I’ll be back witcha faster than you can say 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 OVERA FACE. Gaunt, tense, EYES TIGHTLY SHUT. The face SHUDDERSthe sound CEASES AS MY EYES OPEN, STARING INTO THE CAMERA: Peer into my soul- J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, aged fifty, closecropped 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 honourSECOND 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 1. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 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 2. SENATE AIDE (CONT’D) (CONTINUED) Gadget 2023-04-21 FINAL Shooting Script 3. 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 departmentOPPENHEIMER 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? SENATE AIDE (CONT’D) (CONTINUED) Gadget 2023-04-21 FINAL Shooting Script 3. 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 upBLACKETT 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 4. 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 5. (CONTINUED) 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 InstituteSTRAUSS (V.O.) ...I was determined to get him to run the Institute. -to welcome the rail-thin figure of Oppenheimer (fortythree), 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.
