The Endless Search for the Greatest Bomb
I didn’t watch the Oscars, but I heard that Oppenheimer swept. I’m a little surprised and disappointed to see that Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon didn’t receive awards, but I must confess, I really enjoyed Oppenheimer. I think the ending is particularly relevant today, especially if we allow it to wander off the tracks of the particular historical issue the film is about. I should warn you now, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, consider watching it before you read the rest of this blog post. I will be talking about the ending specifically.
Unlocking the technology of a nuclear weapon is the objective that drives the plot of the film, but there are numerous challenges throughout. The American team needed to find a way to accomplish the task before the Germans who are also working on weapons of mass destruction. The science and math were challenging beyond my capacity to understand or explain. There was a fear that it might cause a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world when they tested it, and they were never absolutely certain that they could rule out that possibility. Furthermore, there is a persistent moral challenge underlying the entire decision to work on the project. Everyone knows that they will be unleashing massive destructive power, and they have to invent justifications for it. The Germans must be defeated or they will conquer all of Europe. We cannot allow the Soviets to gain the upper hand in global politics. If we show the world how destructive this device can be, that will end wars forever. This will be the shock that the world needs to move on from fighting. For the sake of the world, for our children, for the future, we must build this bomb.
Of course, those justifications can only go so far, and not everyone was on board. Some scientists circulated a petition to call for the president to not drop the bomb on Japanese cities, but that proposal got rejected. Oppenheimer worked to have international controls on nuclear arms development, but ultimately failed and the nuclear arms race defined the Cold War era. In the name of national defense and out of pure scientific curiosity, other scientists gladly worked on even larger and more destructive hydrogen bombs. The hopes of using the bomb once to end wars forever was a superficial hope at best. It was never going to work. Maybe Oppenheimer knew that all along. Maybe he had convinced himself it could be true, providing the justification he and others needed to complete their work. But the bleak reality is that the threat of nuclear annihilation continues to be a fear today, and we will probably never be able to do away with it entirely. The ending of thousands of lives in a single moment of fire, heat, and pressure will always be a possibility plaguing our lives. Was it really worth it?
In hindsight, we might say, “no,” but that would be hard to say when the project started. The enemy they faced was truly evil in a way that the world has not seen since. Nazi Germany planned systematic genocide on an international level. They needed to be stopped at any cost, but scientists then were naive in thinking that human nature would be too shocked by this terrible power of destruction to continue using it. We will always destroy if we have the tools to do it.
Throughout the movie there is a particular interaction between Oppenheimer and Einstein that is hinted at, but never shown until the end. Lewis Strauss, the main antagonist in the film, believes this was the moment that Oppenheimer turned the scientific community against him by saying something defamatory to Einstein. Strauss is shown throughout the movie as obsessed with this moment. He blames it for most of the troubles he faces in the film, though he never knows exactly what was said. This is a terrible experience that I’m sure most of us have felt. Not knowing what other people have said about you leaves you filling in the gaps with the most paranoid ideas. His anxiety around it makes the audience wonder more and more what could have possibly been said in that brief interaction. Finally, at the very end of the movie, we see that it had nothing to do with Strauss at all.
Earlier in the film, while Oppenheimer was puzzling over the possibility that their bomb may cause a chain reaction that would set the entire atmosphere aflame, he asked Einstein to look at the math and see what he thought. Years later, after the bomb had been tested and used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even though they knew it didn’t vaporize the entire atmosphere, Oppenheimer returned to the idea. In speaking with Einstein that day, he recalled that they feared they might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world, and then he simply said, “I believe we did.”
Obviously, he wasn’t speaking about math and physics at that point. The chain reaction they started had more to do with human behavior. They gave humans the bomb, and he predicted that humans would inevitably destroy themselves with it. The bomb that he hoped would be the end of wars, would only serve in destroying everything. Cynically, we could say that it would indeed serve its purpose. If we destroy all life on earth, then at least there would be no more wars.
Unfortunately, some people will see this movie and see a champion, a hero, the guy who gave us the bomb that ended the second world war. In reality, we should see a tragic figure, who naively thought he could build a weapon powerful enough to bring peace, and that is the lesson we should learn.
After the October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas, Israel began a campaign in Gaza that has killed, injured, and displaced countless people. Israel’s justification is that Hamas must be destroyed so that the people in Israel can live in safety and security. Peace will only be achieved through utter destruction of their enemies whatever the cost. Peace will be achieved when enough bombs are dropped that no enemy is left standing. But the truth is, this will never work. Peace will never be won at the tip of a sword. Security may be bought temporarily through violence, but if the lives of children lost as collateral damage in airstrikes are the cost of that rent, maybe temporary security isn’t worth it. No bomb, no matter how powerful, no matter how shocking will bring us peace, they will only contribute to the chain reaction that will destroy the entire world.
If we really want peace, the only option is to follow the Prince of Peace. Jesus loved and healed, and then he died. I’m not saying that pacifism is the only way to be a Christian, but guns and bombs will never bring us peace. Love and healing, mercy and listening, and being willing to sacrifice for even those who hate you, a commitment to the flourishing of all life and Creation, these, not violence, will bring us peace if we ever, by God’s grace, deserve it.
