August 9. Oppenheimer – as shown in the movie – wants to build the atomic bomb because it’s his baby. He also wants to become famous for it – and he is vain. It remains undecided whether science or vanity prevails. It is convenient that he can refuse any responsibility for the way it gets used – so he can focus entirely on making the baby. When the bomb gets used and it reveals what it was all along – a cruel weapon, he can still tell himself that using it was strategically necessary, or appropriate as a kind of vengeance. (The Brueghel faces at the victory speech.) But these reasons do not convince him anymore. Now that his baby has been delivered, he can afford to doubt. He can afford to be against the hydrogen bomb because it is not his baby.