Funny / Oppenheimer

Even for a movie as serious about the creation of the atomic bomb of all things, it can still get some laughs.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

---

• The first meeting between Oppenheimer and Groves, who makes an impression by taking off his jacket and brusquely ordering Lt. Col. Nichols to have it dry-cleaned:
  Oppenheimer: Well. If that's how you treat a lieutenant colonel, I'd hate to think how you'd treat a humble physicist.
  Groves: Please. If I ever meet one, I'll let you know.
  Oppenheimer: Ouch.
  • There's also Groves' reading of Oppenheimer's character:
    Groves: You're a dilettante, a womanizer, a suspected communist...
    Oppenheimer: I'm a New Deal Democrat.
    Groves: I said "suspected". Unstable, theatrical, egotistical, neurotic...
    Oppenheimer: Nothing good, no? Not even "He's brilliant, but..."
    Groves: Well, brilliance is taken for-granted in your circle, so no.
  • Though Oppenheimer manages to hold his own, as when he reveals what the one chance the Americans have to triumph over the Germans in the race to develop the bomb is:
    Oppenheimer: In a straight race the Germans win. We've got one hope.
    Groves: Which is?
    Oppenheimer: Anti-semitism.
    Groves: [Clearly wondering where this conversation is going] ... What.
• When Groves tells Oppenheimer that the US is also in a sort of war with Russia, alluding to people like Oppenheimer who has ties with communists, this exchange happens:
  Oppenheimer: Point taken, but, no.
  Groves: [chuckles] You don’t get to say 'no' to me.
  Oppenheimer: My job is to say 'no' to you when you’re wrong.
  Groves: So you have the job now?
  Oppenheimer: Eh, I'm considering it.
  Groves: [smirking] ...I'm starting to see where you get your reputation. My favorite response: 'Oppenheimer couldn't run a hamburger stand.'
  Oppenheimer: It’s true, I can't. But I can run the Manhattan Project.
• When rounding up scientists to join the Manhattan Project, neither Oppenheimer nor Groves are impressed with the knowledge one has of current affairs:
  Oppenheimer: Heisenberg, Liebner. Both at war. What do these men have in common?
  Scientist: Greatest minds on atomic theory.
  Oppenheimer: Yes. And?
  Scientist: Ummmm... I don't know.
  Groves: [Impatient] The Nazis have them.
  Scientist: Niels Bohr's in Copenhagen.
  Groves: [Equally impatient] Under Nazi occupation. Did they stop printing newspapers in Princeton?
• Before the Trinity Test, no one really knew what would happen when the first atomic bomb exploded. Oppenheimer gives his theoretical worst-case scenario to Leslie Groves Jr. Groves' reaction:
  Groves: Are we saying there's a chance that when we push that button... we destroy the world?
  Oppenheimer: Nothing in our research over three years supports that conclusion except as the most remote possibility.
  Groves: How remote?
  Oppenheimer: [dismissively] The chances are near zero.
  [Beat]
  Groves: [flabbergasted] Near zero?
  Oppenheimer: [shrugs] What do you want from theory alone?
  Groves: Zero, would be nice!
  • The way Groves learns of this possibility: Fermi was taking bets on whether it would happen (and it was a Side Bet). Best of all, this actually happened.
  • While the team waits out a passing thunderstorm, Isidor Rabi tells the chief meteorologist he might want to tell his men to get away from the giant metal tower with an atomic bomb on the top of it.
  • Edward Teller prepares for the Trinity Test by pulling up a lounge chair and smearing sunscreen on his face, as though it were another day on the beach.^note This also really happened, and apparently Teller convinced the other scientists watching with him that they ought to use some as well.
    Teller: Is it rubbed in?
    Feynman: Yeah.
  • Richard Feynman is watching the test from the comfort of his car as if he's at a drive-in theater, claiming that the windshield is sufficient protection from the UV radiation. Teller then asks him what will protect him from the glass.^note Feynman was completely unharmed and saw the explosion from behind the windshield as planned, making him the only person to see it without protective glasses.
• At the meeting following the Trinity test, Secretary of War Henry Stimson provides a list of twelve possible Japanese targets for the bomb, only to strike one off the list: Kyoto, in part because that's where he honeymooned with his wife. ("Beautiful city!", he says, with a slightly sheepish smile.) Even funnier (or more sobering, depending on your view) is that something like this actually happened^note it should perhaps be noted that the claim that Stimson removed Kyoto from the list because he honeymooned there is an urban legend not supported by the historical record; while he did visit the city prior to the war, his first recorded visit was years after his marriage. While Stimson may have had some personal reasons for removing the city, they weren't connected with his marriage, although his main objection was that Kyoto had been the capital of ancient Japan and was the most religiously significant city in the country: destroying it would have all but guaranteed the Japanese fighting to the last man.
• The Rule of Three involving Robert bringing Jean flowers.
  • At one point, when visiting Jean, she tossed the flowers that Robert brings her when meeting with her at an inappropriate time, bluntly telling him "quit bringing me fucking flowers". She tosses them in the lorry.
  • Later, when Oppenheimer goes to break things off with Jean after he impregnates Kitty, she says "At least you didn't bring flowers." He then pulls a single flower from his blazer, which she then tosses aside.
  • When he visits Jean while in Chicago, to comfort her, he brings her flowers. He hands them to her and as they head towards the bed, almost out of muscle memory, she tosses them in the garbage without even looking, with them landing perfectly in the trash.
• After one physicist quits the Manhattan Project due to not being able to stand Groves, the general jokes about having him killed. Oppenheimer gives him a blank stare before Groves clarifies he wasn't serious.
• While not inherently funny, Richard Feynman playing the bongos in almost every scene he's in sure is charming.^note In real life, Feynman indeed played the bongos, as shown in this video.
• When Lawrence first arrives as Los Alamos, Groves reminds him seriously to remember what he told Lawrence earlier about compartmentalization and secrecy. Lawrence assures Groves that he remembers....only immediately to blurt out secrets to the other scientists in front of an irritated Groves and announce that just because Lawrence remembers what Groves said doesn't mean he had any intention of following those instructions.
• A Funny Background Event: At the Christmas party at Los Alamos, shortly before Niels Bohr is presented, you can see another scientist cheerfully try to put a Christmas hat on Teller's head. Teller scowls, jerks away, and glares at the other scientist with crossed arms.
• After Strauss' big rant about how Oppenheimer should be grateful to him for not having him publicly cast as the villain of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the aide instantly retorts with "well, he's not". There's no Dramatic Pause or anything - it's so quick it almost makes the scene border on Mood Whiplash.
• The Senate aide's reactions to Strauss' Villainous Breakdown are quite funny; while Strauss is ranting about Oppenheimer, it's clear the aide isn't fazed in the slightest and seems to actually be annoyed by it, as if he's thinking that this is what his career has led to. The camera's frequent cuts from Strauss' breakdown to the aide's extremely nonchalant reaction to it makes it even funnier.
• The (otherwise quite serious) final scene shows Albert Einstein next to a lake. The wind must've been strong that day because Einstein's hat unceremoniously gets blown off his head, to both his and Oppenheimer's surprise.
• Oppenheimer, who notoriously Forgets to Eat ^note and was often dangerously underweight in real life neglects to make sure that a kitchen is put in his house at Los Alamos.
  Kitty: There's no kitchen.
  Robert: Really? We'll fix that.
• Klaus Fuchs's heavy accent gives Oppenheimer a moment of pause. But it's made clear by Fuchs's matter-of-fact response.
  Oppenheimer: When did you become British?
  Fuchs: When Hitler told me I wasn't German.
• Strauss corrects Oppenheimer's pronunciation of his last name at their first meeting.
  Strauss: It's pronounced "straws."
  Oppenheimer: Oh-ppenheimer or Oppenheimer, say it however you want, everyone still knows I'm Jewish.
• Rabi's reason for offering Oppenheimer some food shortly after their first meeting.
  Rabi: Eat. If you get any skinnier we're going to lose you between the seat cushions.
• A rather dark example: after Oppenheimer's unsuccessful meeting with President Truman, where he breaks down and tells him about his guilt, as he leaves, Truman tells someone "don't let that crybaby in here again." Perfectly Crosses the Line Twice. Slightly different from what Truman actually said after Oppenheimer left: "I don't want to see that son of a bitch in this office ever again," and he later remarked to Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, "Never bring that fucking cretin in here again."
• After Oppenheimer rejects Truman's congratulations on the Manhattan Project, he disconsolately tells the President he feels he has blood on his hands. Truman's response? To slowly, stone-facedly draw a handkerchief from his pocket and wave it in Oppenheimer's face as if to mockingly say "boo hoo!". Horrifically callous, certainly, but still a tension-breaking childish gesture after a devastating moment.^note In real life, after Oppenheimer said he felt he had blood on his hands, Truman accompanied the handkerchief offering by retorting "would you like me to wipe them off for you?" The reason that Truman did this was to impress upon Oppenheimer that, as the man to actually order the dropping of the atomic bombs, Truman felt he bore the ultimate responsibility for the consequences (there's a reason that his personal motto was "The Buck Stops Here"), and thus had little sympathy for Oppenheimer's anxieties.
• Rabi's introduction has him offering to help a student understand the English in Oppenheimer's lecture only to ask the student what he's saying when he gives the lecture in Dutch.
• When Robert admits to almost poisoning his professor to Jean, her response is priceless.
  Jean: You just needed to get laid.
  Oppenheimer: That took my analyst two years, and I don't think he ever put it quite that succinctly.
• When Rabi properly meets Oppenheimer for the first time, he playfully makes fun of him for not knowing a word of Yiddish despite being a New York Jew and being proficient in several other languages. Oppenheimer admits that his family is too upper-crust for that.
• In a flashback to Oppenheimer's Cambridge days, he decides to get back at his professor for not letting him attend a Niels Bohr lecture by injecting an apple on his desk with cyanide. He subsequently forgets about this until the next morning, causing him to frantically rush to class and finding Bohr about to eat the apple, to which Oppenheimer throws it in the trash and scolds him on eating in a chemistry lab.
• There is something inherently funny about Strauss' attempt to end Oppenheimer's career only ending in his own career ending purely because he thought Oppie and Einstein were talking shit about him behind his back. His facial expression when he is asked if it ever crossed his mind that the two weren't talking about him is priceless, to say the least.
• Lilli Hornig gets herself a place on the plutonium team in three sentences:
  Lilli: Dr. Oppenheimer! I tried personnel. They asked if I could type.
  Oppenheimer: Can you?
  Lilli: [deadpan] Harvard forgot to teach that on the graduate chemistry course.
  Oppenheimer: [grins, turns to Condon] Put Mrs. Hornig on the plutonium team.
• Groves losing his temper as he and Oppenheimer attempt to recruit scientists.
  Condon: Why would we do it?
  Groves: Why? Why? How about because this is the most important FUCKING thing to ever happen in the history of the world! How about that?!
  (Beat)
  Groves: (offscreen) FUCK!
• When Oppenheimer first meets Jean at a party, he mentions he's read Karl Marx's entire Das Kapital, and tries to quote one of its precepts, "Ownership is theft." Jean corrects him by telling him the quote is actually, "Property is theft." Oppenheimer admits he might have gotten it wrong, as he read the books in the original German.

---