(Credits: Far Out / Universal Pictures)
Christopher Nolan’s celebrated three-hour epic Oppenheimer includes many moments set to become iconic in the annals of cinema history. The cut rate at which it was edited gives audiences and critics alike literally thousands of shots to choose from.
However, two scenes in particular involving the same specific incident will likely come to define the film. They involve the world-famous theoretical physicist Albert Einstein meeting protagonist J. Robert Oppenheimer next to one of the man-made lakes of the Princeton University campus.
First, we see the incident from the perspective of Lewis Strauss, the Chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, who orchestrates Oppenheimer’s downfall later in the film.
As Strauss watches from a distance, Oppenheimer picks up Einstein’s hat, which has blown off in the wind. The two share a conversation before Einstein begins to walk away, only to turn back as Oppenheimer gets a last word in. As Strauss approaches the pair, Einstein walks away, stone-faced, not even acknowledging his greeting.
Strauss later describes to a colleague how Einstein “wouldn’t look me in the eye” and becomes convinced that Oppenheimer slighted him. As such, this incident becomes a primary motive for Strauss’s antagonism towards Oppenheimer, which drives much of the film’s plot.
Because we see the conversation between Oppenheimer and Einstein from Strauss’ perspective, we couldn’t hear it. It serves its purpose as an imagined moment of cinematic licence, which reflects Strauss’ own paranoid imagination as he assumes Oppenheimer has something against him.
Why does Oppenheimer end with this scene?
More significant than Strauss’ view of the incident, though, is the moment we return to it from Oppenheimer’s perspective. Nolan chooses to circle back to it for the film’s final scene to emphasise its significance.
Two of the most important scientists of the twentieth century coming together might seem like a convenient on-screen climax rooted entirely in fiction. But it works precisely because it’s historically plausible. Einstein and Oppenheimer were both at Princeton between 1947 and 1955, and Oppenheimer later recounted that they became “close colleagues and something of friends” during that period.
And it is only at this point, at the very end of the film, that we hear what they say to each other.
After Einstein sardonically calls the younger scientist “the man of the moment” for successfully creating the first atomic bomb, he reminds him of the award Oppenheimer once gave him.
As Einstein draws parallels between this story and Oppenheimer’s, it becomes a cautionary tale with a warning. Oppenheimer’s success in physics will never be his own. It will belong to the US government and other social interests beyond his control.
In this way, Einstein delivers the epitaph for the personal story within the movie, the tragic story of Oppenheimer, the man.
“Overwhelming responsibility”
Yet Nolan isn’t done there. The script has one more epitaph to deliver from the mouth of its protagonist. The epitaph for the bigger story that the film attempts to encompass is the tragic tale of humanity since Oppenheimer’s destructive invention.
As Einstein turns to leave, Oppenheimer calls his name. “When I came to you with those calculations,” he says. “We thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world.”
“I remember it well,” Einstein replies. “What of it?”
Oppenheimer’s final line is accompanied by a deep, empty gaze into the lake’s water as the film’s soundtrack rises: “I believe we did.”
Einstein doesn’t ignore Strauss as he walks away for personal reasons. He is momentarily overcome with a sense of responsibility for the advent of nuclear weapons. He later agreed to sign a letter drawn up by nuclear physicists across the US, accepting “overwhelming responsibility” for the potential destruction of the world.
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