Manhattan (2014) s02e01 Episode Script
Damnatio Memoriae
Previously on "Manhattan" They said it'd be just like Cambridge.
- Harvard with sand.
- Charlie, this doesn't look like Cambridge.
You're looking at the best equipped lab in the country.
Two Van de Graaff accelerators, our own cyclotron.
You're building an atomic bomb.
Is that Frank Winter? He's got a band of misfits working on an alternate design.
Whatever we're doing here, please tell me it's worth it.
I don't know what's gotten into him since we've gotten here.
Half the time he's brooding and the other half it's like our honeymoon.
They're all like that at first.
It's easier than talking.
Eventually they stop doing either.
- What? - No, you can't go to school in New York.
So I'm just supposed to stay here in this prison camp? Get knocked up by one of the guards? Why are we even here? Everything is a secret.
There's something I need to tell you.
There's a problem with Thin Man.
We're dead in the water.
So what are we gonna do about it? What happened between you? He asked me to do things no one ever should.
I don't know who Charlie is anymore.
- I'm going home, Charlie.
- The army won't allow it.
They will if we're divorced.
Are you gonna invite me in? You can whisper fission rates in my ear.
Tell me secrets you can't share with your wife.
There's a leak in this lab.
Someone's been smuggling technical schematics off the Hill.
My mother died yesterday.
Your new office will be waiting for you when you get back.
I won't be gone long.
They said I wouldn't have to meet in person.
Only under extraordinary conditions.
Implosion is taking center stage.
- They think that you're a spy.
- Charlie.
Your wife is sitting in the next room.
She has been betraying you for months with your neighbor.
Frank, it's Charlie.
They're shipping him off the Hill.
- They think he's a traitor.
- What's wrong? We're building an atomic bomb that will explode with the power of 20,000 tons of TNT.
I've done things I'm not proud of, but I swear I did all of it with you and Callie in mind.
A few months ago, a physicist from another design group and I engaged in a secret conspiracy to co-opt the resources of his group for implosion.
Akley promoted Charlie Isaacs to cover up our tracks.
They think he is a spy, but he had no idea.
You sold the President of the United States a Buck Rogers fantasy.
There is a backup plan.
The director of the implosion group is one of the brightest lights on this hill.
This is Dr.
Charles Isaacs.
What happened to Frank Winter? _ Hey! Wait! Charlie! Just wait! Please.
So the dawn-- the dawn of the atomic age being ushered in by a Jewish cardshark whose family crash-landed - on the American shores less than 50 years ago.
- You shouldn't be down here.
No, just one quote.
One quote.
Would you compare this to Promethean theft? Man stealing fire from the gods? - Or is it more-- - They pay you by the metaphor? Hey! Escort Edward R.
Murrow here to Site B! If he comes back, you have permission to shoot him.
What? God.
Whoa! Charlie! Charlie! Fritz! You're here.
- Yeah.
- I'm glad.
Grab a radio.
Make sure the circuit cables don't short out in the rain.
Whoa, whoa! We're supposed to meet 10 weather conditions before we pull the trigger.
Visibility over 45 miles, - humidity below 85%-- - Yeah, I read the report.
You got to talk to the colonel, delay the test.
The colonel and I aren't on the best of terms.
Look, at any given moment, there are 3,000 thunderstorms somewhere on the planet.
No, no.
This one is special.
Gulf air at 17,000 feet, two inversion layers.
They're not going to call the game for rain.
Let's just hope it blows over.
It'll blow radioactive fallout from Roswell to Socorro.
I'm sympathetic.
The Army isn't.
Either way, I take responsibility.
_ Mrs.
Daniels, would you like to come with me, please? _ Those were the secretary's words? "Under official review?" Sounds like a tenure committee.
The War Department is auditing the project.
The president wrote us a check for $56 million.
- A small price for freedom.
- Last month, and the month before that.
They're entitled to an itemized receipt.
They're going to shut us down, aren't they? Nobody's shutting us down.
They're pot-committed.
They can't fold.
All they can do is keep betting, buy the pot or die trying.
You're the laddie whose father's in prison for gambling.
The tech area's going to be reorganized to focus on lensed implosion.
Dr.
Oppenheimer has asked me to run the new group.
Joy.
You're handing the project over to Charlie McCarthy? It's Isaacs.
Charlie McCarthy's a-- A wooden dummy on a ventriloquist's knee with Robert's hand up your ass.
We have a working design.
And in the space between a working design and a weapon that works, empires burn.
So, Dr.
Isaacs, how soon can you deliver? A month? A year? 10? I don't, um Well, I'd have to, uh Dr.
Oppenheimer.
Do you ride, Charlie? I'm a Jew from St.
Louis.
When a horse won't take the saddle, you can send it to the glue factory.
It's not an option with physicists.
They're still in there debating the science.
Not a lot of fans of implosion.
20 old men out of 2,000.
Win the confidence of the Indians, chiefs will fall in line.
You gonna make an announcement to the staff? You are.
Where's Frank Winter? It's just implosion is Frank's baby.
You're going to have to deliver it.
In 50 years, no one will know the name Frank Winter, but yours-- I can't take credit for someone else's work.
You made your career stealing the work of another physicist and passing it off as your own.
Glen Babbive gave an interesting exit interview.
Then why'd you pick me for the job? Saddle the horse, Charlie.
I assure you, there's more profit in moving forward.
Dr.
Winter? He hasn't been home in two days.
He's probably in his office hiding behind an equation.
Ma'am, we're not here for your husband.
We're here for your things.
- My-- - Personal effects.
Furniture stays with the house.
We have you slotted for a duplex apartment in Row H.
In regard to your husband.
What does this mean, "reassigned"? Who reassigned him? He put in for a voluntary transfer three days ago.
- Where? - Even if I-- You're telling me my husband has abandoned his family with no explanation, not even a forwarding address? I'm sorry.
We'll be back with boxes.
That son of a bitch always was crazy with his indeterminate variables.
I wonder how long before Frank's daughter turns 18.
I thought you packed off, Crosley, for Omaha.
Or was it Idaho? Dayton, Ohio, actually.
Next stop on my whistle tour of American boomtowns.
Doesn't make any sense.
Oppenheimer hands Frank the project on a silver platter and he skips town for some kind of secret promotion? Really? That's what you lured me here to talk about, Fritz? - Frank's career path? - Lure you? What are you talking about? I didn't lure you.
- Yes, you did.
- No, I got a note from-- Oh, it's the duchess and the boy with his finger in the dike.
Just give him five minutes.
There's going to be an announcement.
I'm taking over the implosion group.
You? None of the Indian maids available, eh? I need to reach Frank.
Have your heard anything? No more than Fritzy here, I gather.
They haven't told you about their little scientific ménage à trois, have they? Paul.
So why would you want to find Frank? You're the force of nature that fills up the Frank-shaped vacuum.
He's just trying to help.
I see.
It's for her benefit.
A bit of Kabuki theater to impress a girl.
Well, if I see Frank in Ohio, I'll be sure to send along your regards.
What did he mean? What's a ménage à trois? I'm not trying to impress anyone.
I was in a bind.
Now I'm not.
I think Frank helped me out and he's paying the price.
And Oppenheimer won't tell you where he is? We're not even sure he knows.
Well, somebody does.
Hey, X-4.
What's his name? That information is not in our files.
Well, I got to talk to him.
- Hello.
- Abby.
Um, he's not here.
What? You want to check under the bed? I'm not here to see Charlie.
Is it true that you were going to have a baby and then you didn't? Charlie told you that? Did you take care of it? What is this? Trust me, Helen, if I had any friends here to turn to, any friends here at all I need to know how you went about doing it.
Why would you want to do a thing like that, Mrs.
Ladies' Home Journal? It's private.
I need to get dressed.
Charlie wasn't the only one who cheated.
And he found out.
You had an affair? Who's the guy? You don't know him.
- But he got you pregnant.
- It's Charlie's.
You sure? Yes, I'm sure.
I had an abortion two years ago in New Jersey.
Doctor's probably practicing medicine in a jail cell.
But if you needed one now, you must have some idea of where you'd go.
You know it's a felony.
Some of the girls in the dorm have been to a clinic in Santa Fe near the bus stop on Junction.
You're supposed to say you have obstructed menses.
Did it hurt? Listen, Abby, I don't regret it.
But you will.
Do you love Charlie? Then you won't tell him.
Operator.
Yeah, I need an outside line.
Where to? The Soviet consul in New York.
I-- I'm not authorized to make that call.
I'm authorizing you right now.
Sir, even trying to telephone the Soviets, you'll get yourself hauled into the office of the secretary of war.
Do you have any idea who you're talking to? I-- no.
You got a pencil? My badge number is X-4.
Do you sleep closer to the door when you're home with Abby? What? People always end up on the same side of the bed.
It's like a designated parking spot.
It's old habit.
Your marriage is an old habit, too.
People fall back into it.
When's the last time you saw Abby? In 36 hours I need to lay out my vision for the future of the project to 2,000 physicists.
I got nothing.
Delay the announcement till we figure out what to do about Frank.
Agent X-4 seems to be on permanent vacation.
Why don't you just tell the truth? Stand up in front of the entire tech area and tell them G-2 made one of the group heads disappear? Probably stick me in whatever hole they stuck Frank, then you'd have to run implosion.
Why is that funny? I probably know the physics better than you do.
You think you could hold your own against Oppenheimer? Those bloodsuckers in the senior leadership? You think you can? Oppenheimer picked you because he knows that he can control you.
All right.
You know, never mind.
I have a speech to write.
Hey.
I'm sorry about your mother.
- Was it unexpected or? - Excuse me.
Um, can I help you? Are you Meeks? Yeah, Meeks.
This isn't the Waldorf.
We're not bellboys.
What are you doing with my books? It's moving day.
Now that you're back, get moving.
Attention! You're not the Oberfuhrer.
Is there any sign of Colonel Cox? Colonel Cox has been redeployed to a post more suitable to his talents.
Does he have those? Talents? So that would make you Colonel Emmett Darrow.
The king is dead.
Long live the king.
Well, I've squandered enough of your time.
High priests at the security desk tell me my transfer form is missing a signature.
Leave it with the girl.
All I need is a drop of ink, sir.
Dayton site expected me two days ago.
I won't bore you with the technical subtleties.
Harvesting polonium-210 for the neutron initiators.
Dayton is adequately staffed.
This hill, on the other hand is not.
Sir, I can't stay on this hill.
It's a personnel matter.
- Personnel? - Personal.
I can't work for Charlie Isaacs.
It seems we both fancied the same woman.
Would you close the door, please? Get down on your knees.
You're pulling my leg.
No one can see you.
Take a knee.
Or did you change your mind about the transfer? Now ask Jesus for forgiveness.
I'm sorry? Jesus.
Forgive me, Jesus.
And what is the nature of your sin? I don't know.
Yes, you do.
It's weakness.
God buried an atom under a million tons of rock so that America could split it in two and redraw the maps of the world.
And you want to run off to Dayton because some girl didn't ask you to the prom? Half the Hill woke up with eviction papers tacked to our doors by order of the office of the colonel.
You picked a hell of a week to leave town.
I mean, not that you picked-- oh, Jesus.
You should talk to Jeannie.
She's got two dead parents.
Jim, I'm so sorry about your mother.
They won't give you more time? Uh, she'd want me here serving my country.
I don't even know who we're serving.
- Frank's gone.
- What? - Where? - I don't know.
But I know it's not good.
So you're going to give it to her on a bench in the plaza? I saved up for a hotel room.
She's a virgin, right? Don't forget to sprinkle rose petals on the bedspread.
On E-3 salary? He'll be lucky if the room has a bed.
Where's my daughter? Mrs.
Winter-- Doctor.
I think she's on an overnight with the Mason Scouts.
Yes, she was.
And then she went AWOL, apparently to meet you.
Callie and I had social plans.
She took an early bus and we were going to meet for dinner.
Where? A restaurant? I'll save you a bus ticket.
Are you going somewhere? Get in the car.
I see you got my message.
Prince of implosion.
I'd have thought you'd have better things to do than play grab-ass with a telephone.
What's wrong? OSS can't take a joke? Strategic Services is a clubhouse for overbred schoolboys.
I serve at the pleasure of a humbler master.
General Groves.
Freedom.
Nice office.
- A lot of turnover.
- Yes, well, the third time's a charm.
You don't see it yet, Charlie, but I am your friend.
Most of my friends have names.
I want you to tell me the truth.
Can you do that? What do you think, I'm some Bela Lugosi spook? I am the reason you're sitting behind that desk instead of-- Where? Where is Frank Winter? You pack him off to wherever it was you were going to send me to torture him? Ah, that's what this is.
A soldier's loyalty.
Let me guess.
Frank isn't the man I think he is.
He wasn't.
What about me? Am I the guy you thought I was? See, I don't think you're a spook.
I think you're a bureaucrat.
I think you're the guy at the border checkpoint asking for papers.
Hmm.
Do you know the Banat province in eastern Europe doesn't exist anymore except on a few old maps? Before Christ turned up, it belonged to the Thracians until the Romans bled them dry.
Then the Goths, the Huns, the Gepidae, the Avars, followed by the Slavs, then the Magyars.
Four calling birds, three French hens, I get it.
Then the Hungarians set up shop until the Ottoman Turks cut them down.
That's when my family arrived.
Merchants.
Salt, mostly.
They fought with the Serbs to beat back the Turks.
Then the son of a Bosnian farmer put a bullet in a Hapsburg and the world caught fire.
And then it became the Banat Republic for all of two weeks.
It was a haven for Jews until the Axis rolled in and Hitler Hitler solved the Jewish problem once and for all.
Now the Russians are knocking at the gate.
When you've lived in a place where borders have no meaning, borders come to mean a great deal.
in this country, yet still I keep a packed suitcase by the front door.
Good.
Let's throw it in the car, go for a drive, pick up Frank.
He's gone, and he's never coming back.
What does that mean, gone? He's dead? I don't believe you.
You knew the man.
Do you think Frank Winter would surrender quietly? Sands shift during wartime.
No one-- no one has tenure.
The ones who survive are the ones who adapt.
Next time, call me directly.
My name is Avram Fisher.
Where are my manners? - Congratulations.
- For surviving or adapting? For the baby.
Mazel tov to you and your wife.
You invited Callie to dinner at a filling station? Ralph and Betty's Cafe.
This is it.
Where's my daughter? Elena? I sent her home.
Where were you? Out.
- Abby.
- Hmm? Is there something that you need to tell me? You know, Charlie, I think we dug up all the skeletons the last time you stopped by.
I'm sure the neighbors can give you a transcript.
Are you pregnant? She told you.
I had to hear it from the Angel of Death.
- What? - Abby.
Charlie.
You were going to sign the divorce papers and sneak out the back door with Joey? This is a sign.
I don't believe in signs, Charlie.
Fine, it's better than a sign.
It's a chance.
It's too late.
There's a lunatic in Europe making orphans out of a thousand Jewish kids a day.
You want two more to grow up without their father? You think I don't know about Europe? Honestly? You remember that first doctor at Mass General? The one who looked like Calvin Coolidge? A medical improbability.
That's what he called it.
And I told you we could raise Siamese cats for all I care.
But you wanted a daughter so badly.
We both did.
And you proved the doctors wrong.
Right out of the gates, you said it felt like a boy, and you were right about that, too.
Thought I'd never see you again.
I mean, for all I knew, you were dead.
And then you came in the door and you said that I poisoned our marriage.
Listen.
Whatever happened between me and you or me and her - or you and-- - Charlie.
It's not us.
It's this place.
I treated you like every other jerk on this hill treats his wife.
I underestimated you.
I forgot what I had.
But there's a kid in there.
He doesn't know his father screwed up.
His world doesn't even exist yet.
We can do better.
I can be better.
It feels like a girl.
Callie's on her way.
Good.
a message at the barracks.
I goofed.
I sent her to the wrong restaurant.
You left it in your jacket pocket.
So where were you really going to meet Callie? Premarital sex was not invented in 1944.
There's a hotel off the plaza.
We haven't actually-- I wanted to wait until we were married, but I Do you love her? She's the most perfect person I've ever met.
Is she happy? What? Callie took some pills about a month back.
Methyl something.
They were blue.
Methylphenobarbital.
They're mine.
I don't think that she was really trying to-- She said it runs in the family.
There was an incident when we lived in Ithaca.
I made a mistake.
Were you trying? I know that Callie's afraid that she has what I have, but she's not like me.
I spent half of my life looking for a trapdoor out of it.
We picked her up at a hotel in Santa Fe.
Callie! You can thank us back at the Hill.
Sorry, ma'am.
If you took her away, I'd never see her again.
It's time to go.
How do you like your coffee? In my own living room.
2,000 miles from here.
So what happens when a Nobel laureate stays out past curfew? You call out the 101st Airborne? A Nobel laureate with a packed suitcase in his car? Is that a crime? Liza Winter, PhD, second in her class at Barnard.
Not a charm school.
I'm going to assume you weren't born yesterday.
I hope you'll extend me the same courtesy.
Colonel Darrow, is it? My husband dragged us here and now he's gone, and no one will tell me where you're sending his check.
So, under the circumstances, I would be grateful if I could be released with time served.
Colonel, I can't spill secrets I wasn't entrusted with in the first place.
I understand you have a job to do, but so do I.
If you let me just go back to Princeton, you'll never hear from me again.
set off a chain reaction that will explode with the power of 20,000 tons of TNT.
Powerful enough to wipe cities off the map.
Cities full of people? You recorded our conversations? No, the Army will detonate it someplace where it can't hurt anyone.
When the Axis sees what we're capable of, they'll have no choice.
They will have to surrender For how long? Your husband is at another site proving his loyalty to his country.
You can help him by proving that you can be a discreet, productive member of this community.
We're writing the prologue to a new era, a history of peace.
I've made mistakes.
I've done things I'm not proud of, but I swear I did all of it with you and Callie in mind.
A few months ago, a physicist from another design group came to me and he told me that his model wasn't going to work.
So Reed Akley and I engaged in a secret conspiracy to co-opt the resources of his group for implosion.
You remember Charlie Isaacs? We set him up to cover our tracks.
The irony is the only way we were able to crack implosion was by stealing I may know what it is you're building here but my daughter does not.
but he had no idea.
Make sure your white security badges are visible.
All white badge holders report to the PX immediately for the mandatory staff meeting.
The all hands tech area staff meeting is beginning in the PX.
Be prepared to present your security badge.
Damn it.
They fix the PA? Where is he? The Army said Frank was transferred to another site.
One suit, one shirt, one necktie, one pair of shoes? That's all he took.
All his clothes are boxed up at the house.
He even left his security badge.
Does that sound like a transfer to you? I don't know what law of physics he's broken now, but I think you do.
Ma'am? Would you come with us, please? It's all right.
Hey, she's fine.
She doesn't have clearance.
Where is he? All right, can I get everyone's attention, please? Thanks very much.
Can I have everyone's attention? Thank you.
Dr.
Oppenheimer asked me to say a few words about the road ahead.
But I want to talk about the road that got us here.
I had a teacher in St.
Louis.
He used to say that science isn't a quest for truth, but a process of correcting your errors.
We've racked up more than our share on this hill.
And I want to correct one right now.
The fact that we're all standing here, that there is a path forward, we owe it to one man, and he isn't standing here with us.
The implosion model exists because of Frank Winter.
He was the crank in the wilderness rubbing two sticks together when no one believed.
He fed the spark.
He fought off the wolves.
He corrected his errors.
You should be listening to Frank right now.
But the War Department has asked him to take the reins on another project at another site.
Their gain is our loss.
I talked to Frank on the phone a little while ago.
He gave me his blessing and I gave him my sincere thanks.
We all should.
Did he talk to him? As for the road ahead there is no road.
We have to dig it out of the dirt.
It's no longer a thought problem.
It's not a theory.
We're all going home with blood on our sleeves.
We're going to build a working gadget.
We're going to drop it on Berlin.
If those doubting Thomases in Washington don't believe us, then they can fly out here and stick their fingers in the wound.
'Cause on July 4th, 1945, we're going to put on the biggest firework show since the Book of Genesis.
We're going to test the gadget in our own backyard.
A nuclear test in a year? Whose bloody sleeve did he pull that out of? He just pushed in all his chips.
It's a bluff.
Now, I've heard it said that physics is a gentleman's sport.
Some of you may think I'm hitting above my weight.
_ I'm 28 years old.
I grew up in Missouri in a cold-water tenement.
Red blood, not blue.
My mother used to scrub it out of my school clothes.
See, I had to learn to hit above my weight.
We all do.
'Cause the guys in the other corner, they invented quantum mechanics.
They split the atom.
They beat us to the punch.
That's another error we're going to correct.
And when it's over, when we've corrected that error in Germany right off the face of the earth then we're all going home where we belong, secure in the knowledge that we did the right thing.
Polk residence.
I left my wallet at the depot in Santa Fe.
I swear I'll set the land-speed record.
Listen, I lost my mother this week, okay? - All right, then.
- Thank you.
Go ahead.
I know I broke protocol, but-- Get in.
I, uh The car.
I have a flat tire, so-- You.
The thespian.
The role of a lifetime.
Germans or Soviets? Uh, there's some kind of mix-up.
You are in a world of trouble from sea to shining sea.
I am your only friend, so I advise you to think very carefully about your next answer.
Who recruited him? What? Frank Winter recruited you.
Who recruited Frank Winter? You all right? Get the legs.
You want a volunteer to climb - a 100-foot steel lightning rod.
- Yes.
To babysit Shiva, the God of Death, in the middle of an electrical storm.
Well, maybe the Japs can spare a kamikaze pilot.
- I'll do it.
- No way.
If the colonel wants to double-check the detonators, he can do it himself.
No wife.
No kids.
I'll do it.
No, you're more valuable on the ground.
- Jim, you don't have to.
- It's okay.
It should be someone you trust.
Hey! Hey, you! The Boy Wonder said to give you this.
Start the clock.
Zero minus 160 minutes.
By 0430 hours, every tent, including this one, will be collapsed and loaded for transport to the 10,000-meter perimeter.
And if anyone sees Dr.
Frank Winter on the premises, arrest him.
If he resists, you have the authority to use all necessary force.
- Harvard with sand.
- Charlie, this doesn't look like Cambridge.
You're looking at the best equipped lab in the country.
Two Van de Graaff accelerators, our own cyclotron.
You're building an atomic bomb.
Is that Frank Winter? He's got a band of misfits working on an alternate design.
Whatever we're doing here, please tell me it's worth it.
I don't know what's gotten into him since we've gotten here.
Half the time he's brooding and the other half it's like our honeymoon.
They're all like that at first.
It's easier than talking.
Eventually they stop doing either.
- What? - No, you can't go to school in New York.
So I'm just supposed to stay here in this prison camp? Get knocked up by one of the guards? Why are we even here? Everything is a secret.
There's something I need to tell you.
There's a problem with Thin Man.
We're dead in the water.
So what are we gonna do about it? What happened between you? He asked me to do things no one ever should.
I don't know who Charlie is anymore.
- I'm going home, Charlie.
- The army won't allow it.
They will if we're divorced.
Are you gonna invite me in? You can whisper fission rates in my ear.
Tell me secrets you can't share with your wife.
There's a leak in this lab.
Someone's been smuggling technical schematics off the Hill.
My mother died yesterday.
Your new office will be waiting for you when you get back.
I won't be gone long.
They said I wouldn't have to meet in person.
Only under extraordinary conditions.
Implosion is taking center stage.
- They think that you're a spy.
- Charlie.
Your wife is sitting in the next room.
She has been betraying you for months with your neighbor.
Frank, it's Charlie.
They're shipping him off the Hill.
- They think he's a traitor.
- What's wrong? We're building an atomic bomb that will explode with the power of 20,000 tons of TNT.
I've done things I'm not proud of, but I swear I did all of it with you and Callie in mind.
A few months ago, a physicist from another design group and I engaged in a secret conspiracy to co-opt the resources of his group for implosion.
Akley promoted Charlie Isaacs to cover up our tracks.
They think he is a spy, but he had no idea.
You sold the President of the United States a Buck Rogers fantasy.
There is a backup plan.
The director of the implosion group is one of the brightest lights on this hill.
This is Dr.
Charles Isaacs.
What happened to Frank Winter? _ Hey! Wait! Charlie! Just wait! Please.
So the dawn-- the dawn of the atomic age being ushered in by a Jewish cardshark whose family crash-landed - on the American shores less than 50 years ago.
- You shouldn't be down here.
No, just one quote.
One quote.
Would you compare this to Promethean theft? Man stealing fire from the gods? - Or is it more-- - They pay you by the metaphor? Hey! Escort Edward R.
Murrow here to Site B! If he comes back, you have permission to shoot him.
What? God.
Whoa! Charlie! Charlie! Fritz! You're here.
- Yeah.
- I'm glad.
Grab a radio.
Make sure the circuit cables don't short out in the rain.
Whoa, whoa! We're supposed to meet 10 weather conditions before we pull the trigger.
Visibility over 45 miles, - humidity below 85%-- - Yeah, I read the report.
You got to talk to the colonel, delay the test.
The colonel and I aren't on the best of terms.
Look, at any given moment, there are 3,000 thunderstorms somewhere on the planet.
No, no.
This one is special.
Gulf air at 17,000 feet, two inversion layers.
They're not going to call the game for rain.
Let's just hope it blows over.
It'll blow radioactive fallout from Roswell to Socorro.
I'm sympathetic.
The Army isn't.
Either way, I take responsibility.
_ Mrs.
Daniels, would you like to come with me, please? _ Those were the secretary's words? "Under official review?" Sounds like a tenure committee.
The War Department is auditing the project.
The president wrote us a check for $56 million.
- A small price for freedom.
- Last month, and the month before that.
They're entitled to an itemized receipt.
They're going to shut us down, aren't they? Nobody's shutting us down.
They're pot-committed.
They can't fold.
All they can do is keep betting, buy the pot or die trying.
You're the laddie whose father's in prison for gambling.
The tech area's going to be reorganized to focus on lensed implosion.
Dr.
Oppenheimer has asked me to run the new group.
Joy.
You're handing the project over to Charlie McCarthy? It's Isaacs.
Charlie McCarthy's a-- A wooden dummy on a ventriloquist's knee with Robert's hand up your ass.
We have a working design.
And in the space between a working design and a weapon that works, empires burn.
So, Dr.
Isaacs, how soon can you deliver? A month? A year? 10? I don't, um Well, I'd have to, uh Dr.
Oppenheimer.
Do you ride, Charlie? I'm a Jew from St.
Louis.
When a horse won't take the saddle, you can send it to the glue factory.
It's not an option with physicists.
They're still in there debating the science.
Not a lot of fans of implosion.
20 old men out of 2,000.
Win the confidence of the Indians, chiefs will fall in line.
You gonna make an announcement to the staff? You are.
Where's Frank Winter? It's just implosion is Frank's baby.
You're going to have to deliver it.
In 50 years, no one will know the name Frank Winter, but yours-- I can't take credit for someone else's work.
You made your career stealing the work of another physicist and passing it off as your own.
Glen Babbive gave an interesting exit interview.
Then why'd you pick me for the job? Saddle the horse, Charlie.
I assure you, there's more profit in moving forward.
Dr.
Winter? He hasn't been home in two days.
He's probably in his office hiding behind an equation.
Ma'am, we're not here for your husband.
We're here for your things.
- My-- - Personal effects.
Furniture stays with the house.
We have you slotted for a duplex apartment in Row H.
In regard to your husband.
What does this mean, "reassigned"? Who reassigned him? He put in for a voluntary transfer three days ago.
- Where? - Even if I-- You're telling me my husband has abandoned his family with no explanation, not even a forwarding address? I'm sorry.
We'll be back with boxes.
That son of a bitch always was crazy with his indeterminate variables.
I wonder how long before Frank's daughter turns 18.
I thought you packed off, Crosley, for Omaha.
Or was it Idaho? Dayton, Ohio, actually.
Next stop on my whistle tour of American boomtowns.
Doesn't make any sense.
Oppenheimer hands Frank the project on a silver platter and he skips town for some kind of secret promotion? Really? That's what you lured me here to talk about, Fritz? - Frank's career path? - Lure you? What are you talking about? I didn't lure you.
- Yes, you did.
- No, I got a note from-- Oh, it's the duchess and the boy with his finger in the dike.
Just give him five minutes.
There's going to be an announcement.
I'm taking over the implosion group.
You? None of the Indian maids available, eh? I need to reach Frank.
Have your heard anything? No more than Fritzy here, I gather.
They haven't told you about their little scientific ménage à trois, have they? Paul.
So why would you want to find Frank? You're the force of nature that fills up the Frank-shaped vacuum.
He's just trying to help.
I see.
It's for her benefit.
A bit of Kabuki theater to impress a girl.
Well, if I see Frank in Ohio, I'll be sure to send along your regards.
What did he mean? What's a ménage à trois? I'm not trying to impress anyone.
I was in a bind.
Now I'm not.
I think Frank helped me out and he's paying the price.
And Oppenheimer won't tell you where he is? We're not even sure he knows.
Well, somebody does.
Hey, X-4.
What's his name? That information is not in our files.
Well, I got to talk to him.
- Hello.
- Abby.
Um, he's not here.
What? You want to check under the bed? I'm not here to see Charlie.
Is it true that you were going to have a baby and then you didn't? Charlie told you that? Did you take care of it? What is this? Trust me, Helen, if I had any friends here to turn to, any friends here at all I need to know how you went about doing it.
Why would you want to do a thing like that, Mrs.
Ladies' Home Journal? It's private.
I need to get dressed.
Charlie wasn't the only one who cheated.
And he found out.
You had an affair? Who's the guy? You don't know him.
- But he got you pregnant.
- It's Charlie's.
You sure? Yes, I'm sure.
I had an abortion two years ago in New Jersey.
Doctor's probably practicing medicine in a jail cell.
But if you needed one now, you must have some idea of where you'd go.
You know it's a felony.
Some of the girls in the dorm have been to a clinic in Santa Fe near the bus stop on Junction.
You're supposed to say you have obstructed menses.
Did it hurt? Listen, Abby, I don't regret it.
But you will.
Do you love Charlie? Then you won't tell him.
Operator.
Yeah, I need an outside line.
Where to? The Soviet consul in New York.
I-- I'm not authorized to make that call.
I'm authorizing you right now.
Sir, even trying to telephone the Soviets, you'll get yourself hauled into the office of the secretary of war.
Do you have any idea who you're talking to? I-- no.
You got a pencil? My badge number is X-4.
Do you sleep closer to the door when you're home with Abby? What? People always end up on the same side of the bed.
It's like a designated parking spot.
It's old habit.
Your marriage is an old habit, too.
People fall back into it.
When's the last time you saw Abby? In 36 hours I need to lay out my vision for the future of the project to 2,000 physicists.
I got nothing.
Delay the announcement till we figure out what to do about Frank.
Agent X-4 seems to be on permanent vacation.
Why don't you just tell the truth? Stand up in front of the entire tech area and tell them G-2 made one of the group heads disappear? Probably stick me in whatever hole they stuck Frank, then you'd have to run implosion.
Why is that funny? I probably know the physics better than you do.
You think you could hold your own against Oppenheimer? Those bloodsuckers in the senior leadership? You think you can? Oppenheimer picked you because he knows that he can control you.
All right.
You know, never mind.
I have a speech to write.
Hey.
I'm sorry about your mother.
- Was it unexpected or? - Excuse me.
Um, can I help you? Are you Meeks? Yeah, Meeks.
This isn't the Waldorf.
We're not bellboys.
What are you doing with my books? It's moving day.
Now that you're back, get moving.
Attention! You're not the Oberfuhrer.
Is there any sign of Colonel Cox? Colonel Cox has been redeployed to a post more suitable to his talents.
Does he have those? Talents? So that would make you Colonel Emmett Darrow.
The king is dead.
Long live the king.
Well, I've squandered enough of your time.
High priests at the security desk tell me my transfer form is missing a signature.
Leave it with the girl.
All I need is a drop of ink, sir.
Dayton site expected me two days ago.
I won't bore you with the technical subtleties.
Harvesting polonium-210 for the neutron initiators.
Dayton is adequately staffed.
This hill, on the other hand is not.
Sir, I can't stay on this hill.
It's a personnel matter.
- Personnel? - Personal.
I can't work for Charlie Isaacs.
It seems we both fancied the same woman.
Would you close the door, please? Get down on your knees.
You're pulling my leg.
No one can see you.
Take a knee.
Or did you change your mind about the transfer? Now ask Jesus for forgiveness.
I'm sorry? Jesus.
Forgive me, Jesus.
And what is the nature of your sin? I don't know.
Yes, you do.
It's weakness.
God buried an atom under a million tons of rock so that America could split it in two and redraw the maps of the world.
And you want to run off to Dayton because some girl didn't ask you to the prom? Half the Hill woke up with eviction papers tacked to our doors by order of the office of the colonel.
You picked a hell of a week to leave town.
I mean, not that you picked-- oh, Jesus.
You should talk to Jeannie.
She's got two dead parents.
Jim, I'm so sorry about your mother.
They won't give you more time? Uh, she'd want me here serving my country.
I don't even know who we're serving.
- Frank's gone.
- What? - Where? - I don't know.
But I know it's not good.
So you're going to give it to her on a bench in the plaza? I saved up for a hotel room.
She's a virgin, right? Don't forget to sprinkle rose petals on the bedspread.
On E-3 salary? He'll be lucky if the room has a bed.
Where's my daughter? Mrs.
Winter-- Doctor.
I think she's on an overnight with the Mason Scouts.
Yes, she was.
And then she went AWOL, apparently to meet you.
Callie and I had social plans.
She took an early bus and we were going to meet for dinner.
Where? A restaurant? I'll save you a bus ticket.
Are you going somewhere? Get in the car.
I see you got my message.
Prince of implosion.
I'd have thought you'd have better things to do than play grab-ass with a telephone.
What's wrong? OSS can't take a joke? Strategic Services is a clubhouse for overbred schoolboys.
I serve at the pleasure of a humbler master.
General Groves.
Freedom.
Nice office.
- A lot of turnover.
- Yes, well, the third time's a charm.
You don't see it yet, Charlie, but I am your friend.
Most of my friends have names.
I want you to tell me the truth.
Can you do that? What do you think, I'm some Bela Lugosi spook? I am the reason you're sitting behind that desk instead of-- Where? Where is Frank Winter? You pack him off to wherever it was you were going to send me to torture him? Ah, that's what this is.
A soldier's loyalty.
Let me guess.
Frank isn't the man I think he is.
He wasn't.
What about me? Am I the guy you thought I was? See, I don't think you're a spook.
I think you're a bureaucrat.
I think you're the guy at the border checkpoint asking for papers.
Hmm.
Do you know the Banat province in eastern Europe doesn't exist anymore except on a few old maps? Before Christ turned up, it belonged to the Thracians until the Romans bled them dry.
Then the Goths, the Huns, the Gepidae, the Avars, followed by the Slavs, then the Magyars.
Four calling birds, three French hens, I get it.
Then the Hungarians set up shop until the Ottoman Turks cut them down.
That's when my family arrived.
Merchants.
Salt, mostly.
They fought with the Serbs to beat back the Turks.
Then the son of a Bosnian farmer put a bullet in a Hapsburg and the world caught fire.
And then it became the Banat Republic for all of two weeks.
It was a haven for Jews until the Axis rolled in and Hitler Hitler solved the Jewish problem once and for all.
Now the Russians are knocking at the gate.
When you've lived in a place where borders have no meaning, borders come to mean a great deal.
in this country, yet still I keep a packed suitcase by the front door.
Good.
Let's throw it in the car, go for a drive, pick up Frank.
He's gone, and he's never coming back.
What does that mean, gone? He's dead? I don't believe you.
You knew the man.
Do you think Frank Winter would surrender quietly? Sands shift during wartime.
No one-- no one has tenure.
The ones who survive are the ones who adapt.
Next time, call me directly.
My name is Avram Fisher.
Where are my manners? - Congratulations.
- For surviving or adapting? For the baby.
Mazel tov to you and your wife.
You invited Callie to dinner at a filling station? Ralph and Betty's Cafe.
This is it.
Where's my daughter? Elena? I sent her home.
Where were you? Out.
- Abby.
- Hmm? Is there something that you need to tell me? You know, Charlie, I think we dug up all the skeletons the last time you stopped by.
I'm sure the neighbors can give you a transcript.
Are you pregnant? She told you.
I had to hear it from the Angel of Death.
- What? - Abby.
Charlie.
You were going to sign the divorce papers and sneak out the back door with Joey? This is a sign.
I don't believe in signs, Charlie.
Fine, it's better than a sign.
It's a chance.
It's too late.
There's a lunatic in Europe making orphans out of a thousand Jewish kids a day.
You want two more to grow up without their father? You think I don't know about Europe? Honestly? You remember that first doctor at Mass General? The one who looked like Calvin Coolidge? A medical improbability.
That's what he called it.
And I told you we could raise Siamese cats for all I care.
But you wanted a daughter so badly.
We both did.
And you proved the doctors wrong.
Right out of the gates, you said it felt like a boy, and you were right about that, too.
Thought I'd never see you again.
I mean, for all I knew, you were dead.
And then you came in the door and you said that I poisoned our marriage.
Listen.
Whatever happened between me and you or me and her - or you and-- - Charlie.
It's not us.
It's this place.
I treated you like every other jerk on this hill treats his wife.
I underestimated you.
I forgot what I had.
But there's a kid in there.
He doesn't know his father screwed up.
His world doesn't even exist yet.
We can do better.
I can be better.
It feels like a girl.
Callie's on her way.
Good.
a message at the barracks.
I goofed.
I sent her to the wrong restaurant.
You left it in your jacket pocket.
So where were you really going to meet Callie? Premarital sex was not invented in 1944.
There's a hotel off the plaza.
We haven't actually-- I wanted to wait until we were married, but I Do you love her? She's the most perfect person I've ever met.
Is she happy? What? Callie took some pills about a month back.
Methyl something.
They were blue.
Methylphenobarbital.
They're mine.
I don't think that she was really trying to-- She said it runs in the family.
There was an incident when we lived in Ithaca.
I made a mistake.
Were you trying? I know that Callie's afraid that she has what I have, but she's not like me.
I spent half of my life looking for a trapdoor out of it.
We picked her up at a hotel in Santa Fe.
Callie! You can thank us back at the Hill.
Sorry, ma'am.
If you took her away, I'd never see her again.
It's time to go.
How do you like your coffee? In my own living room.
2,000 miles from here.
So what happens when a Nobel laureate stays out past curfew? You call out the 101st Airborne? A Nobel laureate with a packed suitcase in his car? Is that a crime? Liza Winter, PhD, second in her class at Barnard.
Not a charm school.
I'm going to assume you weren't born yesterday.
I hope you'll extend me the same courtesy.
Colonel Darrow, is it? My husband dragged us here and now he's gone, and no one will tell me where you're sending his check.
So, under the circumstances, I would be grateful if I could be released with time served.
Colonel, I can't spill secrets I wasn't entrusted with in the first place.
I understand you have a job to do, but so do I.
If you let me just go back to Princeton, you'll never hear from me again.
set off a chain reaction that will explode with the power of 20,000 tons of TNT.
Powerful enough to wipe cities off the map.
Cities full of people? You recorded our conversations? No, the Army will detonate it someplace where it can't hurt anyone.
When the Axis sees what we're capable of, they'll have no choice.
They will have to surrender For how long? Your husband is at another site proving his loyalty to his country.
You can help him by proving that you can be a discreet, productive member of this community.
We're writing the prologue to a new era, a history of peace.
I've made mistakes.
I've done things I'm not proud of, but I swear I did all of it with you and Callie in mind.
A few months ago, a physicist from another design group came to me and he told me that his model wasn't going to work.
So Reed Akley and I engaged in a secret conspiracy to co-opt the resources of his group for implosion.
You remember Charlie Isaacs? We set him up to cover our tracks.
The irony is the only way we were able to crack implosion was by stealing I may know what it is you're building here but my daughter does not.
but he had no idea.
Make sure your white security badges are visible.
All white badge holders report to the PX immediately for the mandatory staff meeting.
The all hands tech area staff meeting is beginning in the PX.
Be prepared to present your security badge.
Damn it.
They fix the PA? Where is he? The Army said Frank was transferred to another site.
One suit, one shirt, one necktie, one pair of shoes? That's all he took.
All his clothes are boxed up at the house.
He even left his security badge.
Does that sound like a transfer to you? I don't know what law of physics he's broken now, but I think you do.
Ma'am? Would you come with us, please? It's all right.
Hey, she's fine.
She doesn't have clearance.
Where is he? All right, can I get everyone's attention, please? Thanks very much.
Can I have everyone's attention? Thank you.
Dr.
Oppenheimer asked me to say a few words about the road ahead.
But I want to talk about the road that got us here.
I had a teacher in St.
Louis.
He used to say that science isn't a quest for truth, but a process of correcting your errors.
We've racked up more than our share on this hill.
And I want to correct one right now.
The fact that we're all standing here, that there is a path forward, we owe it to one man, and he isn't standing here with us.
The implosion model exists because of Frank Winter.
He was the crank in the wilderness rubbing two sticks together when no one believed.
He fed the spark.
He fought off the wolves.
He corrected his errors.
You should be listening to Frank right now.
But the War Department has asked him to take the reins on another project at another site.
Their gain is our loss.
I talked to Frank on the phone a little while ago.
He gave me his blessing and I gave him my sincere thanks.
We all should.
Did he talk to him? As for the road ahead there is no road.
We have to dig it out of the dirt.
It's no longer a thought problem.
It's not a theory.
We're all going home with blood on our sleeves.
We're going to build a working gadget.
We're going to drop it on Berlin.
If those doubting Thomases in Washington don't believe us, then they can fly out here and stick their fingers in the wound.
'Cause on July 4th, 1945, we're going to put on the biggest firework show since the Book of Genesis.
We're going to test the gadget in our own backyard.
A nuclear test in a year? Whose bloody sleeve did he pull that out of? He just pushed in all his chips.
It's a bluff.
Now, I've heard it said that physics is a gentleman's sport.
Some of you may think I'm hitting above my weight.
_ I'm 28 years old.
I grew up in Missouri in a cold-water tenement.
Red blood, not blue.
My mother used to scrub it out of my school clothes.
See, I had to learn to hit above my weight.
We all do.
'Cause the guys in the other corner, they invented quantum mechanics.
They split the atom.
They beat us to the punch.
That's another error we're going to correct.
And when it's over, when we've corrected that error in Germany right off the face of the earth then we're all going home where we belong, secure in the knowledge that we did the right thing.
Polk residence.
I left my wallet at the depot in Santa Fe.
I swear I'll set the land-speed record.
Listen, I lost my mother this week, okay? - All right, then.
- Thank you.
Go ahead.
I know I broke protocol, but-- Get in.
I, uh The car.
I have a flat tire, so-- You.
The thespian.
The role of a lifetime.
Germans or Soviets? Uh, there's some kind of mix-up.
You are in a world of trouble from sea to shining sea.
I am your only friend, so I advise you to think very carefully about your next answer.
Who recruited him? What? Frank Winter recruited you.
Who recruited Frank Winter? You all right? Get the legs.
You want a volunteer to climb - a 100-foot steel lightning rod.
- Yes.
To babysit Shiva, the God of Death, in the middle of an electrical storm.
Well, maybe the Japs can spare a kamikaze pilot.
- I'll do it.
- No way.
If the colonel wants to double-check the detonators, he can do it himself.
No wife.
No kids.
I'll do it.
No, you're more valuable on the ground.
- Jim, you don't have to.
- It's okay.
It should be someone you trust.
Hey! Hey, you! The Boy Wonder said to give you this.
Start the clock.
Zero minus 160 minutes.
By 0430 hours, every tent, including this one, will be collapsed and loaded for transport to the 10,000-meter perimeter.
And if anyone sees Dr.
Frank Winter on the premises, arrest him.
If he resists, you have the authority to use all necessary force.