Oppenheimer (I) (2023)
Josh Hartnett: Ernest Lawrence
Photos
Quotes
-
[Repeated line]
Ernest Lawrence : Theory will take you only so far.
-
J. Robert Oppenheimer : Why would they care what I do?
Ernest Lawrence : Because you're not just self-important, you're actually important.
-
Ernest Lawrence : [Greeting General Groves] Leslie.
Leslie Groves : Dr. Lawrence, I'd like to remind you what we talked about in Berkeley.
Ernest Lawrence : Compartmentalization, I understand completely
Ernest Lawrence : [Addressing a group of physicists and scientists at Los Alamos] I am here to update you on our progress and solicit your input. To do so, I am going to have to share a few things that General Groves told me not to.
Ernest Lawrence : [to General Groves] Sorry, General, I said I understood, not that I agreed.
-
Ernest Lawrence : [after Lawrence breaks up a meeting of the F.A.E.C.T. in the lab] They won't let me bring you onto the project because of this shit. They won't even let me tell you what the project is.
J. Robert Oppenheimer : Oh, I know what the project is.
Ernest Lawrence : Oh, really?
J. Robert Oppenheimer : We've all heard about Einstein and Szilard's letter to Roosevelt warning him that Germans could make a bomb. And I know what it means for the Nazis to have a bomb.
Ernest Lawrence : And I don't?
J. Robert Oppenheimer : It's not your people they're herding into camps. It's mine.
Ernest Lawrence : You think that I tell them about your politics. The next time you're coming home from a meeting, why don't you take a look in the rear view mirror, listen to the sounds on your phone line and stop being so goddam naïve.
J. Robert Oppenheimer : Why would they care what I do?
Ernest Lawrence : Because you're not just self-important. You're actually important.
J. Robert Oppenheimer : Okay, I get it.
Ernest Lawrence : If you could just be a little more...
J. Robert Oppenheimer : Pragmatic. I'll talk to Lomanitz, I'll talk to the others, you don't have to worry. It's done.
Ernest Lawrence : Then welcome to the war.
-
Luis Alvarez : [Reproducing splitting the atom, verifying nuclear fission and pointing at the oscilloscope] Look. These fission pulses, they're massive. I've seen 30 of these in the past 10 minutes.
Ernest Lawrence : Theory will take you only so far.
J. Robert Oppenheimer : During the process, extra neutrons boil off. Which be used to split other uranium atoms...
Ernest Lawrence : A chain reaction. You're thinking what I'm thinking.
J. Robert Oppenheimer : You, me and every physicist around the world who's seen the news.
Luis Alvarez : [Baffled] What? What are we all thinking?
J. Robert Oppenheimer : A bomb, Alvarez. A bomb.