Oppenheimer Page #2

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

lecture-

BOHR:

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, GRINSOPPENHEIMER

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.

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...

(CONTINUED)

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?

Gadget 2023-04-21 FINAL Shooting Script 19.

OPPENHEIMER:

I’m teaching something no one

here’s dreamt of. But once

people start hearing what you

can do with it...

LAWRENCE (CONT’D)

(grins)

There’s no going back.

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 bothhow

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 thirtytwo,

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.

(CONTINUED)

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...

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