own. At Los Alamos, he preyed on the naïveté of scientists who thought they get a say in how we use their work. They’ll never think he was that naïve himself.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[I am back at the witness table. Robb squares up.]
Roger Robb: Doctor, during your work on the hydrogen bomb, were you deterred by any moral qualms?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, of course.
Roger Robb: But you still got on with your work, didn’t you?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, because this was work of exploration, it was not the preparation of a weapon.
Roger Robb: You mean it was more of a... an academic excursion?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: No, it is not an academic thing, whether you can build a hydrogen bomb. It’s a matter of life and death.
Roger Robb: By 1942, you were actively pushing the development of the hydrogen bomb, weren’t you?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: "Pushing" is not the right word. Supporting it and working on it, yes.
Roger Robb: So when did these moral qualms become so strong that you actively opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: 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.
Roger Robb: (theatrical confusion) What do moral qualms have to do with that?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What do moral qualms have to do with it?
Roger Robb: Yes.
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss is pacing now...]
Lewis Strauss: Oppenheimer wanted to own the atomic bomb. He wanted to be The Man Who Moved the Earth. He talks about putting the nuclear genie back in the bottle. Well, I’m here to tell you that I know J. Robert Oppenheimer, and if he could do it all over, he’d do it all the same! You know he’s never once said that he regrets Hiroshima? He’d do it all over. Why? Because it made him the most important man who ever lived.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[I struggle to find an answer for Robb...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well... We-- We freely used the atomic bomb.
Roger Robb: In fact, Doctor, you assisted in selecting the target to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, didn’t you?
[Now I can hear the sound of FEET STAMPING...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes…
Roger Robb: Well then, you knew, did you not, that by dropping that atomic bomb on the target you selected, that thousands of civilians would be killed or injured. Is that correct?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, not as many as turned out.
Roger Robb: Oh. Then how many were killed or injured?
[The feet are stamping FASTER and FASTER...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: 70,000.
Roger Robb: 70,000, both Hiroshima and…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: 110,000 to both.
Roger Robb: On the day of each bombing?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes.
Roger Robb: And in the weeks and years that followed?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: It has been put at somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000.
Roger Robb: 220,000 dead, at least.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes.
Roger Robb: Any moral scruples about that?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Terrible ones.
Roger Robb: But yet you testified in here that the bombing of Hiroshima was very successful.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Technically successful.
Roger Robb: Oh! Technically it was very successful.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: And it is also alleged to have helped to end the war.
[The stamping feet are LOUDER and FASTER...]
Roger Robb: Would you have been supportive of the dropping of a hydrogen bomb on Hiroshima?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: That would make no sense at all.
Roger Robb:Why?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: The-- The-- The target is too small.
Roger Robb: Well, supposing there had been a target in Japan big enough for a thermonuclear weapon, would you have been opposed to the dropping of it?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: This was not a problem with which I was confronted.
Roger Robb: Well, I’m confronting you with it now, sir.
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss TURNS on the Senate Aide-]
Lewis Strauss: It was all part of his plan. He wanted the glorious, insincere guilt of the self-important to wear like a fucking crown and say, “No, we cannot go down this road,” even as he knew we’d have to.
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
Roger Robb: Would you have been opposed to the dropping of a thermonuclear weapon on Japan because of moral scruples?
[The FEET STAMPING ever LOUDER-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, I believe I would, sir.
Roger Robb: Did you oppose the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima because of moral scruples?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We set forth our arg…
Roger Robb: No, you, you, you, you! I’m asking you…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I set…
Roger Robb: You, you, you!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I set forth our arguments against dropping it, but I did not endorse them.
[Robb gets right in my face, incredulous-]
Roger Robb: You mean after working night and day for three years building the bomb, you then argued against the use of it?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I was asked by the Secretary of War what the views of scientists were. I gave them the views against and the views for.
Roger Robb: You supported the dropping of the atom bomb on Japan, didn’t you?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What do you mean "support"…
Roger Robb: You supported it…
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What do you mean, support?
[The STAMPING breaks rhythm to become CACOPHONOUS...
Roger Robb: Well, you helped pick the target, didn’t you?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I did my job. I was not in a policy-making position at Los Alamos. I would have done anything I was asked to do.
[THE LIGHT OF A THOUSAND SUNS POURS IN THE WINDOW...]
Roger Robb: Well, then, you would have built the H-bomb too, wouldn’t you?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: But I couldn’t…
Roger Robb: I didn’t ask you that, Doctor! And the GAC report, which you co-authored after the Soviet atomic test said: “A Super bomb should never be built!”
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: What we meant, what I meant…
Roger Robb: What you, who?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Look, what I meant…
Roger Robb: Who?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Well...
[LIGHT STABS THROUGH CRACKS IN THE WALL...]
Roger Robb: And wouldn’t the Russians do anything to increase their strength?
[The sound STOPS.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: 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!
Roger Robb: Just as it had with the atomic bomb, exactly!
[The light is gone.]
Roger Robb: No moral scruples in 1945, plenty in 1949.
Gordon Gray: (gentle) Dr. Oppenheimer… when did your strong moral convictions develop with respect to the hydrogen bomb?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: When it became clear to me that we would tend to use any weapon we had.
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss has stopped...]
Lewis Strauss: J. Robert Oppenheimer the martyr, I gave him exactly what he wanted. To be remembered for Trinity, not Hiroshima! Not Nagasaki! He should be thanking me.
Senate Aide: Well, he’s not.
[Strauss looks at the Senate Aide’s neck, wondering if he could get one hand all the way around it.]
Lewis Strauss: Do we still have enough votes? Or is the crowning moment of my career about to become the most public humiliation of my life?
Senate Aide: Full Senate’s about to vote.
[The Senate Aide looks down at his buck slip, counts his tally.]
Senate Aide: You’ll scrape through.
Lewis Strauss: Great, then gather the fucking press.
== Chapter Nineteen ==
=== INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[I sit with Garrison and listen to Gray pass judgement...]
Gordon Gray: Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, this board, having heard testimony from you and many of your current and former colleagues, has come to the unanimous conclusion that you are a loyal citizen. However… In the light of your continuing associations, and disregard for the security apparatus of this country, together with your somewhat disturbing conduct on the hydrogen bomb program, and the regrettable lack of candor in certain of your responses to this board, we have voted, two-to-one, to deny the renewal of your security clearance.
[I barely hear the rest...]
Gordon Gray: A full written opinion, with a dissent from Mr. Evans, will be issued to the AEC in the coming days. That is all.
[The board rises, aides start collecting files. Still dazed, I take the phone from Garrison-]
Kitty Oppenheimer: Robert. Robert.
[I take a breath. Not trusting my voice...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Don’t… Don’t take in the sheets.
[CUT TO:]
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
[We hear the press gathering behind the doors. Strauss checks his tie in the mirror. Smooths his hair.]
Senate Aide: Two minutes. Two minutes! You’ll get your shot!
[The Senate Aide enters, buck slip in hand.]
Lewis Strauss: Is it official?
Senate Aide: Well, there were a couple of unexpected holdouts.
[Strauss freezes, absorbing the impact.]
Lewis Strauss: I’m denied. Yeah?
Senate Aide: I’m afraid so, sir.
Lewis Strauss: Alright.
[Strauss doesn’t know what to do or where to look.]
Lewis Strauss: Who were the holdouts?
Senate Aide: Um, there were three. Led by the junior senator from Massachusetts. Young guy trying to make a name for himself, didn’t like what you did to Oppenheimer.
Lewis Strauss: What’s his name?
[The Senate Aide checks his tally...]
Senate Aide: Uh, Kennedy. John F. Kennedy.
[CUT TO:]
=== EXT. OLDEN MANOR, BACK GATE OVERLOOKING THE INSTITUTE -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[I approach Kitty, who’s been crying.]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Kitty?
Kitty Oppenheimer: Did you think that if you let them tar and feather you, then the world would forgive you? It won’t.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: We’ll see.
[CUT TO:]
=== INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W) ===
[Strauss listens to the hungry press pack beyond the door. He TURNS on the Senate Aide-]
Lewis Strauss: You told me I’d be okay.
Yeah, well, I didn’t have all the facts, did I?
Lewis Strauss: Here’s a 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.
[The Senate Aide picks up Strauss’s hat and coat...]
Senate Aide: Maybe they will.
Lewis Strauss: I told you. He turned the scientists against me, one by one, starting with Einstein. I told you about that. Einstein. Einstein by the pond.
Senate Aide: You did, but you know, sir, since nobody… really knows what they said to each other that day, is it possible they didn’t talk about you at all? Is it possible they spoke about something, uh... more important?
[Strauss looks at the Senate Aide like he wants to kill him. The Senate Aide OPENS the office door and the FLASHBULBS EAT STRAUSS ALIVE as we-]
=== EXT. LAKESIDE, INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON -- DAY (COLOUR) ===
[I approach the figure by the lake. The figure’s hat BLOWS off, releasing a mass of GREY CURLS. Strauss watches from the doorway as I scoop up Einstein’s hat...]
Albert Einstein: Thank you!
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Albert.
Albert Einstein: Ah. The man of the moment!
[I hand him his hat. He looks out at the lake.]
Albert Einstein: You once held a... a reception for me, in Berkley. You gave me an award, hm?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Yes.
Albert Einstein: You all thought that I had lost the ability to understand what I’d started. So… The award really wasn’t for me, it was for all of you, hmm? Now it’s your turn to deal with the consequences of your achievement.
[Einstein turns to me.]
Albert Einstein: And one day, when they’ve punished you enough, they’ll serve you salmon and potato salad.
Albert Einstein: (V.O.) Make speeches. Give you a medal…
=== INT. CABINET ROOM, WHITE HOUSE -- DAY ===
[Dozens of formally attired GUESTS. Kitty by my side. Many faces, now older, are there - Rabi, Lawrence, Frank, Jackie...]
[LYNDON JOHNSON places a MEDAL around my neck. I SMILE and shake the President’s hand. Kitty BEAMS as she, in turn, shakes Johnson’s hand... Frank comes up to me, gives me a quick embrace-]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Hello, Frank.
Frank Oppenheimer: You’re happy, I’m happy.
Albert Einstein: (V.O.) …Pat you on the back, tell you all is forgiven.
[Lawrence claps me on the shoulder, smiling affectionately...]
Albert Einstein: (V.O.) Just remember… it won’t be for you.
[Teller turns to Kitty, offering the same smile and handshake...]
Albert Einstein: (V.O.) It’ll be for them.
[Kitty STARES Teller down, letting his hand hang in the air like a WILTING PLANT... and we-]
[CUT TO:]
=== EXT. LAKESIDE, INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON -- DAY ===
[Einstein TURNS to leave. Up the hill, Strauss approaches...]
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: Albert… when I came to you with those calculations, we thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world?
[Einstein pauses. I watch raindrops make circles on the surface of the pond.]
Albert Einstein: Mm, I remember it well. What of it?
Julius Robert Oppenheimer: I believe we did.
[Einstein PALES. TURNS. The sound of FEET STAMPING...]
[CLOSE IN ON: my staring eyes as I visualize THE EXPANDING NUCLEAR ARSENALS OF THE WORLD... THE FEET, FASTER AND FASTER-]
[When I can take it no longer, I JAM my eyes CLOSED and we-]
[CUT TO BLACK.]
[CREDITS.]
[END.]
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