Einstein and Eddington Page #4

obliterated at the Battle of Ypres.

All of them?

Major Colin Foster...

Captain Raymond Lodge.

EDDINGTON:
First Lieutenant

William Marston.

Eddington!

I wanted you to know how sorry I am.

William was a good friend, wasn't he?

Yes, he was, yes.

What's going on? What's going on?

Give me your pass, please.

This is ridiculous.

What are you talking about?

Are the great men of science discussing

the great scientific issues of the day

or is the talk of poison gas

and how many dead at Ypres

and how many more,

if only we could have judged

the wind conditions better? More tea?

Einstein! This is the common room.

Yes, yes. There must be no noise.

Noise is bad! Noise is unforgivable.

This university

is the heart of German science.

Please, no shouting!

Thousands of young men killed

by chlorine gas from this university.

What are we doing?

What is this madness?

I can't tell anyone.

You can tell me.

I loved him.

I know.

I loved him so much.

Yes.

I can't find an answer, Winnie.

No.

There's no reason for his death.

There's no comfort to be found.

No.

Where was God at Ypres?

We have a proposal

from the president.

The proposal is that we expel all Germans

from membership

of the Royal Astronomical Society

and that all contact

between any of our membership

and any German scientist cease now.

Gassed, every one.

Who did this?

Who killed my son?

I'll tell you.

German science.

Perhaps we should do this another day.

- No, we'll go on.

- Sir Oliver...

We go on.

Can I assume that no-one wishes

to speak against the motion?

Who killed Raymond Lodge?

All of us.

That's enough, Eddington.

This stupid and futile war killed him.

Expelling German scientists won't bring

any one of the Cambridgeshires back.

Eddington!

The pursuit of truth in science

transcends national boundaries.

It takes us beyond hatred

and anger and fear.

It is the best of us.

What truth?

That there are no rules, no standards,

no moral absolutes?

That you break all the rules of science

and replace them with nothing?

What does your Einstein want?

He wants what I want -

a new theory of gravity.

I think we should move to a vote.

All those in favour of the motion.

Against?

My son is dead.

He died fighting this evil.

I tell you this now.

I will not allow his death

to have been in vain.

Mercury.

We've had this before.

What?

The orbit of a planet that Newton

couldn't account for - Uranus.

And what happened?

Neptune was discovered.

And where was Neptune? Exactly

where Newton predicted it must be.

And what did that mean?

The orbit of Uranus made sense

with Newton after all.

When will you learn?

Everything happens for a reason!

Ypres.

How dare you mention that name.

What do you know of Ypres?

What do you know of grief?

I have lost my son.

But there is order in the universe.

Can I see your pass, please?

Excuse me, sir.

- What? What?

- No.

Why?

We've been instructed

not to let you enter.

I need to get my post.

I need my letters, all right? Please.

Max!

They won't let me collect my post.

You've been cut off...

for your anti-German outburst.

But all my letters

come through the university.

Yes.

Max...

You look terrible.

I am sick,

but I just wanted to see you.

Because you are lonely?

Yes.

Why haven't you come before?

I've been working.

You look beautiful.

I love you.

Charm isn't enough, Albert.

Elsa...

So don't come here

telling me I'm beautiful

and you love me

and expect me

to open my arms to you.

Elsa...

I will make up my mind about you...

...in my own time.

Are you asking me to go?

Pass, please.

Would you see

that this gets to Cambridge?

They won't allow me to post it.

But you... you are...

They would allow you to. Please.

You brought me here to Berlin.

Please, Max.

I have done what you asked.

My work on gravity is finished.

What are you reading?

You look overcome.

Come to supper.

For what we are about to receive,

may the Lord make us truly thankful.

Amen.

It's called general relativity.

It's a theory of gravity and... everything.

He's done it.

Let me just... Sorry.

Let me just show you.

What are you doing?

Have you gone mad?

Dyson, the other end.

Pick it up.

Pick up the tablecloth.

Space. The tablecloth is space.

The sun.

What's happening?

What?

What's happening

with the sun and space?

Well, the bread is

sinking into the table cloth.

The sun makes a shape around it in space.

Yes.

Now, what happens if I do this?

It wants to travel in a straight line,

but it can't. Why not?

Because the bread's making a shape.

The apple follows the curves

made in space.

Yes! Yes. Space is shaped.

And that is how gravity works.

Space tells objects how to move,

objects tell space what shape to be.

And there's a way to prove it.

When starlight comes near to the sun,

what will happen to it?

It'll bend.

Yes.

That's what he says.

That's what Einstein says.

Starlight will bend.

Every theory needs proof.

I'm the man to prove it.

The English observer

and the German theorist.

Hand in glove.

We're at war, Eddington.

Germany is our enemy.

I love my country very deeply,

but my country is my country, and this...

This is so much more.

Will you help me?

You can't point your telescope

straight at the sun.

I know, too bright.

But May 29th, 1919.

What?

Total solar eclipse.

A chance to look at the sun.

- Where?

- Africa.

The island of Principe.

It's the best place to view the eclipse.

So all we need is

a profoundly large amount of money.

Mmm.

So who do we ask?

As we look at the eclipsed sun

through the giant telescope,

it will be directly in the middle

of the Hyades star cluster.

We'll take photographs of these stars

during the five minutes of eclipse,

and then compare them to photographs

taken of the same stars at night.

One photographic plate

on top of another.

Are the stars in the same place

or different?

If they are different,

then we will know

that starlight is bent by the sun.

This is an English expedition.

Yes.

To prove a German scientist right.

Or wrong.

If Einstein is right,

then an English expedition

will have proved it.

If he isn't, then an English expedition

will have proved a German scientist wrong

and Sir Isaac Newton right.

I don't believe you.

I'm sorry?

I don't believe your mind is open.

I was made for this.

I'm the best measuring man

in England.

This is my moment.

This is what my whole life

in science has been for.

I would never, never

allow bias or prejudice in.

I swear to you, on all that I hold dear,

my mind is open.

What about yours?

Mine?

Is your mind open?

Of course.

Then may we have our money?

Principe!

He's agreed.

We're going to Africa.

It's over.

How could God allow so many to die?

Germany's blockaded.

No food is getting into Berlin.

They have no water, no medicine.

Great Britain has won the war

and now she wants her revenge.

I'm leaving for Berlin

with the Friends.

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