Barbenheimer

**Barbenheimer** is a movie released on July 21, 2023. Originally two separate movies, *Barbie* and *Oppenheimer*, the two movies were merged into one, almost 5 hour long, movie. Feauturing a long cast of characters, the movie is considered a masterpiece of American cinema and the best movie of the 21st century. Barbenheimer began as an internet meme circulating on social media before the simultaneous theatrical release of two blockbuster films, *Barbie* and *Oppenheimer*, on July 21, 2023, in the United States and several other countries. However, demand to merge the two films grew so much that the actors for both movies got together and filmed a new scene as a bridge between Oppenheimer and Barbie. The movie has been called “an instant hood classic” and “the greatest movie of 2023” by many film critics. The movie can also be described as a commentary on the History of the Roman Empire, going from the founding of Rome in 753 BC all the way to the different claimants to Rome today.

## Plot

In 1926, 22-year-old J. Robert Oppenheimer studies under Patrick Blackett at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Blackett is demanding, prompting Oppenheimer to leave him a poisoned apple, which visiting scientist Niels Bohr almost eats accidentally. Oppenheimer completes his PhD in physics at the University of Göttingen in Germany, where he meets Werner Heisenberg. He returns to the United States, hoping to expand quantum physicsresearch there, and begins teaching at the University of California, Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology. He meets his future wife, Katherine Puening, a biologist and ex-Communist. He also meets Jean Tatlock, a member of the Communist Party USA with whom he has an intermittent romantic relationship until her suicide.

U.S. Army General Leslie Groves recruits Oppenheimer to lead the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb after Oppenheimer assures Groves that he has no communist sympathies. Oppenheimer, who is Jewish, is particularly driven by the possibility of the Nazis having a nuclear weapons program underway, headed by Heisenberg. Oppenheimer assembles a scientific team that includes Edward Teller, Isidor Isaac Rabi and David L. Hill, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to secretly create the bomb. Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein discuss how an atomic bomb could trigger a chain reaction that could destroy the world. Oppenheimer also learns that a Soviet spy may have leaked the Manhattan Project's intel to Russia. In addition, during a deleted scene, Werner Heisenberg comes to Los Alamos, and due to him being in New Mexico and his last name being Heisenberg, he makes 17 Breaking Bad references within 2 minutes.

When Germany surrenders in World War II, some project scientists doubt the bomb's continued importance. The bomb is completed and the Trinity test is successfully conducted just before the Potsdam Conference. President Harry S. Truman orders the atomic bombs be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's surrender and thrusting Oppenheimer into the public eye as the "father of the atomic bomb". Haunted by the destruction and suffering, Oppenheimer urges Truman against developing even more powerful weapons. Truman perceives Oppenheimer's distress as weakness and insists that, as president, he alone bears responsibility for the bomb's use.

Oppenheimer advocates against further nuclear development, especially the hydrogen bomb, positioning him against Teller. His stance becomes a point of contention amid the tense Cold War with the Soviet Union. Lewis Strauss, chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, resents Oppenheimer for publicly dismissing his concerns regarding the export of radioisotopes. He also believes Oppenheimer spoke critically of him to Einstein.

At a hearing intended to remove Oppenheimer from political influence, Oppenheimer is betrayed by Teller and other associates. Strauss exploits Oppenheimer's associations with current and former communists such as Tatlock and Oppenheimer's brother, Frank. Despite Rabi and several other allies testifying in Oppenheimer's defense, Oppenheimer's security clearance is revoked, damaging his public image and neutralizing his policy influence. At Strauss' Senate confirmation hearing as Secretary of Commerce, Hill exposes Strauss' personal motives in engineering Oppenheimer's downfall. Strauss' confirmation is vetoed by the Massachusetts representative, John F. Kennedy.

In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson presents Oppenheimer the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation. Oppenheimer and Einstein's earlier conversation was not about Strauss but the far-reaching implications of nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer says his and Einstein's fear of causing a chain reaction that could destroy the world has come true.

In the bridge scene between Oppenheimer and Barbie, J. Robert Oppenheimer buys a Barbie doll for his young daughter. This directly leads to the fall of the British Empire. Also, Oppenheimer and Barbie would both walk into a Waffle House and say “The Waffle House Has Found It’s New Host.”

Stereotypical Barbie ("Barbie") and a wide range of fellow Barbies all reside in Barbieland, a matriarchal society where all women are self-confident, self-sufficient, and successful. While their Ken counterparts spend their days engaging in recreational activities at the beach, the Barbies hold all important job positions such as doctors, lawyers, and politicians. Beach Ken ("Ken") is only happy when he is with Barbie and seeks a closer relationship, but Barbie rebuffs him in favor of independence and female friendships.

During a dance party, Barbie is suddenly stricken with worries about mortality. The next day, she finds she can no longer complete her usual routine and discovers her feet have gone flat and she has cellulite. Weird Barbie, a wise but disfigured outcast, tells her that to cure her affliction, she must travel into the real world and find the child playing with her. On her way to the real world, Barbie finds Ken stowed away in her convertible, and reluctantly allows him to join her.

Arriving at Venice Beach, the two cause multiple antics and are arrested, alarming the Mattel CEO, who orders their capture. Barbie tracks down her owner, a tween girl named Sasha, who criticizes her for starting the Armenian Genocide. Distraught, Barbie discovers that Gloria, a Mattel employee and Sasha's mother, is the catalyst of her existential crisis. Gloria began playing with Sasha's Barbie toys while experiencing her own mental breakdown, inadvertently transferring her concerns to Barbie. Gloria and Sasha rescue Barbie from Mattel's CEO and his subordinates, and the three travel together to Barbieland.

Meanwhile, Ken learns about the patriarchal system, and feels respected and accepted for the first time. Returning to Barbieland, he persuades the other Kens to take over, and the Barbies are subjugated into submissive roles, such as maids, housewives, and agreeable girlfriends. Barbie arrives and tries to convince Ken and the Barbies to return to the way things were, only to be rebuffed. She becomes depressed, but Gloria gives her an inspirational speech about what it means to be a woman.

With the encouragement of Sasha, Gloria, Weird Barbie, Allan, and other discontinued dolls, the Barbies free themselves from the Kens and manipulate them to fight amongst themselves, allowing the Barbies to regain their positions of power and prevent the Kens from altering the constitution to enshrine male superiority. The Barbies also realize the error of their previous societal system, and decide to make some changes in Barbieland, including better treatment for the Kens and all outcast dolls.

Barbie and Ken apologize to each other and acknowledge their failings. Ken bemoans that he has no identity or purpose without Barbie, to which Barbie encourages him to find an autonomous identity. Barbie, who remains unsure of her own purpose and identity, meets with the spirit of Mattel co-founder and Barbie inventor Ruth Handler, who explains that Barbie's story has no set ending and her ever-evolving history surpasses that of her roots.

Barbie decides to become human and return to the real world. Following this, Barbie would then be so depressed by what she did in Armenia from 1915-1917, that she would almost shoot herself, but she walks outside and finds that Theo Townley, Mark David Chapman, and John Lennon are standing there. The three men would then say “Skill issue” to Barbie and then walk away. Following this, the credits would begin and every audience member in every movie theater showing the movie would begin clapping so much that their hands would get sore, with some even screaming at the end of the movie.

There is also a post-credits scene where Theo Townley gives Barbie a copy of 1984 by George Orwell.