"Oppenheimer," a nearly three-hour-long film, narrates the life story of Oppenheimer, covering his academic journey, involvement in the development of the atomic bomb, and the political influences he faced.
For a biographical film like this, many viewers may be left with questions after watching. What was Oppenheimer like in real life? Did he really poison his mentor? What stories were left out of the movie? Today, let's step out of the film and look at Oppenheimer's real-world story.
01 The "Horn" on the Mushroom Cloud
The movie "Oppenheimer" begins with a nuclear explosion scene, and many people may have noticed what looks like a "horn" on the spherical fireball of the explosion. This horn is a phenomenon often seen in real-world nuclear tests, but strictly speaking, it doesn't come from the atomic bomb itself; it comes from the platform on which the atomic bomb is placed.
The surface of the nuclear explosion fireball reaches over 20,000 degrees Celsius, with an intensity of light over 100 times that of the sun's surface. This intense light rapidly vaporizes any nearby solids. In-ground nuclear tests, atomic bombs are sometimes not placed directly on the ground but on a small tower. To maintain the stability of the tower, slanting cables are used to support it, extending from the top of the tower to the ground. These "horns" are the cables vaporizing during the explosion.
Physicists have conducted experiments showing that if the cables are coated with black material, they absorb more light, making the horns more pronounced. Conversely, if reflective paint or aluminum foil is used to cover the cables, light absorption is significantly reduced, and the horns are less visible. If the atomic bomb is placed directly on the ground, detonated in the air, or buried underground, there won't be any horns.
02 Did Oppenheimer Really Poison His Mentor?
In the film, while studying at the University of Cambridge, Oppenheimer injects potassium cyanide into an apple belonging to his mentor, Patrick Blackett. In reality, Oppenheimer did indeed poison an apple, but the historical details differ from how they are portrayed in the movie.
Historically, this incident occurred in the autumn of 1925 when Oppenheimer was studying in London and experiencing severe depression. He admired his mentor, Blackett, and desperately sought his approval. However, Blackett was an experimental physicist and assigned Oppenheimer to work on experiments he was not skilled in without much consideration. As a result, in a state of extreme anxiety, Oppenheimer poisoned an apple. He did not rush back to discard the apple. Niels Bohr was not present at the time, and no one ate the poisoned apple, but the university authorities became aware of the incident.
In the film, Oppenheimer later mentions in a conversation with his lover, Jean Tatlock, that he saw a psychoanalyst for two years, referring to this experience and its aftermath.
03 Dazzling Light Effects Related to Physics?
After Bohr's lecture, the film uses a series of montage sequences to depict Oppenheimer's physical world. Those dots of light, wavy lines, and the throwing of cups are purely visual effects and do not directly correspond to intricate physics concepts in the plot.
Although there is no direct correlation, there are some indirect connections. Point-like objects may represent atoms, subatomic particles, or even small dust particles — one of Einstein's miraculous year papers was on the Brownian motion of dust particles. The rapid, vibrating patterns of line-like objects resemble partially stable standing waves, commonly seen in oscilloscopes but could also be seen as representing quantum mechanical wave functions or matter waves.
04 The Book that Helped Oppenheimer Overcome Depression
Historically, Oppenheimer's turning point in overcoming his depression did not come from Bohr's lecture but from a trip to Corsica. Although it's not entirely clear which experiences during the trip specifically led to Oppenheimer's recovery from depression, it's often speculated that he read Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" during this time. Meeting Bohr happened after Oppenheimer's trip.
05 Oppenheimer's Friend Rabi and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Isidor Rabi, who traveled on the same train as Oppenheimer in the film, only plays the role of Oppenheimer's lifelong friend and someone who reminds him to eat. In reality, Rabi was also an outstanding physicist and received the Nobel Prize in 1944 for discovering nuclear magnetic resonance.
06 Oppenheimer's Student-Teacher Relationship
In the film, Oppenheimer's first student upon returning to the United States is Lomanitz, and he explains the wave-particle duality to him. In reality, Lomanitz didn't start his studies until the early 1940s, but he was indeed recruited by Oppenheimer to participate in the Manhattan Project. He was also one of the organizers of the left-wing union FAECT. After the war, he faced significant hardships, including working on railroad maintenance for a time, but eventually returned to academia. Oppenheimer's trial implicated many of his students and affected the teacher-student relationships.
07 Early Research on Black Holes
In the film, Oppenheimer discusses in a classroom setting how a collapsing neutron star could become a "dark star," which today might be recognized as referring to a "black hole." However, at that time, he referred to such hypothetical celestial bodies as "dark stars," and the term "black hole" would not be coined for several more decades. Oppenheimer was one of the early researchers in the field of black holes. Historically, multiple researchers approached the concept of black holes from different angles. The first mathematical description of a black hole was provided by the German physicist Karl Schwarzschild, who developed it shortly before his death due to an illness contracted during World War I. Oppenheimer's approach to the concept of black holes was different, originating from the collapse of neutron stars rather than a direct deduction from general relativity.
08 Oppenheimer's Flirtation at the Party
At a party where Oppenheimer flirts with a lady, he mentions that solid objects cannot pass through each other because of quantum mechanics. More accurately, this is due to Pauli's exclusion principle in quantum mechanics, which states that two Fermions cannot occupy the same quantum state. The electrons inside atoms are Fermions, and although it might seem like there's a lot of space within an atom if you fill it conventionally, it would imply that too many electrons share the same quantum state, which is not allowed. Therefore, atoms cannot be too close together, and solid objects cannot pass through each other.
At the party, Oppenheimer boasts to Jean about having read all three volumes of "On Capital," summarizing it as "ownership is theft," but Jean corrects him, saying it's "property is theft." However, this slogan was actually proposed by the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his 1840 book "What Is Property?" It did not originate from "On Capital." Marx himself later criticized this slogan as self-contradictory since the concept of "theft" inherently assumes the existence of property.
09 Physicist Lawrence, Oppenheimer's neighbor
Lawrence was a close friend of Oppenheimer at Berkeley, an eminent physicist, and a Nobel laureate. However, they had significant political differences. Lawrence believed that while the events in Europe were deserving of sympathy, they were ultimately not the concern of Americans. He often advised Oppenheimer not to get involved in politics, stating that he should focus on being an outstanding physicist. In history, Lawrence did indeed encounter a blackboard in the laboratory that had messages supporting the Spanish Civil War. However, Oppenheimer was not present at the scene, and Lawrence, angered by the messages, erased them.
10 The True Mastermind Behind the Manhattan Project
Strictly speaking, Oppenheimer was not the mastermind of the Manhattan Project; he was the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Los Alamos National Laboratory was responsible for designing the atomic bomb itself. Besides this laboratory, the Manhattan Project had various locations, including the University of Chicago, Hanford, Oak Ridge, and others, with its headquarters in Oak Ridge. Each location was responsible for different aspects of the atomic bomb production process.
If we were to identify a central figure in the Manhattan Project, it would be General Groves. He oversaw the entire project, from site selection to construction material procurement and intelligence. The name "Manhattan Project" itself was coined by him.
The choice of Oppenheimer as the head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory was a subject of controversy at the time. Oppenheimer had little administrative experience, had not won a Nobel Prize, and was frequently involved in left-wing activities. However, General Groves believed that the task of establishing a laboratory in a remote area required someone with a broad knowledge base, which other physicists could not match. He also saw in Oppenheimer a "self-assured ambition" that he considered necessary to drive the project to success.
11 The "Exposure" of the Shipping Address
When Groves approached Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer claimed that every physicist knew what the Manhattan Project was. While this statement is an exaggeration, it is true that as the Manhattan Project unfolded, many people began to suspect its nature.
Richard Feynman once remarked that the stationmaster at Princeton's train station probably knew something. The project's organizers were concerned that too many faculty and students purchasing one-way tickets from the small Princeton station would arouse suspicion. As a result, they had people depart from different stations to avoid suspicion, but all the equipment was shipped from Princeton. When Feynman himself went to take the train, the stationmaster said to him, "So, all this equipment is really yours!"
12 The World's First Nuclear Reactor in a Stadium
During the war, one of the most esteemed nuclear physicists in the United States was Enrico Fermi. Fermi was Italian, and received the Nobel Prize in 1938 for discovering that bombarding atoms with neutrons could induce radioactivity, a discovery with profound implications for atomic bomb development. He left Italy due to Mussolini's anti-Semitic policies and settled in the United States. At the University of Chicago, Fermi constructed the first nuclear reactor in history (a sustained chain reaction). This reactor was known as Chicago Pile-1.
The University of Chicago was once a strong school for American football, and the sports stadium was built for that purpose. However, the football team declined in strength over time, and the university had a president who believed that the enthusiasm for sports among students was contrary to the spirit of academia. Consequently, the football team was disbanded in late 1939, and the stadium fell into disuse. The nuclear reactor was initially planned for another location, but labor strikes delayed its construction, so the vacant stadium basement was repurposed for this historic experiment.
13 Female Scientists on the Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project involved numerous female scientists and scientists from minority backgrounds, although the film only mentions one individual, Lilli Schwenk, who came to the Los Alamos National Laboratory with her husband.
In the film, she is asked if she can type, and historically, she did undergo typing tests initially. However, she was soon assigned to the uranium chemistry project. Later, she was transferred to the explosives lens group where her husband worked due to concerns about the radiation hazards associated with uranium chemistry. When Kistiakowsky tested the atomic bomb detonation device, Lilli was present along with Oppenheimer and Groves – this was part of her project.
14 Will the Atomic Bomb Set the Atmosphere Ablaze?
Regarding the atomic bomb, potentially setting the Earth's atmosphere ablaze, it's true that such discussions took place.
In 1942, Teller's calculations suggested that the temperature of an atomic bomb explosion might exceed that of the sun, possibly initiating nuclear fusion in the atmosphere. Some physicists immediately doubted Teller's calculation, but many had reservations. To verify whether Teller's calculation was accurate, Oppenheimer sought out someone, not Einstein, but the head of the Chicago group, Arthur Compton. While Oppenheimer did know Einstein personally, the two conversations depicted in the film are fictional.
The Manhattan Project ultimately produced a classified report that concluded the scenario was highly unlikely to occur, but some scientists still believed that the probability of "igniting the atmosphere" was not zero. Compton himself remained skeptical. At the time, James B. Conant, the president of Harvard and a chemist, recalled that when he saw the flash of the "Trinity nuclear test" explosion, it was much brighter and more enduring than expected, and he momentarily thought they had ignited the atmosphere. Later, it was confirmed that the classified report was correct.
15 The Physicists' Wager Was Real?
In the film, Fermi is shown making a wager with other scientists about the yield of the nuclear test, allowing them to bet on the explosion's yield. This wager indeed took place historically, but it was not initiated by Fermi.
In the historical wager, Edward Teller was the most optimistic, betting the highest yield of 45,000 tons. Consequently, when he went to witness the nuclear test, he wore gloves, sunglasses, and sunscreen. Oppenheimer himself chose the second lowest estimate of 300 tons. When Rabi arrived late, the only option left was 18,000 tons, and he turned out to be the closest to the actual yield (officially estimated at 18,600 tons, later re-estimated to be around 25,000 tons).
16 Countdown Blooper
In the scene where Kistiakowsky is preparing to press the button to stop the countdown, a countdown clock is visible with digits displayed using what appear to be Nixie tubes. However, Nixie tubes were not invented until 1955, so they couldn't have been used during the Manhattan Project era. It seems that the film used Soviet-made IN-14 Nixie tubes, which were produced in the 1970s.
17 Did Nolan Really Detonate an Atomic Bomb?
Many people are now aware of Christopher Nolan's claim that he filmed the nuclear explosion without using CGI, leading to jokes that he detonated an atomic bomb for the film. However, the mushroom cloud effect is not unique to atomic bombs, but rather occurs due to atmospheric effects. Any sufficiently large explosion in the atmosphere can produce a mushroom cloud. However, it is indeed challenging to create the mushroom cloud effect using non-nuclear explosives. In reality, the scene was created by detonating various explosives separately and layering them to create the visual effect of a mushroom cloud.
18 Atomic Bombs Almost Sank in the Ocean
The atomic bombs were not transported out of Los Alamos on trucks, as it would have been highly risky. The mechanical components of the atomic bombs and the nuclear materials were transported separately to Tinian Island, where they were assembled into atomic bombs. The raw materials for "Little Boy" were transported by the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser. However, a Japanese submarine detected and sunk the ship shortly after leaving Tinian Island. The U.S. Navy only learned of its sinking four days later, and hundreds of sailors died from exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks, becoming a major scandal near the end of the war. If the ship had been sunk while transporting the raw materials for atomic bombs, history might have been rewritten.
19 Feynman's "Bongo" Drum
Physicist Richard Feynman appears multiple times throughout the film, but rarely speaks, and nobody calls him by name. How do we know it's him? Because he almost always appears with his bongo drum. Feynman playing the bongos has been a well-known image, often associated with him, making it instantly recognizable to those familiar with his life.
20 Crossing Kyoto off the Target List, Not Because of a Honeymoon
After the success of the Trinity nuclear test, a decision had to be made regarding the target cities in Japan for dropping the atomic bombs. In Nolan's script, the Secretary of War directly crosses Kyoto off the list and cites one of the reasons being his honeymoon in Kyoto. However, actor James Remar informed Nolan that one of the Secretary's reasons for excluding Kyoto was that he had spent his honeymoon there, leading to the inclusion of this scene. Unfortunately, Remar was mistaken, and there is no evidence in historical records to support the claim that he had honeymooned in Kyoto. According to historical accounts, Kyoto was excluded primarily due to its historical and cultural value.
21 V-2 Rockets Flying Alongside Aircraft?
When Borden describes seeing Nazi V-2 rockets as a pilot, the film shows a sequence where V-2 rockets slowly overtake an aircraft. In reality, V-2 rockets flew at altitudes several times higher than World War II aircraft and were much faster. They didn't launch so many at once, so this sequence might be an exaggeration by Borden or a misunderstanding. The scene would be more plausible if the V-2 rockets were replaced with V-1 rockets.
22 Oppenheimer's Reversal
J. Robert Oppenheimer was not officially cleared of wrongdoing until December 16, 2022, when it was recognized that his security clearance revocation was unjust. Although there were some actions in the 1960s that were essentially equivalent to restoring his reputation, they did not address the fairness of the original trial. This includes the scene in the film where he receives the Fermi Award. Fermi himself passed away in 1954, and the award named after him was established by the U.S. Government in 1956. The film portrays Oppenheimer receiving the award and reconciling with Lawrence and Teller at that time, but in reality, Lawrence had already passed away several years prior.
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