Manhattan (2014) s01e04 Episode Script
Last Reasoning of Kings
Previously on Manhattan What's the point in keeping my group alive if you're just gonna starve us to death? Ten micrograms, that's all I'm asking.
It's nothing.
That belongs to Robert Oppenheimer.
We're building Akley's bomb.
If Frank could prove that implosion was more than a fairy tale, even at the most rudimentary level, I'll give him all the plutonium he wants.
Fine, I'll prove it.
The plutonium will remain with Dr.
Akley's group.
You probably spent your whole life surrounded by people who weren't smart enough to recognize how smart you are.
But I do.
You are a once-in-a-generation mind.
No, you can't go to school in New York.
So I'm just supposed to stay here in this prison camp? Why are we even here? No! No! Whatever it is, Frank, you can tell me.
Watch rotation is at 2200 hours.
We can expect shelling again tonight, unless it's some kind of kraut holiday.
Where's Fathead? Here, sir.
Remind me, Fathead, how many years of college you got under your belt? Two.
Needn't brag, son.
Those bona fides have qualified you for your very first intelligence mission.
Tonight, you'll crawl out of this hole into no-man's-land and check dead krauts for documents.
You're going, soldier.
Yes, sir.
Hey, you see any gold teeth, pull them for me.
And keep your head down, Fathead.
Hey, what's your real name, anyway, in case you don't make it back? Do you get chills at night? - No.
-Any headaches? Only bureaucratic.
Headaches aren't the problem.
Sleeping is.
Insomnia isn't a diagnosis.
It's a symptom.
Do you often feel distant from the world even when you're among friends? No.
Do you ever feel hopeless about the present or future? Is this a psychiatric evaluation? New rule.
I'm required to give it to all patients who are seeking psychoactive medication.
Military patients.
I'm a civilian.
But you were military, right? Infantry, World War I.
Volunteered just after your 18th birthday.
- Did you see any action? - I saw - The inside of half the bars in France.
- Hmm.
I was ambulance service around the same time.
- Maybe we drank in some of the same bars.
- Is this your screening or mine? Certain parties on the Hill have raised questions, Dr.
Winter, regarding your erratic behavior.
Certain parties? There will be no more pills without a full evaluation.
You may not be in uniform anymore, but we both work for the US Army.
What about Moros, the Greek god of doom? Or Thanatos, his brother? The bringer of peaceful death.
Or we could call it Dumbo after the flying elephant.
Well, it's not a "he," it's a "she.
" - Bombs are female like airplanes or boats.
- Hmm.
All things that go down.
Oh, where are the primers? Uh, I had to submit the requisition form three times.
But lucky for you guys, the clerk at the ordnance office is a fellow thespian in the repertory company.
You played the Tin Man, not Richard III.
Well, we get one set of primers to Akley's six.
So, uh, don't spend them all in one place.
Frank, you're bleeding.
Goddamn it.
We've got to get this thing done.
I don't care if I'm on probation or not.
Take those pliers.
Secure that.
I mean, he hardly eats.
Talks more to himself than anyone else.
My grandmother would say he bears the stench of madness.
Thank you.
And what would her grandson say? - May I speak freely? - Hmm.
I don't know who Frank Winter is at war with, the Axis or himself.
Or you.
And you've come to tell me this why exactly? I'm better suited for work on Thin Man.
I got the highest first of my year at Oxford.
I'm meticulous.
I'm extremely diligent.
And loyal? Rats flee a sinking ship.
Respectfully, passengers also flee.
As well as valuable crew.
To a worthy captain, I'm loyal to the end.
I knew Frank Winter since before the world knew what a neutron was.
No one doubts his dedication to this project.
However, between the two of us, questions have been raised about his ability to lead a group.
Maybe you and I can help each other.
I ran a study in college.
Sleep deprivation in brown rats.
Two weeks in, they looked better than you.
Three weeks in, they were dead.
I'm fine.
Yeah, that's why you're walking around with the wounds of Christ.
Go home.
- Get six good hours.
- Well, we need to get out to the range.
We finally got those primers.
When the test works, we'll get some plutonium.
You're in the penalty box.
You can't take a leak without Army supervision.
We'll test it next week as scheduled.
His time is limited.
No questions.
No digressions.
No jokes.
It's such an honor to finally meet you, sir.
I'm pulling you from Thin Man.
I don't know what you've heard, but, um, Dr.
Akley's been very satisfied with my work.
Reed Akley suggested it.
You'll be attending to our new arrival until further notice.
Sir? We don't want him straying.
You'll keep him on the straight and narrow and show him only our finest work, understand? Dr.
Oppenheimer "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
" Is that Knute Rockne? Proverbs.
Akley believes you are iron enough to keep our colleague on point.
I hope he's right.
These are your instructions.
You'll follow them to the letter as you escort him around the Hill.
I'm sorry, who is "him?" Niels Bohr! We got Niels Bohr! Yeah, old news.
Allies smuggled him out of Denmark weeks ago.
No, here, now.
There's a welcoming committee right outside.
- The Niels Bohr? - He must be here to work on Thin Man.
Bohr unlocked the fundamental secrets of all matter in the universe.
He's a god.
God doesn't work for Reed Akley.
He's a friend of yours, right? You said you worked with him on your semester at Copenhagen.
Yeah.
We developed a mutual respect.
Paul.
Pack the camera.
We're driving out to the site.
- Test is next week.
-Well, we're scouting the terrain this week.
It's a square mile of dust in the middle of a desert wasteland.
- What is there to scout? - Frank.
Did you hear Niels Bohr is on the Hill? Well, unless he brought articles of surrender signed by Hitler and Hirohito, it's still a workday.
Look at Oppenheimer.
It's his third cigarette in 10 minutes.
They should give him a blindfold to go with it.
God doesn't work for Robert Oppenheimer either.
Do you think he's here to replace Oppenheimer? I was told he'd arrived.
Well, his car came through the main gate The man reinvented physics and nearly died in a rowboat escaping the Gestapo.
Shall we allow him the benefit of a toilet stop? Bohr will probably reorganize the tech area, soup to nuts.
Are we the soup or the nuts? That's the problem around here.
They don't tell you what you are.
They barely tell you what you're working on.
They didn't even tell us that Bohr was coming.
Here we go.
He insisted on walking.
So I pass out somewhere over occupied Norway and awoke in Great Britain with the worst hangover of my life.
Mmm-mmm.
It's bad luck to allow another man to light your pipe.
Oh, sorry.
Charlie Isaacs, sir.
- You're a hard man to find.
- Isaacs, yeah.
You are the valet Bobby spoke of.
No, I'll be showing you around campus.
Fellas, excuse us.
So, um I worked with Everett at Harvard.
For my thesis on cosmology, I actually used your calculations of atomic nuclei A kestrel.
With a hood on.
Wonderful.
Sir, um Colonel Cox's office.
Wait, which gate? All personnel must stop at the main gate checkpoint for identification passes whenever leaving from or arriving to Los Alamos.
Pull over, private.
Frank Winter.
It's been an age.
Good that you came, Niels.
Better that you made it out of Europe.
I was just citing your axial chemistry study.
So this is the famous Skinny Man? No, this is, uh This is another model.
You'll know Thin Man when you see it.
Believe me, a parade float, marching band, Akley and Oppie high in the saddle.
Strapped on the backs of their biographers, no doubt.
After all you've been through, Niels Jesus.
Seems like you got here in one piece at least.
Dr.
Bohr, you and I have important business at the Thin Man office.
Yeah, just a moment, Christopher.
Good to see you, Frank.
Good to see you, Niels.
Welcome to Manhattan.
Christ, it's been 15 minutes.
Where the hell is the Colonel? PFC Dunlavey.
I was told there was an emergency.
I get a Private First Class instead of a full bird for a breach at the gate? The Colonel's indisposed.
I'm the advance guard.
Shit.
Dunlavey.
You're the guy.
Annie Oakley.
I heard you shot your way into a plum assignment.
This way.
She tried to escape in a truck full of Indians.
Must have slipped them some wampum.
She? Are you sure you brought enough guys? Right-o, camera housing looks to fit.
Should be in shipshape next week.
Lock it down.
Really? You want to test the bolts? I see nuts, I see threads.
I predict a happy union.
Lock it down.
Oh, Christ.
You didn't.
Frank.
Frank.
Frank, we cannot detonate without an ordnance expert.
We don't even have a fire extinguisher.
Just worry about the camera.
Are those detonators? We do not have clearance to transport or discharge explosives.
You need the division chief's direct approval.
I'll take full responsibility.
You can't take responsibility.
It doesn't work that way.
Your Jeep is in the blast zone.
I'd back it up a bit.
I will have to write you up.
I will have to write him up.
Day's a bit young.
I'd save your ink.
Do try not to blow us all to kingdom come.
Did you really think you were gonna sneak past the gate? You don't exactly look like the day laborers.
Well, my family was killed in an Apache raid.
The San Ildefonso found me and raised me as their own.
Yeah, what'd they call you, Heaping Bull? You probably love it here.
Let me guess.
Small-town boy.
Army was your ticket to see the world.
Something like that, yeah.
Your small town have a barbed wire fence around it? We didn't even have a traffic light.
You come from good people.
You'll get a chance to see the world.
All you got to do is wait.
It's Private Dunlavey, right? Don't pretend you know anything about me just because you put a bullet through my dad's mathematician.
All right, the camera.
You didn't turn it on? It doesn't go on until we're hot.
And now we're hot.
Without the film, the test is pointless.
I know.
I know.
Oh, Jesus, if you don't want to scuff up your wing tips, I'm happy to do your job for you.
Bloody hell.
All right.
Three, two, one.
What happened? I don't know.
I must have missed something.
- What? Where are you going? - I'm gonna go turn off the camera.
You wait 30 minutes before approaching a failed detonation.
Not five seconds! Frank! Frank, are you all right? Frank, can you hear me? Frank! How's the camera? - Abby.
- Fay.
Dot.
Gladys.
We were in the neighborhood, so we thought we'd say hello.
- Hope we're not interrupting something.
- No, of course not.
Oh.
Hello.
No, no, no.
First you shape the nails, then you soak or they get too soft.
Shape, then soak.
Understand? Ten-thousand years in this country and they still don't speak the language.
We were just saying how we never see you, Abby.
I really shouldn't.
The men work 80 hours a week.
We work 30 and drink the other 50.
Math 101.
On the subject of math, they're pulling out all the stops for Dr.
Bohr's welcoming dinner.
You should see the menu.
Antelope tartare.
Of course, our husbands will be too busy performing fellatio on their new boss to eat anything.
I don't think we're invited.
Please, with Charlie as Dr.
Bohr's new right-hand man, you've got to be one of the guests of honor.
The rumor is true, isn't it? I heard they're practically inseparable.
Well, Dr.
Bohr doesn't go anywhere on the Hill without Charlie.
Cheers.
Ready to meet the Gadget? Would you ask these engineers to leave? Sir, they've prepared a detailed presentation on Thin Man.
After my dance with the Nazis, I don't relish the exuberance of crowds.
Not getting fuel to the carburetor.
There's probably sand in the filter.
So we're stuck here until they send help? I won't be missed until bed check.
There's no one waiting for me.
How long till Mrs.
Winter raises a fuss? I don't know, two, three days.
We're about 30 miles from home.
If we start now, we'll make it back before dawn.
You want to walk back? If we sit here, the camera will overheat, ruin the film.
Orders are to remain with a non-operating vehicle until otherwise instructed.
With no more primers, it'll be weeks before we can run another test.
I'm not losing the film.
So you get the camera.
We'll hit cooler temperatures as we climb the hill.
No.
No one's going anywhere.
You get the camera.
Now.
I'm transferring to Thin Man.
I'm joining Akley's group.
You know, when we get home, you can transfer to the Axis for all I care.
But I brought you onto this project, and for the next 30 miles, I can kick your ass off of it.
So you pick up that damn camera.
No.
No one is leaving this test site.
I'm in charge.
Oh, Jesus.
I don't feel like getting shot in the back.
So if you're planning on using that, go ahead.
Don't look at me to talk you out of it.
"The last reasoning of kings.
" I'm sorry? Louis XIV.
He had that stamped on his cannon.
It is a cannon.
Firing in on itself.
Won't spontaneous neutrons predetonate your fuel? Not so long as you fire the slugs at 3,170 feet per second.
Who deduced that? Charlie did, actually.
Charlie Isaacs, report to the switchboard.
Emergency call for Charlie Isaacs.
Go, I'll take over.
Abby, hi.
I thought you went home.
Charlie Isaacs, report to me.
Abby, I have to get back.
Now isn't Where is everyone? They're all at lunch.
We have five minutes.
Ch.
Dr.
Bohr is waiting.
What has gotten into you? They were hanging on every word.
The ladies' auxiliary.
Tell me about Bohr.
The details.
Where he's living, what he's gonna be working on.
You know I can't talk about work.
Just give me some meat to throw to the wolves.
He's got a theory on electron motion.
- Electron motion.
- Involving Planck's constant.
Planck's constant.
And the Thomas rotation.
Oh, God.
The Thomas rotation.
How about you lug this for a while? Not my job.
Beneath your station, is it? A private in a motor pool.
Yeah, in a week, I'll be shipping off to the Pacific.
That means I'm done chaperoning the pencil necks I beat up in grade school.
Oh, brilliant.
You'll be graduating from taxi driver to cannon fodder.
Yeah, well, at least I'll be making a difference in this fight.
You think a single soldier makes a whit of difference in a world war? More than a guy like you.
Who do you think invented that gun you've been relieved of? Huh? Or dynamite, radar, submarine, tanks? If it weren't for guys like me, chaps like you would still be poking each other to death with sharpened sticks.
Both of you shut up.
He always been such a barrel of monkeys? Barrel of what? Really? Seems to be a common complaint in your household.
It's a common complaint at high elevations.
Thin air lowers oxygen levels in the blood, causing cerebral hypoxia.
The body typically adapts within a week.
Guess I'm a slow learner.
So the fact that your husband tried to fill a prescription for a sleep aid just yesterday, that's a coincidence? You tell me, doctor.
Is insomnia contagious? Before I write you a script, you're going to have to answer some questions from the Army's mental fitness survey.
Do you ever feel distant from the world even when you're among friends? My nearest friend is 1,200 miles away.
I'd call that distant.
Do you ever feel hopeless about the present or the future? There are 74 sovereign states in the world.
Sixty one of them are at war.
How do you feel? And what about your present and future? I feel hopeful that I will return to real life when all this is over.
This isn't real life? I walked away from a tenure-track lectureship in the Ivy League.
My husband's research is of vital interest to the government, mine is expendable.
The Army won't let me work here.
They haven't told me why.
My marriage is in limbo.
My daughter is trying to get herself killed.
She may just succeed.
I wake up in the morning and I barely recognize the woman I see looking back at me in the mirror.
I'm sorry.
What was the question? Make sure he doesn't take them with alcohol.
The metallurgy and chemistry teams want to show you some tampers.
Frank Winter's office is in this direction, correct? Implosion isn't really part of the tour.
It's more of a backup plan.
Dr.
Bohr, we really It's just a backup plan.
Maybe we'll all be folded into one group working under Dr.
Bohr.
Holy moly.
God's on his way to our office.
Where's Frank? Well, someone's got to walk him through our work.
Uh, how do I look? Glasses or no glasses? I'm the only one with a Ph.
D.
It should be me.
I outrank you.
No, it should be Fritz.
He knows him.
Dr.
Nohr.
Noctor Door.
Niels.
I just wanted to say I still think about that time we spent together.
So many universes, aren't there? Dr.
Bohr would like me to walk him through the implosion design.
- You? - Sir.
Jesus.
The geometry, it's like a star swallowing itself.
It's impressive.
But do you think it is big enough? Big enough? Hate to cut the tour short, Niels, but would you join me in my office? Of course, Bobby.
Did you not understand your instructions? He insisted on seeing the implosion group's work, sir.
- I tried to stop - Your services are no longer needed.
General George Patton whooped the ass of 200,000 Italian soldiers.
Now, you really think a scientist could have pulled that off? He got to Europe in an airplane based on principles designed by Daniel Bernoulli in 1738.
If it weren't for scientists, Patton couldn't even have paddled to Italy in a canoe because he wouldn't have understood the laws of buoyancy.
So you think you need a Ph.
D.
to float? How much water have you got left? Half a canteen.
Don't put your limey lips all over the nozzle.
- Hold the camera.
- No sale, brother.
You're just trying to trick me into carrying your load for you.
Just hold it a minute.
You bloody idiot! - That is not my fault.
- Hey, don't look at me.
Damn it, you exposed the film.
You had one simple job.
I am an Oxford-educated physicist.
I'm not a bellboy.
The camera broke because you insisted on performing an illegal test when we could have easily waited a week.
I'm not walking anymore.
When they come and rescue us, I'll see to it that they know the truth.
You're not fit for leadership.
You're fit for a straightjacket and a padded cell.
No one's coming to save us.
It'll be dark soon.
If we get separated, just stick to the road.
You can at least leave me my gun.
If I give it back to you, you'll be thrown in the brig for violating orders.
If I keep it, you can just say I forced you at gunpoint.
There's Cary Grant.
You need to get dressed.
We're not going to the Bohr dinner.
Stick to physics.
You have no future in comedy.
Yeah, well, we might not have one on this hill, either.
What happened? Dr.
Oppenheimer He thinks I overstepped him.
Christ, Akley must be distancing himself as we speak.
I'll probably end up in Frank Winter's group with those other rejects.
You know, my father wanted me to marry someone from East Egg, not East St.
Louis.
And I told him, "I don't care.
Charlie's a genius.
" The truth is, I don't think you are a genius.
I didn't know what you were until we got here And I saw the way people everyone else calls geniuses look at you.
Forget Oppenheimer.
Forget Akley.
They're yesterday.
And we are going to that party and we're gonna fix everything with the man who'll be running this place tomorrow.
Mmm? We're going.
Okay.
War's brought all other research to a grinding halt.
I mean, the progress on stellar spectroscopy alone is Well, the good news is the stars don't seem to be going anywhere.
Something lost, something gained.
Just look at the wonderful discoveries you've been making in plutonium You must belong to the late Frank Winter.
Well, I suppose he is not on time.
Uh, Niels, tell us about the mood in London.
I'm going to investigate the mood at the bar.
Excuse me.
And I will accompany you.
So, tell me, what have you been working on? Oh, I don't Work.
Then you are the second wife.
First and only, I'm afraid.
But Frank is married to a brilliant scientist.
Who told you that? I saw your husband after the Swedes gave me my medal and I told him that he would have one of his own before long.
And he said, "The only way I will be invited to the Nobel ceremony "is as my wife's dinner companion.
" Who says I'd bring him? Do I remember correctly, you are a biologist? Botanist.
Fertilization and pollination of monocots.
The sex lives of flowers.
Here, I'm just a physicist's wife.
Where I've come from, too many great minds have been forced to abandon their work.
What a pity it would be to lose another.
Dr.
Bohr, a moment? Flowers bloom everywhere, Dr.
Winter.
Even in the desert.
I'm not walking 'cause you told me to.
I'm walking so we don't freeze to death.
Can you help me get this off? No! Careful.
Is that shrapnel? Oh, dear God.
I've got a first aid kit.
Why are you here, Paul? I'm lost in the desert tending to the wounds of a madman? War's raging in your own backyard.
You plant yourself 5,000 miles away.
Why are you here? Same reason as you.
I'm a physicist.
There hasn't been a greater collection of scientific minds since classical Athens.
No, no, no.
Why are you here? - Stop saying that.
- 'Cause you have a gift.
You want to put it to actual use.
You can tell Akley whatever you want about me.
He's the crazy one, you know? That man keeps banker's hours.
Home every night in time for his pre-dinner brandy followed by a quiet meal with his wife.
A cigar by the fire.
A long winter's nap.
Sounds civilized to me.
Punching a clock during wartime, that's not crazy to you? Whoa, whoa! What are you doing? What you're feeling now, that urge to run or dig yourself a safe hole in the ground, that's every second on the front lines.
There's no comfort in battle.
There's no brandy.
There's no lunch breaks.
There's no trips to the picture show.
In this war, scientists are soldiers.
There's no secret brain trust in Washington.
No classified peace plan.
No one is coming to save us.
Do you understand? Not Niels Bohr.
And not Reed Akley.
A toast to my friend and teacher.
So many lights have been extinguished in Europe's dark night.
It is our great fortune that his still burns brightly and that he's deigned to share it with us on this desert promontory.
Hear, hear.
Hear, hear.
As you prepare to leave us, Niels, know that your presence here, fleeting though it was, lifted our spirits and strengthened our will.
- Bohr's not staying? -He can't leave.
Oh.
Dr.
Bohr.
Dr.
Bohr.
I don't understand.
You just got here.
You have all shown me such great hospitality, but I've had too much wine and I fear I'm not much for dinner theater.
You're not joining the project? So what is this, just a USO tour? When soldiers lose morale, they get pinup girls.
You get a tired old man with a pipe.
But we need you.
Sir, we're trying to end the war.
Earlier today, I asked you, "Is it big enough?" Is it big enough? Twenty kilotons, burn radius two miles wide.
If you spotted a flaw in the math There was a chemist once in Germany.
He made artificial fertilizer.
And when the last war came, he thought perhaps I could fashion my work into a weapon.
Don't shoot.
It's Winter.
Fathead.
Some thought it to be so intolerable, it would discourage any future wars.
But his legacy is a fog of chlorine gas that crept over Europe and Africa and Asia.
When I asked, "Is it big enough?" I meant is it big enough that no sane person would ever dare to use it? I don't know.
Good men invent bigger and more efficient methods for humankind to exterminate itself, hoping the world will lose its hunger for horror.
But our species seems to have an insatiable appetite.
I've lost mine.
Enlisted or drafted? Huh.
Enlisted.
This your first rotation? Yes, sir.
Go ahead.
Keep your head down.
If we take my car, we'll be back at the range by 10:00.
I know we blew our only set of primers.
Pinched them from Akley's lab.
I handle the camera.
It is okay.
Lie still.
They've just signed the armistice.
The war is over.
There will never be another.
It's nothing.
That belongs to Robert Oppenheimer.
We're building Akley's bomb.
If Frank could prove that implosion was more than a fairy tale, even at the most rudimentary level, I'll give him all the plutonium he wants.
Fine, I'll prove it.
The plutonium will remain with Dr.
Akley's group.
You probably spent your whole life surrounded by people who weren't smart enough to recognize how smart you are.
But I do.
You are a once-in-a-generation mind.
No, you can't go to school in New York.
So I'm just supposed to stay here in this prison camp? Why are we even here? No! No! Whatever it is, Frank, you can tell me.
Watch rotation is at 2200 hours.
We can expect shelling again tonight, unless it's some kind of kraut holiday.
Where's Fathead? Here, sir.
Remind me, Fathead, how many years of college you got under your belt? Two.
Needn't brag, son.
Those bona fides have qualified you for your very first intelligence mission.
Tonight, you'll crawl out of this hole into no-man's-land and check dead krauts for documents.
You're going, soldier.
Yes, sir.
Hey, you see any gold teeth, pull them for me.
And keep your head down, Fathead.
Hey, what's your real name, anyway, in case you don't make it back? Do you get chills at night? - No.
-Any headaches? Only bureaucratic.
Headaches aren't the problem.
Sleeping is.
Insomnia isn't a diagnosis.
It's a symptom.
Do you often feel distant from the world even when you're among friends? No.
Do you ever feel hopeless about the present or future? Is this a psychiatric evaluation? New rule.
I'm required to give it to all patients who are seeking psychoactive medication.
Military patients.
I'm a civilian.
But you were military, right? Infantry, World War I.
Volunteered just after your 18th birthday.
- Did you see any action? - I saw - The inside of half the bars in France.
- Hmm.
I was ambulance service around the same time.
- Maybe we drank in some of the same bars.
- Is this your screening or mine? Certain parties on the Hill have raised questions, Dr.
Winter, regarding your erratic behavior.
Certain parties? There will be no more pills without a full evaluation.
You may not be in uniform anymore, but we both work for the US Army.
What about Moros, the Greek god of doom? Or Thanatos, his brother? The bringer of peaceful death.
Or we could call it Dumbo after the flying elephant.
Well, it's not a "he," it's a "she.
" - Bombs are female like airplanes or boats.
- Hmm.
All things that go down.
Oh, where are the primers? Uh, I had to submit the requisition form three times.
But lucky for you guys, the clerk at the ordnance office is a fellow thespian in the repertory company.
You played the Tin Man, not Richard III.
Well, we get one set of primers to Akley's six.
So, uh, don't spend them all in one place.
Frank, you're bleeding.
Goddamn it.
We've got to get this thing done.
I don't care if I'm on probation or not.
Take those pliers.
Secure that.
I mean, he hardly eats.
Talks more to himself than anyone else.
My grandmother would say he bears the stench of madness.
Thank you.
And what would her grandson say? - May I speak freely? - Hmm.
I don't know who Frank Winter is at war with, the Axis or himself.
Or you.
And you've come to tell me this why exactly? I'm better suited for work on Thin Man.
I got the highest first of my year at Oxford.
I'm meticulous.
I'm extremely diligent.
And loyal? Rats flee a sinking ship.
Respectfully, passengers also flee.
As well as valuable crew.
To a worthy captain, I'm loyal to the end.
I knew Frank Winter since before the world knew what a neutron was.
No one doubts his dedication to this project.
However, between the two of us, questions have been raised about his ability to lead a group.
Maybe you and I can help each other.
I ran a study in college.
Sleep deprivation in brown rats.
Two weeks in, they looked better than you.
Three weeks in, they were dead.
I'm fine.
Yeah, that's why you're walking around with the wounds of Christ.
Go home.
- Get six good hours.
- Well, we need to get out to the range.
We finally got those primers.
When the test works, we'll get some plutonium.
You're in the penalty box.
You can't take a leak without Army supervision.
We'll test it next week as scheduled.
His time is limited.
No questions.
No digressions.
No jokes.
It's such an honor to finally meet you, sir.
I'm pulling you from Thin Man.
I don't know what you've heard, but, um, Dr.
Akley's been very satisfied with my work.
Reed Akley suggested it.
You'll be attending to our new arrival until further notice.
Sir? We don't want him straying.
You'll keep him on the straight and narrow and show him only our finest work, understand? Dr.
Oppenheimer "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
" Is that Knute Rockne? Proverbs.
Akley believes you are iron enough to keep our colleague on point.
I hope he's right.
These are your instructions.
You'll follow them to the letter as you escort him around the Hill.
I'm sorry, who is "him?" Niels Bohr! We got Niels Bohr! Yeah, old news.
Allies smuggled him out of Denmark weeks ago.
No, here, now.
There's a welcoming committee right outside.
- The Niels Bohr? - He must be here to work on Thin Man.
Bohr unlocked the fundamental secrets of all matter in the universe.
He's a god.
God doesn't work for Reed Akley.
He's a friend of yours, right? You said you worked with him on your semester at Copenhagen.
Yeah.
We developed a mutual respect.
Paul.
Pack the camera.
We're driving out to the site.
- Test is next week.
-Well, we're scouting the terrain this week.
It's a square mile of dust in the middle of a desert wasteland.
- What is there to scout? - Frank.
Did you hear Niels Bohr is on the Hill? Well, unless he brought articles of surrender signed by Hitler and Hirohito, it's still a workday.
Look at Oppenheimer.
It's his third cigarette in 10 minutes.
They should give him a blindfold to go with it.
God doesn't work for Robert Oppenheimer either.
Do you think he's here to replace Oppenheimer? I was told he'd arrived.
Well, his car came through the main gate The man reinvented physics and nearly died in a rowboat escaping the Gestapo.
Shall we allow him the benefit of a toilet stop? Bohr will probably reorganize the tech area, soup to nuts.
Are we the soup or the nuts? That's the problem around here.
They don't tell you what you are.
They barely tell you what you're working on.
They didn't even tell us that Bohr was coming.
Here we go.
He insisted on walking.
So I pass out somewhere over occupied Norway and awoke in Great Britain with the worst hangover of my life.
Mmm-mmm.
It's bad luck to allow another man to light your pipe.
Oh, sorry.
Charlie Isaacs, sir.
- You're a hard man to find.
- Isaacs, yeah.
You are the valet Bobby spoke of.
No, I'll be showing you around campus.
Fellas, excuse us.
So, um I worked with Everett at Harvard.
For my thesis on cosmology, I actually used your calculations of atomic nuclei A kestrel.
With a hood on.
Wonderful.
Sir, um Colonel Cox's office.
Wait, which gate? All personnel must stop at the main gate checkpoint for identification passes whenever leaving from or arriving to Los Alamos.
Pull over, private.
Frank Winter.
It's been an age.
Good that you came, Niels.
Better that you made it out of Europe.
I was just citing your axial chemistry study.
So this is the famous Skinny Man? No, this is, uh This is another model.
You'll know Thin Man when you see it.
Believe me, a parade float, marching band, Akley and Oppie high in the saddle.
Strapped on the backs of their biographers, no doubt.
After all you've been through, Niels Jesus.
Seems like you got here in one piece at least.
Dr.
Bohr, you and I have important business at the Thin Man office.
Yeah, just a moment, Christopher.
Good to see you, Frank.
Good to see you, Niels.
Welcome to Manhattan.
Christ, it's been 15 minutes.
Where the hell is the Colonel? PFC Dunlavey.
I was told there was an emergency.
I get a Private First Class instead of a full bird for a breach at the gate? The Colonel's indisposed.
I'm the advance guard.
Shit.
Dunlavey.
You're the guy.
Annie Oakley.
I heard you shot your way into a plum assignment.
This way.
She tried to escape in a truck full of Indians.
Must have slipped them some wampum.
She? Are you sure you brought enough guys? Right-o, camera housing looks to fit.
Should be in shipshape next week.
Lock it down.
Really? You want to test the bolts? I see nuts, I see threads.
I predict a happy union.
Lock it down.
Oh, Christ.
You didn't.
Frank.
Frank.
Frank, we cannot detonate without an ordnance expert.
We don't even have a fire extinguisher.
Just worry about the camera.
Are those detonators? We do not have clearance to transport or discharge explosives.
You need the division chief's direct approval.
I'll take full responsibility.
You can't take responsibility.
It doesn't work that way.
Your Jeep is in the blast zone.
I'd back it up a bit.
I will have to write you up.
I will have to write him up.
Day's a bit young.
I'd save your ink.
Do try not to blow us all to kingdom come.
Did you really think you were gonna sneak past the gate? You don't exactly look like the day laborers.
Well, my family was killed in an Apache raid.
The San Ildefonso found me and raised me as their own.
Yeah, what'd they call you, Heaping Bull? You probably love it here.
Let me guess.
Small-town boy.
Army was your ticket to see the world.
Something like that, yeah.
Your small town have a barbed wire fence around it? We didn't even have a traffic light.
You come from good people.
You'll get a chance to see the world.
All you got to do is wait.
It's Private Dunlavey, right? Don't pretend you know anything about me just because you put a bullet through my dad's mathematician.
All right, the camera.
You didn't turn it on? It doesn't go on until we're hot.
And now we're hot.
Without the film, the test is pointless.
I know.
I know.
Oh, Jesus, if you don't want to scuff up your wing tips, I'm happy to do your job for you.
Bloody hell.
All right.
Three, two, one.
What happened? I don't know.
I must have missed something.
- What? Where are you going? - I'm gonna go turn off the camera.
You wait 30 minutes before approaching a failed detonation.
Not five seconds! Frank! Frank, are you all right? Frank, can you hear me? Frank! How's the camera? - Abby.
- Fay.
Dot.
Gladys.
We were in the neighborhood, so we thought we'd say hello.
- Hope we're not interrupting something.
- No, of course not.
Oh.
Hello.
No, no, no.
First you shape the nails, then you soak or they get too soft.
Shape, then soak.
Understand? Ten-thousand years in this country and they still don't speak the language.
We were just saying how we never see you, Abby.
I really shouldn't.
The men work 80 hours a week.
We work 30 and drink the other 50.
Math 101.
On the subject of math, they're pulling out all the stops for Dr.
Bohr's welcoming dinner.
You should see the menu.
Antelope tartare.
Of course, our husbands will be too busy performing fellatio on their new boss to eat anything.
I don't think we're invited.
Please, with Charlie as Dr.
Bohr's new right-hand man, you've got to be one of the guests of honor.
The rumor is true, isn't it? I heard they're practically inseparable.
Well, Dr.
Bohr doesn't go anywhere on the Hill without Charlie.
Cheers.
Ready to meet the Gadget? Would you ask these engineers to leave? Sir, they've prepared a detailed presentation on Thin Man.
After my dance with the Nazis, I don't relish the exuberance of crowds.
Not getting fuel to the carburetor.
There's probably sand in the filter.
So we're stuck here until they send help? I won't be missed until bed check.
There's no one waiting for me.
How long till Mrs.
Winter raises a fuss? I don't know, two, three days.
We're about 30 miles from home.
If we start now, we'll make it back before dawn.
You want to walk back? If we sit here, the camera will overheat, ruin the film.
Orders are to remain with a non-operating vehicle until otherwise instructed.
With no more primers, it'll be weeks before we can run another test.
I'm not losing the film.
So you get the camera.
We'll hit cooler temperatures as we climb the hill.
No.
No one's going anywhere.
You get the camera.
Now.
I'm transferring to Thin Man.
I'm joining Akley's group.
You know, when we get home, you can transfer to the Axis for all I care.
But I brought you onto this project, and for the next 30 miles, I can kick your ass off of it.
So you pick up that damn camera.
No.
No one is leaving this test site.
I'm in charge.
Oh, Jesus.
I don't feel like getting shot in the back.
So if you're planning on using that, go ahead.
Don't look at me to talk you out of it.
"The last reasoning of kings.
" I'm sorry? Louis XIV.
He had that stamped on his cannon.
It is a cannon.
Firing in on itself.
Won't spontaneous neutrons predetonate your fuel? Not so long as you fire the slugs at 3,170 feet per second.
Who deduced that? Charlie did, actually.
Charlie Isaacs, report to the switchboard.
Emergency call for Charlie Isaacs.
Go, I'll take over.
Abby, hi.
I thought you went home.
Charlie Isaacs, report to me.
Abby, I have to get back.
Now isn't Where is everyone? They're all at lunch.
We have five minutes.
Ch.
Dr.
Bohr is waiting.
What has gotten into you? They were hanging on every word.
The ladies' auxiliary.
Tell me about Bohr.
The details.
Where he's living, what he's gonna be working on.
You know I can't talk about work.
Just give me some meat to throw to the wolves.
He's got a theory on electron motion.
- Electron motion.
- Involving Planck's constant.
Planck's constant.
And the Thomas rotation.
Oh, God.
The Thomas rotation.
How about you lug this for a while? Not my job.
Beneath your station, is it? A private in a motor pool.
Yeah, in a week, I'll be shipping off to the Pacific.
That means I'm done chaperoning the pencil necks I beat up in grade school.
Oh, brilliant.
You'll be graduating from taxi driver to cannon fodder.
Yeah, well, at least I'll be making a difference in this fight.
You think a single soldier makes a whit of difference in a world war? More than a guy like you.
Who do you think invented that gun you've been relieved of? Huh? Or dynamite, radar, submarine, tanks? If it weren't for guys like me, chaps like you would still be poking each other to death with sharpened sticks.
Both of you shut up.
He always been such a barrel of monkeys? Barrel of what? Really? Seems to be a common complaint in your household.
It's a common complaint at high elevations.
Thin air lowers oxygen levels in the blood, causing cerebral hypoxia.
The body typically adapts within a week.
Guess I'm a slow learner.
So the fact that your husband tried to fill a prescription for a sleep aid just yesterday, that's a coincidence? You tell me, doctor.
Is insomnia contagious? Before I write you a script, you're going to have to answer some questions from the Army's mental fitness survey.
Do you ever feel distant from the world even when you're among friends? My nearest friend is 1,200 miles away.
I'd call that distant.
Do you ever feel hopeless about the present or the future? There are 74 sovereign states in the world.
Sixty one of them are at war.
How do you feel? And what about your present and future? I feel hopeful that I will return to real life when all this is over.
This isn't real life? I walked away from a tenure-track lectureship in the Ivy League.
My husband's research is of vital interest to the government, mine is expendable.
The Army won't let me work here.
They haven't told me why.
My marriage is in limbo.
My daughter is trying to get herself killed.
She may just succeed.
I wake up in the morning and I barely recognize the woman I see looking back at me in the mirror.
I'm sorry.
What was the question? Make sure he doesn't take them with alcohol.
The metallurgy and chemistry teams want to show you some tampers.
Frank Winter's office is in this direction, correct? Implosion isn't really part of the tour.
It's more of a backup plan.
Dr.
Bohr, we really It's just a backup plan.
Maybe we'll all be folded into one group working under Dr.
Bohr.
Holy moly.
God's on his way to our office.
Where's Frank? Well, someone's got to walk him through our work.
Uh, how do I look? Glasses or no glasses? I'm the only one with a Ph.
D.
It should be me.
I outrank you.
No, it should be Fritz.
He knows him.
Dr.
Nohr.
Noctor Door.
Niels.
I just wanted to say I still think about that time we spent together.
So many universes, aren't there? Dr.
Bohr would like me to walk him through the implosion design.
- You? - Sir.
Jesus.
The geometry, it's like a star swallowing itself.
It's impressive.
But do you think it is big enough? Big enough? Hate to cut the tour short, Niels, but would you join me in my office? Of course, Bobby.
Did you not understand your instructions? He insisted on seeing the implosion group's work, sir.
- I tried to stop - Your services are no longer needed.
General George Patton whooped the ass of 200,000 Italian soldiers.
Now, you really think a scientist could have pulled that off? He got to Europe in an airplane based on principles designed by Daniel Bernoulli in 1738.
If it weren't for scientists, Patton couldn't even have paddled to Italy in a canoe because he wouldn't have understood the laws of buoyancy.
So you think you need a Ph.
D.
to float? How much water have you got left? Half a canteen.
Don't put your limey lips all over the nozzle.
- Hold the camera.
- No sale, brother.
You're just trying to trick me into carrying your load for you.
Just hold it a minute.
You bloody idiot! - That is not my fault.
- Hey, don't look at me.
Damn it, you exposed the film.
You had one simple job.
I am an Oxford-educated physicist.
I'm not a bellboy.
The camera broke because you insisted on performing an illegal test when we could have easily waited a week.
I'm not walking anymore.
When they come and rescue us, I'll see to it that they know the truth.
You're not fit for leadership.
You're fit for a straightjacket and a padded cell.
No one's coming to save us.
It'll be dark soon.
If we get separated, just stick to the road.
You can at least leave me my gun.
If I give it back to you, you'll be thrown in the brig for violating orders.
If I keep it, you can just say I forced you at gunpoint.
There's Cary Grant.
You need to get dressed.
We're not going to the Bohr dinner.
Stick to physics.
You have no future in comedy.
Yeah, well, we might not have one on this hill, either.
What happened? Dr.
Oppenheimer He thinks I overstepped him.
Christ, Akley must be distancing himself as we speak.
I'll probably end up in Frank Winter's group with those other rejects.
You know, my father wanted me to marry someone from East Egg, not East St.
Louis.
And I told him, "I don't care.
Charlie's a genius.
" The truth is, I don't think you are a genius.
I didn't know what you were until we got here And I saw the way people everyone else calls geniuses look at you.
Forget Oppenheimer.
Forget Akley.
They're yesterday.
And we are going to that party and we're gonna fix everything with the man who'll be running this place tomorrow.
Mmm? We're going.
Okay.
War's brought all other research to a grinding halt.
I mean, the progress on stellar spectroscopy alone is Well, the good news is the stars don't seem to be going anywhere.
Something lost, something gained.
Just look at the wonderful discoveries you've been making in plutonium You must belong to the late Frank Winter.
Well, I suppose he is not on time.
Uh, Niels, tell us about the mood in London.
I'm going to investigate the mood at the bar.
Excuse me.
And I will accompany you.
So, tell me, what have you been working on? Oh, I don't Work.
Then you are the second wife.
First and only, I'm afraid.
But Frank is married to a brilliant scientist.
Who told you that? I saw your husband after the Swedes gave me my medal and I told him that he would have one of his own before long.
And he said, "The only way I will be invited to the Nobel ceremony "is as my wife's dinner companion.
" Who says I'd bring him? Do I remember correctly, you are a biologist? Botanist.
Fertilization and pollination of monocots.
The sex lives of flowers.
Here, I'm just a physicist's wife.
Where I've come from, too many great minds have been forced to abandon their work.
What a pity it would be to lose another.
Dr.
Bohr, a moment? Flowers bloom everywhere, Dr.
Winter.
Even in the desert.
I'm not walking 'cause you told me to.
I'm walking so we don't freeze to death.
Can you help me get this off? No! Careful.
Is that shrapnel? Oh, dear God.
I've got a first aid kit.
Why are you here, Paul? I'm lost in the desert tending to the wounds of a madman? War's raging in your own backyard.
You plant yourself 5,000 miles away.
Why are you here? Same reason as you.
I'm a physicist.
There hasn't been a greater collection of scientific minds since classical Athens.
No, no, no.
Why are you here? - Stop saying that.
- 'Cause you have a gift.
You want to put it to actual use.
You can tell Akley whatever you want about me.
He's the crazy one, you know? That man keeps banker's hours.
Home every night in time for his pre-dinner brandy followed by a quiet meal with his wife.
A cigar by the fire.
A long winter's nap.
Sounds civilized to me.
Punching a clock during wartime, that's not crazy to you? Whoa, whoa! What are you doing? What you're feeling now, that urge to run or dig yourself a safe hole in the ground, that's every second on the front lines.
There's no comfort in battle.
There's no brandy.
There's no lunch breaks.
There's no trips to the picture show.
In this war, scientists are soldiers.
There's no secret brain trust in Washington.
No classified peace plan.
No one is coming to save us.
Do you understand? Not Niels Bohr.
And not Reed Akley.
A toast to my friend and teacher.
So many lights have been extinguished in Europe's dark night.
It is our great fortune that his still burns brightly and that he's deigned to share it with us on this desert promontory.
Hear, hear.
Hear, hear.
As you prepare to leave us, Niels, know that your presence here, fleeting though it was, lifted our spirits and strengthened our will.
- Bohr's not staying? -He can't leave.
Oh.
Dr.
Bohr.
Dr.
Bohr.
I don't understand.
You just got here.
You have all shown me such great hospitality, but I've had too much wine and I fear I'm not much for dinner theater.
You're not joining the project? So what is this, just a USO tour? When soldiers lose morale, they get pinup girls.
You get a tired old man with a pipe.
But we need you.
Sir, we're trying to end the war.
Earlier today, I asked you, "Is it big enough?" Is it big enough? Twenty kilotons, burn radius two miles wide.
If you spotted a flaw in the math There was a chemist once in Germany.
He made artificial fertilizer.
And when the last war came, he thought perhaps I could fashion my work into a weapon.
Don't shoot.
It's Winter.
Fathead.
Some thought it to be so intolerable, it would discourage any future wars.
But his legacy is a fog of chlorine gas that crept over Europe and Africa and Asia.
When I asked, "Is it big enough?" I meant is it big enough that no sane person would ever dare to use it? I don't know.
Good men invent bigger and more efficient methods for humankind to exterminate itself, hoping the world will lose its hunger for horror.
But our species seems to have an insatiable appetite.
I've lost mine.
Enlisted or drafted? Huh.
Enlisted.
This your first rotation? Yes, sir.
Go ahead.
Keep your head down.
If we take my car, we'll be back at the range by 10:00.
I know we blew our only set of primers.
Pinched them from Akley's lab.
I handle the camera.
It is okay.
Lie still.
They've just signed the armistice.
The war is over.
There will never be another.