Summary
The U.S. government spied on J. Robert Oppenheimer, planting a listening device in a desk lamp to record his conversations. The government’s surveillance was aimed at sabotaging Oppenheimer’s political influence and finding information about Communist connections. The level of spying on Oppenheimer revealed in the film shows the intense surveillance he was under, even before he spoke out against the bomb.
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Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was an incredibly faithful adaptation of real-world events, but one detail that many viewers missed showed the lengths the United States government went to in order to spy on Robert. Oppenheimer follows the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the scientists responsible for building the atomic bomb used in World War II. While the building of the bomb is heavily featured in the movie, even though Oppenheimer didn’t depict Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it also spends considerable time detailing how the U.S. government interacted with Robert and the fallout from his involvement in the Manhattan Project.
The government never fully trusted Robert throughout the movie, a fact that became clear during the security hearing. Robert was overcome by guilt at his contributions to the atomic bomb by the ending of Oppenheimer, and he began advocating against the nuclear arms race of the Cold War. The U.S. government then wanted to stop him from being able to influence nuclear policy, and they used recordings of conversations Robert had in the past against him. Oppenheimer’s timeline and chronological events weren’t exactly clear, and how and why the government had those recordings wasn’t fully explored, but a genius detail in Oppenheimer hinted at an explanation.
Related Oppenheimer True Story – The Real Manhattan Project Explained Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer depicts the true story of the titular director of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb.
Oppenheimer Detail Suggests A Listening Device Was Put In A Desk Lamp To Spy On Robert’s
Some of the biggest examples of the government’s spying took place in Lyall Johnson’s office, and a subtle difference in the office indicated that Boris Pash had replaced the desk lamp and planted a listening device in the new lamp as pointed out on Reddit. Recordings from that office were one of the main pieces of evidence used against Robert during the security hearings in Oppenheimer.
Robert was surprised when the recordings were brought in as evidence, and the subtle lamp change shows why he didn’t catch the government’s spying. The lamp was also just one example of the government’s listening, implying that they hid other devices to record even more of Robert Oppenheimer’s conversations.
Recordings from that office were one of the main pieces of evidence used against Robert during the security hearings.
Why The U.S. Was Spying On Oppenheimer (Including Bugging His Office)
The U.S. government wanted to sabotage Robert’s political influence, and they used secret recordings of him to help revoke his security clearance. Still, they never explained why they had them years before Oppenheimer had much influence on nuclear policy. The switched lamps indicate that the recordings were made by Pash because he knew Robert would be talking about his Communist connections. Pash and the government were incredibly fearful of Communist and Soviet influence in the U.S., even though they were allies during the war, and spying on Robert was a way to find more information.
The U.S. government kept Robert under close surveillance for years in real life, as seen in Oppenheimer. While Oppenheimer didn’t expressly say how the government recorded Robert’s conversations, the brilliant detail revealed that they bugged a lamp could have been taken from true events, with reports suggesting that the man’s home and office were bugged. The lamp showed just how pervasive their spying was and how Robert was always in a precarious position with the government, even before speaking out about the bomb.
Oppenheimer is available to stream February 16th, 2024, on Peacock.
Source: Reddit/Sacrer
Oppenheimer
Release Date July 21, 2023
Runtime 150 Minutes
Budget $100 Million
Distributor(s) Universal Pictures