During its third and final act, Nolan shows J. Robert Oppenheimer in the midst of McCarthy-esque security hearings whereby a tormented genius’ integrity is stripped away by a society he worked to save, reminding me somewhat of Alan Turing.
While Turing’s death came from a cyanide-infused apple, coincidentally or not, Oppenheimer’s first scene shows the titular character trying but failing to kill his lecturer with, yes, a cyanide-infused apple.
Like Turing’s death, Oppenheimer tells the story of humanity biting into the forbidden fruit of nuclear power as its brazen characters march toward an event horizon, unsure of the consequences and unwilling to reconsider. Oppenheimer is a flawed masterpiece: a dizzying, gratifying, and at times cumbersome historical document that asks complex moral questions and gives few answers.
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