Christopher Nolan’s new historical movie Oppenheimer has landed in theaters. For those wondering what happens at the end of this historical thriller starring Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr., here is the Oppenheimer ending explained.
What happens at the end of Oppenheimer?
Early in the movie, Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) recalls a moment when J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) walked over to Albert Einstein (Tom Conti) after his hat blew off. Oppenheimer picked up the hat and handed it back to Einstein and then they exchanged words. When Einstein walked away from Oppenheimer, Einstein would not look at Strauss, unable to say a word. Strauss wonders what Oppenheimer could have said to impact Einstein like this.
The first two times we see this scene, it is in black and white. Nolan explained that the black and white scenes are meant to be an objective point of view from Strauss’s perspective while the color scenes are subjective, from Oppenheimer’s point of view. In true Nolan fashion, he plays this scene a few times in the movie before we get the payoff in the end, where we see this scene in color.
Oppenheimer picks up Einstein’s hat and hands it to him. They exchange a few words. Einstein tells Oppenheimer about the achievements he will have, the medals he will receive, and the people from his past he will see. We see a vision of this future, with the characters in this movie as older people. Einstein remarks, “It won’t be for you; it will be for them.” Kitty (Emily Blunt) refuses to shake Edward Teller’s (Benny Safdie) hand after his negative testimony at the Oppenheimer security hearing.
The movie ends with Oppenheimer telling Einstein that there was a time when the Manhattan Project would possibly destroy the world. He then says, “I believe we did.” We linger on his devastated face and cut to the launching of nuclear weapons, showing how Oppenheimer’s impact changed the world, in his opinion, for the worse.
