How accurate Oppenheimer is and what happened next

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The three-hour biopic isn't just about the Manhattan Project, but also about how Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) became the physicist chosen to lead the project and then also what happened to him in the years after the project.

There's a lot going on in Oppenheimer, so let's delve into the real-life history to see how accurate the new movie is, and what happened after the events of the movie to J Robert Oppenheimer.

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Oppenheimer true story: How accurate is the movie?

It's perhaps not a surprise to know that Christopher Nolan chose to be true to history when it came to telling Oppenheimer's story, adapted from award-winning biography American Prometheus.

Of course, creative licence had to be taken at points, but it's generally faithful to the story of Oppenheimer. There is one point of contention with Oppenheimer's grandson, Charles Oppenheimer, though.

Early on in the movie, we see Oppenheimer attempt to poison his tutor, Patrick Blackett, while he was at Cambridge by lacing an apple with toxic chemicals.

There's already a difference between the movie and what was reported to have happened in real life as we see Oppenheimer stop the apple being eaten by Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh). In real life, Oppenheimer went on vacation where he told his friends about the apple and, fortunately, Blackett never ate it (via Science History Institute).

It's easy to see why Nolan chose to add more cinematic tension with this change, but Oppenheimer's grandson believes this scene shouldn't have been included as it's potentially not historically accurate.

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"If you read American Prometheus carefully enough, the authors say, 'We don't really know if it happened'' There's no record of him trying to kill somebody. That's a really serious accusation and it's historical revision," explained Charles Oppenheimer.

"There's not a single enemy or friend of Robert Oppenheimer who heard that during his life and considered it to be true."

Aside from this though, Charles noted that the movie was "really largely accurate".

As we see in the movie, Oppenheimer did have a brief affair with Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) while he was married to Kitty Oppenheimer (Emily Blunt). Tatlock later died by suicide, although there has been a conspiracy theory that she was actually murdered by intelligence agents over her communist views.

Following the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer was opposed to building a hydrogen bomb and it ultimately led to a security hearing in 1954, as we see play out in the movie, which saw his security clearance revoked.

But the movie doesn't really go beyond this moment in Oppenheimer's life, barring a brief flash-forward to him receiving an award from the US government.

So what happened to Oppenheimer after the events of the movie?

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What happened next to J Robert Oppenheimer?

Following his security clearance being revoked in 1954, Oppenheimer's contract as an adviser to the Atomic Energy Commission was cancelled, effectively ending any political power that he previously had.

His clearance was never reinstated, but Oppenheimer remained concerned about the danger to humanity of new scientific inventions like the hydrogen bomb. Together with Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and Joseph Rotblat, he established what would become the World Academy of Art and Science, a global forum to address global challenges.

Oppenheimer continued to work in the field of physics, giving lectures in Europe and Japan and publishing The Open Mind in 1955, a collection of eight lectures about nuclear weapons, and delivering the William James Lectures at Harvard in 1957.

Also in 1957, France made him an Officer of the Legion of Honour and in 1962, Oppenheimer was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in London.

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The award we see Oppenheimer receive in the movie was the Enrico Fermi Award, given to honour scientists for lifetime achievement, in 1963. It was awarded by President John F Kennedy in 1963, but ended up being presented to Oppenheimer by President Lyndon Johnson following Kennedy's assassination.

It was a symbolic gesture as it didn't lead to Oppenheimer's security clearance being reinstated. However, in December 2022, the United States Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, nullified the decision to revoke his security clearance due to the "flawed process" of the hearings (via The New York Times).

Oppenheimer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1965 and died in February 1967 at the age of 62. His wife Kitty had his ashes scattered near their beach house in St John, which Oppenheimer had built in 1957.

Kitty later died of an embolism, also aged 62, in October 1972.

For more Oppenheimer coverage, check out:

• Oppenheimer review
• How long is Oppenheimer?
• All 12 Christopher Nolan movies, ranked
• Did Oppenheimer really know Einstein?
• Oppenheimer is more Jewish than you realise
• Oppenheimer's dual timelines explained

Oppenheimer is now available to buy on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and on digital platforms like Prime Video.

Credit: Newmarket

Ian Sandwell

Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.