The Real Story Behind Oppenheimer and Einstein’s Friendship (2024)

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Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed historical biopic Oppenheimer dominated last year's award season, culminating in a win for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. While Cillian Murphy’s performance, as the titular theoretical physicist has earned overwhelming praise, including winning Best Actor at the Oscars, there’s been just as much goodwill generated for Oppenheimer’s entire acting ensemble. Although the film’s impressive cast of characters includes impressive appearances from Robert Downey Jr. (also an Oscar winner for his performance) as Lewis Strauss and Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence, it's Bill Conti’s emotional role as Albert Einstein that provides the emotional crux of Oppenheimer. Although he’s an integral part of the story that Nolan wanted to tell, the relationship between Einstein and Oppenheimer wasn’t quite as friendly as it's depicted in the film.

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Oppenheimer

R

Biography

Drama

History

910

The story of American scientist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.

Release Date

July 21, 2023

Director

Christopher Nolan

Cast

Cillian Murphy , Matt Damon , Robert Downey Jr. , Emily Blunt , Alden Ehrenreich , Scott Grimes , Jason Clarke , Tony Goldwyn

See Also

Oppenheimer: The Real WW2 History Behind the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on JapanOppenheimer (2023) | Rotten TomatoesAtomic Bomb: Nuclear Bomb, Hiroshima & Nagasaki - HISTORYThe Truth About Why Lewis Strauss Wanted to Destroy Oppenheimer

Runtime

180 minutes

Who Was Albert Einstein?

Born in Württemberg, Germany, in 1879, Albert Einstein became one of the most well-renowned theoretical physicists in the world. After growing up in Munich, Einstein continued his education in Switzerland, where he developed many of the mathematical and scientific skills that were foundational to his career. Earmarked for success at a young age, Einstein’s skills took him to several leading universities in the European educational network. After successfully securing Swiss citizenship in 1901, one year after graduating from the Swiss federal polytechnic school in Zürich, Einstein worked at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. He would later move to Berlin in 1914 and become a German citizen, despite the growing chaos of World War I.

Einstein’s most notable achievement came in 1905, when he developed a mass-energy equivalence theory that proved to be essential in the development of modern theoretical physics. While he was not the only groundbreaking scientist of his era, Einstein became an icon of science whose success led many others to join the field, including Robert J. Oppenheimer. In addition to his academic and theoretical studies, Einstein was a proponent of the “philosophy of science.” The philosophy highlights the importance of using reliable scientific methods to generate factual results, and spoke to the importance of using science as a tool to advance human life. While much of Einstein’s ideas were theoretical, he was forced into a potentially morally compromising situation when his work became a subject of attention by leading military groups during the dawn of World War II.

Einstein was visiting the United States in 1933 when the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany on a platform of scapegoating Jewish people for perceived crimes against the nation; Hitler’s charisma exacerbated anti-Semetic philosophies that had been emerging in Germany since the end of World War I. Einstein personally had built his career on a philosophy of non-violence, and he endorsed a letter to United States President Franklin Roosevelt warning him about the potential of nuclear weapons, as German scientists had proven that significant energy could be released by splitting the core of uranium atoms. The complex relationship with the science he helped spawn is the critical focus of Einstein’s appearance in Oppenheimer.

Were Einstein and Oppenheimer Actually Friends?

While the film takes an occasionally dramatized approach to history, Oppenheimer accurately depicts Einstein’s fraught relationship with the United States military. Due to his pacifist beliefs, Einstein was denied the required security clearance necessary to work on the “Manhattan Project,” as there was concern that German spies could infiltrate the closed community of scientists. While Oppenheimer and Einstein were familiar with each other due to the similarities in their fields of study, the two men had little interaction with each other until they both served at the Institute for Advanced Study starting in 1947. Einstein was considered to be one of the “old guards” of science, and he was not as active in applied sciences as Oppenheimer.

Despite only having casual acquaintances with each other, Einstein came to Oppenheimer’s defense when he was put under investigation by the United States government in 1954. Due to his relationship with the activist Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh in the film) and his involvement with campus political groups, Oppenheimer was accused of being a communist sympathizer and forced to defend his activities. Einstein supported Oppenheimer throughout the hearings, stating that he had “no obligation to subject himself to the witch hunt” that the government was spearheading. He encouraged Oppenheimer to turn his back on the United States altogether, as he had done.

Einstein frequently professed his fears about the rise of nuclear weapons, declaring that he did not consider himself to be the “father” of the atom bomb. While they occasionally had conflicting viewpoints, Einstein became friends with Oppenheimer during the last decade of his life. According to American Prometheus, the novel that served as the inspiration for Nolan’s film, Oppenheimer referred to Einstein “as a living patron saint of physics.” Oppenheimer also refuted claims that Einstein was in any way responsible for the detonation of the atomic weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two men remained close friends until Einstein’s death in 1955.

‘Oppenheimer’ Isn’t the Only Einstein Story

While his role is relatively brief in comparison to the film’s other supporting characters, Oppenheimer isn’t the only pop culture representation of Einstein. Fictionalized versions of Einstein have appeared in such shows as The Simpsons, Rick and Morty, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Geoffrey Rush received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance as Einstein in the series Genius, a biographical series for National Geographic that is currently depicting Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King.

While there has yet to be a definitive cinematic biopic about his life, Einstein’s work continues to be a subject of fascination from a cultural, scientific, and historical perspective. The Netflix docudrama Einstein and the Bomb is the latest non-fiction project that has tackled the complex relationship between Einstein and the dawn of the nuclear era. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming success of Oppenheimer has initiated greater interest in this era and the leading scientists that defined it.

Einstein Is Integral to the Story of ‘Oppenheimer'

While Downey Jr. ended up winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the film, Conti’s performance as Einstein is one of the most powerful in Oppenheimer. The film is keen to note the legacy that Einstein is insistent that he must protect, as he fears that his research could fall into the wrong hands. This results in some very intimate moments between Oppenheimer and Einstein, in which the two discuss their differences in philosophies. Oppenheimer is genuinely depicted by Murphy to be a brash, even abrasive figure who generally avoids conforming to authority. Einstein is one of the few mentors whom he is willing to listen and show respect to. Oppenheimer recognizes that it was Einstein’s discoveries that laid the groundwork for his work on the atom bomb.

Einstein’s appearance in Oppenheimer is critical within one of the film’s biggest twists, and allows Nolan to end the film on a quiet and contemplative note. While it is initially suggested that Strauss has an affinity for Oppenheimer, it’s revealed later on through a conversation with a senate aide (Alden Ehrenreich) that their relationship was far more contentious. Strauss was infuriated by Oppenheimer’s political leanings and orchestrated a series of interrogations to undermine his authority. Much of this resentment spurred from a moment when Strauss felt that Einstein “snubbed” him, which he assumes was the result of disparaging comments made by Oppenheimer. However, it is later revealed that Einstein simply did not have anything to do with Strauss; the man’s ego had grown too large for his own good.

Einstein’s appearance helps Oppenheimer reach its emotional ending, which certainly stands out from the more bombastic finales that Nolan delivered in such films as Tenet and Interstellar. After his conversation with Einstein, Oppenheimer is left to consider the dangerous precedent that he set, and has a nightmare about the chain reaction that setting off a nuclear weapon will have on the history of human civilization. Nolan certainly inserted some subtle political commentary in both Dunkirk and The Dark Knight trilogy, but Oppenheimer is most certain his most overtly political text to date. Considering the film’s record-breaking box office performance and Academy Award victories, it is safe to say that Nolan’s message reached a great number of people.

Tom Conti Is Brilliant in ‘Oppenheimer'

Oppenheimer has a cast stacked with many well-known actors. It is impressive that such major stars as Rami Malek, Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Alex Wolff, Matthew Modine, Josh Peck, James Remar, and Macon Blair among others appeared in roles that were not very substantial. Despite his limited screen time, Conti is essential within the emotional core of Oppenheimer. It’s a quiet, subtle performance that plays upon the unbearable weight of responsibility that Einstein bears on his shoulders. Nolan only needed a few key scenes to show how seriously Einstein took his obligations to the scientific community.

Conti faced a unique challenge compared to the other actors in Oppenheimer, as he was responsible for playing a character that the audience may have been more familiar with. While figures like Strauss and Lawrence aren’t as well known among non-history buffs, Einstein is an important person in both history and popular culture. It could have been very easy for Conti’s performance to become a caricature, or take attention away from Murphy by becoming a distraction. Thankfully, Conti carried himself with poise and grace, ensuring that Einstein dominated as much attention as the story required. While the film does not deny the work that he did, it’s ultimately Oppenheimer’s story, and not his.

Oppenheimer is now available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

Watch on Prime