Oppenheimer: A Movie Review
Oppenheimer was a film documenting the Manhattan project—a program led by the United States to create the first nuclear weapons—from the perspective of the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. In this film, Oppenheimer was appointed by the director of the project, Leslie Groves, to lead the operations and nuclear research at the Los Alamos laboratory. This movie greatly illustrates the advantages and challenges introduced by a more interconnected world, wherein various nations cooperate with each other to meet their respective goals. As we can observe in the story, globalization was a positive force overall for the development of nuclear bombs during World War 2: it facilitated the collaboration among multiple states, thereby accelerating its growth; moreover, it resulted in the quick dissemination of information needed to commence the project. Nevertheless, the rapid spread of information undermined the project’s security.
Globalization was conducive in the speedy advancement of nuclear weapons because it led to the collaboration between three different nations—the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Although Britain initially refused to assist the US in their research, their lack of resources compelled them to work together. As a result, Niels Bohr and other British scientists were sent to work at Los Alamos to help in designing the nuclear bomb. In addition, research and development was conducted across 30 locations in the US, the UK, and Canada. If the nations were not interconnected and collaboration did not take place, Britain would have never been able to significantly improve their nuclear research (insufficient resources), and the pace of nuclear research in the US would have been much slower.
The interconnected nature of globalization resulted in the rapid spread of information that allowed the US to explore nuclear weapons early on. Because of the letter of Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner, which was sent to Franklin Roosevelt, the US became aware of Germany’s plans to develop a new type of weapon. For this reason, they began collecting uranium for the purpose of studying nuclear chain reactions. In the film, we also discover that J Robert Oppenheimer was able to popularize the field of quantum physics in the US because he previously studied in Cambridge. Therefore, without the interconnectedness of the world, the US would have most likely failed in developing the atomic bomb before Germany.
It should be noted that the quick spread of information also brought about problems: it threatened the security and confidentiality of the research. Even with strict measures, Soviet atomic spies were able to leak information about the project. The project implemented compartmentalization, wherein scientists were discouraged from knowing beyond what they need for their assigned role. Nevertheless, Klaus Fuchs, a British physicist that was involved in designing the implosion bomb at Los Alamos, contributed and revealed confidential information to the Soviet Union.
The film highlights how globalization benefits research through collaborative efforts that ensure mutual progress. This collaboration gave rise to the rapid spread of information which drove technological innovation. However, it also introduced security vulnerabilities. In the modern world where technology rapidly develops, a greater need to reexamine and improve international policies arises to prevent bad actors from exploiting the flaws of globalization.