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+span.mw-empty-elt+.hatnote,.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}The film follows a nonlinear narrative. The following is a linear summary of the plot. In the 1920s, theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer returns to the US after traveling extensively in Europe. He starts teaching at Berkeley, where he befriends fellow professor Haakon Chevalier and psychology student Jean Tatlock, both communists. They begin an affair that ends when Robert meets Kitty Puening at a social event. Despite being married, Kitty gets pregnant by Robert, and they marry after her divorce. In 1939, German physicists succeed in splitting the atom. Berkeley Radiation Laboratory physicist Ernest Lawrence concurs with Robert that this could be weaponized into an atomic bomb. At Berkeley, Lawrence warns Robert to sever communist associations so he can participate in the World War II effort. Robert is visited by Colonel Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project, who tasks Robert with leading atomic bomb development for the US, and orders a new laboratory to be built at Los Alamos, New Mexico, on Robert's suggestion. Scientists arrive to work secretly on the project, supported by satellite activities at Chicago, Hanford, and Tennessee. Early on, an associate of Robert, Edward Condon, quits over the military's strict protocol of compartmentalization. Robert receives his security clearance and re-establishes contact with Jean. After spending the night at a hotel, Robert says they will not meet again. Jean is later found dead in her bathtub. At Los Alamos, Edward Teller proposes a bomb based on nuclear fusion, predicting it would be more destructive than the fission bombs being developed. A bomb test is scheduled for July 1945. Following a successful test, US President Truman orders two bombs to be dropped on Japan. The war ends, and Robert is dubbed the "Father of the Atomic Bomb" by Time magazine. Despite being a war hero, Robert advises Truman to cease nuclear weapons development and shut down the Los Alamos lab. Robert's sudden anti-bomb stance alienates him from Washington politicians, who question his loyalty to the US. This culminates in the revocation of his Q-clearance in 1954, after a protracted hearing that targeted his past associations. Robert keeps his job at Princeton, but is no longer an advisor on nuclear policy. Five years later, former AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss is nominated for Commerce Secretary. His Senate confirmation hearing revolves around his role in Robert's downfall. It comes to light that Strauss orchestrated a personal vendetta against Robert after a public conflict over the export of radioactive isotopes. He also felt slighted by Robert's opposition to the hydrogen bomb and by an informal chat with Einstein at Princeton, during which he was ignored, believing Robert turned Einstein and other scientists against him. Strauss loses the Senate vote, ending his political career. In 1963, Robert is presented by President Johnson with the Enrico Fermi Award and is welcomed by his former colleagues, signaling a reconciliation with the government and the people from his past, though he never recovers his Q-clearance. A flashback reveals that Einstein predicted this career trajectory for Robert during their chat at Princeton. In turn, Robert foresaw nuclear proliferation causing a world-ending event, a thought that disturbed Einstein enough for him to ignore an approaching Strauss. ^ Groves 1962, pp. 378.