НАЗВАНИЕ: Oppenheimer (2023)
ГОД: 2023
СЦЕНАРИСТ: Christopher Nolan
ИСТОЧНИК: ScriptSlug (PDF) — https://www.scriptslug.com/script/oppenheimer-2023
URL: https://assets.scriptslug.com/live/pdf/scripts/oppenheimer-2023.pdf
СКАЧАНО: 2026-10-12 11:50
ПРИМЕЧАНИЕ: текст чужой, для личного изучения. Не распространять. Не исполнять.
======================================================================

                             GADGET



                           Written by

                       Christopher Nolan




                      Based on the novel:

                      "American Prometheus:
        The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer"

                               By
                 Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin




© 2022 SYNCOPY
Gadget    2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script          1.


  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 (O.S.)
            Dr Oppenheimer, as we begin, I
            believe you have a statement to
            read into the record?

  I glance down at my notes.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Yes, your honour-

                      SECOND VOICE (O.S.)
            We’re not judges, doctor.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            No. Of course.
                (I start reading)
            Members of the Security Board, the
            so-called derogatory information in
            your indictment of me cannot be
            fairly understood except in the
            context of my life and work. This
            answer is a summary of relevant
            aspects of my life in more or less
            chronological order...

                      SENATE AIDE (V.O.)
            How long did he testify?

                                                      CUT TO:
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script             2.


  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"

                      STRAUSS
            I forget. Three days, or so. The
            whole hearing took a month.

                         SENATE AIDE
            An ordeal.

                      STRAUSS
            I’ve only read the transcripts, but
            who’d want to justify their whole
            life?

                      SENATE AIDE
            You weren’t there?

                      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. Oppenheimer still
            divides America- the committee will
            want to know where you stood.
                (checks his watch)
            Ready?


  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 you’re on trial.

                      STRAUSS
            I didn’t, till you said that.

           SENATE AIDE
  Really, Mr Strauss-                             STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                       Admiral.
                       SENATE AIDE (CONT’D)
            Admiral Strauss, this is a
            formality.
                       (MORE)

                                                         (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script            3.

                      SENATE AIDE (CONT’D)
            President Eisenhower’s asked you to
            be in his cabinet, the Senate has
            no choice but to confirm you.

  They arrive at the door.

                      STRAUSS
            And if they bring up Oppenheimer?

                      SENATE AIDE
            When they bring up Oppenheimer,
            answer honestly and no senator can
            deny that you did your duty. It’ll
            be uncomfortable...
                (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.

                      ROBB (V.O.)
            Why did you leave the United
            States?

                                                     CUT TO:


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

  The room is SMALL, SHABBY. Surprised, I look up from my
  statement at the prosecutor, Roger ROBB. Then turn to the
  THREE BOARD MEMBERS (GRAY, EVANS, MORGAN).

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I wanted to learn the new physics.

                      GRAY
            Was there nowhere here? I thought
            Berkeley had the leading
            theoretical physics department-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Sure. Once I built it. First I had
            to go to Europe. I went to
            Cambridge to work under Patrick
            Blackett.

                      ROBB
            Were you happier there than in
            America?




                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script           4.


  INSERT CUT: A YOUNG ME (TWENTY-ONE) LIES IN BED STARING UP,
  CRYING... PARTICLES WITH THE VASTNESS OF THE STARS MOVE LIKE
  FIREFLIES...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            No. I was homesick. Emotionally
            immature... troubled by visions of
            a hidden universe...


  INT. LABORATORY, CAMBRIDGE -- DAY

  The young ME, frazzled demeanor, STRUGGLES with equipment.

                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            ...useless in the lab.

  I drop a beaker, it SHATTERS. PATRICK BLACKETT looks over,
  FROWNING. He picks up an APPLE and takes a LARGE BITE.

                      BLACKETT
                (through apple)
            Christ, Oppenheimer, have you had
            any sleep? Start again.

                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            I need to go to the lecture.

                       BLACKETT
            Why?

                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
                (pleading)
            It’s Niels Bohr.

  Blackett checks his watch- starts packing up-

                      BLACKETT
            Damn, completely forgot. Let’s go.

  I start to pack up with the other students.

                      BLACKETT (CONT’D)
            Not 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...
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             5.


  EXT. QUADRANGLE, CAMBRIDGE -- EVENING

  I HURRY across the quad. A lonely figure.

                       BOHR (V.O.)
            Quantum physics isn’t a step
            forward...


  INT. LECTURE HALL, CAMBRIDGE -- CONTINUOUS

  I sneak into the back of the auditorium. Standing,
  SPELLBOUND, as NIELS BOHR, a charismatic Dane, lectures.

                      BOHR
            ...It’s a new way to understand
            reality. Einstein’s opened a door,
            now we’re 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...

                                                    CUT TO:


  INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W)

  Strauss sits facing the Committee, COUNSEL beside him, PRESS,
  CAMERAS and PUBLIC behind...

                      SENATOR MCGEE
            Admiral Strauss, I’m interested in
            your relationship with Dr J. Robert
            Oppenheimer. You met in 1947?

                       STRAUSS
            Correct.

                      SENATOR MCGEE
            You were a commissioner of the
            Atomic Energy Commission?

                       STRAUSS
            I was, but I met Robert in my
            capacity as board member of the
            Institute for Advanced Study at
            Princeton. After the war he was
            world-renowned- the great man of
            physics...
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script              6.


  EXT. INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON -- DAY (B&W)

  Strauss, younger, fifty-one, bustles out of the Institute-

                      STRAUSS (V.O.)
            ...I was determined to get him to
            run the Institute.

  -to welcome the rail-thin figure of Oppenheimer (forty-
  three), emerging from a TAXI in HAT and coat, PIPE in mouth.
  ICONIC.

                      STRAUSS
            Dr Oppenheimer, an honour.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Mr Strauss.

                      STRAUSS
            It’s pronounced 'straws'.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            'Oh-ppenheimer', 'aw-ppenheimer'-
            any way you say it they know I’m
            Jewish.

                      STRAUSS
            I’m a proud member of Temple
            Emmanuel- 'straws' is the Southern
            pronunciation. Welcome to the
            Institute. I think you could be
            very happy here.

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Oh?

                      STRAUSS
            Well, you’ll love the commute- the
            position comes with that house for
            you and your wife.

  Strauss points along an avenue of trees to Olden Manor...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            And your two children...

  Oppenheimer nods as he follows Strauss into the Institute.


  INT. INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON -- CONTINUOUS
  (B&W)

  Strauss leads Oppenheimer through the Institute.



                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script              7.


                      STRAUSS
            I’m a great admirer of your work.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You’re a physicist by training, Mr
            Strauss?

                      STRAUSS
            No, I’m not trained in physics, or
            anything else. I’m a self-made man.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I can relate to that...

                       STRAUSS
            Really?

                      OPPENHEIMER
                (dry)
            My father was one.


  INT. PRESIDENT’S OFFICE, INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY --
  MOMENTS LATER (B&W)

  Strauss shows Oppenheimer into the well-appointed office.

                      STRAUSS
            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-

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            I’m told he’s there most
            afternoons.

  The figure gently tosses a stone into the water.

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            I’ve always wondered why you didn’t
            involved him in the Manhattan
            Project.

  Oppenheimer turns to Strauss, interested.

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            The greatest scientific mind of our
            time?




                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             8.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            Of his time. Einstein published his
            Theory of Relativity more than
            forty years ago, but never embraced
            the quantum world it revealed.

                      STRAUSS
            'God doesn’t play dice.'

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Precisely. You never thought of
            studying physics formally?

                      STRAUSS
            I had offers. But I chose to sell
            shoes.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Lewis Strauss was once a lowly shoe
            salesman?

                      STRAUSS
            No. Just a shoe salesman.
                (opens the door)
            I’ll introduce you-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            No need. I’ve known him for years.

  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, and we...

                                                    CUT TO:


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

  I flip a page. Continue reading my statement.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I struggled badly trying to
            visualize this new world...


  INT. ROOMS AT CAMBRIDGE -- DAY

  The Young Me lies on the floor, STARING UP.




                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             9.


                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            ...you had to retool your mind to
            see things hovering just out of
            site...


  INSERT CUT: POINTS OF LIGHT MOVE LIKE SPARKS, BUT IN A WAVE.

                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            ...then you could unlock forces
            never before imagined...

  I wipe TEARS from my eyes.


  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...

                      BLACKETT
            You alright?

  I nod awkward, trying to control my BREATHING...

                      BLACKETT (CONT’D)
            Niels, meet J. Robert Oppenheimer.

  The other man TURNS, offers his hand- Niels Bohr.

                      BOHR
            What does the 'J' stand for?

                      BLACKETT
            Nothing, apparently.

  Bohr takes me in- this strange, BREATHLESS young man...



                                                      (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script          10.


                      BOHR
            You were at my lecture. You asked
            the only good question.

                      BLACKETT
            Nobody’s denying his insight. It’s
            his labouratory skills that leave a
            little to be desired.

        YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
  I heard you give the same                      BOHR
  lecture-                          At Harvard. And you asked the
                                    same question. Why ask again?
                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            I hadn’t liked your answer.
                      BOHR
            Did you like it better yesterday?

                       YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            A lot.

                      BOHR
            You can lift the rock without being
            ready for the snake that’s
            revealed. Now, it seems, you’re
            ready.

  Bohr picks up the POISONED APPLE from Blackett’s desk...

                      BOHR (CONT’D)
            You don’t enjoy the lab?

  I shake my head. Bohr GESTICULATES with the apple as he talks-
  I watch it bob around- a kitten following a ball of string...

                       BOHR (CONT’D)
            Get out of Cambridge, with its
            beakers and potions. Go somewhere
            they’ll let you think...
                (assesses me)
            Gottingen.

                       BLACKETT
            Born?

                      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.



                                                      (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21        FINAL Shooting Script          11.


                        YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            Wormhole.

  -DROP it into the wastebasket. Blackett peers at it, curious.

                      BOHR
            How’s your mathematics?

                      BLACKETT
            Not good enough for the physicist
            he wants to be.

                      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?

                        YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            I can.

  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:


  EXT. INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON -- DAY (B&W)

  Strauss watches Oppenheimer hand the HAT to Einstein. Strauss
  checks his watch, then starts down the hill towards them. As
  he approaches, Einstein TURNS, walking towards Strauss with a
  GRIM EXPRESSION.

                      STRAUSS
                (friendly)
            Albert...

  Einstein PASSES without acknowledging Strauss. Strauss
  reaches Oppenheimer-

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            What did you say to him?



                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script         12.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            He’s fine. Mr Strauss, there are
            things in my past you need to be
            aware of.

                      STRAUSS
            As Chairman of the AEC I have
            access to your security file. I’ve
            read it. The job is yours.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You’re not worried?

                      STRAUSS
            After all you’ve done for your
            country?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Times change, Mr Strauss.

                      STRAUSS
            The purpose of this Institute is to
            provide a haven for independent
            minds. You’re the man for the job.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Then I’ll consider it. And I’ll see
            you at the AEC meeting tomorrow.

  Oppenheimer turns, heads back up the hill.

                      STRAUSS
                (taken aback)
            This is one of the most prestigious
            appointments in the country...

  Oppenheimer looks back at Strauss, GRINS-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            With a great commute. That’s why
            I’m considering it.

  Strauss watches him go, shaking his head.

                      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)

                       STRAUSS
            Yes.


                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script           13.


                      SENATOR MCGEE
            And they didn’t concern you?

                      STRAUSS
            Just then I was more concerned
            about what he’d said to Einstein to
            sour him on me.

  A few CHUCKLES from the room.

                         SENATOR MCGEE
            But later?

                      STRAUSS
            Well, we all know what happened
            later.

                                                      CUT TO:


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

  The board members listen as I continue reading...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            After Gottingen I moved on to
            Leiden in Holland...


  INT. LECTURE HALL, LEIDEN -- DAY

  A packed hall. The Young Me nervously checks my notes.

                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            ...where I first met Isidor Rabi...

  A stocky young man, ISIDOR RABI (thirty), plonks down next to
  a DUTCH STUDENT who reluctantly shifts, giving him room.

                      RABI
            A Yank lecturing on new physics?
            This I have to hear- I’m an
            American myself.

                      DUTCH STUDENT
            How surprising.

                      RABI
            Let me know if you need help with
            the English.

  I start lecturing... IN DUTCH. Ravi, confused, leans in.




                                                      (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        14.


                      RABI (CONT’D)
            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-

                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            No, thank you.

                      RABI
            It’s a long way to Zurich. You get
            any skinnier we might lose you
            between the seat cushions. I’m
            Rabi.

                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            Oppenheimer.

  Rabi starts peeling his orange.

                      RABI
            I caught your lecture on molecules.
            Caught some if it- we’re a couple
            of New York Jews- how do you know
            Dutch?

                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            I thought I’d better learn it when
            I got here this semester.

  Rabi STOPS peeling his orange to STARE at me-

                       RABI
            You learned Dutch in six weeks to
            give a lecture on quantum
            mechanics?
                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            I wanted to challenge myself.

                      RABI
            Quantum physics isn’t challenging
            enough? Schvitzer.

                         YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            Schvitzer?

                      RABI
            'Show-off.' Dutch in six weeks but
            you never learned Yiddish?


                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script        15.


                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
                (smile)
            They don’t speak it so much my side
            of the park.

                      RABI
            Screw you. Homesick?

                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            You know it.

  Rabi peels his orange. He turns serious...

                      RABI
            Ever get the feeling our kind isn’t
            entirely welcome here?

                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            Physicists?

                       RABI
            Funny.

                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            Sometimes. Not in the department.

                      RABI
            They’re all Jewish, too.

  Rabi tosses me a slice of orange.

                       RABI (CONT’D)
            Eat.

  I take the orange, 'sipping' at it.

                      RABI (CONT’D)
            In Zurich there’s a German you have
            to seek out-

                      YOUNG OPPENHEIMER
            Heisenberg.


  INT. LECTURE HALL, ZURICH -- DAY

  A tall man of twenty-six turns from the blackboard-
  HEISENBERG. I study his every move. Rabi NUDGES me 'See?'...


  INT. SAME -- LATER

  Rabi introduces me to Heisenberg.



                                                      (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script         16.


                      HEISENBERG
            Oppenheimer, yes. I liked your
            paper on molecules.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Probably because you inspired it.

                      HEISENBERG
            If I inspire anything else, let me
            know. We could publish together.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I have to get back to America.

                      HEISENBERG
            Why? There’s no one there taking
            quantum mechanics seriously.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            That’s exactly why.

                       RABI
            He’s pining for the canyons of
            Manhattan.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            The canyons of New Mexico.

                      HEISENBERG
            You’re from New Mexico?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            New York, but my brother and I have
            a ranch outside of Santa Fe. That’s
            the America I miss right now.

                      HEISENBERG
            Then you best go home, cowboys.

                      RABI
            That’s his thing- me and horses? I
            don’t think so.

                      GRAY (V.O.)
            Did you ever encounter Heisenberg
            again?


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

  I smile to myself.




                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        17.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            Not in person. But you might say
            our paths crossed.

                      ROBB
            Doctor, during your time in Europe,
            you seem to have met a wide range
            of other countries’ physicists...
                (consulting notes)
            Born, Bohr, Pauli, Dirac, Einstein,
            Heisenberg...?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            That’s right.

  Robb looks up at me...

                      ROBB
            Any Russians?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Not that spring to mind.
                (from notes)
            Returning to America I accepted
            appointments at both Caltech...


  EXT. BERKELEY -- DAY

  I walk across campus to the physics department...

                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            ...and up at Berkeley.


  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...
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          18.


  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.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Dr. Lawrence, I presume.

                      LAWRENCE
            You must be Oppenheimer. I hear you
            want to start a school of quantum
            theory.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I am starting it. Next door.

                      LAWRENCE
            They put you in there?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I asked for it. I wanted to be
            close to you experimentalists.

                      LAWRENCE
            Theory will get you only so far.
                (gestures)
            We’re building a machine to
            accelerate electrons.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Magnificent.

                      LAWRENCE
            Would you like to help?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Build it? No. But I’m working on
            theories I’d like to test with it.

                      LAWRENCE
            When do you start teaching?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’ve got my first in an hour.

                       LAWRENCE
            Seminar?

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Pupil.

                      LAWRENCE
            One student? That’s it?


                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script          19.


           OPPENHEIMER
  I’m teaching something no one                LAWRENCE (CONT’D)
  here’s dreamt of. But once           (grins)
  people start hearing what you     There’s no going back.
  can do with it...

  INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- LATER

  I stand there, expectant. A student opens the door, looks
  around, embarrassed-

                        STUDENT
              I’m sorry, I must have missed-

                        OPPENHEIMER
              No, this is it. Mr Lomanitz, right?

  LOMANITZ (twenty-one) nods, takes a seat.

                         OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
              What do you know about quantum
              mechanics?

                        LOMANITZ
              I have a grasp on the basics-

                        OPPENHEIMER
              Then you’re doing it wrong.
                  (rapid-fire)
              Is light made up of particles or
              waves?

  Lomanitz opens his mouth to speak- too slow-

                        OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
              Quantum mechanics says it’s both-
              how can it be both?

              LOMANITZ
  It can’t.                                  OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                    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 move to Lomanitz to hand him his
  paper. I pat his shoulder.




                                                      (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script           20.


                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            You’re gonna be okay.

                                                 DISSOLVE TO:

  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.

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            Consider a star... a vast furnace
            burning in outer space...


  INSERT CUT: A STAR. A SUN. BURNING, ROILING.
                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            Fire pushing outwards against its
            own gravity- balanced. But if its
            furnace cools, gravity starts
            winning. It contracts...

  I look around. Make eye contact with Hartland SNYDER.

                      SNYDER
            Density increases...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Increasing gravity...


  INSERT CUT: THE SUN IS SHRINKING, MORE AND MORE RAPIDLY...

                      SNYDER
            Increasing density. A vicious
            cycle. Until... What’s the limit
            here?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I don’t know. See where the math
            takes us. I guarantee it’s
            somewhere no one’s been before.

                       SNYDER
            Me?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Your math’s better than mine.
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script            21.


  EXT. BERKELEY -- DAY

  Energetic, dashing, I STRIDE across campus, a group of
  students, including Snyder and Lomanitz, following me,
  hanging on my every word...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Einstein can’t accept the
            Copenhagen interpretation-

                      LOMANITZ
            'God doesn’t play dice.'

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Except he does. Bohr showed us
            how...


  INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- DAY

  I mark up a paper. Lawrence comes in, frowns at the board.

                      LAWRENCE
            You shouldn’t let them bring their
            politics into the classroom...

  I follow his look: "SATURDAY 2:00pm, RALLY FOR LOYALIST
  SPAIN".

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I wrote that. Lawrence, you embrace
            the revolution in physics, can’t
            you see it everywhere else?
            Picasso, Stravinsky, Freud, Marx...

                      LAWRENCE
            This is America, Oppie. We had our
            revolution. Seriously, keep it out
            of the lab.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Well, out of the lab, my landlady’s
            having a discussion group tonight.

                      LAWRENCE
            I’ve sampled the Berkeley political
            scene- it’s all philosophy
            postgrads and Communists talking
            integration.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You don’t care about integration?




                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          22.


                      LAWRENCE
            I want to vote for it, not talk
            about it. Let’s get dinner.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’m meeting my brother there.

                      SENATOR BARTLETT (V.O.)
            Dr Oppenheimer’s file contained
            details of FBI surveillance on his
            activities at Berkeley...


  INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W)

  Strauss looks at the senator, cautious...

                      STRAUSS
            Yes, as I recall.

                      SENATOR BARTLETT
            Why would they have started a file
            on Dr Oppenheimer before the war?

                      STRAUSS
            You’d have to ask Mr Hoover.

                      SENATOR BARTLETT
            I’m asking you, Admiral Strauss.

                      STRAUSS
            My assumption is that it was
            connected to his left-wing
            political activities.

                      SENATOR BARTLETT
            How would these activities have
            come to the attention of the FBI?

                      STRAUSS
            Well, if I remember correctly...

                                                    CUT TO:


  EXT. HOUSE PARTY, SHASTA ROAD, BERKELEY -- NIGHT (COLOUR)

                      STRAUSS (V.O.)
            The FBI was taking license plates
            outside suspected Communist
            gatherings and his name popped up.

  As I get out of my car, I spot TWO MEN checking the license
  plates of cars on the street... I am GRABBED-


                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          23.


                       FRANK (O.S.)
            Gotcha!

  My younger brother FRANK (twenty-five) and his date, JACKIE.


  INT. LIVING ROOM, HOUSE PARTY, SHASTA ROAD, BERKELEY -- NIGHT

  We ENTER the bustling room- I spot a beguiling young woman-

                      VOICE (O.S.)
            Robert! Come meet Chevalier.

  Mary WASHBURN grabs my tie and leads us to Haakon CHEVALIER.

                      WASHBURN
            Dr Haakon Chevalier, Dr Robert
            Oppenheimer, and vice versa.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            This is my little brother, Frank.
            Oh, and... uh...

                      JACKIE
            Still Jackie.

                      CHEVALIER
            Hello, Still Jackie.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Chevalier. You’re in languages?

                      CHEVALIER
            And your reputation precedes you.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’m blushing- what’ve you heard?

                      CHEVALIER
            You’re teaching a radical new
            approach to physics that I have no
            chance of understanding. But I
            hadn’t heard you were a party
            member-

                       OPPENHEIMER
            I’m not.

                       FRANK
            Not yet.




                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          24.


              JACKIE
  Frank and I are thinking of               OPPENHEIMER
  joining-                           (ignoring Jackie)
                                  I support of range of causes.
  Jackie, put out, leads Frank away.

                      CHEVALIER
            The Spanish Civil War?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            A democratic republic being
            overthrown by fascist thugs? Who
            wouldn’t be?

                      CHEVALIER
            Our government- they think
            socialism’s a bigger threat than
            fascism.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Not for long- look at what the
            Nazis are doing to the Jews. I send
            funds to colleagues in Germany to
            emigrate. I have to do something.
            My own work is so... abstract.

                      CHEVALIER
            What’re you working on?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            What happens to stars when they
            die.

                      CHEVALIER
            Do stars die?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            If they do they’d cool, then
            collapse. And the bigger the star,
            the more violent its demise. Their
            gravity gets so concentrated...


  INSERT CUT: THE SUN SHRINKS. THE LIGHT OF THE DISTANT STARS
  BEHIND IS TUGGED TOWARDS THE DYING STAR, BENDING, STRETCHING.

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            ...it swallows everything. Even
            light.

                      CHEVALIER
            Good God. Can that really happen?



                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          25.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            The math says it can. If we can get
            published, maybe one day an
            astronomer finds one. But all I
            have is theory. Which can’t impact
            people’s lives.

                      CHEVALIER
            If you’re sending 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...

                      TATLOCK
            Mary sent me with these. I’m Jean.

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Robert.

                      CHEVALIER
            Haakon Chevalier. The union meeting
            at Serber’s last month?

  Tatlock nods. I take a glass.

                       CHEVALIER (CONT’D)
            Robert here says he’s not a
            Communist.

                      TATLOCK
            Then he doesn’t know enough about
            it.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’ve read Das Kapital. All three
            volumes. Does that count?

                      CHEVALIER
            That would make you better read
            than most Party members.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It’s turgid stuff, but there’s some
            thinking... 'Ownership is theft.'

                      TATLOCK
            'Property', not 'Ownership'.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Sorry, I read it in the original
            German.



                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script              26.


  Chevalier laughs, delighted, as he leaves us alone.

                      TATLOCK
            It’s not about the book, it’s about
            the ideas. You sound uncommitted.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’m committed to thinking freely
            about how to improve our world. Why
            limit yourself to one dogma?

                      TATLOCK
            You’re a physicist- do you pick and
            choose rules? Or do you use the
            discipline to channel your energies
            into progress?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I like a little wiggle room. Do you
            always toe the party line?

  Tatlock considers this. Sizes me up.

                      TATLOCK
            I like my wiggle room, too.


  INT. BEDROOM -- LATER

  We are FUCKING. Hot, sweaty, a little brutal. Tatlock GIVES
  UP, climbs off me-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Wait, wait-

  I catch my breath, watching her STUDY my shelves.

                      TATLOCK
            Unexpected.

                       OPPENHEIMER
            What?

                      TATLOCK
            For a physicist.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You’ve only got a shelf full of
            Freud?

             TATLOCK
  Actually my background’s more-                OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                     Jungian.



                                                         (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        27.


                      TATLOCK (CONT’D)
            You know analysis.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            When I was a postgrad at Cambridge
            I had some trouble.

  She turns to me.

                         TATLOCK
            I’ll bite.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I tried to poison my tutor.

                      TATLOCK
            Did you hate him?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I liked him very much.

  Tatlock turns back to the books.

                      TATLOCK
            You just needed to get laid.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Wow. Took my analysts two years,
            and I’m not sure they ever put it
            that succinctly.

                      TATLOCK
            You had them convinced you’re more
            complicated than you really are.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            We’re all simple souls, I guess.

                         TATLOCK
            Not me.
  She pulls a book from the shelf: THE BHAGAVAD GITA. She opens
  the book to find INCOMPREHENSIBLE CHARACTERS.

                      TATLOCK (CONT’D)
            What’s this?

                         OPPENHEIMER
            Sanskrit.

                      TATLOCK
            You can read this?




                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script         28.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’m learning-

  She climbs on top of me, opens the book in my face.

                      TATLOCK
            Go on then.

  I study the page as Tatlock starts to move.

           OPPENHEIMER
  In this part, Vishnu reveals                 TATLOCK (CONT’D)
  his multi-armed self-             Read the words.
  She points to each word as I translate...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            'And now I am become Death...

  She nods, impressed, starts moving again...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            ...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...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It’ll break before dawn. The air
            cools overnight. Just before dawn,
            the storm dies.

  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
            I’m getting married.

                      LAWRENCE
            Congratulations, Frank.

  I look at Frank, sardonic with drink.


                                                      (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script         29.


                         OPPENHEIMER
            To Jackie?

  Frank stares at me... the tent stops buffeting...

                      FRANK
            Yeah, to Jackie. The waitress.

                      LAWRENCE
                (sensing tension)
            Oppie, you’re right- it’s letting
            up. I’ll see if there’s any stars.

  Frank watches Lawrence go, then pounces-

                      FRANK
            All your talk about the common man
            but Jackie’s not good enough? We
            join the Party- you can’t hide your
            disapproval- why? Because that’s
            supposed to be your thing?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I haven’t joined the Party, Frank.
            And I don’t think she should’ve
            convinced you to, either-

                      FRANK
            Half the faculty’s Communist-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Not that half.

  I point in the direction Lawrence wondered off.

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            I’m your brother and I want you to
            be cautious.

                      FRANK
            And I want to wring your neck.
  I giggle at this. Frank shakes his head, then starts
  laughing, too. I grab Frank’s shoulder. Frank looks up...

                      FRANK (CONT’D)
            Robert, I won’t live my life afraid
            to make a mistake.

  I hold up my hands in defeat-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You’re happy, I’m happy.



                                                      (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          30.


                      FRANK
            Then I’m happy you’re happy.


  EXT. PERRO CALIENTE -- MOMENTS LATER

  I approach Lawrence, who stares up at the stars.

                      LAWRENCE
            It’s so clear I feel like I could
            see one of those dark stars you’re
            working on...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You can’t, that’s the whole point.


  INSERT CUT: AN EXPANDING DARKNESS EATS THE STARS...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            Their gravity swallows light. It’s
            like a kind of... hole in space.

                      LAWRENCE
            Is Frank okay?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Yeah. He just has a shitty brother.

  Lawrence smiles at this. Looks around, then-

                      LAWRENCE
            It’s special here.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            As a kid I thought if I could find
            a way to combine physics and New
            Mexico, my life would be perfect.

                      LAWRENCE
            It’s a little remote for that.
            Let’s get some sleep.

  I turn, heading to the tent. Lawrence follows.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            That mesa we saw today? One of my
            favorite places in the world.
            Tomorrow we’ll climb it.

                      LAWRENCE
            What’s it called?

  My response is so soft it is almost swallowed by the dark...


                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             31.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            Los Alamos.


  EXT. STREET, BERKELEY -- DAY

  Tatlock and I walk down the sidewalk. I try to take her hand-
  she folds her arms.

                      TATLOCK
            I wasn’t expecting to see you.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            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-

                       OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            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-

                      ALVAREZ
                (breathless)
            They’ve done it! Hahn and Strassman
            in Germany...

  Alvarez tosses the paper at me-
                      ALVAREZ (CONT’D)
            They split the uranium nucleus.

                       LAWRENCE
            How?

                      OPPENHEIMER
                (reading)
            Bombarded it with neutrons.

                      ALVAREZ
            Lawrence, it’s fission. Nuclear
            fission. They’ve split the atom...


                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          32.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            It’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-

                      ALVAREZ
            I’m going to try to reproduce it.

  Alvarez and Lawrence leave. I write and write...


  INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- LATER

  Lawrence enters. I turn. Point at the board.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            See. It can’t be done.

                       LAWRENCE
            Very elegant. Quite clear. Just one
            problem...

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Where?

                      LAWRENCE
            Next door. Alvarez did it.


  INT. RAD LAB, BERKELEY -- MOMENTS LATER

  I peer at Alvarez’s oscilloscope...

                      LAWRENCE
            Theory will take you only so far.

  I stand, moving away... thinking...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            During the process extra neutrons
            boil off. Which could be used to
            split other uranium atoms...

                      LAWRENCE
            A chain reaction. You’re thinking
            what I’m thinking.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You, me and every physicist around
            the world who’s seen the news.

                      ALVAREZ
            What? What’re we all thinking?


                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script         33.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            A bomb, Alvarez. A bomb.


  EXT. TATLOCK HOUSE, BERKELEY -- NIGHT

  Tatlock GRABS a bouquet out of my hands-

                      TATLOCK
            I told you, Robert, no more fucking
            flowers.

  She dumps them in the trash. I just stare.

           OPPENHEIMER
  I don’t understand what you                  TATLOCK (CONT’D)
  want from me-                     I don’t want anything from
                                    you.
  I pause. Then, gently...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            You say that. Then you call.

  Tatlock kicks at the dirt.

                      TATLOCK
            Don’t answer.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’ll always answer.

  She looks up at me.

                      TATLOCK
            Fine. But no more flowers.

  She goes inside-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Aren’t you coming?
  Slams the door shut behind her. I stand there.

                      CHEVALIER (O.S.)
            You have to know when you’re
            beaten, Robert.

  I turn. Chevalier and his wife, BARBARA, wait in the car.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It’s not that simple, Haakon.
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             34.


  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. And the
            illustrious Dr Oppenheimer. I’m
            Eltenton. Might you say a word
            about organized labour on campuses?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’ll try to think of something.

  Eltenton guides me towards the stage...

                      ELTENTON
            I work at Shell, we’ve signed up
            chemists and engineers...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            That’s excellent.

  I spot Lomanitz, who grins and waves...

                      ELTENTON
            So why not scientists in academia?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Sure. When do we-

  Eltenton pushes me onto the stage. People start APPLAUDING at
  the very sight of me. I can’t quite not smile about this.


  INT. RAD LAB, BERKELEY -- DAY

  I watch Lawrence examine his cyclotron.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Teachers are unionized, Lawrence.
            Why not professors?

                      LAWRENCE
            Don’t you have somewhere to be?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Academics have rights, too-




                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script            35.


                      LAWRENCE
            It’s not that. I have a group
            coming.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’ll sit in.

                      LAWRENCE
            Not this one.

  The door opens. Richard TOLMAN and Vannevar BUSH enter-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Richard. Dr Bush. What brings you
            two up north?

  They exchange glances with Lawrence. Awkward SILENCE. I rise,
  letting them off the hook-

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            Richard, tell Ruth I’ll be down to
            Pasadena Thursday.


  INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- CONTINUOUS

  As I enter, a magazine FLAPS into my hands from across the
  room. Students are all reading copies...

                      SERBER
            Your paper on black holes- it’s in!

  I open the magazine as I turn to a STUDENT-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Get Hartland.

                      LOMANITZ
            September 1st, 1939- the world’s
            gonna remember this day...
  Snyder comes in with a newspaper. Glum.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Hartland, our paper, it’s in print!

                      SNYDER
            We’ve been upstaged.

  He holds up the paper: "HITLER INVADES POLAND".

                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            During the Battle of France and the
            Battle of Britain...
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             36.


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

  Robb looks on intently as I turn the page on my statement...

                       OPPENHEIMER
            ...I found myself increasingly out
            of sympathy with the policy of
            neutrality that Communists
            advocated.

                      ROBB
            And after Hitler invaded Russia,
            did these Communist sympathies
            return?

           OPPENHEIMER
  No. If you’ll just allow me                  GRAY
  to-                             Mr Robb, you’ll have ample
                                  opportunity to cross-examine.
                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            I need to make clear that my
            changing opinion of Russia did not
            mean a sharp break with 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...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            But when I first met her, in
            Pasadena in 1939, she had already
            disengaged from politics...


  INT. HOUSE PARTY, TOLMAN HOUSE, PASADENA -- NIGHT

  Kitty (thirty-one) watches as I EXPERTLY open the liquor
  cabinet-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            This is where I keep the good
            stuff.

                      KITTY
            I thought this was the Tolmans’
            house.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I live with them when I’m at
            Caltech.


                                                      (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21        FINAL Shooting Script         37.


                      RUTH (O.S.)
            You two need anything?

  I turn to see RUTH TOLMAN (forty-five) looking at me,
  mischievous.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            We’re fine, Ruthie.
                (to Kitty)
            You’re a biologist?

                      KITTY
            Somehow I graduated to housewife.
            Can you explain quantum mechanics
            to me? It seems baffling.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It is. This glass-

  I thump a glass onto the cabinet- pour a drink-

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            This drink-

  I hand her the glass- fingers touching...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            Our bodies... are mostly empty
            space- groupings of tiny energy
            waves bound together.

                        KITTY
            By what?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Forces of attraction strong enough
            to convince us that matter is
            solid...

  I push the palm of my hand up against hers.
                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            And 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...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            You’re married to Dr Harrison.

                        KITTY
            Not very.



                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          38.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            Well, there’s someone that I...

                      KITTY
            Does she feel the same way?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Sometimes. Not often enough.

  As Ruth looks our way I let Kitty’s hand go.

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            I’m going to New Mexico, to my
            ranch. With friends. You should
            come.
  Kitty looks meaningfully over her glass at me.

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            I meant with your husband.

                      KITTY
            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-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Why did you marry him?!

  Kitty pulls up. I come alongside.

                      KITTY
            I was lost. He was kind.

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Lost?
                      KITTY
            My previous husband died. At twenty-
            eight I wasn’t ready to be a widow.

  Kitty DISMOUNTS. I follow.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Who was your first husband?

                      KITTY
            Nobody. But my second husband was
            Joe Dallet.
                      (MORE)

                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21        FINAL Shooting Script        39.

                      KITTY (CONT’D)
            From money, like me, but he was a
            union organizer in Youngstown,
            Ohio. I fell hard.

                        OPPENHEIMER
            How hard?

                      KITTY
            Hard enough to spend four years
            living off beans and pancakes,
            handing out the Daily Worker at
            factory gates.

  Kitty takes out a hip flask. SWIGS.

                      KITTY (CONT’D)
            By ’36 I told Joe I couldn’t take
            it anymore, quit the Party and
            joined my parents swanning around
            Europe. A year later I said I
            wanted him back. Him, not the Daily
            Worker. He said 'Swell, I’ll meet
            you on my way to Spain.'

  She hands me the flask. I take a drink.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            He went to fight for the loyalists?

                      KITTY
            On his way we reconciled. One
            beautiful week in Paris. Then he
            went to the brigades and I waited.
            One day Steve Nelson turns up in
            the lobby of the hotel to tell me
            Joe got himself killed first time
            he popped out of his trench.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Who’s Steve Nelson?
                      KITTY
            Head of the Communist Party in San
            Francisco. You don’t know him?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’m not a Communist.

                      KITTY
            You seem to know a lot of ’em.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Including you.



                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          40.


                      KITTY
                (shakes head)
            Ideology got Joe killed. For
            nothing.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            The Spanish Republic isn’t nothing.

                      KITTY
            My husband offered both our futures
            to stop one fascist bullet
            embedding itself in a mudbank.
            That’s the definition of nothing.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            That seems a little reductive-

                      KITTY
            Pragmatic. Steve and his wife
            brought me home with them to
            Chicago, then set me up with
            husband number three. Now here I
            am...

  She looks around at the wilderness...

                      KITTY (CONT’D)
            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.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I didn’t want you to hear it from
            someone else.
                       TATLOCK
            You didn’t bring flowers. That’s
            something.

  I reach into my pocket- she GRABS the small posy from me,
  TOSSING it aside.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Jean, we both know I’m not what you
            want.

                      TATLOCK
            Yeah. But it’s a door closing.


                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          41.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            Not as far as I’m concerned.

  Tatlock looks at me. Appreciating the sentiment.

                      TATLOCK
            You knocked her up. Fast work.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Can’t keep a good man down.

                      TATLOCK
            I meant her. She knew what she
            wanted. What about the husband?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            We spoke. He’s divorcing her so we
            can get married before she’s
            showing.

                      TATLOCK
            How civilized, you idiot. This is
            your community- you think rules
            don’t apply to the golden boy?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Brilliance makes up for a lot.

                      TATLOCK
            Don’t alienate the only people in
            the world who understand what you
            do. One day you might need them.


  INT. RAD LAB, BERKELEY -- DAY

  I write "F.A.E.C.T." on the board, Lomanitz hands out FLIERS.
  Lawrence enters, GRABBING a flyer from the nearest student:
  "UNIONIZE THE RADIATION LAB".

                      LAWRENCE
            Lomanitz? What do you make a month?

                      LOMANITZ
                (sheepish)
            A hundred and fifty dollars.

  Lawrence turns to another student-

                      LAWRENCE
            How are the working conditions?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            That’s not the point, Lawrence.


                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          42.


                      LAWRENCE
            What do you have in common with
            dock workers and farm labourers?

                       LOMANITZ
            Plenty-

                      LAWRENCE
            Right. Everybody out. Now!
                (to me)
            Not you.

  The students file out. Lawrence SLAMS the door- turns on me-

                      LAWRENCE (CONT’D)
            What’re you doing?!
                      OPPENHEIMER
            It’s a trade union-

                      LAWRENCE
            Full of Communists!

                      OPPENHEIMER
            So? I haven’t joined the Party-

                      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-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I know what the fucking project is,
            Lawrence! We 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.
                       LAWRENCE
            I don’t?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It’s not your people they’re
            herding into camps! It’s mine!

                      LAWRENCE
            You think I tell them about your
            politics? Next time you’re coming
            home from a meeting, take a look in
            the rear-view mirror.
                      (MORE)


                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script        43.

                      LAWRENCE (CONT’D)
            Listen for sounds on your phone
            line. And stop being so goddamn
            naïve.

  I’m taken aback by this...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Why would they care what I do?

                       LAWRENCE
            Because you’re not just self-
            important, you’re actually
            important.

  I see the reality. Shift gears-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I get it. You don’t have to worry.
            I get it.

             LAWRENCE
  You just need to be more-                  OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                    Pragmatic. It’s done,
                                    Lawrence. I’ll talk to
                                    Lomanitz and the others. You
                                    don’t have to worry.
  Lawrence looks at me. Sees this is real.

                      LAWRENCE (CONT’D)
            Then welcome to the war.

                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            I filled out my first security
            questionnaire...


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

  I glance up from my notes.
                      OPPENHEIMER
            ...and was informed that my
            involvement in left-wing groups
            would not prove a bar to my work on
            the atomic programme.

                      SENATOR PASTORE (V.O.)
            Why were his Communist associations
            not seen as a security risk during
            the war?

                                                      CUT TO:
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          44.


  INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W)

  Strauss suppresses his irritation at the line of questioning.

                      STRAUSS
            Senator, I can’t possibly answer
            for a security clearance granted
            years before I even met the man.

                      SENATOR PASTORE
            Fine. What about after?

                      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 paces-

                      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.

                      STRAUSS
            I didn’t. I was the AEC Chairman,
            but it wasn’t me who brought the
            charges against Robert.

                       SENATE AIDE
            Who did?

                      STRAUSS
            Some former staff member of the
            Joint Congressional Committee-

  INSERT CUT: A YOUNG MAN LEAFS THROUGH A FILE, COLLECTING HIS
  THOUGHTS... THIS IS WILLIAM BORDEN... HE STARTS TYPING...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            A rabid anti-Communist named
            Borden. He wrote to the FBI
            demanding they take action.



                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          45.


                      SENATE AIDE
            The FBI? Why not come to the AEC
            direct?

                      STRAUSS
            Why get caught holding the knife
            yourself?

                      SENATE AIDE
            What did Borden have against
            Oppenheimer?

                      STRAUSS
            This was the McCarthy era- people
            hounded out of jobs for any hint of
            red... reading Oppenheimer’s
            security file- his Communist
            brother, sister-in-law, fiancée,
            best friend, wife... that’s before
            you even get to the Chevalier
            incident.

                      SENATE AIDE
            But how would Borden have access to
            Oppenheimer’s security file?

                      STRAUSS
            Someone gave it to him. Someone who
            wanted Oppenheimer silenced.

                       SENATE AIDE
            Who?

                      STRAUSS
            Who knows? Robert didn’t take care
            not to upset the power brokers in
            Washington. His opinions on the
            atom became definitive and he
            wasn’t always patient with us mere
            mortals. I came in for plenty of
            harsh treatment. There was an AEC
            vote on the export of isotopes to
            Norway...


  INT. CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W)

  Oppenheimer sits at the witness table with Joe VOLPE, the AEC
  lawyer. Strauss is in the audience.

                      STRAUSS (V.O.)
            They drafted in Robert to make me
            look like a fool...



                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script            46.


                      CONGRESSMAN
            But, Dr Oppenheimer, one member of
            the AEC board thinks these isotopes
            could be useful to our enemies in
            the production of atomic weapons.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Congressman, you could use a shovel
            in making atomic weapons, in fact,
            you do. You could use a bottle of
            beer in making atomic weapons. In
            fact, you do.

  LAUGHTER. Strauss squirms, embarrassed.

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            Isotopes aren’t as useful as
            electronic components, but more
            useful than a sandwich. I’d put
            them somewhere in between.

  Volpe looks at Strauss, who SMILES, GOOD-HUMOURED...

                      STRAUSS (V.O.)
            Genius is no guarantee of wisdom.
            How could this man who saw so much
            be so blind?

                                                       CUT TO:


  INT. OPPENHEIMER HOUSE, BERKELEY -- NIGHT (COLOUR)

  I come in. The lights are off. A BABY’S CRIES echo...

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Kitty?

  She is in the dining room, in the dark, drink in hand.

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            Kitty, the project- I’m in.

  She sips. SLIDES her drink down the table at me-

                      KITTY
            Let’s celebrate.

  As the baby CRIES, Kitty comes to me, pulling at my clothes-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Don’t you need to go to him?




                                                       (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21        FINAL Shooting Script         47.


                      KITTY
            I’ve been going to him all fucking
            day...

  She moves to kiss my neck- I look upstairs- she PUSHES me
  away- GRABS her drink...


  EXT./INT. CHEVALIER HOUSE -- NIGHT

  I 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

  Chevalier hands me a drink. I stare into the liquid.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’m ashamed to ask.

                        CHEVALIER
            Anything.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Take Peter.

                        CHEVALIER
            Sure.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            No, for a while, Hoke. A while.

                      CHEVALIER
            Does Kitty know you’re here?

                      OPPENHEIMER
                (I laugh)
            Of course she fucking knows! We’re
            awful. Selfish, awful people...
                (I down drink)
            Forget I asked-

  Chevalier puts out a hand to stop me rising...

                      CHEVALIER
            Robert, you see beyond the world we
            live in. There’s a price to be paid
            for that. Of course we’ll help.
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             48.


  EXT. NEW MEXICO -- EVENING

  Kitty and I GALLOP through the trees, EMERGING into the
  twilight overlooking a valley. Kitty turns to the wind.

                      KITTY
            Everything’s changing, Robert.

           OPPENHEIMER
  Having a child was always-                     KITTY (CONT’D)
                                       (impatient)
                                    The world is pivoting in some
                                    new direction... reforming...
                                    this is your moment.

           OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
  We’re putting together a                      KITTY (CONT’D)
  group to study feasibility-       'We' shouldn’t be doing
                                    anything. You should.
                                    Lawrence won’t get this done.
                                    Or Tolman, or Rabi. You will.

  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.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Who’s the uniform?

  The husky GROVES spills sauce on his tunic, wipes at it.

                      LAWRENCE
            I thought you might know.


  INT. CLASSROOM, BERKELEY -- AFTERNOON

  I am working. Groves and Lieutenant Colonel NICHOLS enter.

                      GROVES
            Dr Oppenheimer. I’m Colonel Groves,
            this is Lieutenant Colonel Nichols.

  Groves pulls off his uniform jacket, TOSSES it to Nichols.

                      GROVES (CONT’D)
            Get that dry-cleaned.

  I watch Nichols leave.



                                                      (CONTINUED)
Gadget   2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script        49.


                    OPPENHEIMER
          If that’s how you treat a
          lieutenant colonel, I’d hate to see
          how you treat a humble physicist.

                    GROVES
          If I ever meet one I’ll let you
          know.

                      OPPENHEIMER
          Ouch.

                    GROVES
          Theatres of combat all over the
          world- but I have to stay in
          Washington.

                      OPPENHEIMER
          Why?

                    GROVES
          I built the Pentagon. The brass
          likes it so much they made me take
          over the Manhattan Engineer
          District.

                      OPPENHEIMER
          Which is?

                    GROVES
          Don’t be a smart-ass. You know damn
          well what it is- you and half of
          every physics department across
          America. That’s problem number one.

                    OPPENHEIMER
          I thought problem number one would
          be securing enough uranium ore.

                    GROVES
          Twelve hundred tons. Bought the day
          I took charge.

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Processing?

                    GROVES
          Just broke ground at Oak Ridge,
          Tennessee. Now I’m looking for a
          project director.

                    OPPENHEIMER
          And my name came up.



                                                  (CONTINUED)
Gadget   2023-04-21      FINAL Shooting Script        50.


                    GROVES
          Nope. Even though you brought
          quantum physics to America. That
          made me curious.

                    OPPENHEIMER
          What have you found out?

                    GROVES
          You’re a dilettante, womanizer,
          suspected Communist-

                    OPPENHEIMER
          I’m a New Deal Democrat-

                    GROVES
          I said 'suspected'. Unstable,
          theatrical, egotistical, neurotic.

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Nothing good? Not even 'he’s
          brilliant, but'...?

                    GROVES
          Brilliance is taken for granted in
          your circles. So, no. Only one
          person said anything good- Richard
          Tolman. He thinks you’ve got
          integrity. But Tolman strikes me as
          someone who knows science better
          than people.

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Yet here you are. You don’t take
          much on trust.

                    GROVES
          I don’t take anything on trust. Why
          don’t you have a Nobel Prize?

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Why aren’t you a general?

                    GROVES
          They’re making me one for this.

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Maybe I’ll have the same luck.

                    GROVES
          A Nobel Prize for making a bomb?

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.


                                                 (CONTINUED)
Gadget   2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script        51.


                    GROVES
          So how would you proceed?

                    OPPENHEIMER
          You’re talking about turning theory
          into a practical weapons system
          faster than the Nazis.

                    GROVES
          Who have a twelve-month head start.

                      OPPENHEIMER
          Eighteen.

                    GROVES
          How could you possibly know that?

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Our fast neutron research took six
          months- the man they’ve undoubtedly
          put in charge will have made that
          leap instantly.

                    GROVES
          Who do you think they put in
          charge?

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Werner Heisenberg. He has the most
          intuitive understanding of atomic
          structure I’ve ever seen.

                    GROVES
          You know his work?

                    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.

                      GROVES
          Which is?

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Anti-Semitism.

                      GROVES
          What?

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Hitler called quantum physics
          'Jewish science'. Said it right to
          Einstein’s face.
                    (MORE)

                                                  (CONTINUED)
Gadget   2023-04-21      FINAL Shooting Script        52.

                     OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
          Our one hope is that Hitler’s so
          blinded by hate he’s denied
          Heisenberg proper resources.
          Because it’ll take vast resources.
          Our nation’s best scientists,
          working together- right now they’re
          scattered.

                    GROVES
          Which gives us
          compartmentalization.

                    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.

                    GROVES
          The Russians don’t.

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Remind me- who are we at war with?

                    GROVES
          Someone with your past doesn’t want
          to be seen downplaying the
          importance of security from our
          Communist allies.

                    OPPENHEIMER
          Point taken. But no.

                    GROVES
          You don’t get to say 'no' to me-

                    OPPENHEIMER
          It’s my job to say 'no' to you when
          you’re wrong-

                    GROVES
          So you’ve got the job, now?

                    OPPENHEIMER
          I’m considering it.

                    GROVES
          I’m starting to see how you got
          your reputation. My favorite
          response? 'Oppenheimer couldn’t run
          a hamburger stand.'




                                                 (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script            53.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            I couldn’t. But I can run the
            Manhattan Project.

  I turn to the blackboard. Take up my chalk.

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            There’s a way to balance these
            things...
                (I draw)
            Leave the Rad Lab here at Berkeley
            under Lawrence, Met Lab in Chicago
            under Szilard, large-scale refining-
            where’d you say? Tennessee... all
            America’s industrial might and
            scientific innovation, connected by
            rail... focused on one goal, one
            point in space and time, coming
            together... here.

  I have drawn a cross at the centre of the diagram.

                      GROVES
            And where’s that?


  INSERT CUT: A BARBED-WIRE FENCE IS STRUNG OUT...

                       OPPENHEIMER
            A secret labouratory. In the middle
            of nowhere. Self-sufficient.
            Secure. Equipment, housing, the
            works. We keep everyone there till
            it’s done.


  INSERT CUT: A SCHOOLHOUSE IS ERECTED. A CHURCH. A STORE...

                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            It’ll need a school, stores, a
            church...

  INT. TRAIN, BERKELEY TO WASHINGTON, DC -- DAY

  I talk to Groves as Nichols looks on...

                       GROVES
            Why?




                                                       (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          54.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            If we don’t let scientists bring
            their families, we’ll never get the
            best. You want security? Build a
            town, and build it fast.

                       GROVES
            Where?


  EXT. CAR, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS

  Groves emerges, squinting into the brightness, taking in the
  stark beauty. I greet him, arms spread wide.

                      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.
            Other than that, nothing for forty
            miles any direction. And south-
            east, hundreds of miles of desert.
            Enough to find the perfect spot.

                       GROVES
            For?

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Success.

  Groves scans the horizon. Sniffs the air... turns to Nichols.

                      GROVES
            Build him a town. Fast.
                (to Oppenheimer)
            Let’s go recruit some scientists.


  INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO BOSTON -- NIGHT

  I watch Groves go over a file.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            How much can I tell them?

                      GROVES
                (without looking up)
            As much as you like, till you feel
            my boot on your balls.
Gadget    2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script         55.


  INT. LECTURE HALL, HARVARD -- DAY

  Groves and I sit talking to BAINBRIDGE and DONALD.

                      BAINBRIDGE
            I’m not a soldier, Oppie.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Soldier? He’s a general-
                (jab my thumb at Groves)
            I got all the soldier I need. Maybe
            too much. I’m here because you know
            isotopes, and you-
                (to Donald)
            know explosives better than anyone.

                      DONALD
            But you can’t tell us what you’re
            doing?

  I glance at Groves. Then CROSS my legs.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It’s about unleashing the strong
            force before the Nazis do.

                         BAINBRIDGE
            Oh my God.


  INT. CORRIDOR, MIT -- DAY

  Groves and I walk with CONDON.

                      CONDON
            Why? Why would I leave my family?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I told you, bring your family.

                      CONDON
            Why would we go to the middle of
            nowhere for who knows how long?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            A year or two. Or three.

                      CONDON
            Why would you think I’d do that?

  Groves SNAPS like a bulldog-




                                                       (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          56.


                      GROVES
            Why? Why? How about because this is
            the most important fucking thing
            that’s ever happened in the history
            of the world? How about that?

  I look at Groves, then SHRUG at Condon.


  INT. OFFICE, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN -- NIGHT

  Groves and I sit across the desk from a CONCERNED SCIENTIST.

                      CONCERNED SCIENTIST
            Robert, I hear you. I hear you.

  Concerned Scientist GLANCES at Groves then DROPS his gaze.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            General, could you give us a
            minute?

  Groves looks at me. Gets up and goes.

                      CONCERNED SCIENTIST
            They’re not gonna let someone like
            me onto this project. And failing a
            security check isn’t gonna be good
            for a career even after the war.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            So you’re a fellow traveler, so
            what? This is a national emergency.
            I’ve got some skeletons, and
            they’ve put me in charge. They need
            us.

                      CONCERNED SCIENTIST
            Until they don’t.


  INT. QUADRANGLE, PRINCETON -- DAY

  Groves and I flank FEYNMAN as he hurries across the quad-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Heisenberg, Diebner, Bothe, Bohr...
            what do these men have in common?

                      FEYNMAN
            The greatest minds on atomic
            theory.




                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script           57.


                       OPPENHEIMER
            And?

                      FEYNMAN
            I don’t know...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            The Nazis have them.

                      FEYNMAN
            Niels Bohr is in Copenhagen.

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Under Nazi occupation. Did they
            stop printing newspapers in
            Princeton?

                      FEYNMAN
            Niels won’t work for the Nazis.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            No. Never. But while they have him,
            we don’t. So I need you.


  INT. TRAIN, PRINCETON TO SANTA FE -- NIGHT

  Groves is napping. I just start talking.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Is there any chance of getting Bohr
            out of Denmark?

                      GROVES
            No dice. I checked with the
            British. Until we get Allied boots
            back onto the continent there’s no
            way. Is he that important?


  INSERT CUT: BOHR GESTICULATES WITH THE POISONED APPLE.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            How many people do you know who’ve
            proven Einstein wrong?

  The train BUMPS. I look out the window, impatient.

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            It’d be quicker to take a plane.

                      GROVES
            We can’t risk a plane. America
            needs us.
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script          58.


  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-

                      FEYNMAN
            The Harvard guys say the building’s
            too small for their cyclotron.

                      OPPENHEIMER
                (to Condon)
            Get ’em together with the
            architects.

  Condon hurries off with Feynman. Rabi turns to me.

                      RABI
            When’s this place supposed to open?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Two months.

                      RABI
                (shakes head)
            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.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Four divisions- Experimental,
            Theoretical, Metallurgical,
            Ordnance.

                      RABI
            Who’s running Theoretical?

                         OPPENHEIMER
            I am.

                      RABI
            That’s what I was afraid of. You’re
            spread too thin.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            So you take Theoretical.

                      RABI
            I’m not coming here, Robert.


                                                       (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script           59.


                       OPPENHEIMER
            Why not?

  Rabi, seldom at a loss for words, is lost for words...

                      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.

                      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.

                      RABI
            Well, the second thing you have to
            do is appoint Hans Bethe to head
            the Theoretical division.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Wait, what was the first?

                      RABI
            Take off that ridiculous uniform-
            you’re a scientist.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            General Groves is insisting we
            join.

                      RABI
            Tell Groves to 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.
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          60.


  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 hands me a key.

                      SERBER
            This is the only key. Teller’s here
            already. Shall I show him in?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            No, wait for the others-

  The door BURSTS OPEN and a stooped, slightly heavy young man
  shuffles in. This is EDWARD TELLER.

                      TELLER
            Let’s get started.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Hello, Edward.


  INT. SAME -- DAY

  I sit at the front, one long leg tucked under my ass. The
  scientists include Lawrence, Serber, Teller, BETHE, Condon,
  Tolman, Feynman, Donald, Bainbridge, NEDDERMEYER and Alvarez.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            We’ll work here until the T-section
            at Los Alamos is finished-

  I see Teller waving a piece of paper-

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            Edward, can I get through my
            summary?

                      TELLER
            This is more important.
  Teller’s paper is passed around the room, scientists
  PALING...

                      TELLER (CONT’D)
            Calculating chain reactions... I
            found a rather troubling
            possibility.

  Hans Bethe hands me the paper, turns to Teller.




                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        61.


                      BETHE
            That can’t be right. Show me how
            you did your calculations.

                         TELLER
            Of course.

  I look up from the paper, grave. Teller watches the ruckus
  he’s caused with evident satisfaction. Bethe approaches.

                      BETHE
            Oppie, this is fantasy. Teller’s
            calculations cannot be right.

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Do them yourself while I go to
            Princeton.

                         BETHE
            What for?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            To talk to Einstein.

                      BETHE
            There’s not much common ground
            between you two.

                      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.

                      EINSTEIN
            Dr Oppenheimer. Have you met Kurt
            Gödel? We walk here most days.

                      GÖDEL
            Trees are the most inspiring
            structures.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Albert, might I have a word?

  Einstein senses the gravity. Nods. We leave Gödel staring up
  at the bare trees.




                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21        FINAL Shooting Script            62.


                      EINSTEIN
            Some days Kurt refuses to eat. Even
            in Princeton, he’s convinced 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.

                      EINSTEIN
            Whose work is this?

                        OPPENHEIMER
            Teller’s.

                      EINSTEIN
            And what do you take it to mean?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Neutron smashes into nucleus
            releasing neutrons to smash into
            other nuclei...


  INSERT CUT: DARKNESS SPLIT BY GLOWING PARTICLES FIRING INTO
  EACH OTHER IN AN INCREASINGLY VIOLENT DISPLAY...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Criticality- the point of no return-
            massive explosive force... but the
            chain reaction doesn’t stop...

  Einstein studies the paper... he nods.

                      EINSTEIN
            It would ignite the atmosphere.

  The air around us CATCHES FIRE... THE PLANET EARTH, LONELY IN
  VAST DARKNESS, IS SUDDENLY ENGULFED IN FIRE.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            When we detonate an atomic device,
            we might start a chain reaction
            that destroys the world.

                      EINSTEIN
            And here we are, lost in your
            quantum world of probabilities, but
            needing certainty.




                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          63.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            Can you run the calculations
            yourself?

                      EINSTEIN
            About the only thing you and I
            share is a disdain for mathematics.
            Who’s working on it at Berkeley?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Hans Bethe.

                      EINSTEIN
            He’ll get to the truth.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            And if the truth is catastrophic?

                      EINSTEIN
            Then you stop. And share your
            findings with the Nazis, so neither
            side destroys the world.

  I turn to leave.

                      EINSTEIN (CONT’D)
            Robert?
                (holding out paper)
            This is yours. Not mine.


  INT. CORRIDOR, BERKELEY -- DAY

  I come past the secretaries. Bethe is there, excited.

                      BETHE
            Teller’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, GRINNING-

                      BETHE
            When you narrow Teller’s critical
            assumptions the real picture
            emerges-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Bottom line?



                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script           64.


                      BETHE
            The chances of an uncontrolled
            nuclear reaction are near zero.

                         OPPENHEIMER
            Near zero?

                      BETHE
            Oppie, this is good news-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Can you run more calculations?

                       BETHE
            You’ll get the same answer. Until
            we actually detonate one of these
            things, the best assurance you’re
            going to get is this-
                (jabs paper)
            Near zero.

                      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.

                      BARBARA
                (whispering)
            So beautiful. We miss him.

                      KITTY
            Want to adopt?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            She’s kidding.

  Kitty shakes her head, 'not kidding'. Barbara takes Peter. I
  lead Chevalier to the kitchen...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            We wanted to see you before we
            left.

                      CHEVALIER
            For parts unknown...


  INT. KITCHEN, OPPENHEIMER HOUSE, BERKELEY -- CONTINUOUS

  I mix a tray of martinis. Chevalier watches, distracted.


                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21        FINAL Shooting Script    65.


                      CHEVALIER
            You know who I ran into the other
            day? Eltenton.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            The chemist from Shell? Union guy?

                      CHEVALIER
            Yeah. He was moaning about the way
            we’re handling the war.

                        OPPENHEIMER
            How so?

                      CHEVALIER
            Lack of cooperation with our
            allies. Apparently, our government
            isn’t sharing any research with the
            Russians. He said a lot of
            scientists think the policy’s
            stupid.

  My hands SLOW...

                        OPPENHEIMER
            Oh, yeah?

                      CHEVALIER
            Yeah. He mentioned that if anyone
            had information they wanted to pass
            on, going around official channels,
            he could help...

  I look up at Chevalier. Grave.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            That would be treason.

                      CHEVALIER
            Yes, of course. I just thought you
            should know.

  We STARE at each other... BANG- Kitty barges in.

                      KITTY
            Brat’s down- where are the
            martinis?

  She sees us having a moment...

                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            The discussion ended there.

  I pick up the tray.
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          66.


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Nothing in our long-standing
            friendship would have led me to
            believe that Chevalier was actually
            seeking information; and I was
            certain he had no idea of the work
            on which I was engaged.

  I steal a glance at Robb, then look directly at the board-

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            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.

                      STRAUSS
                (private)
            Who’re they bringing in?
                      COUNSEL
                (private)
            They haven’t said.

                      STRAUSS
            Mr Chairman, if I may? I’m
            nominated for Commerce Secretary.
            Why seek the opinion of scientists-

                      CHAIRMAN
            This is a Cabinet post, Admiral. We
            seek a wide range of opinion.



                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             67.


                      STRAUSS
            I’d like to know the name of the
            scientist testifying. And I’d like
            the chance to cross-examine.

                      CHAIRMAN
                (irritated)
            This is not a court.


  INT. SENATE OFFICE -- MOMENTS LATER (B&W)

  The Senate Aide shows Strauss and Counsel in.

                      COUNSEL
            Lewis, you’re not on trial-

                      STRAUSS
            So everyone keeps saying.

                      COUNSEL
            You act like a defence attorney,
            the Committee’s gonna act like a
            prosecutor.

                      STRAUSS
                (to Senate Aide)
            A 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 gives a wry smile. Remembers-


  INSERT CUT: STRAUSS APPROACHES EINSTEIN AND OPPENHEIMER-
  EINSTEIN BLOWS PAST WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGING STRAUSS...

                      STRAUSS
            You don’t know scientists like I
            do, counselor. They resent anyone
            who questions their judgement-
            especially if you’re not one of
            them...




                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21        FINAL Shooting Script         68.


  INSERT CUT: STRAUSS STARES- THE CROWD AT THE ISOTOPES HEARING
  LAUGHS...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            I was chair of the AEC- I’m easy to
            blame for what happened to Robert.

                      SENATE AIDE
            We can’t let the Senate think that
            the scientific community doesn’t
            support you.

                      STRAUSS
            Should we pivot?

                        SENATE AIDE
            To what?

                      STRAUSS
            Embrace it. 'I fought Oppenheimer
            and the US won'?

                      SENATE AIDE
            I don’t think we need to go there.
            Isn’t there anyone we can call who
            knows what really happened?

                        STRAUSS
            Teller.

                      SENATE AIDE
            He’ll make an impression.

                      STRAUSS
            Can you find out the name of the
            scientist they’ve called?

                        SENATE AIDE
            Probably.

                      STRAUSS
                (to Counsel)
            We get that name- you call the AEC,
            find out if he was based in Chicago
            or Los Alamos during the war.

                      SENATE AIDE
            Why’s that matter?

                      STRAUSS
            If he was in Chicago he worked
            under Szilard and Fermi, not the
            cult of Oppie at Los Alamos.
                      (MORE)


                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             69.

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            Robert built that damn place- he
            was founder, mayor, sheriff all
            rolled into one...

                                                    CUT TO:


  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
            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
            Robert. There’s no kitchen.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Really? We’ll fix that. Don’t
            worry.


  EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

  I walk Bethe through the security gate.

                      BETHE
            Barbed wire. Guns, Oppie.

                      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.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Halifax, 1917. A cargo ship
            carrying munitions exploded in the
            harbor...




                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             70.


  INSERT CUT: WOOD AND CONCRETE FRAGMENTS FLY...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            A vast and sudden chemical
            reaction...


  INSERT CUT: A SHOCKWAVE DRIFTS ACROSS THE TOPS OF THE CHOPPY
  WATER...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            The biggest man-made explosion in
            history. Let’s calculate how much
            more destructive it would have been
            with a nuclear, not chemical,
            reaction. Expressing power in terms
            of tons of TNT-

                      BETHE
            But it’ll be thousands.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Then, kilotons.

  I switch the lights on, step down to let Serber-

                      SERBER
            Using U-235, the bomb-

  He sees me wave.

                      SERBER (CONT’D)
            Sorry- the gadget will need a
            thirty-three-pound sphere, about
            this size...

  Serber reaches below the table, brings up a GOLDFISH BOWL-

                      SERBER (CONT’D)
            Or using plutonium, a ten-pound
            sphere...
  He puts a large BRANDY GLASS next to the aquarium.

                      SERBER (CONT’D)
            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.

                      SERBER (CONT’D)
            The Hanford plant made this much
            plutonium...


                                                       (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        71.


  He drops TWO MARBLES into the brandy glass.

                      SERBER (CONT’D)
            If we can enrich these amounts...
            we need a way to detonate them.

  Teller is at the back folding a paper plane.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Are we boring you, Edward?

                         TELLER
                   (without looking up)
            Yes.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            May I ask why?

                      TELLER
            We came into this room knowing a
            fission bomb was possible. Let’s
            leave it with something new.

                         OPPENHEIMER
            Such as?

                      TELLER
            A 'super' atomic bomb. Instead of
            uranium, or plutonium, we use
            hydrogen.

  MURMURS of dissent-

                      TELLER (CONT’D)
                (shutting them down)
            Heavy hydrogen- deuterium. We
            compact the atoms together under
            great force and induce a fusion
            reaction. Not kilotons... megatons.

  A HUBBUB develops- I process quickly, then-
                      OPPENHEIMER
            Hang on. How do you generate enough
            force to fuse hydrogen atoms?

  Teller smiles a self-satisfied smile.

                      TELLER
            A small fission bomb.

  GROANS all around...




                                                     (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             72.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            Well, since you’re going to need
            one, anyway... can we get back to
            the business at hand?

  Teller SHRUGS.


  INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W)

                      SENATOR BARTLETT
            Mr Strauss, the isotopes issue
            wasn’t your most important policy
            disagreement with Dr Oppenheimer.
            It was the Hydrogen bomb, wasn’t
            it?

                      STRAUSS
            We did disagree about the need for
            an H-bomb programme.

                      SENATOR BARTLETT
            Tell us how that came to pass.

  As Strauss REMEMBERS we hear a SIREN and we-

                                                    CUT TO:


  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...

                      STRAUSS
            What do we know?

                      BUSH
            One of our B-29s over the north
            Pacific picked up radiation.

  Rabi uses a compass to indicate an area on the map...


                                                    (CONTINUED)
Gadget    2023-04-21        FINAL Shooting Script            73.


                      STRAUSS
            Do you have the filter papers?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            There’s no doubt what this is.

                      STRAUSS
            The White House says there’s doubt.

  Oppenheimer begrudgingly slides them over to Strauss.

                      BUSH
            Wishful thinking, I’m afraid.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It’s an atomic test.

                      STRAUSS
            The Soviets have a bomb? We’re
            supposed to be years ahead of them.
            What were you guys doing at Los
            Alamos? Wasn’t the security tight?

           OPPENHEIMER
  Of course it was- you weren’t             NICHOLS (O.S.)
  there, Lewis.                     Forgive me, doctor...
  Strauss leans around the FLOWERS in the centre of the table
  to see who is speaking- Nichols, now a civilian.

                      NICHOLS (CONT’D)
            But I was there.

                                                      CUT TO:


  EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY (COLOUR)

  Condon, Nichols and I watch cars pull up. Groves emerges.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Welcome back.

                        GROVES
            Progress?


  INSERT CUT: MARBLES DROP INTO THE GOLDFISH BOWL.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It’s nice to see you, too.

                      GROVES
            Meet the British contingent.


                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script   74.


                    SCIENTISTS emerge. A THIN YOUNG MAN offers his hand-

                                                   FUCHS
                                             (German accent)
                                         Dr Oppenheimer, Klaus Fuchs.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         How long have you been British?

                                                   FUCHS
                                         Since Hitler told me I wasn’t
                                         German.


                    INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

                    Bethe, Teller, Condon, Kistiakowsky, Donald, Bainbridge,
                    Fuchs and Feynman and other scientists listen to-

                                                   SERBER
                                         I call it 'shooting'- we fire a
                                         chunk of fissionable material into
                                         the larger sphere with enough force
                                         to achieve criticality.


                    INSERT CUT: A URANIUM "BULLET" IS FIRED INTO A SPHERE-

                                                   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-

                                                   NEDDERMEYER
                                         I’d like to investigate that idea.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I’ll talk to the Ordinance division-
                                         we’ll get you blowing things up...


                    EXT. "MAIN STREET", LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

                    Condon, Nichols and I show Groves the GROWING TOWN...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         School’s up and running. I thought
                                         of a way to reduce support staff...

                    I open the door to the cabin containing my office-




8FLiX.com FYC SCREENPLAY DATABASE 20230904
Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script             75.


  INT. OUTER OFFICE -- CONTINUOUS

  Groves notices the YOUNG WOMAN working behind the desk-


  INT. OPPENHEIMER’S OFFICE, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS

  I slump into my chair. Groves is perplexed-

                      GROVES
            Is that...?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Mrs Serber. I’ve offered jobs to
            all the wives. Admin, librarians,
            computation. We cut down on staff
            and keep families together.

                      GROVES
            Are these women qualified?

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Don’t be absurd. These are some of
            the brightest minds in our
            community.

                      CONDON
            And they’re already security
            cleared.

                      NICHOLS
            I’ve informed General Groves you’ve
            been holding cross-divisional open
            discussions-

              GROVES
  Shut ’em down.                                CONDON
  Compartmentalization is the       It’s only the top men.
  key to maintaining security-
                      NICHOLS
            Who, presumably, communicate with
            subordinates.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            These men aren’t stupid, they can
            be discreet.

                      GROVES
            I don’t like it.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You don’t like anything enough for
            there to be a fair test.


                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21           FINAL Shooting Script        76.


                    Groves shrugs. Gets up to leave. Nichols rolls his eyes.

                                                   GROVES
                                         Once a week. Top men only.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I’d like to bring my brother here.

                                                      GROVES
                                         No.

                    Groves and Condon leave- I corner Nichols-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I still haven’t heard that my
                                         security clearance has been
                                         approved.

                                                      NICHOLS
                                         It hasn’t.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         We’re going to Chicago tomorrow-

                                                   NICHOLS
                                         You should wait.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         You’re aware that the Nazis have a
                                         two-year head start?

                                                   NICHOLS
                                         Dr Oppenheimer, the fact that your
                                         security clearance is proving
                                         difficult to obtain is not my
                                         fault. It’s yours.

                                                   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-

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         How many people were in the open
                                         discussions?




                                                                                  (CONTINUED)
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                      NICHOLS
            Too many. Compartmentalization was
            supposed to be the protocol.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            We were in a race against the Nazis-

                      STRAUSS
            Well, now the race is against the
            Soviets.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Only if we start it.

  Strauss holds up the filter papers.

                      STRAUSS
            Robert, they just fired the
            starting gun. What’s the nature of
            the device they detonated?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            The data indicates it may have been
            a plutonium implosion device.

                      STRAUSS
            Like the one you built at Los
            Alamos?

  Oppenheimer nods reluctantly...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            If the Soviets have a bomb, Truman
            needs to know what’s next.

  Bush nods. Oppenheimer looks incredulous-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            What’s next? Arms talks. Obviously.

                      STRAUSS
                (to Bush)
            What about the Super? Does Truman
            even know about it?

                      BUSH
            Not specifically.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            We still don’t know if a Hydrogen
            bomb is technically feasible.




                                                   (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        78.


                                                   STRAUSS
                                         My understanding is that Teller
                                         first proposed it at Los Alamos.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         His designs have always been wildly
                                         impractical. You’d have to deliver
                                         by ox-cart not airplane.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         If it could put us ahead again,
                                         Truman needs to know about it. And
                                         if there’s a possibility that the
                                         Russians know about it from a spy
                                         at Los Alamos... we’ve gotta get
                                         going.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         There’s no proof there was a spy at
                                         Los Alamos.

                    Strauss holds up the filter papers, raises his eyebrows...

                                                                                CUT TO:


                    EXT. FOOTBALL STADIUM, CHICAGO -- DAY (COLOUR)

                    Condon and I are led across the field by J. Ernest WILKINS...

                                                   CONDON
                                         They put it under the football
                                         stadium?

                                                   WILKINS
                                         The field’s not in use, anymore.

                                                   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...

                                                   FERMI
                                         I hear you’ve got a little town.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Come and see.




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      SZILARD
            Who could think straight in a place
            like that? Everybody will go crazy.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Thanks for the vote of confidence,
            Szilard.

  I spot Glasses SCRIBBLING - I GRAB his pen- he FLINCHES-

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            We really need that in the notes?
                (to Fermi)
            When are you going to try it out?

                      FERMI
            We already did. The first self-
            sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
            Didn’t Groves tell you?


  EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

  Condon and I have just passed through-

                      HORNIG
            Dr Oppenheimer! I tried personnel.

  We turn to see a twenty-three-year-old young woman on the
  other side of the barrier. This is Lilli HORNIG.

                      HORNIG (CONT’D)
            They asked if I could type.

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Can you?

                      HORNIG
            Harvard forgot to teach that on the
            graduate chemistry course.
  I smile at this. Turn to Condon.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Put Mrs Hornig on the plutonium
            team.


  INT. CYCLOTRON BUILDING, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS

  Condon and I peer up at the equipment. Groves STORMS in-




                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script            80.


                                                   GROVES
                                         What the hell were you doing in
                                         Chicago?!

                                CONDON
                    Visiting the Met Lab-                                    GROVES (CONT’D)
                                                              Why?!
                    Condon looks at me. I say nothing. He turns to Groves-

                                CONDON (CONT’D)
                    You can’t talk to us like                             GROVES (CONT’D)
                    this. We have every right-                You have just the rights I
                                                              give you! No more, no less.
                                                   CONDON (CONT’D)
                                         This is ridiculous- we’re adults,
                                         trying to run a project here.
                                             (to me)
                                         Tell him, Robert.

                    I look steadily at Groves.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Compartmentalization is the
                                         protocol we agreed to.

                                                   CONDON
                                         You’ve got to be kidding me. Enough
                                         of this madhouse- nobody can work
                                         under these conditions.
                                             (to Groves)
                                         You know what, Generalissimo? I
                                         quit.
                                             (to Oppenheimer)
                                         Thanks for nothing.

                    Condon storms out. Groves turns to me.

                                                   GROVES
                                         Better off without him.
                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Aren’t you more worried about his
                                         discretion out there?

                                                   GROVES
                                         We'll have him killed.
                                             (off Oppenheimer’s look)
                                         Kidding. He hates me, not America.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Not everyone has levers like mine
                                         to pull.


                                                                                   (CONTINUED)
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                      GROVES
            I don’t know what you mean.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You didn’t hire me despite my left-
            wing past, you hired me because of
            it. So you could control me.

                      GROVES
            I’m not that subtle. I’m just a
            humble soldier.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You’re neither humble, nor 'just' a
            soldier. You studied engineering at
            MIT.

                      GROVES
            Guilty as charged.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Now that we understand each other,
            perhaps you’ll get me my security
            clearance, so I can perform this
            miracle for you.

  General Groves looks at me. Nods.

                      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...

                      GROVES
            I was aware that there were
            suspicions about him... I was aware
            that he had a very extreme liberal
            background.

                      GARRISON
            In your opinion, would he ever
            consciously commit a disloyal act?

                      GROVES
            I would be amazed if he did.




                                                       (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        82.


                                                    GARRISON
                                         You had complete confidence in his
                                         integrity?

                                                   GROVES
                                         At Los Alamos, yes, which is where
                                         I really knew him.

                                                   ROBB
                                         General, did your security officers
                                         on the project advise against the
                                         clearance of Dr Oppenheimer?

                                                   GROVES
                                         Truer to say they could not and
                                         would not clear him. Until I
                                         insisted...

                                                   ROBB
                                         You became pretty familiar with the
                                         security file on Dr Oppenheimer?

                                                   GROVES
                                         I did.

                                                   ROBB
                                         General, there’s really only one
                                         question we need answered here
                                         today...

                    Groves shifts, knowing what’s about to be asked...

                                                   ROBB (CONT’D)
                                         In the light of your experience of
                                         security matters and knowledge of
                                         the file...


                    EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

                    I greet Lawrence and Lomanitz as they get out of a car-
                                                   ROBB (V.O.)
                                         ...would you clear Dr Oppenheimer
                                         today?

                                                   LAWRENCE
                                         Physics and New Mexico, huh? But my
                                         God, what a trek.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         That’s why you need a liaison.




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      LAWRENCE
            I’m appointing Lomanitz.

  I pat Lomanitz on the shoulder.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You’re gonna be okay.


  INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- LATER

  As the group assembles, General Groves speaks to Lawrence.

                      GROVES
            I’ll remind you what we talked
            about in Berkeley, doctor.

                      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-

                      LAWRENCE (CONT’D)
            Greetings from Berkeley. I’m here
            to update you on our progress and
            solicit your input. To do so I will
            be sharing many things that General
            Groves has told me not to
                (to Groves)
            Well, General, I said I
            'understood', not that I agreed.
            So, to business...

  Groves looks at me. I shrug. He leaves.

                                                      CUT TO:

  INT. HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM -- NIGHT (B&W)

  Strauss places the filter papers back down on the table...

             STRAUSS
  There were rumours of                      OPPENHEIMER
  espionage at Los Alamos-          Unsubstantiated-




                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        84.


                               STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                    I’ve heard there were                              OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                    Communists on the project-                We didn’t knowingly employ
                    were any of them involved                 any Communists.
                    with discussions of the
                    Super?
                                                   NICHOLS
                                         I seem to remember you demanding
                                         that your brother come to Los
                                         Alamos.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         He’d left the Party by then.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         And Lomanitz?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         He was never employed at Los
                                         Alamos, he was a liaison. Our
                                         security was tight, as former
                                         Colonel Nichols well knows.

                                                   NICHOLS
                                         Our security was the tightest we
                                         could make it given the
                                         personalities involved. But
                                         attempts were made. Doctor, we’ve
                                         all read your file here. Do we need
                                         to talk about Jean Tatlock? Or the
                                         Chevalier incident?

                    Strauss watches Oppenheimer glare at Nichols.

                                                                                CUT TO:


                    INT. OPPENHEIMER’S OFFICE, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY (COLOUR)

                                                   SECRETARY
                                             (over intercom)
                                         That’s Lomanitz on one...

                    I pick up the phone-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Lomanitz? Okay, hang on, calm down.


                    INT. COLONEL NICHOLS’ OFFICE -- MOMENTS LATER

                    I stand at Nichols’ desk.



                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      OPPENHEIMER
            There’s been another screw-up-
            Lomanitz just got drafted.

                      NICHOLS
            We are at war, doctor.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Don’t be an asshole, Nichols. We
            need this kid. Fix it, will you?

                      NICHOLS
            It wasn’t a mistake. Your friend
            Lomanitz has been trying to
            unionize the Radiation Lab.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            He promised to quit all that.

                      NICHOLS
            Well, he hasn’t. The security
            officer at Berkeley is concerned
            about Communist infiltration
            through that union- the... F-A...

                      OPPENHEIMER
                (thinking)
            F-A-E-C-T. I’m there next week,
            maybe I’ll drop in to see him.

  Nichols TOSSES a security pass across the desk.

                      NICHOLS
            Your Q clearance came through. It’s
            important you not maintain or renew
            any questionable associations.

                      ROBB (V.O.)
            Doctor, did you think social
            contacts between a person employed
            on secret war work and Communists
            was dangerous?


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

  I testify, Kitty behind me...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            My awareness of the danger would be
            greater today.




                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script   86.


                                                   ROBB
                                         But 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.

                                                   ROBB (V.O.)
                                         ...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

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
                                         Were conceivably dangerous.

                    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...

                                                   ROBB (V.O.)
                                         Really? Known Communists?

                    ...and remove a small BUNCH OF FLOWERS. I knock...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
                                         Look, I’ve had a lot of secrets in
                                         my head a long time. It doesn’t
                                         matter who I associate with...

                    The door opens to reveal JEAN TATLOCK.


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION - DAY

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT'D)
                                         I don’t 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...




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  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

  Robb refers to his papers- Kitty watches...

                      ROBB
            You said in your statement you
            'had' to visit Jean Tatlock in
            1943...


  INT. ROOM 805, HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO -- NIGHT

  Tatlock and I sit across the room from each other, naked.

                      TATLOCK
            You left. Not a word. What did you
            think that would do to me?

                       OPPENHEIMER
            I wrote.

                      TATLOCK
            Pages of nothing. Where’d you go?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I can’t tell you.

                       TATLOCK
            Why not?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Because you’re a Communist.

                      ROBB (V.O.)
            Why did you have to see her?


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

  I sit at the table, self-conscious, testifying...

                      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...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            She was undergoing psychiatric
            treatment. She was extremely
            unhappy.



                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        88.


                                                   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...

                                                   ROBB
                                         You spent the night with her didn’t
                                         you?

                    As Tatlock GRINDS on me she locks eyes with Kitty...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Yes.


                    INT. ROOM 805, HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO -- NIGHT

                    Tatlock studies me from across the room.

                                                   TATLOCK
                                         You drop in and out of my life and
                                         don’t have to tell me why. That’s
                                         power.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Not that I enjoy. I’d rather be
                                         here for you as you need.

                                                   TATLOCK
                                         But now you’ve got other
                                         priorities.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I have a wife and child.

                                                   TATLOCK
                                         That’s not what either of us is
                                         talking about.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Jean, you asked me to come. And I’m
                                         glad I did. But I can’t come again.

                                                   TATLOCK
                                         What if I need you?

                    I slowly shake my head.



                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      TATLOCK (CONT’D)
            Not a word?


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

  All eyes on me, clothed and alone again...

                      ROBB
            Did you think that consistent with
            good security?

  Behind me, Kitty’s face is stone...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It was, as a matter of fact. Not a
            word.

                      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...

  I JAM my eyes closed, shake off the image-

                      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
            I can make the last train back to
            Princeton.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I said nothing that I hadn’t
            already said to you, Kitty.

                      KITTY
            Well, today you said it to history.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            This is a closed hearing-

                      KITTY
            If they don’t release a transcript,
            you will!



                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        90.


                    She DROPS her bag, spilling the contents. Garrison spots a
                    small FLASK as Kitty sweeps it into her purse. I CROUCH-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I was under oath.

                                                   KITTY
                                         You were under an oath to me when
                                         you went to see Jean.

                    She STANDS- I follow- she TURNS back- in my face-

                                                   KITTY (CONT’D)
                                         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.

                                                   GARRISON
                                         Robert, I’m not putting her up
                                         there.


                    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.

                                                   JOHNSON
                                         Dr Oppenheimer, it’s an honour.
                                         Please, take a seat-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         No need. I just wanted to check
                                         whether I should talk to Lomanitz
                                         while I’m here- given your
                                         concerns.

                                                   JOHNSON
                                         That’s up to you, really,
                                         professor. But I’d be cautious.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Understood. Oh, and as far as the
                                         union goes, I wanted to give you a
                                         heads up on a man named Eltenton.

                                                   JOHNSON
                                         A heads up?


                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      OPPENHEIMER
            He might merit watching, is all.

                      JOHNSON
            I’d love to get more details-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’ve got an appointment now, and I
            leave early tomorrow-

                      JOHNSON
            Come as early as you like. Since
            you haven’t time now.

                      GROVES (V.O.)
            You went back the next morning?


  INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY

  Groves sits opposite. I stare out the window.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I did. I had to, really.


  INT. LT. JOHNSON’S OFFICE -- MORNING

  Johnson smiles, beckons me in. Indicates a SECOND MAN-

                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            This time there was another man.


  INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY

  I stare out the window. Groves sits opposite.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Said his name was Pash.

                      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.

                      ROBB
            Colonel Pash, can you read from
            your memo of June 29th, 1943?



                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21            FINAL Shooting Script        92.


                                                   PASH
                                         'Results of surveillance conducted
                                         on subject indicate further
                                         possible Communist Party
                                         connections. Subject met with and
                                         spent considerable time with one
                                         Jean Tatlock, Communist, the record
                                         of whom is attached.'

                                                   ROBB
                                         The subject being Dr Oppenheimer?

                                                    PASH
                                         Yes.

                                                   ROBB
                                         Whom you had not met?

                                                   PASH
                                         Not then, but soon after...


                    INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         He’s head of security for the
                                         project, shouldn’t I know him?

                                                   GROVES
                                         No, he should know you. I’d never
                                         put you in a room with Pash.

                                                    OPPENHEIMER
                                         Why not?

                                                   GROVES
                                         When Pash first learned about
                                         Lomanitz- he told the FBI he was
                                         going to kidnap him, take him out
                                         on a boat, interrogate him 'in the
                                         Russian manner'...


                    INT. LT. JOHNSON’S OFFICE -- DAY

                    Pash sits down next to me, opposite Johnson.




                                                                                   (CONTINUED)
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                      PASH
            Dr Oppenheimer, this is a pleasure.
            General Groves has placed a certain
            responsibility in me, and it’s like
            having a child, that you can’t see,
            by remote control, so to actually
            meet you... I don’t mean to take
            much of your time...

  The disarming friendliness of the truly dangerous.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Not at all. Whatever time you
            choose.

                      PASH
            Mr Johnson told me of your
            conversation yesterday, in which
            I’m very interested. It had me
            worried all day...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I didn’t want to talk to Lomanitz
            without authorization-

                       PASH
            That’s not the particular interest
            I have. It’s something a little
            more, in my opinion, more
            serious...


  INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY

                      GROVES
            When the FBI pointed out that such
            information couldn’t be used in
            court Pash made it clear that he
            didn’t intend to have anyone left
            to prosecute. The FBI talked him
            down, but that’s the man you’re
            dancing with.


  INT. LT. JOHNSON’S OFFICE -- DAY

                      PASH
            I gather you’ve heard there are
            other parties interested in the
            work of the Radiation Lab...




                                                       (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        94.


                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Well, 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
                                         they might supply.

                                                    PASH
                                         Why would anyone on the project
                                         want that?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Frankly, I can see there might be
                                         arguments for the commander-in-
                                         chief informing the Russians-
                                         they’re our allies. 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

                                                   GROVES
                                         You said that to Pash?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I was trying to put it in the
                                         context of... Russia’s not Germany.

                                                    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’s killed Communists with his
                                         own hands.


                    INT. LT. JOHNSON’S OFFICE -- DAY

                    Pash spreads his palms...

                                                   PASH
                                         I’m not the judge of who should or
                                         should not get information. My
                                         business is to stop it going
                                         through illegally. Could you be a
                                         little more specific?




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      OPPENHEIMER
            There’s a man whose name was
            mentioned to me a couple of times-
            Eltenton. I think he’s a chemist
            employed by Shell. He talked to a
            friend of his who’s an acquaintance
            of someone on the project. To go
            beyond that would be to put names
            down of people who are not only
            innocent but were one hundred
            percent cooperative.


  INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY

  Groves is staring at me like I just crapped my pants.

                       GROVES
            You thought Pash would be satisfied
            with that?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I was trying to give them Eltenton
            without opening a can of worms. I
            told him a cock-and-bull story.


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

  I am up front. Robb questioning-

                      ROBB
            Did you lie to General Groves, too?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            No, I told him I’d lied to Pash.


  INT. SAME -- DAY

  Groves is on the stand, in civilian clothes-

                      GARRISON
            Do you recall your conversation
            with him about the Chevalier
            incident?

                      GROVES
            I’ve seen so many versions of it, I
            wasn’t confused before, but I’m
            certainly getting there now.

                      GARRISON
            What was your conclusion?


                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        96.


                                                   GROVES
                                         That he was under the influence of
                                         the typical American schoolboy
                                         attitude that there’s something
                                         wicked about telling on a friend.
                                         He did what he thought was
                                         essential- disclosing Eltenton.


                    INT. SAME -- DAY

                    Pash is testifying.

                                                    PASH
                                         The memo I wrote at the time states
                                         'Dr Oppenheimer sought to provide
                                         information to burnish his image as
                                         loyal, clearly having heard of our
                                         investigation at Berkeley. He is
                                         not to be trusted on matters of
                                         security.'


                    INT. LT. JOHNSON’S OFFICE -- DAY

                    Pash gazes, unblinking, into my eyes...

                                                   PASH
                                         These other people you mentioned,
                                         were they contacted by Eltenton
                                         direct?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         No.

                                                   PASH
                                         Well now, could we know through
                                         whom that contact was made?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         It would involve people who ought
                                         not be involved in this.

                                                   PASH
                                         Is this person a member of the
                                         project?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         A member of the faculty, but not on
                                         the project.




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        97.


                      PASH
            Eltenton made the approach through
            a member of the faculty here at
            Berkeley?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            As far as I know- there may have
            been more than one person involved.
            If I seem uncooperative I think you
            can understand that it’s because of
            my insistence in not getting
            innocent people into trouble.

  Pash stares at me. I finally keep my mouth shut.

                      PASH
            You see me as persistent-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You are persistent, and that is
            your job. But my job is protecting
            the people who work for me.

                      PASH
            Instead of us going on certain
            steps which may come to your
            attention and be a little bit...
            disturbing to you... I’d rather
            discuss those with you first. I’m
            not formulating any plans, I’m just
            going to have to digest the whole
            thing.

  I nod at Pash. Get to my feet.


  INT. TRAIN, SANTA FE TO CHICAGO -- DAY

  Groves takes in the story.

                      GROVES
            You’re protecting a friend. But
            who’s protecting you?

                         OPPENHEIMER
            You could.

                      GROVES
            If you gave me the name.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            If you order me to, I’ll do it.




                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        98.


                                                   GROVES
                                         You’re making a mistake, Robert. A
                                         mistake that may haunt you. You
                                         need to volunteer this name.


                    I turn to watch the scenery trundle past.

                                                   ROBB (V.O.)
                                         And did he give you the name?


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

                                                   GROVES
                                         He did.

                                                   ROBB
                                         But not at that time.

                                                   GROVES
                                         No.

                                                    ROBB
                                         In fact, it was some months later,
                                         wasn’t it?

                    Groves nods.


                    INT. SAME -- DAY

                    I study the back of Boris Pash’s head...

                                                   ROBB
                                         And in the months between your
                                         interview with Dr Oppenheimer and
                                         his eventual naming of Chevalier,
                                         did you expend resources trying to
                                         find the identity of the
                                         intermediary?

                                                    PASH
                                         Considerable resources. Without the
                                         name our job was extremely
                                         difficult.

                                                   ROBB
                                         When did you receive the name?

                                                   PASH
                                         I was gone by the time Oppenheimer
                                         offered it up.



                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                       ROBB
            Gone?

                      PASH
            They felt my time would be better
            spent in Europe determining the
            status of the Nazi bomb project.

                       ROBB
            Who did?

                       PASH
            General Groves. He transferred me
            to London.

  I lift my head at this.


  INSERT CUT: MARBLES DROP INTO THE BOWL... THREE-QUARTERS
  FULL...


  EXT. LOS ALAMOS -- NIGHT

  Serber and I walk down the street. Snow falling.

                      SERBER
            Little early for a Christmas party.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Something’s up. Tolman’s been away.

                       SERBER
            Where?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Ruth won’t tell.

  We head towards Fuller Lodge...


  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...

                      RUTH
            Compartmentalization, Oppie. What
            makes you think I know, anyway?



                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21             FINAL Shooting Script       100.


                    I take her glass. Sip from it...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         You do a good job of knowing where
                                         Mr Tolman is... when it counts.

                                                     RUTH
                                         Like now.

                    I turn- Tolman and Groves enter, brushing off snow...

                                                   GROVES
                                         Atten-shun! We have an early
                                         Christmas present for you...

                    They step aside to reveal... NIELS BOHR. I grin.

                                                   BOHR (V.O.)
                                         The British pilots put me in the
                                         bomb bay...


                    INT. SAME -- LATER

                    Bohr holds court. I listen at the back.

                                                   BOHR
                                         ...showed me the oxygen- of course
                                         I messed it up. When they opened me
                                         up in Scotland I was unconscious. I
                                         pretended I’d been napping.

                    The crowd LAUGHS, loving it. Bohr peels off to talk to me.

                                                   BOHR (CONT’D)
                                         Is it big enough?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         To end the war?

                                                   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...

                                                   BOHR
                                         Heisenberg sought me out in
                                         Copenhagen. It was chilling- my old
                                         student, working for the Nazis.
                                                   (MORE)

                                                                                    (CONTINUED)
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                       BOHR (CONT’D)
            He told me things to draw me out...
            sustained fission reactions in
            uranium...

                      TOLMAN
            That sounds more like a reactor
            than a bomb.

                      TELLER
            Did he mention gaseous diffusion?

                      BOHR
            He seemed more focused on heavy
            water.

                      TELLER
            As a moderator?

                      BOHR
            Yes. Instead of graphite.

  Serber and Tolman GRIN. I nod. Bohr notices us relax...

                       BOHR (CONT’D)
            What?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            He took a wrong turn. We’re ahead.
            And with you here to help us...

  Bohr turns to Teller and the others-

                      BOHR
            Gentlemen, could you give us a
            moment?

  They shuffle out. Bohr looks at the MARBLES. Turns to me...

                      BOHR (CONT’D)
            I’m not here to help, Robert. I
            knew you could do this without me.
                      OPPENHEIMER
            Then why did you come?

                      BOHR
            To talk about after. The power
            you’re revealing will forever
            outlive the Nazis. And the world is
            not prepared.




                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       102.


                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         You can lift the rock without being
                                         ready for the snake that’s
                                         revealed.

                                                   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...
                                             (points at me)
                                         You’re an American Prometheus-
                                         Father of the Atomic Bomb. The man
                                         who gave them the power to destroy
                                         themselves. They’ll respect that.
                                         And your work really begins.

                    I take this in. Charlotte Serber enters-

                                                   CHARLOTTE
                                         I’m sorry, Oppie, but there’s a
                                         call. From San Francisco.

                    I look at my watch, surprised... look at Bohr, who nods 'Go.'


                    EXT. SNOWY WOODS, LOS ALAMOS -- DAWN

                    Kitty, on horseback, finds my horse, tied up. She dismounts,
                    moving into the trees... She finds me curled up at the base
                    of a tree in the SNOW, distraught.

                                                   KITTY
                                         Robert?

                    She crouches, touches my shoulder- I look up, ASHAMED.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Her father called... they found her
                                         yesterday... in the bath...


                    INSERT CUT: A WOMAN, FACE-DOWN IN THE BATH, A CUSHION
                    BELOW...

                                                   KITTY
                                         Who?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         She’d taken pills, left a note...
                                         not signed... she took
                                         barbiturates...




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script          103.


  INSERT CUT: TATLOCK KNEELS IN THE BATH, POPPING PILLS. SINKS
  SERENELY ONTO CUSHIONS UNDER THE WATER...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            But there was chloral hydrate in
            her blood...


  INSERT CUT: GLOVED HANDS HOLD TATLOCK’S STRUGGLING HEAD
  UNDERWATER...

  I SHAKE OFF the image...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            There was a note.
                      KITTY
            Jean Tatlock?


  INSERT CUT: OPPENHEIMER, NAKED, SHAKES HIS HEAD AT TATLOCK.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            We were together- she said she
            needed me... but I told her I
            wouldn’t see her again. It was me.

  Kitty SLAPS me in the face. I look up at her, bleary-eyed...

                      KITTY
            You don’t get to commit the sin,
            then have us all feel sorry for you
            that it had consequences.
                (rises)
            Pull yourself together. 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-

                      HORNIG
            Serber, I’m not quitting my job
            because plutonium’s radioactive!

                      SERBER
            We can’t know what it might do to
            your reproductive system- Donald,
            help me out, here-




                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script            104.


                                DONALD
                    You’re on your own, pal.                              HORNIG
                                                                 (to Serber)
                                                              Your reproductive system’s
                                                              more exposed than mine.
                                                              Presumably.

                             KISTIAKOWSKY
                    The implosion device is                            NEDDERMEYER
                    nowhere.                                  You can’t rush everything,
                                                              Oppie.

                             KISTIAKOWSKY (CONT’D)
                    There’s rushing and there’s                           BETHE
                    getting on with it- pick one,             Teller’s not helping- I’ve
                    will ya?                                  been asking for calculations
                                                              on the implosion lenses for
                                                              weeks-

                                TELLER
                    The British can do it- Fuchs-                            FUCHS
                                                              Absolutely.

                                BETHE
                    It’s your job, Teller!                                TELLER (CONT’D)
                                                              I’m engaged in research-
                                                   BETHE (CONT’D)
                                         On a Hydrogen bomb we’re not even
                                         building!

                    Teller simply walks away. As he passes me-

                                                   TELLER
                                         I won’t work for that man.

                                                   BETHE
                                         Let him go. He’s a prima donna-

                                                   SERBER
                                         I agree. He should leave Los
                                         Alamos.

                    I sigh. RISE, clear and direct-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Kisty, you replace Neddermeyer.
                                         Seth, I’m putting you on plutonium.
                                         Lilli, go work for Kisty.
                                             (off her look)
                                         Because he needs you.
                                             (to Fuchs)
                                                   (MORE)



                                                                                     (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script         105.

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            Fuchs, take Teller’s role- you’re
            exclusively on the implosion
            device.

  I head for the door-

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            And nobody 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.

                      TELLER
            They won’t let me leave.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I won’t let you leave. Forget Hans,
            forget fission. Stay here and
            research what you want. Fusion. The
            Hydrogen bomb- whatever. We’ll meet
            to discuss-

                      TELLER
            You don’t have time to meet. You’re
            a politician now, Robert. You left
            physics behind long ago.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Once a week. One hour, you and me.

  Teller considers this. Nods, turns to the GUARD-

                      TELLER
            Now, raise that fucking barrier.

                      ROBB (O.S.)
            So the Super was under development
            on your watch at Los Alamos...

  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

                      ROBB
            ...yet, after the war, you tried to
            deny it was viable.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            No. I pointed out technical
            difficulties with it.




                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       106.


                                                   ROBB
                                         Didn’t you try to kill it at the
                                         AEC meeting after the Russian bomb
                                         test?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         No.

                                                   ROBB
                                         But that was the recommendation the
                                         AEC offered, was it not?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         After hours of discussion...


                    INT. HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM -- NIGHT (COLOUR)

                    Me, Bush, Nichols (CIVILIAN), Rabi, Fermi, Strauss and
                    others.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
                                         ...about the best response.

                                                   BUSH
                                         Truman has to do something...

                    Rabi opens his compasses wider...

                                                   RABI
                                         An H-bomb would be one thousand
                                         times the power of an A-bomb.

                    He draws a circle around Moscow...

                                                   RABI (CONT’D)
                                         The only intended target would be
                                         the largest cities.

                    And a circle around St Petersburg...
                                                   RABI (CONT’D)
                                         It’s a weapon of mass genocide.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Why don’t you draw some of those
                                         circles on this side of the map?

                    He points at the USA...

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         Start here...
                                             (gestures around them)
                                         New York.


                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script          107.


  As I listen to them I hear the sound of FEET STAMPING...

                      FERMI
            It’s a weapon of attack, with no
            defensive value.

                      STRAUSS
            Deterrence.

                      BUSH
            Do we need more deterrence than our
            current arsenal of atomic bombs?

  I tense up as the STAMPING SOUND gets LOUDER and LOUDER...

                      RABI
            Drown in ten feet of water or ten
            thousand, what’s the difference? We
            can already drown Russia, and they
            know it.


  INSERT CUT: DOZENS OF FEET STAMPING, FASTER AND FASTER...

                      STRAUSS
            Now they can drown us.


  INSERT CUT:... SO FAST THE FEET BREAK RHYTHM, CAUSING
  CACOPHONY...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            Gentlemen, I have to ask whether
            your discussion should be more of a
            technical one. Robert?

  I JAM my eyes CLOSED, SHAKE OFF the image- the sound STOPS-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Teller’s designs are as impractical
            as they were during the war.
                      LAWRENCE
            The Hydrogen bomb can be made to
            work, Oppie. You know that.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            We can’t commit all our resources
            to that chance.

                      STRAUSS
            Then how would you have Truman
            reassure the American people?



                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        108.


                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         By limiting the spread of atomic
                                         weapons through international
                                         control of nuclear energy.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         World government?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         The United Nations. As Roosevelt
                                         intended.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         I asked what Truman should do. The
                                         world’s changed. Communism
                                         threatens our survival.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Lewis, if we build a Hydrogen bomb,
                                         the Soviets would have no choice
                                         but to build their own.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Could they be working on it
                                         already? Based on information from
                                         a spy at Los Alamos?

                             OPPENHEIMER
                    There was no spy at Los                                BUSH
                    Alamos!                                   Gentlemen, let’s not get
                                                              sidetracked.
                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         I say we use this moment to gain
                                         concessions from the Russians by
                                         committing that we will not build
                                         the Hydrogen bomb.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Thereby revealing its existence.
                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Which you seem convinced they
                                         already know.

                                                   BUSH
                                         At this point I’d like the Advisory
                                         Committee members to meet in
                                         privacy to finalize our
                                         recommendations.

                    Strauss nods. Rises. Much of the room follows suit, leaving.




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script       109.


                      STRAUSS
            I’m not sure you want to go down
            this road, Robert.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Lewis, we’re the Advisory
            Committee. We’ll give them our
            advice.

  Strauss shrugs. As he, Lawrence and Nichols leave together,
  Borden approaches.

                      BORDEN
            Dr Oppenheimer? William Borden-
            Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Oh, yes.

                      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...

                      BORDEN (V.O.)
            A V-2 rocket heading for England-


  INSERT CUT: A ROCKET STREAKS PAST, RIPPING APART THE DARK...

                      BORDEN (V.O.)
            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...



                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       110.


                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Then 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.

                                                   RABI
                                         Oppie, you don’t want to go up
                                         against Strauss.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         If we both speak, they listen to
                                         me.

                                                   RABI
                                         When you speak, they hear a
                                         prophet. When Strauss speaks, they
                                         hear themselves.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         They’ll listen to a prophet.

                                                   RABI
                                         A prophet can’t be wrong. Not once.

                                                   SENATOR MCGEE (V.O.)
                                         Didn’t 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.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         I was never one of those who
                                         bandied around terms like
                                         'sabotage'.

                                                   SENATOR MCGEE
                                         But Mr Borden was?

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         As I understand it.

                                                   SENATOR MCGEE
                                         How was Mr Borden able to put
                                         together such a detailed
                                         indictment?
                                                   (MORE)


                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script         111.

                      SENATOR MCGEE (CONT’D)
            He was no longer a government
            employee, and yet he appears to
            have had unlimited access to Dr
            Oppenheimer’s file. Might Mr
            Nichols have given him access to
            the file? Or someone else at the
            AEC?

                      STRAUSS
            Feelings ran high on these issues,
            but that’s a very serious
            accusation, Senator.

                                                    CUT TO:


  EXT. LOS ALAMOS -- DAY (COLOUR)

  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".


  INT. CYCLOTRON BUILDING, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

  I enter to find forty scientists meeting. Hornig is speaking.

                      HORNIG
            Germany’s about to surrender, the
            Japanese are losing. It’s no longer
            the enemy who are the greatest
            threat to mankind- it’s us. Our
            work.

  Heads turn as they notice me.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Hitler’s dead. But the Japanese
            fight on.

  The audience is now turned my way...

                      HORNIG
            Their defeat seems assured.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Not if you’re a GI preparing to
            invade Japan. We can end this war.

                      MORRISON
            How can we justify using this
            weapon on human beings?




                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script   112.


                                                    OPPENHEIMER
                                         We’re theorists- we can imagine a
                                         future, and our imaginings horrify
                                         us. But they won’t fear it until
                                         they understand it, and they won’t
                                         understand it until they’ve used
                                         it. When the world learns the
                                         terrible secret of Los Alamos, our
                                         work 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...


                    INSERT CUT: THE GOLDFISH BOWL IS FULL OF MARBLES...


                    EXT. LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

                    I walk down the main drag with Groves.

                                                     OPPENHEIMER
                                         Progress.

                                                   GROVES
                                         Two years and a billion dollars’
                                         worth?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Hard to put a price on it.

                                                   GROVES
                                         Not really. Just add up the bills.
                                             (points)
                                         'Rural free delivery'... Eighty
                                         babies delivered the first year.
                                         This year they’ve had ten a month.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Birth control’s a little out of my
                                         jurisdiction, General.

                    Groves watches Kitty approach- she’s HEAVILY PREGNANT.

                                                     GROVES
                                         Clearly.




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  EXT. CANYON, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

  An IMPLOSION DEVICE ROCKS the canyon. Groves, Fuchs and I
  raise our heads- Kistiakowsky and Hornig rush to the device-

                      KISTIAKOWSKY
            That’s the one!

  I put my PIPE on the wall as we CLIMB out of the bunker...

                      GROVES
            Two viable bombs. I need a date.

                         OPPENHEIMER
            September-

                         GROVES
            July-

  Kistiakowsky waves a trail of ticker tape-

                      KISTIAKOWSKY
            That’s the sweet spot, gentlemen!

                         OPPENHEIMER
            August.

                         GROVES
            July-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            A test in July.

  Fuchs hands me my pipe. I dust it off...

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            But I need my brother.
                (off his look)
            Frank knows the desert. He left
            politics behind- he’s been working
            for Lawrence for two years.

  INSERT CUT: FLYING OVER DESERT TO FIND FRANK STANDING BY A
  JEEP WITH AN ARMY OFFICER.

                      GROVES
            What do we call the test?

                      OPPENHEIMER
                (thinking)
            'Batter my heart, three-person’d
            god.'



                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       114.


                                                    GROVES
                                         What?

                                                    OPPENHEIMER
                                         Trinity.


                    INSERT CUT: A STEEL TOWER IS RAISED IN THE DESERT...


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

                                                   ROBB
                                         So you insisted on bringing on your
                                         brother, Frank, a known Communist-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Former Communist-

                                                   ROBB
                                         You brought a known former
                                         Communist onto America’s most
                                         secret and important defence
                                         project?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I knew my brother could be trusted
                                         absolutely.

                                                   ROBB
                                         And you feel your judgement was
                                         sound on who on the team could be
                                         trusted?

                                                   KISTIAKOWSKY (O.S.)
                                         Fuchs! Head down!


                    EXT. BERM -- DAY

                    Behind a berm, Groves, Fuchs, Frank and I watch Kistiakowsky
                    and Hornig arm a detonator. Fuchs shuffles lower.

                                                   KISTIAKOWSKY
                                         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...

                                                   GROVES
                                         I hope you learned something.




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      FRANK
            We learned we’re gonna need to be a
            lot further away...

                      GROVES
            Well, figure it out. Fast.
                (to me)
            We leave for Washington tomorrow,
            and we’re going to give them 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...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You’re a long way from Chicago,
            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-

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Just because we’re building it-
            doesn’t mean we get to decide how
            it’s used.

                      SZILARD
            History will judge us, Robert. In
            Chicago we put together a petition-

  Glasses holds out a paper- I PUSH it back- Glasses FLINCHES-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’m not getting into that. Tell me
            your concerns and I’ll relay them-

                      SZILARD
            My concerns?! Germany’s defeated,
            Japan’s not going to hold out alone-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            How would you know? You got us into
            this, you and Einstein, with your
            letter to Roosevelt saying we could
            build a bomb-



                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       116.


                                                   SZILARD
                                         Against Germany.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         That’s not how weapons manufacture
                                         works, Szilard.

                                                   SZILARD
                                         Oppie, you have to help.

                              OPPENHEIMER
                    Fermi’s in the meeting. And                          SZILARD (CONT’D)
                    Lawrence-                                 They’re not you. You’re the
                                                              great salesman of science-
                                                              you can convince anyone of
                                                              anything. Even yourself.

                    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.

                                                   STIMSON
                                         The firestorm in Tokyo killed one
                                         hundred thousand people. Mostly
                                         civilians. I worry about an America
                                         where we do these things and no one
                                         protests.

                                                   MARSHALL
                                         Pearl Harbor and three years of
                                         brutal conflict in the Pacific buys
                                         a lot of latitude with the American
                                         public.

                                                   STIMSON
                                         Enough to unleash the atomic bomb?

                                                   FERMI
                                         In truth, the A-bomb might not
                                         cause as much damage as the Tokyo
                                         bombings.

                                                   STIMSON
                                         What are we estimating?

                                                   BUSH
                                         In a medium-sized city, twenty or
                                         thirty thousand dead.




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script           117.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            Don’t underestimate the
            psychological impact of an atomic
            explosion... a pillar of fire ten
            thousand 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...

                      MARSHALL
            If that’s true it would be
            definitive. World War II would be
            over. Our boys would come home.

                      STIMSON
            This could end the war.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            This could end all war. If we
            retain moral advantage.

  Groves registers the pivot...

                       STIMSON
            How so?

                       OPPENHEIMER
            If we use this weapon without
            informing our allies, they’ll see
            It as a threat and we’ll be in an
            arms race.

                      MARSHALL
            How open can we be with the
            Soviets?

                      BUSH
            Secrecy won’t stop the Soviets
            becoming part of the atomic world.

  A politician, BYRNES, clears his throat politely-

                      BYRNES
            We’ve been told they have no
            uranium.

                      BUSH
            You’ve been misinformed. A Russian
            bomb is a matter of time.


                                                       (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       118.


                                                   LAWRENCE
                                         To stay ahead, our programme has to
                                         continue at full pace after the
                                         war.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Secretary Stimson, if I may. Not
                                         all the scientists on the project
                                         agree. In fact, this might be a
                                         moment to consider other opinions-

                                                   GROVES
                                         The Manhattan Project’s been
                                         plagued from the start by certain
                                         scientists of doubtful discretion
                                         and uncertain loyalty. One of them
                                         just tried to get a meeting with
                                         the President.

                    I say nothing. Groves looks directly at me.

                                                   GROVES (CONT’D)
                                         We need them for now, but as soon
                                         as is practical, we should sever
                                         any such scientists from the
                                         programme. Wouldn’t you agree,
                                         doctor?

                    I meet Groves’ gaze. Stay silent... Nod.

                                                   MARSHALL
                                         If a Russian bomb is inevitable,
                                         perhaps we should invite their top
                                         scientists to Trinity.

                                                   BYRNES
                                         President Truman has no intention
                                         of raising expectations that Stalin
                                         be included in the atomic project.

                                                   STIMSON
                                         Informing him of our breakthrough,
                                         and presenting it as the means to
                                         win the war need not make
                                         unkeepable promises. But the
                                         Potsdam peace conference in July is
                                         the last chance for Truman to have
                                         that conversation. Can you give us
                                         a working bomb by then?

                                                   GROVES
                                         Absolutely. We’ll test-fire before
                                         the conference.



                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       119.


                         STIMSON
            And Japan?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            If the test works you’ll have two
            bombs for August.

                      STIMSON
            Military targets?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            There aren’t any big enough.

                      CONANT
            Perhaps a vital war plant, with
            workers housed nearby.

                      FERMI
            Could we issue a warning? To reduce
            civilian casualties.

                      AIR FORCE OFFICER
            They’d send up everything they have
            against us, and I’d be in that
            plane.

                      BUSH
            If we announce it and it fails to
            go off we’d scupper any chance of
            Japanese surrender.

                      LAWRENCE
            Is there no way to demonstrate the
            bomb to Japan to provoke surrender?

                      GROVES
            We intend to demonstrate it in the
            most unambiguous terms. Twice. Once
            to show the weapon’s power. A
            second to show that we can keep
            going until they surrender.

                      STIMSON
            We have a list of twelve cities to
            choose from. Sorry, eleven, I’ve
            taken Kyoto off the list because of
            its cultural significance to the
            Japanese people.

  Stimson senses the unease in the room...

                       STIMSON (CONT’D)
            Let me make this simple for you,
            gentlemen.
                       (MORE)

                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       120.

                                                   STIMSON (CONT’D)
                                         The Japanese will not surrender
                                         short of a successful invasion of
                                         the home islands. Many lives,
                                         American and Japanese, will be lost
                                         in that invasion. The use of the
                                         atomic bomb against Japanese cities
                                         will save lives.


                    EXT. BASE OF STEEL TOWER, TRINITY TEST SITE -- DAY

                    Frank shows Groves and me the site plan...

                                                   FRANK
                                         Ground Zero. Observation posts at
                                         ten thousand yards north, south and
                                         west.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Where do we trigger from?

                                                   FRANK
                                         South ten thousand. Base camp is
                                         ten miles south, here. And a
                                         further observation point on this
                                         hill twenty miles away.

                    I point to a crew digging a trench from the base of the
                    tower.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         What’s that? The trigger lines went
                                         in already.

                                                   FRANK
                                         The air force requested a line of
                                         lights for their B-29.

                                                   GROVES
                                         What B-29? Our bomb’s on the tower.

                                                   FRANK
                                         They want to use the test to
                                         confirm the safe operating
                                         distance.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Risky.

                                                   FRANK
                                         Not as risky as dropping one over
                                         Japan and hoping we were right
                                         about the blast radius.



                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script          121.


                      OPPENHEIMER
            Don’t let them slow us down- we’re
            firing on the 15th.

              FRANK
  The 15th?! That’s not-                        GROVES

                                    The 15th!
  Frank sees my expression-

                        FRANK (CONT’D)
            The 15th.


  INT. LECTURE HALL, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY
  I show the plan to the division heads.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’ll be at the south observation
            point with Frank and Kistiakowsky.
            You’ll all be assigned to base
            camp, far observation, or west
            observation.


  INSERT CUT: I ENTER A TENT AT THE BASE OF THE TOWER- THE
  SILVER SPHERE OF THE BOMB IS SURROUNDED BY THE TEAM...

                      BETHE
            Are those safe distances?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            They’re based on your calculations.

                      RABI
            Time to stand behind your science,
            Hans. Literally.

  INSERT CUT: THE BOMB IS HOISTED UP IN TO THE TOWER...

                      TELLER
            What about the radiation cloud?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Without high winds it should settle
            within two to three miles.
            Evacuation measures will be in
            place, but we need good weather for
            visibility so it should be fine. We
            go on the night of the 15th.



                                                         (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script   122.


                    The team exchange looks-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         That’s a hard deadline, so if
                                         anyone has anything... speak now.

                                                   BETHE
                                         We need a final implosion test.

                                                   KISTIAKOWSKY
                                         Couldn’t hurt.

                                                   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
                                         It’s happening, isn’t it?

                    I watch the sheets flapping. Glance at the guards...

                                                   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
                                         Robert?

                    I turn, looking at Kitty amongst the FLAPPING SHEETS...

                                                   KITTY (CONT’D)
                                         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.



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  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...

                      FERMI
            Oppie’s taken a very modest three
            kilotons... Teller’s in for forty-
            five...

  Rabi pulls out some bills-

                       RABI
            Twenty.

                      FERMI
            Twenty thousand tons of TNT... and
            does anyone want the side action on
            total atmospheric ignition?

  The scientists groan and laugh. Soldiers look at each other:
  'What the hell?' Groves corners the army WEATHERMAN.

                      GROVES
            Are you saying we’ll have to delay?

                      WEATHERMAN
            I’m saying it would be prudent.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Has this weather reached the site?

  The weatherman gets on his radio. Kistiakowsky BURSTS in-

                       KISTIAKOWSKY
            Oppie-

  The phone rings -




                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       124.


                                                   KISTIAKOWSKY (CONT’D)
                                         Bethe’s calling you to tell you the
                                         implosion test failed, but-

                    I have the phone to my ear -

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Hans. Yes, he’s here. Yes.
                                             (I hang up)
                                         Is he wrong?

                                                    KISTIAKOWSKY
                                         No.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         So we’re about to fire a dud?
                                                    KISTIAKOWSKY
                                         No.

                                                    GROVES
                                         Explain.

                                                   KISTIAKOWSKY
                                         I can’t. I just know the implosion
                                         lenses will work.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         If we fire those detonators and
                                         they don’t trigger the reaction,
                                         two years’ worth of plutonium will
                                         be scattered across white sands.

                                                   KISTIAKOWSKY
                                             (holds out his hand)
                                         A month of my salary against ten
                                         bucks says it lights.

                    I study Kistiakowsky. Take the bet.

                                                   WEATHERMAN
                                         The wind’s picking up at Zero, not
                                         the rain. Lightning circling.

                    THUNDER. Rabi calls over-

                                                   RABI
                                         Hey, weatherman, you think it might
                                         be time to get your men away from
                                         the steel tower with the atomic
                                         bomb primed to detonate via
                                         electrical charge?

                    The weatherman laughs. Then GRABS the radio -


                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      WEATHERMAN
            Pull ’em out.

                      OPPENHEIMER
                (to Groves)
            Let’s get to south observation.
            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...

                       OPPENHEIMER
            The team hasn’t slept for two
            nights. We stand down, make the
            bomb safe, it’s weeks before we get
            back here.

                      GROVES
            Then we miss Potsdam.
                (checks watch)
            I need to get word to Truman by
            seven.
                (to the weatherman)
            Our window’s closing. What’s it
            doing?

                      WEATHERMAN
            Raining. Blowing. Lightning.

                      GROVES
            For how long, dammit?!

                      WEATHERMAN
            It’s holding strong.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It’ll break before dawn.

                      GROVES
            How could you know that?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I know this desert. The air cools
            overnight. Just before dawn, the
            storm breaks.



                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       126.


                                                   WEATHERMAN
                                         He could be right. But schedule it
                                         as late as possible.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Five thirty?

                    Groves considers this. Turns to the weatherman.

                                                   GROVES
                                         Sign your forecast. If you’re
                                         wrong, I’ll hang you.


                    INT. BUNKER, SOUTH OBSERVATION POST -- NIGHT

                    Groves and me, alone. Rain pelting down outside.

                                                   GROVES
                                         Three years. Four thousand people.
                                         Two billion dollars. If it doesn’t
                                         go off we’re both finished.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I put my money on three kilotons.
                                         Any less, they won’t get what it
                                         is.

                                                    GROVES
                                         What did Fermi mean by 'atmospheric
                                         ignition'?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         We had a moment where it looked
                                         like the chain reaction from an
                                         atomic device might never stop.
                                         Setting fire to the atmosphere.

                                                   GROVES
                                         Why’s Fermi still taking side bets
                                         on it?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Call it gallows humour.

                    Groves takes this in. Picks the scab-

                                                   GROVES
                                         Are we saying there’s a chance that
                                         when we push that button... we
                                         destroy the world?




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                        OPPENHEIMER
              Nothing in our research over the
              last three years supports that
              conclusion except as the most
              remote possibility.

                        GROVES
              How remote?

                        OPPENHEIMER
              The chances are near zero.

                           GROVES
              Near zero?

                        OPPENHEIMER
                  (smiling)
              What do you want from theory alone?

                        GROVES
              Zero would be nice.

  I check my watch.

                        OPPENHEIMER
              Well, in an hour and fifty-eight
              minutes, we’ll know.

  I listen-

                        OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
              It’s letting up...


  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
              The arming party’s left Zero,
              heading this way, throwing the
              switches...
                  (to the soldiers)
              Turn the cars, ready for emergency
              evacuation...
               Gadget                2023-04-21        FINAL Shooting Script       128.


                    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...


                    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.

                                                   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-

                                                   FERMI
                                         Twenty minutes!


                    EXT. HILLTOP DISTANT OBSERVATION POINT -- CONTINUOUS

                    A group of scientists, including Teller, Feynman and
                    Lawrence, watch the distant rocket sputter...

                                                   FEYNMAN
                                         That’s twenty!

                    DARK GLASSES are handed out. Feynman refuses, jumping up into
                    the cab of a truck-

                                                   SOLDIER
                                         Hey, Feynman-



                                                                               (CONTINUED)
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  Feynman TAPS the windshield-

                      FEYNMAN
            The glass stops the UV.

  Teller, in dark glasses, is APPLYING SUNSCREEN at night-

                      TELLER
            But 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-

                      GROVES
            I’m heading to base camp. Best of
            luck.

  Groves shakes my hand.

                      GROVES (CONT'D) (CONT’D)
            Try not to blow up the world.


  INT. SAME -- MOMENTS LATER

  I watch Bainbridge take his place at the KILL SWITCH.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Watch that needle. If the
            detonators don’t charge, or if the
            voltage dips below one volt, you
            abort.

  Bainbridge nods, watching 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-

                      ARMY CAPTAIN
            Everybody down!



                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script   130.


                    The observers lie on the ground, facing away from the site.

                                                   ARMY CAPTAIN (CONT’D)
                                         Do not turn around until you see
                                         light reflected on the hills. Then
                                         look at the explosion only through
                                         the welder’s glass...

                                                   LOUDSPEAKER
                                         Ninety seconds...


                    EXT. DISTANT OBSERVATION POINT -- CONTINUOUS

                    Feynman TUNES the radio into the countdown relay-
                                                   RADIO
                                         Sixty seconds...

                    Lawrence jumps in next to Feynman. The scientists peer into
                    the distance through the windshield... Teller, pale with
                    sunscreen, adjusts his dark glasses...


                    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...

                                                   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-

                                                   BAINBRIDGE
                                         Detonators charged!

                    I pull on a pair of WELDER’S GOGGLES...




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  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
            ...eighteen, seventeen...


  EXT. DISTANT OBSERVATION POINT -- CONTINUOUS

  Feynman peers through the windshield. Teller studies the
  horizon...

                      RADIO
            ...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 (CONT’D)
            ...seven, six, five...

  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
            ...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.




                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       132.


                    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-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
                                         Now I am become Death, 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-




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                       FRANK
                (quiet)
            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- steps back- holding out
  his hand for payment. I pull out my wallet, frown- there’s
  nothing in it-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’m good for it.

  Kistiakowsky GRINS-

                      KISTIAKOWSKY
            Yes, 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 -

                      GROVES
            Get me Potsdam. Right away.

  I nod at Groves, move through the sea of congratulations to
  find Serber...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Get a message to Kitty...



                                                       (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script         134.


                    Serber’s face falls, perturbed-

                                                   SERBER
                                         We can’t say anything-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Just tell her to bring 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
                                         Sorry. Yes, Charlotte, go ahead.

                                                   CHARLOTTE
                                             (over phone)
                                         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 (CONT’D)
                                             (over phone)
                                         Kitty? Kitty?

                    Kitty smiles, tears forming. It is done.

                                                                                FADE OUT.

                                                                                FADE IN:


                    EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY
                    I watch CRATES hoisted on trucks by the army...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
                                         They musn’t drop it through cloud
                                         cover-


                    INT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

                    I am talking to the AIR FORCE OFFICER who is supervising the
                    crating of equipment-




                                                                                 (CONTINUED)
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                      OPPENHEIMER
            If they detonate it too high in the
            air, the blast won’t be as powerful-

                      AIR FORCE OFFICER
            With respect, Dr Oppenheimer. We’ll
            take it from here.

  I lose sight of the bomb as THE CRATE IS CLOSED.


  EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

  Groves appears at my side, watching the loading...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Did Truman brief Stalin at Potsdam?

                      GROVES
            'Brief' would be an overstatement.
            He referred to a powerful new
            weapon, Stalin said he hoped we’d
            make good use of it against Japan.

                         OPPENHEIMER
            That’s it?

                      GROVES
            Robert, we’ve given them an ace.
            It’s for them to play the hand.

  Frustrated, I drop my cigarette and GRIND it out-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You’re aiming for the 6th?

                      GROVES
            That’s up to the CO in the Pacific.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Should I come with you to
            Washington?

                         GROVES
            What for?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Well... you’ll keep me informed?

  Groves turns to leave -




                                                       (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       136.


                                                    GROVES
                                         Of course.
                                             (looks back)
                                         As best I can.

                    I watch Groves leave, uneasy. A truck pulls out, REVEALING
                    TELLER. He crosses, watching the loaded truck move away...

                                                   TELLER
                                         Would the Japanese surrender if
                                         they knew what was coming?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I don’t know.

                                                   TELLER
                                         Have you seen Szilard’s petition?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Yeah. What the hell does Szilard
                                         know about the Japanese?

                    I look at Teller.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         You’re not signing it?

                                                   TELLER
                                         A lot of people have.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Edward, the fact that we built this
                                         bomb doesn’t give us any more right
                                         or responsibility to decide how
                                         it’s used than anyone else.

                                                   TELLER
                                         But we’re the only people who know
                                         about it.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I’ve told Stimson the various
                                         opinions of the community.

                                                   TELLER
                                         But what’s your opinion?

                    I watch another truck pull out...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Once it’s used, nuclear war, maybe
                                         all war, becomes unthinkable.




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      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.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I thought they would call.

                      KITTY
            It’s only the 5th.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            In Japan it’s the 6th.


  INT. OPPENHEIMER’S OFFICE, LOS ALAMOS -- DAY

  I pace my office, agitated.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Charlotte? Try Groves again.

                      CHARLOTTE (O.S.)
            Truman’s on the Radio- !

  I BOLT into-


  INT. FOYER, OPPENHEIMER’S OFFICE -- CONTINUOUS

  Charlotte is patching the PA to the radio-

                      TRUMAN
                (over radio)
            ...Sixteen 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-

                      TRUMAN
                (over PA)
            That bomb had more power than
            twenty thousand tons of TNT...
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       138.


                    INT. CORRIDOR, T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS

                    As Frank emerges, others DRIFT into the corridor, shocked...

                                                   TRUMAN
                                             (over PA)
                                         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

                    I listen to the radio-

                                                   TRUMAN
                                             (over radio)
                                         The force from which the sun draws
                                         its power has been loosed against
                                         those who brought war to the Far
                                         East...

                                                   CHARLOTTE (O.S.)
                                         Groves on one!

                    I white-knuckle the phone...

                                                   GROVES
                                             (over phone)
                                         I’m very proud of you and all of
                                         your people.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         It went alright?

                                                   GROVES
                                             (over phone)
                                         Apparently it went with a
                                         tremendous bang.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Everybody here is feeling
                                         Reasonably good about it. It’s been
                                         a long road.

                                                   GROVES
                                             (over phone)
                                         I think one of the wisest things I
                                         ever did was when I selected the
                                         director of Los Alamos.


                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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  I gently put down the phone...

                       TRUMAN
                (over radio)
            We have spent two billion
            dollars...


  EXT. LOS ALAMOS -- CONTINUOUS

  I walk in a relieved daze...

                      TRUMAN (CONT'D)
                (over radio)
            ...on the greatest scientific
            gamble in history and 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...

  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...



                                                       (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       140.


                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         The world will remember this day.

                    LOUDER CHEERING...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         It’s too early to determine what
                                         the results of the bombing are...

                    Though the crowd is still CHEERING, their sound DIMINISHES...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         But I’m sure the Japanese didn’t
                                         like it-

                    CHEERS. CHEERS. CHEERS. BUT NO SOUND. As I look out at the
                    EXCITED FACES I can hear my own BREATHING... I carry on-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         I’m proud of what you
                                         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-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         I just wish we’d 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-

                    PIERCING SCREAMS not cheers, as 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...


                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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  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.


  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?

  An AIDE on softly clicking heels, points at the magazine.

                      AIDE
            Nice picture.

  I look up at her. Blank.

                      AIDE (CONT’D)
            President Truman will see you now.

  INT. OVAL OFFICE -- CONTINUOUS

  Truman comes from behind his desk to shake my hand-

                      TRUMAN
            Dr Oppenheimer, it’s an honour.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Mr President. Secretary Byrnes.

  Byrnes nods, sits. I take a seat. Truman leans on the desk.



                                                       (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script           142.


                                                   TRUMAN
                                         How’s it feel to be the most famous
                                         man in the world?

                    I can’t think of an answer.

                                TRUMAN (CONT’D)
                    You helped save a lot of                           OPPENHEIMER
                    American lives. What we did               And Nagasaki.
                    at Hiroshima was-
                                                   TRUMAN (CONT’D)
                                         What?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
                                                   TRUMAN
                                         Obviously. Your invention let us
                                         bring our boys home.

                    Your country owes you a great debt.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         It was hardly my invention.

                                                   TRUMAN
                                         It’s you on the cover of Time.
                                             (indicates Byrnes)
                                         Jim here tells me you’re concerned
                                         about an arms race with the
                                         Soviets.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Well, it’s that... now is our
                                         chance to secure international
                                         cooperation on atomic energy, and
                                         I’m concerned-

                                                   TRUMAN
                                         You know when the Soviets are gonna
                                         have a bomb?

                             OPPENHEIMER
                    I’m not sure I could give a-                             TRUMAN (CONT’D)
                                                              Never.
                    I look at the President, incredulous...

                                                    OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         Mr President, the Russians have
                                         good physicists and abundant
                                         resources-



                                                                                   (CONTINUED)
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                      TRUMAN
            Abundant? I don’t think so.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            They’ll put everything they have...

  I taper off.

                      TRUMAN
            I hear you’re leaving Los Alamos.
            What should we do with it?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Give it back to the Indians.

  Truman laughs. But I’m not joking. Truman looks to Byrnes for
  help.

                      BYRNES
            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...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Mr President, 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-

                      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. As I leave I hear -

                      TRUMAN (CONT’D)
            Don’t let that crybaby back in
            here.

  The door of the Oval Office CLOSES on me...

                      STRAUSS (V.O.)
            Robert saw that hand-wringing got
            him nowhere...
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       144.


                    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...

                                                   STRAUSS (V.O.)
                                         By the time I met him, he’d fully
                                         embraced his 'father of the bomb'
                                         reputation...

                                                                                CUT TO:


                    INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W)

                    Strauss sits talking with the Senate Aide.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         He 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...

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         But 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...

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         Lomanitz wound up working the
                                         railroad, laying track...

                    INSERT CUT: LOMANITZ SWINGS A HAMMER...

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         Chevalier went into exile...




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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  INSERT CUT: CHEVALIER CARRIES SHOPPING, STEPPING AROUND
  CHICKENS IN A RURAL FRENCH ALLEY...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            But none of that stopped Robert
            from om 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...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            He was devastated when that didn’t
            go his way...

  INSERT CUT: HEADLINE: "TRUMAN ANNOUNCES H-BOMB PROGRAM"...

                                                    CUT TO:


  INT. BALLROOM, PLAZA HOTEL -- NIGHT (COLOUR)

  Drink in hand, I watch the room sing 'Happy Birthday' to
  Strauss. Ruth Tolman is next to me, staring at the NEWSPAPER.

                      RUTH
            I miss Richard more than I can
            bear...

  I turn to Ruth, sympathetic.

                      RUTH (CONT’D)
            But part of me’s glad he didn’t
            live to see where this is all
            going.

  I nod, understanding. She downs her drink and leaves.
                      STRAUSS (O.S.)
            Robert, my son and his fiancée are
            desperate to meet the father of the
            atomic bomb...

  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.

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            Is this a bad time?




                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       146.


                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         What do you think, Lewis?

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         I think it must have been a blow
                                         for you-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         For the world.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         The world? What does Fuchs mean to
                                         rest of the world?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Fuchs? Klaus Fuchs?

                    Strauss looks at me with concern...

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         You haven’t heard. Klaus Fuchs, the
                                         British scientist you put onto the
                                         implosion team at Los Alamos?


                    INSERT CUT: FUCHS HANDS OPPENHEIMER HIS PIPE...

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         Turns out he was spying for the
                                         Soviets. The whole time. I’m sorry,
                                         Robert, you must feel awful.
                                             (gestures to bar)
                                         Have another. On me.

                    Strauss moves off. I stand there. Frozen.

                                                   STRAUSS (V.O.)
                                         After the truth about Fuchs came
                                         out, they stepped up surveillance
                                         on Robert. He knew his phone was
                                         tapped-
                                                                                CUT TO:


                    INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W)

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         He was followed everywhere...




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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  INSERT CUT: OPPENHEIMER, DRIVING, CHECKS HIS REAR-VIEW
  MIRROR, SPOTS A SEDAN FOLLOWING HIM...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            His trash picked through...


  INSERT CUT: KITTY, FROM THE KITCHEN WINDOW, SPOTS A SUITED
  MAN PICKING THROUGH THEIR TRASH...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            But it never stopped him speaking
            his mind.

                      SENATE AIDE
            A man of conviction?
                      STRAUSS
            Sure. Or maybe he thought fame
            could actually protect him. When
            Eisenhower took over, Robert saw
            one more chance. He took it...


  INT. CORPORATE AUDITORIUM -- NIGHT (B&W)

  Oppenheimer is lecturing... Strauss is in the crowd...

                      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.
            There are various aspects of this
            policy which I would like to
            discuss but can’t. Follies that can
            occur only when even the men who
            know the facts can find no one to
            talk about them, when the facts are
            too secret for discussion, and thus
            for thought. Candor is the only
            remedy. Officials in Washington
            have to start levelling with the
            American people, and telling them
            what the enemy already know about
            the atomic armaments race.

  Strauss notices two generals exchanging unfavorable looks.

                      STRAUSS (V.O.)
            A lot of scientists blame me, but
            how was I supposed to protect him?
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       148.


                    INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W)

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         That was the last straw for
                                         Robert’s enemies.

                                                    SENATE AIDE
                                         So he had to lose his security
                                         clearance.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         And with it, his credibility.

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         But how could they do it? He was a
                                         war hero- and he’d already told
                                         everyone about his past...

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Borden dredged it all up again.

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         But how could Borden get access to
                                         Oppenheimer’s FBI file? Could it
                                         have been Nichols?

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         I can’t imagine he’d do that. But
                                         whoever did unleashed a firestorm
                                         that burned a path from the White
                                         House right to my desk at the AEC.
                                         You see them in there trying to
                                         hang Oppenheimer around my neck.
                                         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 make the Senate
                                         grasp that you did your duty,
                                         painful though it was. Will Hill’s
                                         testimony back that up?

                                                   COUNSEL
                                         Hill should be fine.




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script           149.


                      STRAUSS
            I don’t really know him, but he was
            one of Szilard’s boys in Chicago.
            And they never forgave
            Oppenheimer...

                                                    CUT TO:


  INT. LECTURE HALL, LOS ALAMOS -- NIGHT (COLOUR)

  Serber and MORRISON lecture using slides we never see.

                      STRAUSS (V.O.)
            ...for not supporting their
            petition against bombing Japan.

  I watch as part of a large audience.

                      MORRISON
            This was taken thirty-one days
            after the bombing. Virtually
            everyone in the street for nearly a
            mile around was instantly and
            seriously burned by the heat of the
            bomb.

  Serber changes the slide. I react slightly.

                       MORRISON (CONT’D)
            The hot flash burned suddenly and
            strangely.

                      SERBER
            The Japanese told us 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...
                      MORRISON
            There were many who thought
            themselves lucky, who crawled 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.
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       150.


                    EXT. T-SECTION, LOS ALAMOS -- NIGHT

                    I light my pipe. Teller comes up.

                                                   TELLER
                                         Did you read this crap in the
                                         papers? A British physicist saying
                                         the atomic bombings weren’t the
                                         last act of World War II but the
                                         first act of this cold war with
                                         Russia.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Which physicist?

                                                   TELLER
                                         I think you knew him. Patrick
                                         Blackett?

                    I remember-


                    INSERT CUT: BLACKETT TAKES A MOUTHFUL OF APPLE...

                    I smile to myself, rueful...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         He may not be wrong. We bombed an
                                         enemy that was essentially
                                         defeated.

                                                   TELLER
                                         Robert, you have all the influence
                                         now.

                    I look at Teller.

                                                   TELLER (CONT’D)
                                         Urge them to continue my research
                                         on the Super.
                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I neither can nor will, Edward.

                    Teller looks at me. Hurt.

                                                   TELLER
                                         Why?

                                                    OPPENHEIMER
                                         It’s not the right use of our
                                         resources.




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      TELLER
            Is that what you really believe?

  I say nothing.

                      TELLER (CONT’D)
            J. Robert Oppenheimer. Sphinx-like
            guru of the atom. Nobody knows what
            you believe. Do you?

                      OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
            I hope that in years to come you
            will look back on your work here
            with pride...

  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...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            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 and Hiroshima. The
            peoples of this world must unite or
            they will perish. The atomic bomb
            has spelled out these words for all
            men to understand.

  THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE echoes around the mountains...

                                                       CUT TO:


  INT. SENATE OFFICE -- MORNING (B&W)
  Strauss and Counsel drink coffee. The Senate Aide BURSTS in-

                      SENATE AIDE
            Sorry, Admiral- I 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 (CONT’D)
            It seems pretty favorable...

  The Counsel looks over Senate Aide’s shoulder-


                                                       (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       152.


                                                   COUNSEL
                                         There’s Oppenheimer. What’s the
                                         caption?

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         'J. Robert Oppenheimer- Strauss
                                         fought him...
                                             (pauses)
                                         ...and the US won.'

                                                   COUNSEL
                                         That’ll work.

                    The Senate Aide is perturbed. Looks up at Strauss.

                                                    SENATE AIDE
                                         Those are your words. From
                                         yesterday.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         We needed to pivot.

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         But how could you know what Time
                                         magazine would write...?

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Henry Luce is an old friend.

                    The Senate Aide stares at Strauss, realizing...

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         You’ve sat there and let me tell
                                         you how this is done. But you’ve
                                         been far ahead. All along...

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Survival in Washington is about
                                         knowing how to get things done.

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         You get things done. What was it
                                         you said about Borden? Why get
                                         caught holding the knife yourself?
                                         I’m beginning to think that Borden
                                         was holding the knife for you.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Oh?




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script           153.


                      SENATE AIDE
            As Chairman of the AEC, you had
            access to Oppenheimer’s file...

                                                     CUT TO:


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

  I sit there testifying. Robb checks his notes...

                      ROBB
            In the years following the war,
            would you say you exerted a great
            influence on the atomic policies of
            the USA?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I think 'great' would be an
            overstatement.

                      ROBB
            Really? If we look at the issue of
            isotopes... were you not personally
            responsible for destroying all
            opposition to their export?

  I think back to my congressional testimony...


  INT. CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ROOM -- DAY

  The room is all chuckles and smiles at my performance...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            You can use a bottle of beer for
            making atomic weapons, in fact, you
            do... I’d say isotopes are less
            useful for atomic energy than
            electronic components, but more
            useful than a sandwich. I’d put
            them somewhere in between.

  The room LAUGHS appreciatively. I lean over to Volpe -

                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            How’d I do?

  Volpe glances back at Lewis Strauss, eyes down, ENRAGED...

                      VOLPE
            Maybe a little too well, Robert.
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       154.


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I was the spokesman, but the
                                         opinion was unanimous amongst
                                         scientists.

                                                   GRAY
                                         That will do for today. We’ll
                                         reconvene tomorrow when we’ll hear
                                         from Dr Isidor Rabi.


                    INT. HOTEL ROOM, WASHINGTON, DC -- NIGHT

                    I sit on the bed, Garrison and his team go over notes. Kitty
                    raids the mini-bar.

                                                   GARRISON
                                         Rabi will help us. But it’s going
                                         to come down to how much influence
                                         Borden has been able to exert on
                                         Teller-

                    Kitty is laughing as she opens a miniature with her teeth.

                                                   GARRISON (CONT’D)
                                         Did I say something funny?

                                                   KITTY
                                         Borden, Borden, Borden. We all know
                                         it’s Strauss.

                                                    OPPENHEIMER
                                         Kitty, Lewis brought me to
                                         Princeton.

                                                   KITTY
                                         And you humiliated him in front of
                                         Congress.
                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         That was six years ago.

                                                    KITTY
                                         The truly vindictive are as patient
                                         as saints.

                                                   GARRISON
                                         Strauss claims to be neutral.

                    Kitty THROWS the miniature at me- it SMASHES into the wall-




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script            155.


                      KITTY
            Wake up! It’s always been Strauss-
            and you know it. Why won’t you
            fight him, for Christ’s sake?!

  She stalks into the bathroom, SLAMMING the door. Garrison
  watches me clean up the miniature...

                      GARRISON
            I’ve said it before, Robert. We
            should not put her on the stand-

                                                     CUT TO:


  INT. SENATE OFFICE -- MORNING (B&W)

  The Senate Aide stares at Strauss in morbid fascination...

           SENATE AIDE
  It wasn’t Nichols or Hoover                 STRAUSS
  or one of Truman’s guys- it      Borden didn’t take any
  was you. You gave the file to    convincing...
  Borden... you set him on
  Oppenheimer, convinced him to-

  INT. NICHOLS’ OFFICE, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- NIGHT (B&W)

  Nichols is behind the desk, but Strauss commands the room,
  instructing Borden...

                      NICHOLS
            Take your time, use the entire
            file. Write up your conclusions and
            send them to the FBI.

                       BORDEN
            The material’s extensive- but it
            isn’t new.

                      STRAUSS
            Your conclusions will be. And
            they’ll have to be answered.

                      NICHOLS
            Hoover passes them to McCarthy?

                      STRAUSS
                (shakes head)
            Oppenheimer’s too slippery for that
            self-promoting clown.
                      (MORE)



                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script   156.

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         I’ve talked it over with Hoover-
                                         he’ll hold McCarthy at bay while
                                         you do this at the AEC.

                                                    NICHOLS
                                         A trial?

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         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.

                                                   BORDEN
                                         What, then?

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         A shabby little room, far from the
                                         limelight...


                    INSERT CUT: ROOM 2022 IS OPENED UP. DUSTED, TABLES
                    ARRANGED...

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         A simple bureaucratic procedure-
                                         his Q clearance is up for renewal.
                                             (points at Borden)
                                         You send your accusations to the
                                         FBI...


                    INSERT CUT: BORDEN PULLS PAPER FROM HIS TYPEWRITER. HE SEALS
                    AN ENVELOPE...

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         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...

                                                   STRAUSS (V.O.)
                                         Tell Oppenheimer his security
                                         clearance is not being renewed...




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  INT. LIVING ROOM, STRAUSS HOUSE -- NIGHT (B&W)

  Nichols hands the indictment to Oppenheimer, who sits and
  reads. Strauss hands Oppenheimer a drink...

                      STRAUSS (V.O.)
            But offer him the chance to appeal.

  Oppenheimer looks up from the letter.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Can I keep this?

                       NICHOLS
            No.

                      STRAUSS
            As you can see, Robert, it’s not
            yet signed. If you do decide to
            appeal, they’ll have to send you a
            copy...

  Oppenheimer rises. In a daze. Strauss takes his arm...


  INT. NICHOLS’ OFFICE, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- NIGHT (B&W)

                      STRAUSS
            When he appeals, I appoint a
            board...


  INSERT CUT: THE GRAY BOARD TAKE THEIR SEATS IN ROOM...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            They will, of course, have counsel-


  INSERT CUT: ROGER ROBB TAKES HIS SEAT...

                      NICHOLS
            A prosecutor?

                      STRAUSS
            In all but name.

                       NICHOLS
            Who?

                      STRAUSS
            Roger Robb.

                       NICHOLS
            Ouch.


                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       158.


                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Robb will have security clearance
                                         to examine Oppenheimer’s file...


                    INSERT CUT: ROBB OPENS A MASSIVE BLACK BINDER...

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         As will the Gray Board...


                    INSERT CUT: A BLACK BINDER IS PLACED IN FRONT OF EACH BOARD
                    MEMBER...

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         Defence counsel will not.

                    INSERT CUT: GARRISON, AT HIS TABLE IN ROOM 2022, LOOKS
                    COVETOUSLY AT THE BLACK BINDERS GRACING EACH PLACE BUT HIS...

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         A closed hearing- no audience, no
                                         reporters, no burden of proof.

                                                   NICHOLS
                                         No burden of proof?

                    Strauss sips his drink. Smiles at Nichols...

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         We’re not convicting, just denying.


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (B&W)

                    Oppenheimer is seated at the witness table...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         This answer is a summary of
                                         relevant aspects of my life in more
                                         or less chronological order...


                    INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W)

                    The Senate Aide looks like he ate a bad nut.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         What is it you said? 'This is just
                                         how it’s done'?

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         Forgive my naïveté.


                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      STRAUSS
            Amateurs seek the sun and get
            eaten, power stays in the shadows.

                      SENATE AIDE
                (points to Time magazine)
            You’re out of the shadows, now.

                      STRAUSS
            That’s why this has to work.

                      SENATE AIDE
            Well, Teller’s testifying this
            morning - that’ll help, then Hill
            is in the afternoon.

                      COUNSEL
            Hill should help us, too.

                                                      CUT TO:


  CLOSE ON: A LETTER- AEC LETTERHEAD- "DEAR DR OPPENHEIMER..."

                      STRAUSS (O.S.)
            As you can see, it’s not yet
            signed...


  INT. LIVING ROOM, STRAUSS HOUSE -- LATER (COLOUR)

  I look up from Nichols’ letter- SHELL-SHOCKED.

                      STRAUSS
            If you do decide to appeal, 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...

                      STRAUSS
            Take my car and driver. I insist.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’ll have to consult my lawyers.

                      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.


                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21           FINAL Shooting Script       160.


                    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...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (V.O.)
                                         Nichols wants me to fight so that
                                         he can get it all in the record...


                    INT. VOLPE’S HOUSE -- NIGHT

                    Kitty and I sit with Joe Volpe.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Strauss thinks I should walk
                                         away...

                                                   VOLPE
                                         You could. Your security clearance
                                         expires tomorrow. Just let it go.

                                                   KITTY
                                         You’d be accepting the charges!
                                         You’ll lose your job. Your
                                         reputation, your place in history!
                                         We’ll lose our house. Robert, we
                                         have to fight.

                    I look at Kitty. Nod.

                                                   VOLPE
                                         As AEC Counsel, I can’t represent
                                         you. I’ll call Lloyd Garrison.

                                                      OPPENHEIMER
                                         He’s good.

                                                   VOLPE
                                         The best. But I have to warn you...


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

                    I watch Garrison scramble to make notes...

                                                   VOLPE (V.O.)
                                         This won’t be a fair fight.




                                                                                  (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script       161.


                       ROBB
            During your interview with Boris
            Pash in 1943, did you refer to
            microfilm?

                       OPPENHEIMER
            No.

  Robb consults a paper in his black binder.

                      ROBB
            You never said 'a man at the
            consulate expert in the use of
            microfilm'?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Not specifically.

                      GARRISON
            I’d like to know what document Mr
            Robb is quoting from, and if we
            might be furnished with a copy.

                      ROBB
            The document is classified.

                      GARRISON
            Members of the board, we’re now
            hearing some new account of the
            interview... shouldn’t we get back
            to firsthand information?

                      ROBB
            This is first-hand.

                       GARRISON
            How so?

  Robb looks at Gray. Who nods.

                       ROBB
            There’s a recording of the
            interview.

  Garrison is shocked. I shake my head.

                      GARRISON
            You’ve let my client sit up here
            and potentially perjure himself and
            all this time you had a recording-?

                      ROBB
            No one told your client to
            misrepresent his former answers-


                                                   (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script        162.


                                                    GARRISON
                                         Misrepresent? It was twelve years
                                         ago!
                                              (to the board)
                                         Can we listen to this recording?

                                                    ROBB
                                         Mr Garrison, you don’t have
                                         clearance.

                    I SNAP at the absurdity-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         But you’re reading it into the
                                         transcript!

                    Garrison puts a calming hand on my arm-

                                                   GARRISON
                                         Is this proceeding interested in
                                         truth or entrapment? Because if
                                         it’s truth...

                    Garrison points at the BLACK BINDERS in front of them all-

                                                   GARRISON (CONT’D)
                                         Where’s the disclosure? Where’s the
                                         witness list?

                                                   GRAY
                                         Mr Garrison, this is not a trial-
                                         as you’re well aware. Evidentiary
                                         rules do not apply. We’re dealing
                                         with national security.

                                                   GARRISON
                                         How does national security prevent
                                         the prosecution from providing us a
                                         list of witnesses?!

                    Gray looks at Garrison, stony-faced.

                                 GRAY
                    Perhaps a brief recess is in                       OPPENHEIMER
                    order!                                    If I may? You gentlemen have
                                                              my words. If you say it’s
                                                              from a transcript then I’ll
                                                              accept it. I’ve already
                                                              explained that I made up a
                                                              cock-and-bull story.




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script         163.


                      ROBB
            But not the level of detail. Why
            would anyone present such an
            elabourate fiction?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Because I was an idiot. I found
            myself trying to give a tip to the
            intelligence people, without
            realizing that when you give a tip
            you have to offer the whole story.
            Asked for details, I went off on a
            false pattern. There was no
            microfilm, no consular attaché.
            There weren’t three or more people
            involved on the project. There was
            one person involved. That was me.

                       ROBB
            Why lie?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Clearly with the intention of not
            revealing who was the intermediary.

                       ROBB
            Your friend Haakon Chevalier. The
            Communist.

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Yes.

                      ROBB
            Is he still your friend?

  I look from smug Robb to the expectant board members...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Chevalier is my friend.

  Robb backs down, SATISFIED.


  INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ROOM 2022 -- DAY

  Oppenheimer and Garrison take a break. Rabi approaches.

                      GARRISON
            Dr Rabi, thanks for coming.

  Garrison looks around to see Robb conferring with his team.




                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21           FINAL Shooting Script       164.


                                                   GARRISON (CONT’D)
                                             (lowered voice)
                                         Do you know anyone the prosecution
                                         has called?

                                                   RABI
                                         Teller, obviously.
                                             (looks at Oppenheimer)
                                         They’ve asked Lawrence.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         What did he say?

                                                   RABI
                                         He wasn’t going to help them...
                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         But?

                                                   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...

                                                   RABI (CONT’D)
                                         He convinced Lawrence that Richard
                                         died of a broken heart.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         That’s absurd.

                                                   RABI
                                         Which part?

                                                    OPPENHEIMER
                                         The broken heart. Richard never
                                         found out.
                    Rabi tries not to smile. Shakes his head.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         Is Lawrence going to testify?

                                                   RABI
                                         I don’t know.


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

                    Rabi is testifying.


                                                                                  (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script      165.


                      GARRISON
            Dr Rabi, what governmental
            positions do you currently hold?

                      RABI
            I’m Chairman of the General
            Advisory Committee to the AEC,
            succeeding Dr Oppenheimer.

                      GARRISON
            And how long have you known Dr
            Oppenheimer?

                      RABI
            Since 1928. I know him quite well.

                      GARRISON
            Well enough to speak on the bearing
            of his character, loyalty and
            associations?

                      RABI
            Dr Oppenheimer is a man of
            upstanding character, loyal to the
            United States, to his friends and
            to the institutions of which he is
            a part. I’ve examined his security
            file, and in spite of the
            associations in there, I do not
            believe Dr Oppenheimer is a
            security risk, and that these
            associations from the past should
            bar him from continuing as a
            consultant to the AEC.


  EXT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ROOM 2022 -- DAY

  I sit, exhausted. A segment of orange drops into my lap -

                       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.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            What was that?

                      RABI
            Nothing to worry about.
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       166.


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- LATER

                    Robb cross-examines Rabi-

                                                   ROBB
                                         Dr Rabi, after the Russian A-bomb
                                         test did Dr Lawrence come to see
                                         you prior to the GAC meeting?

                                                   RABI
                                         You’d be better off asking him.

                                                   ROBB
                                         I fully intend to. Did he come to
                                         you about the Hydrogen bomb?

                                                   RABI
                                         Yes. We all felt that after the
                                         Russian explosion we had to do
                                         something to regain our position.

                                                   ROBB
                                         So you agreed with those who felt
                                         we should launch a programme for
                                         the Super at that time?

                                                   RABI
                                         No. There were all kinds of
                                         legitimate concerns about the
                                         allocation of our resources.

                                                   GRAY
                                         Would you say Dr Oppenheimer was
                                         unalterably opposed to the H-bomb?

                                                   RABI
                                         No. He thought a fusion programme
                                         would come at the expense of our
                                         awfully good fission programme.

                                                   ROBB
                                         But that proved not to be the case?

                                                   RABI
                                         In the event, both could be done.
                                         Los Alamos, which Dr Oppenheimer
                                         founded, rose to the occasion and
                                         worked miracles, absolute miracles.

                                                   ROBB
                                         May I ask one more question? A
                                         purely hypothetical question.
                                                   (MORE)



                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      ROBB (CONT’D)
            Suppose this board should not be
            satisfied that in his testimony
            here Dr Oppenheimer had told the
            whole truth... What would you say
            then about whether or not he ought
            to be cleared?

                      RABI
            If you want to set me up on the
            board then I’ll give you an answer.
            But I’ve never hidden my opinion
            that I think this whole proceeding
            is a most unfortunate one.

                       ROBB
            Why?

                      RABI
            He’s a consultant- you don’t want
            to consult the guy? Don’t. Why go
            through all this against a man
            who’s accomplished what Dr
            Oppenheimer has? Look at his record-
            we have an A-bomb and a whole
            series of it, and we have a whole
            series of Super bombs and what more
            do you want, mermaids?

                                                      CUT TO:


  INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W)

  Strauss watches with satisfaction as Teller testifies.

                      TELLER
            ...that’s why I’m here today. To
            express the warm support for
            science and scientists Mr Strauss
            has shown over the years I’ve known
            him.

                      CHAIRMAN
            Thank you, Dr Teller. We’ll break
            now, unless there’s any immediate
            business.

                      STRAUSS
            Senator, I’d like to once again
            request that we’re furnished with a
            list of witnesses.




                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21           FINAL Shooting Script       168.


                                                   CHAIRMAN
                                         And I’ll 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...

                                                   ROBB
                                         Our next scheduled witness, Dr
                                         Lawrence, has apparently come down
                                         with... colitis...

                    I glance sideways at Garrison, who almost smiles-

                                                   ROBB (CONT’D)
                                         So I’ll proceed instead with
                                         William Borden.

                    I watch as Borden is sworn in.

                                                   ROBB (CONT’D)
                                         Mr Borden, as a result of your
                                         study of Dr Oppenheimer, did you
                                         reach certain conclusions?

                                                      BORDEN
                                         I did.

                                                   ROBB
                                         Did there co me a time when you
                                         expressed those conclusions in a
                                         letter to Mr J. Edgar Hoover of the
                                         Federal Bureau of Investigation?
                                                   BORDEN
                                         That is correct.

                                                   ROBB
                                         Prior to writing that letter, did
                                         you discuss the writing of it with
                                         anybody connected with the Atomic
                                         Energy Commission?

                                                      BORDEN
                                         I did not.



                                                                                  (CONTINUED)
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                      ROBB
            Do you have a copy of the letter
            with you.

  Robb’s assistant distributes copies of the letter...

                      BORDEN
            I have one in front of me.

                      ROBB
            Would you be good enough to read
            it?

                      GARRISON
            A moment, please!

  Garrison holds up a finger, FRANTICALLY reading ahead-

                      GRAY
            What’s the purpose of the delay?
            He’s simply going to read this.

                      GARRISON
            Mr Chairman, this is the first
            we’ve seen of this letter- and I
            see statements, at least one, which
            I don’t think anybody would be
            happy to have go into the record-
            accusations that have not before
            been made and are not part of the
            indictment from Nichols.

  Garrison holds up the letter -

                      GARRISON (CONT’D)
            Is it the opinion of the board that
            these are matters into which
            inquiry should now be directed?

  I scan down the letter for what he’s seen. My face falls...
                      GRAY
            Testimony of this witness is not in
            any way going to broaden the
            inquiry.

                      GARRISON
            How can it avoid it, sir? Supposing
            you should believe the witness? Mr
            Robb is tasked by this board with
            calling in witnesses, and he brings
            in one to make accusations of a
            kind that I don’t think belong
            here.


                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       170.


                                                   ROBB
                                         Mr Chairman, the witness wrote this
                                         letter on his own initiative laying
                                         out evidence which 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.

                                                   GARRISON
                                         How long has counsel been in
                                         possession of the letter?

                                                   ROBB
                                         Mr Garrison, I don’t think I should
                                         be subject to cross-examination by
                                         you.

                                                   GRAY
                                         Mr Garrison, given that we on the
                                         board have all read the letter,
                                         isn’t it better to have it in the
                                         record?

                    Garrison says nothing. He looks at me, frustrated.

                                                   GRAY (CONT’D)
                                         Let’s proceed.

                                                   BORDEN
                                         'Dear Mr Hoover, the purpose of
                                         this letter is to state my opinion,
                                         based upon years of study of the
                                         available classified evidence, that
                                         more probably than not J. Robert
                                         Oppenheimer is an agent of the
                                         Soviet Union.'

                    I turn the letter face down, staring at its blank
                    whiteness...
                                                   BORDEN (CONT’D)
                                         '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.'

                    I watch the STENOGRAPHER calmly type this into the record...



                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                      BORDEN (CONT’D)
            'Three: More probably than not, he
            has since acted under Soviet
            directive in influencing United
            States military, atomic energy,
            intelligence, and diplomatic
            policy.'

  Devastated, I cannot meet the eye of anyone in the room.
  Garrison gets up from his place. Sits down next to me.

                      GARRISON
            I’m sorry, Robert.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Isn’t anyone ever going to tell the
            truth about what’s happening here?

                                                    CUT TO:


  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
            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 (CONT’D)
            Dr Hill, would you care to make a
            statement?

                      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.

  Strauss glances at Counsel, satisfied.




                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21           FINAL Shooting Script       172.


                                                   HILL (CONT’D)
                                         The views I have to express are my
                                         own, but I believe that much I have
                                         to say will help indicate why most
                                         of the scientists in this country
                                         would prefer to see Mr Strauss
                                         completely out of the government.

                    Strauss narrows his eyes...

                                                   SENATOR PASTORE
                                             (friendly lob)
                                         You’re referring to the hostility
                                         of certain scientists directed at
                                         Mr Strauss because of his
                                         commitment to security, as
                                         demonstrated in the Oppenheimer
                                         affair?

                                                   HILL
                                         No.

                    Hill takes a sip of water before continuing...

                                                   HILL (CONT’D)
                                         Because of the personal
                                         vindictiveness he demonstrated
                                         against Dr Oppenheimer, and against
                                         all those who have disagreed with
                                         his official positions.

                    Counsel turns to Strauss, who is FIXATED on Hill. The Senate
                    Aide REACTS, surprised. MURMURS echo through the chamber...

                                                   HILL (CONT’D)
                                         In my ten years observation of Mr
                                         Strauss I have seen his incapacity
                                         to change a position, the
                                         subordination of his integrity to
                                         the attainment of political goals
                                         and an obsessive quest for popular
                                         and professional approval...

                    The audience REACTS- Strauss SHAKES his head- the Chairman
                    BANGS the gavel-

                                                   CHAIRMAN
                                         Order!

                                                                                  CUT TO:




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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script         173.


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

  Vannevar Bush is sworn in.

                      BUSH
            It appears to most scientists
            around the country that Oppenheimer
            is now being pilloried and put
            through an ordeal because he
            expressed his honest opinions. The
            written charges against him are in
            a poorly written indictment which
            the board should have rejected from
            the outset.

                       EVANS
            Dr Bush, I thought I was performing
            a service to my country in hearing
            this case.

                      BUSH
            No board in this country should sit
            in judgement of a man because he
            expressed strong opinions. If you
            want to try that case, you can try
            me- I have expressed strong
            opinions, often unpopular, many
            times. I’m doing so right now. When
            a man is pilloried for doing that,
            this country is in a severe
            state... excuse me, gentlemen, if I
            become stirred, but I am.

                                                    CUT TO:


  INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W)

  Strauss fumes as Hill reads his statement.

                      HILL
            From the standpoint of public
            welfare, the most injurious
            exercise of personal vindictiveness
            in which Lewis Straus has engaged
            was in the personnel security
            prosecution of J. Robert
            Oppenheimer, who had not hesitated
            to disagree with Mr Strauss on
            certain questions of fundamental
            policy.
                      (MORE)




                                                    (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       174.

                                                   HILL (CONT’D)
                                         Oppenheimer made mincemeat out of
                                         Strauss’ position on the shipments
                                         of isotopes to Norway, and Strauss
                                         never forgave him this public
                                         humiliation. Another controversy
                                         between them centreed around their
                                         differences in judgement on how the
                                         H-bomb would contribute to national
                                         security. Oppenheimer had
                                         considerable influence and
                                         prestige, and Strauss was able to
                                         find a few ambitious men who also
                                         disagreed with Oppenheimer’s
                                         position, and envied him his
                                         prestige in government circles.

                    Teller, in the audience, stares at Hill...

                                                   HILL (CONT’D)
                                         Strauss turned to the personnel
                                         security system in order to destroy
                                         Oppenheimer’s effectiveness-

                                                   SENATOR PASTORE
                                         But, Dr Hill, we’ve already heard
                                         that Mr Strauss did not bring the
                                         charges, or participate in the
                                         hearings against Dr Oppenheimer.

                                                   HILL
                                         I realize that Mr Strauss didn’t
                                         sign the letter of charges, but I
                                         think when all of the evidence is
                                         viewed, it becomes highly plausible
                                         that the Oppenheimer matter was
                                         initiated and carried through
                                         largely through the animus of Lewis
                                         Strauss.

                                                                                CUT TO:

                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

                    Groves is testifying.

                                                   ROBB
                                         General, would you clear Dr
                                         Oppenheimer today?




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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                    GROVES
          Under my interpretation of the
          Atomic Energy Act, which did not
          exist when I hired Dr Oppenheimer
          in 1942... I would not clear Dr
          Oppenheimer today if I were a
          member of the commission.

                    ROBB
          Thank you, General.

                    GROVES
          But I’m not sure I could’ve cleared
          any of those guys.

                    ROBB
          That’s all.

                    GARRISON
          General, Dr Oppenheimer had no
          responsibility for the selection or
          clearance of Klaus Fuchs, did he?

                    GROVES
          No, not at all.

                    GARRISON
          You wouldn’t want to leave with
          this board even the remotest
          suggestion that you’re here
          questioning Dr Oppenheimer’s basic
          loyalty to the United States in the
          operation of Los Alamos?

                    GROVES
          By no means. I hope I didn’t lead
          anybody to think otherwise for an
          instant.

                    GARRISON
          Would you say that the revocation
          of Dr Oppenheimer’s position would
          be in the public interest?

                    GROVES
          The revocation under such extreme
          publicity I think would be most
          unfortunate, not because of the
          effect on Dr Oppenheimer- that I
          leave to one side- but because of
          the disastrous effect upon the
          attitude of the scientists of this
          country toward doing government
          research.


                                                   (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       176.


                                                   GRAY
                                         Thank you, General.

                    Groves gets up, walks past me with a formal nod.


                    INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ROOM 2022 -- DAY

                    Garrison checks his watch.

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         She’ll be here.

                                                   GARRISON
                                         Do you even want her here?

                                                   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-

                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         Kitty and I, we’re grown-ups. We’ve
                                         walked through fire together. And
                                         she’ll 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...

                                                   GARRISON
                                         Mrs Oppenheimer, you are no longer
                                         a member of the Communist Party?

                                                   KITTY
                                         No.

                                                   GARRISON
                                         When would you say that you ceased
                                         to be a member?

                                                   KITTY
                                         When I left Youngstown in 1936.

                                                   GARRISON
                                         Will you describe your views on
                                         Communism as pro, anti, neutral.



                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script         177.


                      KITTY
            Very strongly against. I’ve had
            nothing to do with Communism since
            1936. Since before I met Robert.

                      GARRISON
            That’s all.

                      HILL (V.O.)
            The record demonstrates that
            Oppenheimer was not interrogated by
            impartial and disinterested counsel
            for the Gray Board...

  Robb gets up to cross-examine...

                                                     CUT TO:


  INT. SENATE COMMITTEE HEARING ROOM -- DAY (B&W)

  Strauss watches Hill continue to answer questions...

                      HILL
            ...he was interrogated by a
            prosecutor who used all the tricks
            of a rather ingenious legal
            background to try to trick
            Oppenheimer into erroneous
            statements, and he did succeed in a
            few instances.

                      SENATOR SCOTT
            You are charging now that the Gray
            Board permitted a prosecution of Dr
            Oppenheimer. Do you think, then,
            that the members of the Gray Board
            were unfair?

  Hill takes a beat to consider this.

                      HILL
            I can only say if I’d been on the
            Gray Board, I would’ve protested
            against the tactics of the man who
            served in fact as a prosecuting
            counsel- a man appointed not by the
            board but by Lewis Strauss.

  Strauss strokes his chin, feigning indifference.




                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21             FINAL Shooting Script       178.


                                                   SENATOR MCGEE
                                         Who was this?

                                                                                    CUT TO:


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

                                                   HILL (V.O.)
                                         Roger Robb.

                    Robb tries to put himself in Kitty’s eyeline...

                                                   ROBB
                                         Mrs Oppenheimer.

                    She will not meet his gaze.

                                                   ROBB (CONT’D)
                                         Did you have a Communist Party
                                         membership card?

                                                   KITTY
                                         I, I’m not sure...

                    Kitty fiddles with her purse...

                                                     ROBB
                                         Not sure?

                                                     KITTY
                                         Well...

                    She FREEZES. The Board members look at her. Garrison looks at
                    me...

                                                   ROBB
                                         Presumably the act of joining the
                                         Party was sending some money and
                                         receiving a card?
                    Kitty is focused on her purse...

                                                     ROBB (CONT’D)
                                         No?

                    And then Kitty LOOKS UP at Robb, pure STEEL-

                                                   KITTY
                                         It was so long ago, Mr Robb, wasn’t
                                         it?




                                                                                    (CONTINUED)
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Gadget       2023-04-21      FINAL Shooting Script        179.


                 ROBB
  Not really-                                  KITTY (CONT’D)
                                   Long enough to have
                                   forgotten.

               ROBB (CONT’D)
  Did you turn in the card or                  KITTY (CONT’D)
  rip it up?                       The card whose existence I’ve
                                   forgotten?

               ROBB (CONT’D)
  Your Communist Party                         KITTY (CONT’D)
  membership card-                 I haven’t the slightest idea.
                        ROBB (CONT’D)
              Can a distinction be made between
              Soviet Communism and Communism?

                        KITTY
              In the days when I was a member I
              thought they were definitely two
              things-

  Garrison and I hang on her every word...

                        KITTY (CONT’D)
              I thought the Communist Party of
              the United States was concerned
              with our domestic problems. I now
              no longer believe this. I believe
              the whole thing is linked together
              and spread all over the world. I’ve
              believed this since I left the
              Party sixteen years ago.

                 ROBB
  But-                                         KITTY (CONT’D)
                                   Seventeen years ago. My
                                   mistake.

                 ROBB (CONT’D)
  But you-                                     KITTY (CONT’D)
                                   Sorry, eighteen. Yes,
                                   eighteen years ago.
  Robb sighs patiently.

                        ROBB (CONT’D)
              Were you familiar with the fact
              that your husband was making
              contributions to the Spanish Civil
              War as late as 1942?




                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21            FINAL Shooting Script       180.


                                                   KITTY
                                         I knew that Robert gave money from
                                         time to time, yes.

                                                   ROBB
                                         Do you remember whether he gave
                                         money on a regular or periodic
                                         basis?

                    Kitty smiles sweetly-

                                                   KITTY
                                         Do you mean regular, or do you mean
                                         periodic, Mr Robb?

                                                   ROBB
                                             (annoyed)
                                         I mean... regular.

                                                   KITTY
                                         He did not.

                                                   ROBB
                                         Were you aware that this money was
                                         going into Communist Party
                                         channels?

                                                   KITTY
                                         Don’t you mean 'through'?

                                                    ROBB
                                         Pardon?

                                                   KITTY
                                         I think you mean 'through Communist
                                         Party channels'.

                                             ROBB
                    Yes.                                                     KITTY (CONT’D)
                                                                 Yes.
                                                   ROBB (CONT’D)
                                         Would it be fair to say that this
                                         meant that by 1942 he had not
                                         stopped having anything to do with
                                         the Communist Party? I don’t insist
                                         that you answer yes or no. You can
                                         answer any way you wish.

                                                   KITTY
                                         I know that. Thank you. But the
                                         question isn’t properly phrased.




                                                                                   (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21        FINAL Shooting Script          181.


               ROBB
  Don’t you understand what I                  KITTY (CONT’D)
  am trying to get at?            Yes, I do.

               ROBB (CONT’D)
  Why don’t you answer it that                KITTY (CONT’D)
  way?                            I don’t like the 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
                                  for Spanish refugees. I know
                                  he took an intellectual
                                  interest in Communist ideas-
                      ROBB (CONT’D)
            Are there two kinds of Communists?
            An intellectual Communist and a
            plain ordinary Commie?

  Kitty laughs the laugh of the free.

                      KITTY
            I couldn’t answer that one.

                      EVANS
                (delighted)
            I couldn’t either.

  Gray shoots a look at Evans. CHUCKLES around the room.
  Garrison looks at me. Nods. She did good.


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY

  I watch Teller testify.

                      ROBB
            Is it your intention to suggest
            that Dr Oppenheimer is disloyal to
            the United States?

                      TELLER
            I do not want to suggest anything
            of the kind. I have always assumed,
            and now 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.




                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21           FINAL Shooting Script       182.


                                                   ROBB
                                         Now, a question which is a
                                         corollary of that... do you or do
                                         you not believe that Dr Oppenheimer
                                         is a security risk?

                                                   TELLER
                                         In a great number of cases I have
                                         seen Dr Oppenheimer act in a way
                                         which for me was 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
                                         that I would like to see the vital
                                         interests of this country in hands
                                         which I understand better and
                                         therefore trust more.

                                                   GRAY
                                         Thank you, doctor.

                    Teller gets up from the table, as he walks past me he holds
                    out his hand...

                                                      TELLER
                                         I’m sorry.

                    I shake his hand.

                                                   KITTY (V.O.)
                                         You shook his fucking hand?!


                    INT. DINING ROOM, OLDEN MANOR, PRINCETON -- NIGHT

                                                   KITTY (CONT'D)
                                         I would’ve spat in his face!

                                                   GARRISON
                                         I’m not sure the board would’ve
                                         appreciated that.

                                                   KITTY
                                         Not gentlemanly enough? You’re all
                                         being too goddamn gentlemanly.

                                                   VOLPE
                                         Gray must see what Robb is doing-
                                         why doesn’t he shut him down?

                    Garrison shrugs.



                                                                                  (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script       183.


                      KITTY
                (to me)
            And you? Shaking Teller’s hand- you
            need to stop playing the martyr.


  EXT. OLDEN MANOR, PRINCETON -- NIGHT

  Garrison drives off. Volpe turns to me...

                      VOLPE
            Robert, you can’t win this thing.
            It’s a kangaroo court with a
            predetermined outcome. Why put
            yourself through more of it?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I have my reasons.

  Volpe shrugs. Embraces me. Gets in his car.

                      EINSTEIN (O.S.)
            He has a point, you know.

  I turn. Einstein steps into the light.

                      EINSTEIN (CONT’D)
            You’re a man chasing a woman who
            doesn’t love him any more- the
            United States Government.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            I’m not sure you understand,
            Albert.

                      EINSTEIN
            No? I left my country, never to
            return. The German calamity of
            years ago repeats itself- people
            acquiesce without resistance and
            align themselves with the forces of
            evil. You’ve served America well,
            and if this is the reward she has
            to offer perhaps you should turn
            your back on her.

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Dammit, I happen to love this
            country.

  Einstein considers this. Nods slowly.




                                                   (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       184.


                                                   EINSTEIN
                                         Then tell them to go to hell.

                                                                                CUT TO:


                    INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W)

                    Strauss BURSTS in, fuming...

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         This has become a trial about a
                                         trial!

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         It’s not a good thing that he’s
                                         telling them that you initiated the
                                         hearings.

                                                    STRAUSS
                                         He can’t prove that I gave the file
                                         to Borden.

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         He doesn’t have to. We’re not in
                                         court, there’s no burden of
                                         proof...

                    Strauss realizes. Shakes his head at himself.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         They’re not convicting. Just
                                         denying.

                    The Senate Aide nods.

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         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 (CONT’D)
                                         I mean, as he sees it.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         I told you Oppenheimer poisoned the
                                         scientists against me! Right from
                                         that first meeting...



                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script         185.


  INSERT CUT: STRAUSS WATCHES OPPENHEIMER HAND EINSTEIN HIS HAT
  AS THEY SPEAK DOWN AT THE LAKE...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            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...

                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            Oppenheimer knows how to manipulate
            his own. At Los Alamos he preyed on
            the naïveté of scientists who
            thought they’d get a say in how we
            used their work... but don’t ever
            think he was that naïve himself...

                                                     CUT TO:


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

  I am back at the witness table. Robb squares up.

                      ROBB
            Doctor, in your work on the
            Hydrogen bomb at Los Alamos and in
            the years following, were you
            deterred by any moral qualms about
            the development of this weapon?

                         OPPENHEIMER
            Of course.

                      ROBB
            But you still got on with the work,
            didn’t you?
                      OPPENHEIMER
            Yes, because this was work of
            exploration. It was not the
            preparation of a weapon.

                       ROBB
            You mean it was just an academic
            excursion?




                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21           FINAL Shooting Script       186.


                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         No. It’s not an academic thing
                                         whether you can make a Hydrogen
                                         bomb. It’s a matter of life and
                                         death.

                                                   ROBB
                                         Beginning in 1942 you were actively
                                         pushing the development of the H-
                                         bomb, weren’t you?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         'Pushing' is not the right word.
                                         Supporting and working on it, yes.

                                                   ROBB
                                         When did these moral qualms become
                                         so strong that you opposed the
                                         development of the Hydrogen bomb?

                                                   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.

                                                    ROBB
                                             (theatrical confusion)
                                         What did moral qualms have to do
                                         with that?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                             (struggling)
                                         What did moral qualms have to do
                                         with it?

                                                   ROBB
                                         Yes.


                    INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W)

                    Strauss is pacing now...

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Oppenheimer wanted to own the
                                         atomic bomb. He wanted to be the
                                         man who moved the earth.
                                                   (MORE)




                                                                                  (CONTINUED)
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                      STRAUSS (CONT’D)
            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. He’s never once said he
            regrets Hiroshima- he’d do it all
            over 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...

           OPPENHEIMER
  We freely used the atomic                       ROBB
  bomb.                              In fact, doctor, you assisted
                                     in selecting the target for
                                     the drop of the atomic bomb
                                     on Japan?
  Now I can hear the sound of FEET STAMPING...

           OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
  Yes.                                            ROBB (CONT’D)
                                     You knew, did you not, that
                                     the dropping of that atomic
                                     bomb on the target you had
                                     selected would kill or injure
                                     thousands of civilians, is
                                     that correct?
                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            Not as many as turned out...

                      ROBB
            How many were killed or injured?

  The feet are stamping FASTER and FASTER...
                      OPPENHEIMER
            Seventy thousand.

               ROBB
  Seventy thousand? At both                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
  Hiroshima and-                     One hundred and ten thousand
                                     at both.
                      ROBB (CONT’D)
            On the day of each bombing.

                       OPPENHEIMER
            Yes.


                                                       (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script           188.


                                                   ROBB
                                         And in the weeks and years after?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         It’s been put at between fifty and
                                         one hundred thousand...

                                                   ROBB
                                         Two hundred and twenty thousand
                                         dead? At least?

                    I nod.

                                                   ROBB (CONT’D)
                                         Did you have moral scruples about
                                         that?
                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Terrible ones.

                                                   ROBB
                                         But you testified the other day
                                         that the bombing of Hiroshima was
                                         very successful?

                             OPPENHEIMER
                    Well, it was technically                                  ROBB (CONT’D)
                    successful.                                  Oh, technically.
                                                   OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                                         It’s also alleged to have helped
                                         end the war.

                    The stamping feet are LOUDER and FASTER...

                                                    ROBB
                                         Would you have supported the
                                         dropping of a Hydrogen bomb on
                                         Hiroshima?

                    INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W)

                    Strauss TURNS on the Senate Aide-

                                                    STRAUSS
                                         But he wanted all the glory and
                                         none of the responsibility. So he
                                         needed absolution. He needed to be
                                         a martyr. To suffer, and take the
                                         sins of the world on his shoulders.
                                         To say 'no, we cannot continue on
                                         this road' even as he knew we’d
                                         have to...



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Gadget    2023-04-21            FINAL Shooting Script        189.


  INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

  I search for an answer- the FEET STAMPING ever LOUDER-

                      OPPENHEIMER
            It would make no sense at all.

                         ROBB
            Why?

                      OPPENHEIMER
            The target is too small.

                      ROBB
            Supposing there had been a target
            in Japan big enough for a
            thermonuclear weapon, would you
            have opposed dropping it?

           OPPENHEIMER
  This was not a problem with                      ROBB (CONT’D)
  which I was confronted.             I’m confronting you with it
                                      now, sir. Would you have
                                      opposed the dropping of a
                                      thermonuclear weapon on Japan
                                      because of moral scruples?
                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            I believe I would, sir.

                      ROBB
            Did you oppose the dropping of the
            atom bomb on Hiroshima because of
            moral scruples?

           OPPENHEIMER
  We set forth our-                                ROBB (CONT’D)
                                      I’m asking you about it, not
                                      'we'.
                      OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
            I set forth arguments against
            dropping it. But I did not endorse
            them.


  INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W)

  Strauss PACES the room, FURIOUS-

                      STRAUSS
            He knew he’d have to be seen to
            suffer for what he did. It was all
            part of his plan.
                      (MORE)

                                                        (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script           190.

                                                   STRAUSS (CONT’D)
                                         He wanted the glorious insincere
                                         guilt of the self-important to wear
                                         like a fucking crown. And I gave it
                                         to him...


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

                    Robb gets right in my face, incredulous-

                                                   ROBB
                                         You mean having worked night and
                                         day for three years to build the
                                         bomb, you then argued it shouldn’t
                                         be used?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         No. I was asked by the Secretary of
                                         War what the views of scientists
                                         were- I gave the views against and
                                         the views for.

                                 ROBB
                    You supported the dropping of                         OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                    the atom bomb on Japan,                      What do you mean 'support'?
                    didn’t you?
                                                   ROBB (CONT’D)
                                         You helped pick the target, didn’t
                                         you?

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I did my job- I was not in a policy-
                                         making position at Los Alamos- I
                                         would have done anything that I was
                                         asked to do-

                                                   ROBB
                                         You would have made the H-bomb too
                                         wouldn’t you?
                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         I couldn’t.

                    The STAMPING breaks rhythm to become CACOPHONOUS...

                                 ROBB
                    I didn’t ask you that,                                OPPENHEIMER (CONT’D)
                    doctor!                                      I would have worked on it,
                                                                 yes. But to run a labouratory
                                                                 is one thing, to advise a
                                                                 government is another.
                    THE LIGHT OF A THOUSAND SUNS POURS IN THE WINDOW...


                                                                                   (CONTINUED)
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Gadget       2023-04-21      FINAL Shooting Script       191.


                        ROBB (CONT’D)
              And the GAC report, which you co-
              authored, following the Russian
              atomic test said that a Super bomb
              should never be produced, did it
              not!

                        OPPENHEIMER
              What we meant- what I meant- was
              that it would be a better world if
              there were no Hydrogen bombs in it.

  LIGHT STABS THROUGH CRACKS IN THE WALL...

                        ROBB
              Wouldn’t the Soviets do anything to
              increase their military strength?

                        OPPENHEIMER
              If we did it, they’d have to do it.
              Our efforts would fuel their
              efforts- just as it had with the
              atomic bomb!

  PLASTER BREAKS AWAY AS LIGHT POURS INTO THE ROOM... I JAM my
  eyes closed, MORE AND MORE EXPOSED...

                        ROBB
              'Just as with the atomic bomb.'
              Exactly. No moral scruples in 1945,
              plenty in 1949...

  The sound STOPS. The light is gone.

                        GRAY
                  (gentle)
              Dr Oppenheimer, when did your
              strong moral convictions develop
              with respect to the Hydrogen bomb?

  I open my eyes, exhausted...
                        OPPENHEIMER
              When it became clear to me that we
              would tend to use any weapon we
              had.

  Silence.


  INT. SENATE OFFICE -- DAY (B&W)

  Strauss has stopped...



                                                     (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       192.


                                                   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.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                             (speaking softly)
                                         Do you still have enough votes, or
                                         is the crowning moment of my career
                                         about to become the most public
                                         humiliation of my life?

                    The Senate Aide looks down at his buck slip, counts his
                    tally.

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         You’ll scrape through.

                    Strauss looks at the Senate Aide. He smiles.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Then gather the press.

                                                                                CUT TO:


                    INT. ROOM 2022, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION -- DAY (COLOUR)

                    I sit with Garrison and listen to Gray pass judgement...

                                                   GRAY
                                         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...
                                                   (MORE)




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21          FINAL Shooting Script       193.

                      GRAY (CONT’D)
            However, in the light of your
            continuing associations and
            disregard for the security
            apparatus of this country, together
            with your somewhat disturbing
            conduct in relation to the Hydrogen
            bomb 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...

                      GRAY (CONT’D)
            A full written opinion, with a
            dissent from Mr Evans, will be
            issued to the AEC in the coming
            days...

  The board rises, aides start collecting files. Still dazed, I
  take the phone from Garrison-

                      GARRISON
            It’s Kitty.

                      KITTY
                (over phone)
            Robert? Robert?

  I take a breath. Not trusting my voice...

                      OPPENHEIMER
            Don’t... 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. The Senate Aide
  enters, buck slip in hand.

                      STRAUSS
            Is it official?

                      SENATE AIDE
            I’m afraid there were a couple of
            unexpected holdouts.

  Strauss freezes, absorbing the impact.



                                                      (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21           FINAL Shooting Script       194.


                                                   STRAUSS
                                         I’m denied?

                    The Senate Aide leaves him hanging for a beat.

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         I’m afraid so, sir.

                    Strauss doesn’t know what to do or where to look.

                                                   STRAUSS
                                         Who were the holdouts?

                                                   SENATE AIDE
                                         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.

                                                   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.

                                                   KITTY
                                         Did you think if you let them tar
                                         and feather you the world would
                                         forgive you? It won’t.

                                                      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-




                                                                                  (CONTINUED)
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Gadget    2023-04-21       FINAL Shooting Script           195.


                      STRAUSS
            Goddamn it! You told me I’d be
            fine!

                      SENATE AIDE
            Well, I didn’t have all the facts,
            did I?

                      STRAUSS
            I did what was right for this
            country. They don’t want me in the
            Cabinet Room? Maybe they should
            just invite Oppenheimer instead.

                      SENATE AIDE
            Perhaps they will.

                      STRAUSS
            He turned the scientists against
            me. One by one. Starting with
            Einstein. I told you about that?
            About Einstein, by the pond?

  The Senate Aide picks up Strauss’s hat and coat...

                      SENATE AIDE
            You did. But, you know, sir, since
            nobody 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...

  Hands Strauss his hat and coat...

                      SENATE AIDE (CONT’D)
            ...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-
                                                       CUT TO:


  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...

                      EINSTEIN
            Robert. The man of the moment.


                                                       (CONTINUED)
               Gadget                2023-04-21         FINAL Shooting Script       196.


                    I hand him his hat. He looks out at the lake.

                                                   EINSTEIN (CONT’D)
                                         You once had a reception for me at
                                         Berkeley. Gave me an award. You all
                                         believed I’d lost the ability to
                                         understand what I’d started. So
                                         that award wasn’t for me... it was
                                         for all of you.

                    Einstein turns to me.

                                                   EINSTEIN (CONT'D) (CONT’D)
                                         Now it’s your turn to deal with the
                                         consequences of your achievements.
                                         And one day... when they’ve
                                         punished you enough...


                    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...

                                                   EINSTEIN (V.O.)
                                         They’ll serve salmon and potato
                                         salad, make speeches, give you a
                                         medal...

                    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-

                                                   FRANK
                                         You’re happy, I’m happy...

                                                   OPPENHEIMER
                                         Then I’m happy you’re happy.
                    Lawrence claps me on the shoulder, smiling affectionately...

                                                   EINSTEIN (V.O.)
                                         Pat you on the back and tell you
                                         all is forgiven...

                    Teller approaches, I smile and take his offered hand...

                                                   EINSTEIN (V.O.)
                                         Just remember. It won’t be for
                                         you...




                                                                                (CONTINUED)
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Gadget       2023-04-21      FINAL Shooting Script          197.


  Teller turns to Kitty, offering the same smile and
  handshake...

                        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...

                        OPPENHEIMER
              Albert? When I came to you with
              those calculations?

  Einstein pauses. I watch raindrops make circles on the
  surface of the pond

                        OPPENHEIMER (CONT'D) (CONT’D)
              We were worried that we’d start a
              chain reaction that would destroy
              the entire world...

                        EINSTEIN
              I remember it well. What of it?

                        OPPENHEIMER
              I believe we did.

  Einstein PALES. TURNS, passing Strauss without a word. 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.
