It's not a Christopher Nolan movie unless you leave the theatre with a head full of questions. For this list, we’re not just looking at historical-based questions, but also creative inquiries you might have walking out of Christopher Nolan’s film about J. Robert Oppenheimer.
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00:00 "There were rumors of espionage."
00:02 "Unsatisfied."
00:03 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the 10 questions you may have
00:08 after seeing Oppenheimer answered.
00:10 "Dr. Oppenheimer, could you tell us what your thoughts are about what our atomic policy should be?"
00:15 For this list, we're not just looking at historical-based questions,
00:19 but also creative inquiries you might have walking out of Christopher Nolan's film
00:23 about J. Robert Oppenheimer. If we missed any questions you had, ask him in the comments.
00:29 Hey, Mojoholics! For a chance to win cash prizes,
00:32 play our live daily trivia challenges every day at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern,
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00:39 Why weren't the attacks in Japan shown?
00:44 The film's major set piece sees the Trinity Test successfully executed,
00:48 but the subsequent bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are notably omitted.
00:52 "Oppenheimer never apologized in any way for Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
00:57 The characters discuss the attacks, but beyond Oppenheimer's imagination,
01:01 we don't see the effects of the bombings. Following a screening of the film,
01:05 Nolan explained that he didn't want to stray from Oppenheimer's perspective.
01:09 "You are the man who gave them the power to destroy themselves,
01:12 and the world is not prepared."
01:15 As Nolan put it, quote, "We know so much more than he did at the time."
01:20 He learned about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the radio,
01:23 the same as the rest of the world.
01:25 The film is largely about Oppenheimer's inner conflict as he grapples with his creation.
01:30 Although Oppenheimer didn't witness the bombings in Japan,
01:33 he could certainly envision the ghastly aftermath, leaving him with ambivalent feelings.
01:38 "Hiroshima was far more costly in life and suffering and inhumane
01:45 than it needed to have been."
01:48 Did Kitty Oppenheimer have a career?
01:51 Kitty Oppenheimer remained by her husband's side through thick and thin,
01:55 but the film glances over her life beyond marriage and motherhood.
01:58 "I think she was very frustrated by being put in the position of
02:02 a mother and a wife and nothing else."
02:05 Around the same time that she met Robert, Kitty received her B.A. in botany,
02:09 for about a year while living in Los Alamos,
02:12 running blood tests to evaluate the effects of radiation on people.
02:16 Although she was a trained biologist, Kitty felt limited during her stay at Los Alamos,
02:20 becoming better known for her cocktail parties.
02:22 "She was an academic, she was a biologist and a botanist,
02:26 and ultimately that work was all put to one side for the years at Los Alamos."
02:30 The film only touches upon her alcohol use, which worsened after the war,
02:34 leading to several accidents and broken bones.
02:37 Kitty struggled with pills and smoking as well.
02:40 Five years after Robert died, Kitty passed away due to an embolism at age 62.
02:45 "She did not thrive at Los Alamos.
02:49 It was a lonely and hard existence."
02:52 What was Einstein's role in the atomic bomb?
02:54 "His greatest achievement, E=mc2, also becomes this thing that can destroy the world."
03:00 In a couple of key scenes, Oppenheimer discusses the possible ramifications
03:04 of nuclear weaponry with Albert Einstein.
03:07 Being a pacifist with left-winged views,
03:09 Einstein wasn't granted security clearance for the Manhattan Project.
03:13 Despite not being directly involved in its construction,
03:16 Einstein helped light the fuse that led to the atomic bomb.
03:20 The energy that the bomb releases is linked to the E=mc2 equation, which Einstein formulated.
03:26 As such, Einstein was asked to write a letter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
03:31 encouraging the study of atomic energy.
03:33 "On August 2, 1939, Einstein co-signed a letter to President Roosevelt
03:38 alerting him to a new phenomenon that would lead to the construction of bombs."
03:43 Einstein was motivated by the fear that the Germans might build a bomb.
03:47 He came to regret the letter, saying, quote,
03:50 "Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb,
03:54 I would have done nothing."
03:56 "When Einstein heard the news, he put his head in his hands and said,
04:00 'I could burn my fingers that I wrote that letter to President Roosevelt.'"
04:04 What's up with the black and white cinematography?
04:06 Oppenheimer shifts between being presented in color and black and white.
04:10 While not the first time Nolan has done this,
04:12 the symbolism here has confused some audiences.
04:15 "We're in a race against the Nazis, and I know what it means."
04:20 Nolan wrote Oppenheimer from a first-person perspective,
04:23 which he's never done before.
04:25 Although Nolan explores much of Oppenheimer's life through a subjective lens,
04:29 he wanted certain scenes to take an objective approach.
04:32 He distinguished the two by draping the subjective scenes in color.
04:36 When the film strays from Oppenheimer's point of view,
04:38 focusing on another figure like Louis Strasse,
04:41 black and white cinematography is utilized to emphasize the objective shift.
04:45 "So now the race is against the Soviets."
04:47 "Not unless we start it."
04:48 "Robert, they just fired a starting gun."
04:52 Nolan further distinguished the two by marking the color scenes as fission,
04:56 whereas the black and white scenes are labeled fusion.
04:59 Both involve nuclear reactions,
05:01 but fission splits atoms while fusion unites them.
05:04 "Data indicates it may have been a plutonium implosion device."
05:08 "Like the one you built at Los Alamos."
05:11 Did Klaus Fuchs face consequences for spying?
05:14 "There were rumors of espionage."
05:16 "Unsubstantiated."
05:16 "Los Alamos."
05:17 "There's no proof."
05:18 "There was a spy at Los Alamos."
05:20 A theoretical physicist,
05:21 Klaus Fuchs only briefly appears in 'Oppenheimer,'
05:24 flying under the radar until it's later revealed that he was spying for the Soviet Union.
05:28 Although Fuchs wasn't the only spy who infiltrated the Manhattan Project,
05:32 he perhaps left the most prominent impression.
05:35 "Our accomplices, like Fuchs or Hall,
05:38 took the documents from Los Alamos
05:40 and gave them to agents I had called messengers."
05:43 Joining the project in 1943,
05:45 Fuchs came to be viewed as a valuable asset,
05:48 being present for the Trinity test.
05:50 After his espionage came to light,
05:52 Fuchs pled guilty and received a 14-year sentence in 1950.
05:56 Only serving nine years due to good behavior,
05:58 Fuchs was sent back to the German Democratic Republic where he resumed his research.
06:03 "Klaus Fuchs was a real soldier,
06:05 and his pro-communist activism was publicly known.
06:08 Arrested in the United States in 1950,
06:13 he spent nine years in American prison."
06:15 He'd even become the Institute for Nuclear Research in Rossendorf's deputy director,
06:20 holding the position until his retirement in 1979.
06:23 Was Jean Tatlock murdered or did she take her own life?
06:28 "Seems I can't believe we're really not together, you and me."
06:30 "But it's been years."
06:35 "Yeah, incredible, isn't it?"
06:38 Not long after spending one last night together,
06:41 Oppenheimer learns that Jean Tatlock has died.
06:44 Although she apparently took her own life,
06:46 the film suggests that foul play might have been afoot.
06:49 While some have theorized that Tatlock was assassinated by intelligence officers,
06:54 most historians agree that she died by her own hand.
06:57 The day after her death,
06:59 Tatlock's father discovered her body submerged in the bathtub with an unsigned note.
07:03 The message didn't spell out exactly what drove Tatlock to this point,
07:07 although she had been living with clinical depression for some time.
07:11 "It's not you. I told Zimmerman it's not a man, it's my life,
07:16 it's my sticking messy life, I hate it."
07:18 The Trinity Test derived its title from the poetry of John Donne.
07:23 Since Tatlock introduced Oppenheimer to Donne's work,
07:26 some speculate that the test was named Trinity in honor of her.
07:29 "Robert, you've always been so kind to me. You've always been so kind."
07:36 What became of Louis Strasse?
07:39 "Thanks for convening on short notice."
07:42 "I can't believe it. Well, here we are."
07:45 Louis Strasse's personal vendetta against Oppenheimer would ultimately be his undoing,
07:50 as depicted in the film.
07:51 The Senate denied Strasse's nomination for Secretary of Commerce.
07:54 His treatment towards Oppenheimer being a major point of contention.
07:58 Despite not getting the position,
08:00 Strasse maintained a professional relationship with Herbert Hoover and President Eisenhower.
08:04 Yet the Senate's rejection essentially killed Strasse's government career,
08:08 which he never quite got past.
08:10 "It can't go on."
08:11 "No."
08:12 "He's got to be stopped."
08:14 "He'll be leaving the commission soon. His term is up."
08:16 "I mean his influence has got to be stopped."
08:21 Retiring to his Virginia farm, Strasse remained active in philanthropy,
08:25 got involved in cattle breeding, and wrote a memoir, Men and Decisions.
08:29 Strasse was also working on an unfinished book about Hoover before succumbing to lymphosarcoma
08:35 in 1974. History remembers Strasse as a polarizing figure, with his legacy inevitably tied to
08:41 Oppenheimer's.
08:42 "I think he was a great public servant, but he's always behind the scenes.
08:46 I've always appreciated the people who are backstage."
08:49 What happened to Oppenheimer and his children?
08:51 "When I was a young man, I wanted to have a significant life.
08:55 Now they're saying it's a tragedy."
08:59 Outside of receiving the Enrico Fermi Award in 1963,
09:03 the film doesn't delve into Oppenheimer's life after having his security clearance revoked.
09:07 Oppenheimer spent much of his later years on St. John of the Virgin Islands with his family.
09:12 "How are you feeling, Robert?"
09:13 "How am I feeling?"
09:14 "A lot of people want to be remembered, see you."
09:17 "Good, good."
09:19 "They're saying it's a tragedy what happened."
09:21 "It was no tragedy, a farce maybe."
09:24 He'd continue to give public lectures, remaining an admired figure in the scientific and academic
09:29 communities. While Oppenheimer never formally apologized for the atomic bomb, he would spend
09:35 the rest of his life contemplating how nuclear weapons would affect humanity.
09:39 "With countless other men and women, we are engaged in this great enterprise of our time,
09:46 testing whether men can live without war."
09:49 A longtime chain smoker, Oppenheimer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1965,
09:55 leading to his death almost two years later.
09:57 Oppenheimer's daughter, Toni, hung herself at the family beach house in 1977.
10:02 Oppenheimer's son, Peter, inherited his New Mexico ranch, where he still resides.
10:06 Did the Trinity Test impact locals?
10:10 The Manhattan Project might have been top secret during World War II,
10:14 but now you can visit several Los Alamos sites depicted in the film,
10:17 including where the Trinity Test was conducted.
10:20 "We're at V-Site, and this is where the components for the Trinity device were assembled."
10:26 The Trinity Test took place in the Jornada del Muerto desert,
10:29 which neighbors the counties of Lincoln, Otero, San Miguel, Sierra, Socorro, and Torrance.
10:35 In the years following the test, numerous people from these New Mexico counties reported health
10:40 issues, ranging from heart disease to cancer.
10:43 "You know, nobody knows exactly how much radiation you got if you lived in, say,
10:48 Ely, Nevada versus, say, Battle Mountain."
10:53 Due to their proximity to the test site, these locals were dubbed "downwinders."
10:58 Many of these people have struggled to pay for medical treatment,
11:01 ultimately succumbing to their illnesses.
11:03 Even with the introduction of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990,
11:08 the downwinders have yet to be compensated.
11:10 "The free medical screenings for downwinders has, for some, resulted in compensation.
11:16 The program ends in August, and Dr. Hunt is trying to secure enough funding for another three years."
11:21 Here are some honorable mentions.
11:23 What happened to Edward Teller?
11:26 The father of the hydrogen bomb received the Enrico Fermi Award a year before Oppenheimer.
11:31 "Edward Teller was there that day, come to offer his congratulations.
11:36 When he extended his hand, once again, Oppenheimer shook it."
11:40 What happened to General Groves?
11:42 After his years of service ended, he became VP of Sperry Rand,
11:46 a now-defunct equipment and electronics brand.
11:49 "Chances are near zero."
11:50 "Near zero."
11:53 "What do you want for the theory of loan?"
11:55 "Zero would be nice."
11:57 What happened with the H-bombs development?
11:59 President Truman pushed to complete the second-generation nuclear weapon,
12:02 which was tested for the first time in 1952.
12:06 "When you start talking about hydrogen bombs, now we're talking about megatons.
12:12 We're talking about a million tons of TNT."
12:15 What happened to Patrick Blackett, aka the Poisoned Apple Professor?
12:19 His cloud chamber research would lead to a Nobel Prize in physics.
12:23 "I was made president of the Royal Society in 1965, and I was made a baron in 1969.
12:30 I even had a crater on the moon named after me."
12:33 Should I see Oppenheimer and Barbie on the same day or separate days?
12:37 Depends on the screening times and what kind of mood you're in.
12:40 But I recommend it. Definitely see Barbie second.
12:43 "We saw Barbie at three, and then we're doing Oppenheimer at six.
12:47 So it's like a full-day thing."
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13:03 Have atomic bombs been used since World War II?
13:08 Although Nolan's crew used real explosives to reenact the Trinity Test,
13:12 it should go without saying that they didn't use an actual A-bomb.
13:16 "All of which was leading to the Trinity Test,
13:20 which had to feel nightmarish and terrifying in a way that computer graphics never really is."
13:27 As a matter of fact, nuclear weapons haven't been utilized in combat since the bombings
13:31 of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. However, just because nuclear weapons haven't been used
13:37 doesn't mean that they aren't still being developed. The U.S. and Russia reportedly
13:41 possess 90 percent of the almost 13,000 nuclear weapons in existence.
13:46 "1,500 nuclear warheads is more like 2,000 or 2,500 warheads, but still,
13:53 it is a limit on the number."
13:55 The remaining 10 percent is divided between several other countries, including China.
14:00 Since the atomic bomb's development, these weapons have become 80 times deadlier.
14:05 While above-ground and underwater nuclear tests are now outlawed,
14:08 the threat of nuclear warfare remains very much in the zeitgeist.
14:12 "One says, 'Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.'
14:18 I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."
14:24 [Music]