Summary

• Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, portrays the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, including his work on the Manhattan Project and other aspects of his life.
• The film takes some creative liberties, such as altering the details of Oppenheimer's attempted poisoning of his tutor and adding fictional elements to flesh out his relationship with Niels Bohr.
• Oppenheimer's opposition to the hydrogen bomb played a crucial role in his security clearance hearing, along with his ties to communist friends, as depicted in the film.

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer includes several details from J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life, many of which are true and some of them changed to benefit the film. Starring Cillian Murphy in the title role, the film spans decades of Oppenheimer’s life, from his days in Cambridge to heading the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos during World War II. The film is based on American Prometheus, the 2005 biography of Oppenheimer’s life by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

Oppenheimer is considered the Father of the Atomic Bomb, and Nolan’s film is heavily focused on his work with the Manhattan Project, which resulted in the aforementioned bomb that would be detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. But Oppenheimer also wades into other aspects of his life, including his affair with Jean Tatlock, the hearings that revoked his security clearance, and Lewis Strauss’ vendetta against the famed physicist. Oppenheimer's ending mostly sticks to the facts while leaving out — and adding — other aspects of the scientist’s life and the events that shaped it.

11 Oppenheimer Poisoning His Tutor's Apple Happened Differently

The s of the story are not as dramatic

Near the start of Oppenheimer, the young scientist moves to Europe to study physics. After being told by his mentor, Patrick Blackett, that he cannot attend a lecture by Kenneth Branagh’s Niels Bohr, Oppenheimer injects Blackett’s apple with cyanide. In the film, Oppenheimer changes his mind about the poisoning, but when he shows up to the lab to retrieve the apple, it isn’t Blackett who’s holding it, but Bohr. Oppenheimer flings the apple away before he can take a bite, which would have led to catastrophe.

It is true that Oppenheimer did try to poison Blackett based on the word of his real-life friend, Francis Fergusson. However, it is not directly known that he used cyanide as the poison, as this would have killed Blackett if he had eaten the apple. The attempted murder of his tutor would have brought much harsher repercussions than almost being expelled from Cambridge. Oppenheimer alters the incident further by adding Bohr, as he was not involved in reality. This is likely added to flesh out Oppenheimer and Bohr’s relationship since the former was an irer of the latter.

10 Oppenheimer Actually Bet Against The Atomic Bomb Working

The $10 bet really happened

There were a lot of nerves at play on the day of the Trinity Test, and there were still apprehensions about whether the atomic bomb would destroy the atmosphere and annihilate the world with it. Oppenheimer made a bet that the atomic bomb wouldn’t actually work at all. Making light of the atomic bomb was very much something that Oppenheimer did. In fact, the physicist wagered $10 against fellow Manhattan Project scientist George Kistiakowsky’s monthly pay (via Office of History and Heritage Resources). Of course, the atomic bomb did work, and the Trinity Test was successful. It also did not ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world.

9 Oppenheimer Accepted Strauss’ Princeton Offer & Remained In The Position For 20 Years

Oppenheimer skipped over their partnership

A key figure in Oppenheimer is Lewis Strauss, who would become Oppenheimer’s enemy, offering the scientist the director position at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. Oppenheimer tells Strauss that he’ll consider the offer, though it remains unclear whether he accepted it. As it turns out, Oppenheimer did take Strauss’ offer to head up the Institute for Advanced Study in 1947, two years after leaving Los Alamos behind. He would remain in the role for 20 years, long after his security hearings and Strauss being denied a cabinet position.

As director, Oppenheimer became Albert Einstein’s boss (Einstein himself had been with the IAS since 1932, via Princeton Alumni Weekly). During his tenure at Princeton, Oppenheimer’s relationship with Strauss became more strained, with tensions building further after Strauss became the head of the Atomic Energy Commission. The two butted heads, and Oppenheimer opposed Strauss on scientific issues, while the other came to suspect Oppenheimer was a communist spy. Regardless of the outcome of Oppenheimer’s hearing, he remained at the IAS until 1965.

8 General Groves Didn’t Know About The Atomic Bomb’s Potential To Destroy The World

Groves was in the dark about the weapon's power

In Oppenheimer, Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves is briefed on the possibility that the atomic bomb might destroy the world. While Oppenheimer assures him that the chance of that happening is “near zero,” Groves chuckles nervously, saying that he’d rather have that percentage actually be zero. But the truth was that Groves didn’t know about the atomic bomb’s potential for global destruction at the time. The conversation was largely kept between scientists, who were privy to Edward Teller’s calculations regarding the possibility of the atomic bomb wiping out the atmosphere.

7 Los Alamos Was Only 1 Of 3 Cities Created For The Manhattan Project

Cities in Tennessee and Washington also were used

Oppenheimer focuses closely on Los Alamos, New Mexico, where much of the Manhattan Project’s work took place, because it was where Oppenheimer himself resided at the time. However, Groves actually approved locations in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington, for use under the Manhattan Project. Oak Ridge had a building where uranium was enriched. It held over 12,000 workers during its heyday. Meanwhile, the site at Hanford was where plutonium was produced. It was an ideal location due to the Columbia River, its waters used to cool the reactors. Los Alamos was largely utilized for atomic bomb design and development.

6 Oppenheimer Was Engaged To Jean Tatlock

He nearly married her before Kitty

Oppenheimer highlights the scientist’s relationship with Jean Tatlock, a psychiatrist and communist whom Oppenheimer met in 1936. Over the course of three years, the couple became engaged, but they had an on-again/off-again relationship for most of their time together. This ultimately led Oppenheimer to meet Kitty and begin a relationship with her. While Oppenheimer makes it clear that J. Robert's heart was torn between Kitty and Jean, the fact that he and Jean nearly got married is left out.

Oppenheimer proposed to Jean multiple times over the course of their relationship.

5 Jean Tatlock Struggled With Being Queer

Nolan's movie only shows Jean's relationship with Oppenheimer

For as pivotal of a role as Florence Pugh's character plays in Oppenheimer, Nolan's film leaves out Jean's struggle with her sexuality. Tatlock, who was clinically depressed, itted to friends that she was attracted to women. It scared her because being queer at the time signified a condition that could be fixed. Her struggles played a role in the end of her relationship with Oppenheimer. They saw each other again in 1943 — the last time before Tatlock’s suicide. Due to the movie only showing Jean's life through Oppenheimer's eyes, her struggles with sexuality is not explored.

4 Oppenheimer Didn’t Have A Concrete Opinion About The Atomic Bomb’s Creation & Use

The movie plays up his concern

While Oppenheimer grew concerned with the use of nuclear power and its dangers to the world in the weapons race, he wasn’t strongly opposed to the atomic bomb’s creation or its use. He worried more about what such bombs could do to the world in the future but didn’t express an abundance of regret regarding its creation. Oppenheimer believed the atomic bomb was a necessary evil, but was indifferent to the government using his research. He pushed for the sharing of atomic knowledge but was less critical in the role he played.

3 President Truman Calling Oppenheimer A "Crybaby" Happened Differently

It is true that President Truman called Oppenheimer a crybaby, but Oppenheimer changed the true story about how it happened. Nolan's movie has Truman call Oppenheimer a "crybaby" directly to his face after their disastrous meeting. The reality is that the President of the United States at the time was not so upfront with his feelings toward the father of the atomic bomb. Truman only ever called Oppenheimer a "crybaby scientist" in private to those closest to him according to Ray Monk's Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center.

2 J. Robert Oppenheimer's "I Am Become Death" Line Did Not Happen Like The Movie

He did not say it during sex

One of the most controversial true story changes in the movie comes with Oppenheimer's use of the "I am become death" quote. Nolan's movie includes the Bhagavad Gita quote during an Oppenheimer and Jean Tatlock sex scene and after the atomic bomb test. Neither instance is an accurate representation of how J. Robert Oppenheimer used the saying in real life. Oppenheimer is only ever recorded saying the line during a 1956 NBC News documentary called The Decision to Drop the Bomb. This is where he says, "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."