Santa Isn't Real

.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+.mw-empty-elt+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}The film presents plot developments in a non-linear narrative, but the plot summary details these events in chronological order. In the 1930s, J. Robert Oppenheimer teaches at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley after studying theoretical physics in Europe. A number of Berkeley academics are also Communist Party members, but Oppenheimer does not join himself. After World War II breaks out, Ernest Lawrence of the Radiation Lab cautions Oppenheimer against having communist connections. Oppenheimer scales back and is later approached by General Leslie Groves to lead the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer proposes a new laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, where they could endeavor to build an atomic bomb before the Nazis. Edward Teller is recruited to Los Alamos and theorizes that an explosion could cause global atmospheric ignition. When his theory is disproved, he starts researching fusion-based weapons instead of working on the proposed fission bombs. In July 1945, the US Army successfully conducts the Trinity test, the first denotation of a nuclear weapon. Subsequently, the United States detonates two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to conclude World War II. In the immediate aftermath, Oppenheimer meets with President Harry S. Truman, to whom he expresses his remorse on building the bomb. Truman absolves him of all responsibility, but is annoyed at Oppenheimer’s remorse. Oppenheimer is labeled 'father of the atomic bomb', but his public stance in the post-war years changes towards nuclear non-proliferation. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tests a plutonium bomb, similar to one developed at Los Alamos. In a meeting of top advisors, Oppenheimer frustrates Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman Lewis Strauss by favoring arms talks with Russia instead of escalating with Teller's proposed thermonuclear weapons. During a heated period of discussion, Oppenheimer's past security lapses are brought up, including rekindling an affair with Communist ex-lover, Jean Tatlock, immediately after gaining his security clearance in 1942. Oppenheimer had also protected his friend Haakon Chevalier from an espionage investigation, by directly lying to security officer Boris Pash. In 1954, irritated at constantly being undermined by Oppenheimer, Strauss conspires with Borden to initiate a security clearance hearing for Oppenheimer. He appoints Roger Robb as the board's counsel, who replays the accusations of Oppenheimer's disloyalty towards the US. Groves, Isidor Rabi, and Oppenheimer's wife Kitty testify in favor of Oppenheimer, but Teller and staunch anti-communist William Borden testify against him. In the end, Oppenheimer's Q clearance is revoked by a two-to-one decision of the hearing's three judges, ending his government advisory role. In 1959, Strauss is nominated as US Secretary of Commerce, which the US Senate is expected to confirm as per tradition. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Strauss is questioned over his actions relating to Oppenheimer's security hearing. Strauss alleges that the FBI was suspicious of Oppenheimer since his teaching days, well before Borden accused him of espionage in 1954. Strauss claims to not have acted against Oppenheimer through the security hearing, despite having many public disagreements with him. Strauss further alleges that Oppenheimer turned scientists against him, starting with Albert Einstein at Princeton University in 1947. Teller testifies in Strauss' favor, with Physicist David L. Hill of the Chicago Met Lab expected to follow suit. However, Hill instead exposes Strauss' personal vendetta and claims that scientific community is against Strauss. Shortly afterward, the Senate rejects Strauss' nomination. While Oppenheimer receives the Enrico Fermi Award in 1963, a flashback reveals he never mentioned Strauss during his 1947 conversation with Einstein. Instead, he admits to Einstein that the global catastrophe they feared, and then believed was averted, was now ironically inevitable.