Oppenheimer: The ‘destroyer of worlds’ who built the atomic bomb – and how his legacy still impacts us today
Each time Vladimir Putin raises the spectre of nuclear confrontation, the trail ultimately leads back to one man.
Eighty years before the Russian president invaded Ukraine, and brought the potential of such weapons back to mainstream attention, J Robert Oppenheimer was recruited to lead a team that would construct the world’s first atomic bombs.
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The Manhattan Project, set up during the Second World War in 1942, was guided by fear that if the US and its allies didn’t make them first, Hitler’s Nazi scientists would.
A left-wing theoretical physicist not known for his leadership qualities or laboratory acumen, the American was an unconventional pick but proved a devastatingly effective one.
As blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer hits cinemas, Sky News looks at how the father of the atomic bomb still shapes the world decades after his creation was deployed.
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An unusual recruitment
Oppenheimer was appointed by General Leslie Groves, the project’s military leader, to head up Site Y – a secret weapons research facility at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
But there were, as Oppenheimer biographer Professor Ray Monk puts it, “all sorts of reasons” not to appoint him, notably perceived association with communist organisations that had made him a suspect of the FBI.
Born to a Jewish family in New York in 1906, his student years had seen him drawn to the left as Germany’s fascist regime saw friends and relatives oppressed and forced to flee.
During studies at Harvard, Cambridge, and Germany‘s Gottingen university in the 1920s, he was known for being a “disaster in the laboratory”. Of his time studying physics at Harvard, Oppenheimer himself said: “My feeling about myself was always one of extreme discontent.”
Oppenheimer worked in education before and after the war
He may have been unconvincing in the lab, but found his calling as a university lecturer in California. His ability to explain complex science in a relatively straightforward and compelling way proved key to impressing Groves, who interviewed countless scientists before a chance meeting with Oppenheimer.
Crucially, he also recognised the need for urgency.
Prof Monk says: “Oppenheimer knew Heisenberg, one of the greatest scientists in the world, who he worked with at Gottingen, was leading the Nazi bomb project and was worried they would get one before the Allies.
“He was in no doubt at all – the duty of all scientists in the US, and the allied countries, was building a bomb first.”
Oppenheimer enjoyed an unconventional relationship with Leslie Groves. Pic: Digital Photo Archive, Department of Energy
Building the bomb
Los Alamos was one of three sites critical to the development of the atomic bomb.
The others were a factory in Hanford, Washington, where plutonium was made; and a hidden base in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for enriching uranium.
The two elements would act as fuel for the bombs made at Los Alamos, two of which would be dropped on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945.
Cynthia C Kelly is founder and president of the Atomic Heritage Foundation, dedicated to the preservation of the Manhattan Project and crucial to having the three sites gain national park status in the US.
“It was a first-of-a-kind effort across the board,” she says of the Manhattan Project, named after the New York City district where it was founded.
With the city that never sleeps deemed too busy for such a secretive initiative, the three laboratories were set up in isolated places far away from urban centres and the coast. They brought together geniuses from across America and overseas – including Britain and some who fled Nazi Germany – into one single-minded pursuit.
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“It required creative minds from the machinists to the craftsmen – everything had to be perfect,” Kelly adds, with a “classic absent-minded professor” at the heart of it.
“They had to take this energy, which had been uncontrolled up to now, figure out how to control it, and package it tightly enough to fit in the bomb bay of an aeroplane that could transport it and drop it.
“They had little confidence in harnessing this technology in time for the end of the war.”
Oppenheimer on the test ground for the atomic bomb near Almagordo, New Mexico
Becoming Death
But harness it they did – and the world would change forever.
The first atomic bomb test in New Mexico happened on 16 July 1945, after which Oppenheimer uttered a line that, along with his trademark fedora and pipe, has become quintessential to his public image.
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” he observed after the so-called Trinity Test, quoting a sacred Hindu text in a reminder of his acumen as a philosopher as well as a scientist.
A few weeks after, death followed on an unimaginable scale. On 6 August, a uranium-based bomb named Little Boy was detonated over Hiroshima; and another, Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki three days later.
The atomic bomb dropped on Japan’s Nagasaki in 1945
Both cities were left unrecognisable, 200,000 people died, and Japan surrendered. Oppenheimer was shaken.
“Right up until the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, he had no moral qualms whatsoever,” says Prof Monk.
“Even when the Germans surrendered (on 7 May 1945), and it was obvious the Americans were still going to use the bomb against the Japanese, he had no qualms.
“But he thought one demonstration of the awesome power of this weapon was enough.”
Hiroshima in March 1946, six months after America’s atomic bomb was dropped
A new world
Despite its undoubted role in ending the Second World War, which cost the lives of some 90 million people, Oppenheimer was changed by the atomic bomb, believing it made the prospect of future conflict “unendurable”.
“It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country,” he said in 1946, later signalling his opposition to his government’s plan to develop even bigger nuclear weapons.
Oppenheimer was ignored and held in deep suspicion, and his security clearance at the Atomic Energy Commission eventually rescinded. He died of lung cancer in 1967 with none of the power he once yielded.
Oppenheimer testifies before the Senate military affairs committee in Washington in 1945
Nuclear weapons have not been used again, but the threat lingers. America and Russia’s arsenals are far smaller than their Cold War peak, but they hold 90% of an estimated global stockpile of 13,000 weapons.
Other nuclear powers include China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Like Putin, Kim Jong Un has on several occasions threatened to use them. The Nuclear Threat Initiative, an organisation focused on reducing nuclear and biological threats, says the world could be “sleepwalking into a nuclear disaster”.
Ever since Oppenheimer witnessed the Trinity Test in the New Mexico desert, Cynthia C Kelly says there’s been “no way to put the genie back in the bottle”.
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‘Nuclear weapon threat never goes away’
Beyond the mountain
While Oppenheimer failed in his post-war efforts, his work is the best example world leaders have of why they wouldn’t want to risk “mutually-assured destruction” by launching a nuclear weapon.
Two cities devastated beyond recognition have seemingly served as the ultimate deterrence.
“Oppenheimer was invited to say he regretted developing the atomic bomb many times, most prominently when he visited Japan, and his answer was always no,” says Prof Monk.
“It can be argued the fact the weapons have never been used again shows deterrence works.”
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Beyond deterrence, the Manhattan Project also unleashed an era of science and innovation still being felt today, including nuclear energy vital to weaning ourselves off greenhouse gases.
Last year, American scientists performed the first-ever nuclear fusion experiment to achieve net energy gain, paving the way for a “clean energy source that could revolutionise the world”.
Some experts have called for a Manhattan Project-style initiative to combat climate change, leveraging the same urgency and determination to tackle a crisis that threatens us all. The startling rise of artificial intelligence, already compared to the threat of nuclear weapons by its very creators, may present another such opportunity.
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Energy: Is fusion the future?
Unfortunately, nothing seems to focus the minds quite like war.
“Weapons are one part of the nuclear story, and that will be with us until we blow ourselves up,” says Kelly.
“Hopefully that won’t happen and, as Oppenheimer put it, we can see beyond the mountain.”
Puppetry has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years.
With the ability to tell political and philosophical stories, fairy tales and musical adventures, all with equal flair, puppeteers bringing the inanimate to life on stage is back in vogue.
A staple of the festive season, the year-round resurgence has been invigorated by hit West End shows including War Horse, The Life Of Pi, The Lion King and My Neighbour Totoro, boosting a craft that has been traced back as far as the ancient Greeks.
Pinocchio is this year’s Christmas show at Shakespeare’s Globe. Pic: Johan Persson
This year, puppets are centre stage at Shakespeare’s Globe, with Pinocchio their leading man.
The tale of a wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a real boy, Globe associate director Sean Holmes tells Sky News: “It seemed to fit, a boy made of wood in a theatre made of wood.
“There’s something about the kind of challenge of that storytelling, the theatricality, the magic, the puppetry, that really drew us to it.”
The performers – made up of actors and puppeteers – spent 18 months workshopping the show ahead of opening night, perfecting the challenge of skilled puppetry, acting and singing all on an open-air stage. It’s no mean feat.
The show features a range of puppets, including rod, table-top, and large-scale creations that fill the stage and marionettes – small puppets with big impact.
Puppeteer Stan Middleton is a marionette specialist. Pic: Patrick Hutton
Romeo the marionette on the Globe stage. Pic: Patrick Hutton
One of the show’s puppeteers, Stan Middleton, a marionette specialist, operates a marionette Romeo puppet in part of the performance.
He tells Sky News: “I think a lot of people are scared of marionettes because they think, ‘Oh no, they’re too difficult, we can’t do them’.”
He goes on: “It’s so nice to have the marionette moment in this show, because it gives people a chance to see how beautiful they are and how enchanting…
“They’ve got a sort of delicate charm and a sort of like inner silence which I think really captivates people.”
Despite their charms, the intricate skills required to both craft and manipulate long-string marionettes mean they are under threat.
While some puppets – including War Horse-style rod and Totoro-style body ones – are enjoying success on the stage, marionettes are critically endangered.
Globe associate director Sean Holmes. Pic: Patrick Hutton
Unlike dance or circus, puppetry is not recognised in its own right by Arts Council England and is instead grouped with theatre.
It means specialist puppet venues are competing for funding in the highly saturated market of theatre companies producing for children and families, with no special recognition of their craft.
Marionette-making was added to Heritage Crafts’ Red List of Endangered Crafts in 2023.
There are now calls for it to be added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) list too, after the UK officially joined earlier this year.
Puppets are big business, but as some types thrive, others are at risk of disappearing completely. Pic: Johan Persson/Patrick Hutton
Little Angel is one of the few UK theatres to have a marionette bridge. Pic: Patrick Hutton
Little Angel Theatre, a hub for British puppetry for over six decades, is one of a handful of UK spaces where puppeteers can perform with long-string marionettes.
Boasting not one but two marionette bridges, puppeteers can walk 360 degrees all the way around the upper part of the stage, working their marionettes from a hidden vantage point above.
Trained by some of the last remaining UK makers, including Little Angel co-founder Lyndie Wright, Little Angel Associate director Oliver Hymans is a central figure in the effort to save the craft.
Little Angel associate director Oliver Hymans. Pic: Patrick Hutton
Inspired by seeing old marionettes hung up at the back of the stage and intrigued by why they were not being used, he is now committed to re-establishing traditional marionette-making.
Hymans tells Sky News: “The marionette is a series of nine different pendulums all wired together. You’re having to work against gravity to keep it in control.
“But the thing about the marionette is you can hide the puppeteer. So, you can completely design and develop a world where there are only puppets and scenery and scenography.”
He says the majority of master marionette makers have retired or are nearing retirement, and warns there may be just a handful left in the country.
He explains: “With the onslaught of AI, we know it’s coming. Jobs where people use their hands are going to be vitally important, and if we don’t protect these crafts, they are going to die out.”
Me at Little Angel Studios. Pic: Ellie Kurttz
The Storm Whale at Little Angel Theatre. Pic: Northedge Photography
Putting their money where their mouth is, Little Angel is nurturing emerging talent, upskilling people in both the art of making and performing with marionettes.
They plan to have a marionette show on stage next summer.
Also joining the fight for the overlooked craft, puppetry director Rachel Warr has organised a celebration of marionettes for the last three years, with the support of the Art Workers’ Guild Outreach Committee.
An industry-focused free event, it brings the puppetry community together – with particular relevance to those who work with marionettes – or who aspire to.
Puppetry director Rachel Warr (R) with Alicia Britt and Anna Smith. Pic. Tom Crame
Some members of the community appear in a forthcoming short documentary about puppets, Untangling, by filmmaker Hester Heeler-Frood.
Warr told Sky News: “People are often more affected by a puppet dying on stage than an actor pretending to die in character. It doesn’t have the artifice of getting up and walking away and getting on the tube at the end of the night.
“There’s something quite vulnerable about the puppet in that sense… We know that it’s not really alive, and yet we’re able to project on to it our own thoughts and feelings. It’s a blank canvas – a powerful tool.”
Meanwhile, as Pinocchio plays at the Globe, the theatre is running accompanying puppetry workshops, encouraging children to get involved in the craft – maybe inspiring future stars of puppeteering.
With their future hanging by a string, the training of the next generation is key to breathing life back into an overlooked craft, reinstating marionettes to their rightful place on the stage.
Pinocchio runs at Shakespeare’s Globe until Sunday 4 January.
The Storm Whale at Little Angel Studios runs until Saturday 24 January, and Me runs at Little Angel Theatre until Sunday 25 January.
Kate Winslet says she never set out to become a director – but after reading her son’s first screenplay, she simply “couldn’t let it go”.
In 2023, Joe Anders, whose father is director Sam Mendes, signed up to a screenwriting course at the National Film and Television School.
His mother read one of his assignments and insisted it was worth making into a film – so they did.
Anders created a story around adult siblings who reunite around Christmastime to say goodbye to their dying mother.
Abiding by Mark Twain’s phrase “write what you know”, it was inspired by the death of Winslet’s mother Sally Bridgers-Winslet from ovarian cancer in 2017.
Helen Mirren (left) as June and Kate Winslet (right) as Julia in Goodbye June. Pic: Netflix
Speaking to Sky News, the Titanic actress says they learned “how to develop a completely new relationship” as colleagues”.
“I’m incredibly impressed by him and really proud of him, not least because he wrote this screenplay and started writing it when he was 19,” she says.
“But he had to adapt and learn very, very quickly that when you’re developing something, you take notes, you take feedback.
“Netflix became involved at some stage that they were also giving notes to, and then I was sort of playing the role of kind of protecting the project and also protecting him at the same time from things that, you know, may necessarily not have been useful, things that actually were great ideas.”
Winslet speaking to Sky News
Anders isn’t her only child to have got their start alongside their famous parent.
Mia Threapleton, who most recently starred in the Wes Anderson film The Phoenician Scheme, made her on-screen debut in the 2014 Winslet-led movie A Little Chaos.
They worked together again in the series I Am… which won Winslet a TV BAFTA award for best leading actress.
Goodbye June stars (L-R) Johnny Flynn, Andrea Riseborough, Timothy Spall, Kate Winslet and Fisayo Akinade, among others. Pic: Netflix
An actor’s director
Winslet has starred in some of the biggest films of all time, with Titanic, Avatar and Sense And Sensibility, to name a few.
She says it’s that experience in front of the camera that helped her tailor the on-set experience to help its actors explore their emotions and creativity.
“We know what works for us as actors from a director,” she says. “We know what does not work, and we also know what’s actively destructive and sometimes that can mean the environment, the working environment.
“Film sets are very busy places it can often be frantic, sometimes it’s hard to kind of follow what’s going on or what you’re doing next, and it mattered to me enormously that everybody always felt extremely safe, completely informed, and very free.”
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(L-R) Andrea Riseborough, Johnny Flynn, Kate Winslet and Timothy Spall in Goodbye June. Pic: Netflix
Winslet adds: “In this country, we’re not necessarily so good at processing, especially when it comes to talking about grief.
“And so hopefully through this film, which is also very funny, hopefully through this film, people might see something of themselves and connect with it in that way.”
Timothy Spall, next to co-star Toni Collette, says it is not surprising Winslet is such a good director
‘One of the greats’
Co-star Timothy Spall says “it’s not surprising she’s such a good director” – and calls her “one of the great actresses in the world.”
“I worked with her when she was 20. She was impressive then, just before she got Titanic… and she’s paid attention. She’s listened. She’s a great actress,” Spall says of Winslet.
“She knows how it works, and she helps other actors to do the best they can. And she’s all over the crew. She’s great with them. She’s paid attention in every department.”
Goodbye June is out on Netflix on 24 December
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