Manhattan (2014–2015): Season 2, Episode 8 - Human Error - full transcript
As the project falters, Charlie turns to an unlikely partner for help.
Previously on "Manhattan"...
Information is the future,
and Britain needs a future.
You want me to steal for you?
For king and country.
Lucy got him back, my grandson.
So help me, Paul, you'll
go home to your little boy.
Paul Crosley, he and Constance
Faraday are involved in something.
Mom's in St. Louis, Dad's in Jefferson City
at the state penitentiary.
Why am I tell you that?
My wife doesn't even know.
Enlistment papers?
You'll stay right here
as a private in the Army under my command.
Why keep me on the Hill?
They can build this bomb
without... without statesmen,
without generals, but they
can't build it without us.
Any ignorance from here on out
is willful and won't be forgiven.
- See you Friday.
- Bye.
The doctor says I still got three or
four micrograms swimming around in my gut.
How do you tell your wife that you
could have a kid with three heads?
You guys love each other.
You'll figure it out.
Are you a spy, Jim?
Are you the one the
colonel's been looking for?
Stay... stay away from me.
Jeannie... Jeannie.
They're starting.
I'll handle this.
♪ ... the cripple and lame ♪
♪ Giving the poor and needy bread ♪
♪ Healing the sick
and raising the dead ♪
♪ They tell me when he
came through Galilee ♪
♪ He passed by a man
who could not see ♪
♪ The man was blind and
crippled from birth ♪
♪ Then they tell me that his
name was blind Barnabas... ♪
Hey, bum a smoke?
Sure.
Thing is I'm out of matches.
♪ Stood on the way crying, "Oh, Lordie"... ♪
Mean anything to you?
♪ Well, old blind Barnabas... ♪
Mm-mm.
You sure?
Sorry, friend.
♪ Blind Barnabas stood
on the way crying ♪
♪ "Oh, Lordie, have mercy on me"... ♪
Um, no. I'm sorry. No, I can't help you.
You look like you're lost.
Maybe I can help.
Well, maybe you can.
"P.O. Box 1663."
Just shooting at stars here...
Maybe it's a post office box?
But let's keep that between friends.
Listen,
I know they got a whole army in there.
A whole army in a post office box?
A bunch of scientists working on something.
I know it and you know it.
Maybe you should fold
yourself into a letter,
see where the trail leads you.
- I'll lick the stamp.
- Ah, okay.
So you are the cavalry.
I am in the right place.
Listen, pal, I'm...
I'm just a guy looking
for someone I care about.
Okay, now it's my turn at bat.
You. Who are you?
Isaacs.
Ring a bell?
Triple-checked the circuits?
Twice.
Subcircuits?
Zero minus one minute.
Hey, they make a final sweep?
All areas clear, sir.
Everyone's outside the final perimeter.
Just a little more.
About 15 degrees over to the right.
Pull those wires back a bit.
Zero minus 45 seconds.
It's happening, Louis.
Uh, if it's all the same,
I... I think I'm just gonna skip the show.
Zero minus 30 seconds.
Zero minus 20 seconds.
All personnel prepare for detonation.
Do we really need Army brass at a pretest?
Well, eight weeks from now,
you'll have half the President's Cabinet
and the Joint Chiefs
breathing down your neck.
Might as well get used to it.
nine,
eight,
seven,
six,
- five...
- You gotta keep it rolling.
Four,
three,
two,
one.
Fire!
Oh, what the... ?
What just happened?
Did you see that?
Jesus.
Uh, no.
No, Private? Count the stripes.
Yeah, your stripes can march
me into a machine-gun nest
or off a cliff.
But they can't make me fix
Charlie Isaacs' broken bomb.
You think I'm bluffing?
It's this moment right here,
this is why you kept me on the Hill.
I'm your what, your
manufacturer's warranty?
I can send you off the Hill right now.
Next boat across the Pacific.
You got a confused boy
staring into the guts of a monster
he will never fully understand.
Maybe...
Maybe God will hand him some
kind of miracle, a eureka.
Put your faith in that,
put me on any boat you like.
Whatever floats yours.
So what do you want?
My old wardrobe.
An honorable discharge,
which means you can't threaten
to ship me off to Japan
every time you get the yen.
And get to see my wife whenever I like.
You think she wants to see you?
That's my concern, not yours.
Fine.
If you can clean up Isaacs' mess,
- I'll sign the papers.
- Oh, and one more thing.
I want a seat on the Target Committee.
Scientists, we built this bomb.
We want some say in how
and where it is used.
That I can't give you.
Today's detonation was
supposed to be the dry run.
My guess is every day
Isaacs can't figure out what went wrong,
you lose a week or more
on your test schedule.
Probably already blew July Fourth.
Pretty soon you'll be looking into August.
Or I could catch that cruise you offered,
maybe there will be no test at all.
Dr. Winter?
I can get the scientists a
seat on the Target Committee.
But it won't be you.
Thanks, Jim.
You shouldn't have.
So it, um...
just went up in smoke, huh?
Yeah.
Yeah, it was like a marshmallow on a stick.
Charlie's sending a bunch
of us back to the Hill
to recheck our work.
Right. Um...
I've been...
trying to write this letter
to her sister.
Only...
what do you say to someone you never met?
"Sorry you couldn't come to her wedding"?
"Sorry she wandered off into
a construction site and"...
Fritz.
I'm sure everybody just
thinks it's my fault.
It was an accident.
I should have walked her home, Jim.
She said she was feeling off
and I just let her go and...
You know, no one in her family
even knew what state she was in.
The Army is probably just gonna tell them
that she died a hero.
She did.
Jeannie was the best.
You know, people always
say that kind of bull.
But she really was, wasn't she?
Heard you're having some trouble.
You don't wanna be here.
And I told the colonel
I didn't need your help.
I think he must be hard of hearing
'cause I'm following a direct order
from my commanding officer.
So you still have no idea
which part was faulty,
which division can fix it.
Never mind how long the redesign will take.
Hell, you probably lost
another day on the schedule
since we started talking.
So maybe you should quit talking.
Yes, sir.
German radio has just announced
that Adolf Hitler is dead.
- What's going on?
- Hitler just blew his goddamn brains out.
It's all over!
Sir.
- He there?
- Hold, please.
Charlie, hello.
You're in Santa Fe County?
Well, you gotta see the
place I slept last night.
Made me nostalgic for the lockup.
Are you out of your goddamn mind?
Hey, come on. Is that any
way to greet your father
after all these years?
You shouldn't have come here.
It's reckless and stupid.
Probably a parole violation, too.
I'm a changed man, Charlie.
You were a sad old man before,
you'll be a sad old man
till the day you die.
Okay, look, don't say that, please.
That's not the way, okay?
What's he called, Charlie, hmm?
My grandson,
what's his name?
Go to hell.
Charlie?
- Abby.
- Hmm?
I was on a call.
Is there somewhere we can talk?
We are interrupting this program
to bring you a news flash.
German radio...
Well, they've already
invented a novelty cocktail.
"Hitler's Brain"...
Schnapps and red grenadine.
What's all this?
Shut the door.
We're leaving.
Thankfully for us, Europe's
down to a dull simmer
and sea-lanes should be opening up.
We're leaving when?
Tomorrow. Arranged it with the colonel.
Our war is over.
- We have no quarrel with the Japs.
- What about our side project?
Our contacts in Site X
and Site Z have gone quiet.
Could be nothing,
or it could be a rope
tightening round our necks.
We shan't wait around to find out.
What, so we poached a king's
ransom worth in nuclear secrets
to leave it all behind in the dust?
Nothing's being left behind in the dust.
We're carrying the papers with us.
In our luggage? Are you mad?
We're the Allies, don't forget.
They're not likely to go
fingering our knickers.
Yeah, well, it's, um...
Well, this is very sudden news.
Pack your things, Paul.
And don't get sentimental.
This place was always a safari,
not a home.
So your old man called, huh?
Not much older than you.
Yeah, I don't have much
use for mine either.
They all think the war's over.
Can you blame them?
We've been selling them the
German version since day one.
Guy puts a bullet in his head,
everyone acts like it's Christmas morning.
More like Hanukkah.
- I don't need your help, Frank.
- I never said you did.
I'm gonna fix it.
Well, half my experimental problems
boiled down to the detonators.
You did use 32 of them, right?
Yeah, the detonators were the
first thing I checked, Frank.
Yellow, red. I'm not color-blind.
Hey.
All right...
say you're me.
Fun game. Got a beautiful young wife.
Got my whole life ahead of me.
You've built the most complex
machine in human history
and it might have an Achilles'
heel. How do you find it?
Gee, I don't know.
Maybe ask the guy who
came up with the design.
I've been through
everything. It all checks out.
Apparently not.
What if it can't be fixed?
All right, get up.
Come on. All this shit's
just muddling your brain.
You're not gonna find your answers
sifting through the trash.
Where are you going?
I'm going back to square one.
Someone starts bellowing
about a secret project
10 miles from here, I take it seriously.
I understand, but all I'm
asking for is a day pass
and an hour with my father-in-law.
My men have informed Mr. Isaacs
that he has 24 hours to leave the county.
Country, faith, family.
Aren't those the things that
matter the most, Colonel?
It's my understanding that Charlie
wants nothing to do with this man.
- Yes, that's true.
- You do know what the Bible says
about honoring thy husband?
It also says that people are basically good
and that we all have
something to atone for.
Yes, well, you can give
him a chance to atone
after the war.
I have family in Eastern Europe.
Cousins that I never met
and some that I never will,
and my son has never met his grandfather,
who is sitting at a pay telephone
10 miles from this office.
The Jewish people don't
just need Palestine, Colonel.
We need each other.
What about this?
What if solenoid 132B
was out of alignment...
Um, an electrical arc
occurs at, uh, section P22.
Yeah, and none of the detonators fire.
But they did.
Condensers?
Totally normal.
Cork lining.
Maybe absorbed some of
the moisture in the air,
came into contact with an exposed wire.
Not a lot of moisture in the desert.
Hope one of those doughboys out there
knows how to brew a pot of coffee.
What are you doing? You shouldn't...
You shouldn't be here.
They were gonna have kids.
They were talking about it.
The girl is gone.
She has a name.
It didn't happen.
And you'll believe that eventually.
You need to believe that.
Why?
- Because the ends justify the means?
- Yes.
So long as the ends are not dead ends,
you're gonna save thousands of people.
Maybe even hundreds of thousands.
You are the linchpin.
What about a rogue lightning strike?
A what?
A bolt from the blue...
Happens all the time.
A storm can be 50 miles away.
Current travels laterally
from the leading edge of the
thundercloud through clear air...
I think we need a break.
My father used to say lightning
always strikes eventually
if you sit at a card table long enough.
Only losers get up before
the weather changes.
You're 29 years old.
Shepherding the most
important scientific project
since Louis Pasteur.
What... what has your father done?
I know a thing or two about
trying to improve your origins,
believe me, Charlie.
Okay, say I'm you.
Say I'm you and the war is done
and the bomb didn't work.
What's the worst that happens?
A bomb didn't work, a
lot of innocent people
didn't lose their lives.
No. We have no idea how it's gonna be used.
Say I'm you.
I got a beautiful wife and a son.
And I've got my whole life ahead of me.
What is it I want on my conscience?
What are they gonna say at my funeral?
You're not me, Frank.
What are you doing? Give that to me!
- Give... give that...
- "Perseus...
Perseus is immature,
distrustful of authority,
politically unformed"...
It's not what it looks like.
A crib sheet?
So you can keep me
wrapped around your finger?
No.
"He... he believes that he is
more intelligent than he is,
which makes him susceptible to flattery."
- Jim...
- This is what you really think of me?
- No, it's not.
- You think that...
you think I'm condescending?
Those notes are not about you.
Oh, well, I guess that there's
another Soviet spy on the Hill.
No.
That's not possible.
No.
I came to you.
I gave you everything.
You said I was the linchpin.
Who is it?
I would tell you if I could.
Compartmentalization.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
I let you murder my best friend's wife,
then I looked him in the
eye and I lied to him.
You didn't have a choice.
Yeah, well, I have one now.
What, you're gonna call Fritz,
tell him the truth?
Yeah. Yeah, maybe I will.
So he loses his wife and his...
And his best friend. That
somehow balances the equation?
If you stop now, then you're a killer,
- but if you see it through...
- What?
I'm a hero?
I'm not the one that's
susceptible to flattery.
No, you're the one that wanted to know
that your friend Sid's
death was worth something.
The wind must have changed direction
in the middle of an experiment...
At least one... and dispersed the barium
all the way here
from Bayo Canyon.
Let me ask you a question.
Who cares?
The work helps, Fritz.
You're out here snipping shrubs
and dissecting seedpods for what?
Barium doesn't matter.
Matter doesn't matter.
The only thing that matters is people.
Who loves you and who you love.
And Jeannie...
Boy, did she understand that.
Okay, you see this prickly pear?
This is just about the only sweet
thing that grows around here,
so the Pueblo Indians make it into candy.
Do... do you have any idea
what barium does to a child's intestines?
Me neither. Not yet.
Jeannie was right.
People matter and... and there...
And there are 20,000
of them living 50 miles
from where we are about to detonate
an atomic weapon.
You know,
we could, um, clip cactus
out here all day long,
but we'd still be two
steps down the food chain.
I know.
I had to start somewhere and...
I'm not ready to spread barium on my toast
- and wait to see what happens.
- Right, but I am.
Let me be your subject.
I mean, I've already got a few micrograms
of plutonium in my body, right?
So give me a few more
and measure the results.
Fritz.
I've got nothing left to lose.
It's perfect.
Order up!
You got 20 minutes, pal.
A free state.
All 48 are free, actually.
I told you I'm not getting...
Mr. Isaacs?
Hello.
I'm Abby
and this is your grandson Joey.
Oh, boy, that is a lady-slayer
in training right there.
Dead ringer for his Uncle Mort.
Just like him.
You watch this one, Mom.
Charlie always did have good taste.
Is he in the car or something?
He's actually very busy.
I wanted a chance to
finally meet you myself
and Joey, too, right?
Hey, Joey.
See that?
Spud Davis knocked that
out of Sportsman's Park
in '35. I want you to keep it.
- What do you say? Yeah.
- Thank you.
Mommy, could I go outside?
Of course you can, kid.
Why not, right?
All right. You go on and play.
Go on.
But, Joey, stay away from the cars.
I know a good egg when I see one.
We're family, the four of us.
It shouldn't have taken this long, huh?
- Mr. Isaacs, I...
- Oh, please, Eli.
Hell, Dad, right?
Thank you.
I know that you and Charlie
had a bit of a falling out,
but with everything that's been
happening with our people in Europe...
We all need to come together
and repair old wounds,
don't we?
"Our people."
Exactly.
You know, we got the
papers a week late inside.
But I always tried to read what I could.
- Inside?
- Oh, Charlie never told you.
Well, I'm not ashamed of it anymore.
I ran numbers. Didn't run fast enough.
You've paid your debt.
When I was in prison,
hearing the news coming out of Europe,
it made me realize that
I hadn't been a good Jew.
While so many were being slaughtered,
I took my ancestry for granted.
You understand?
Why don't we give Charlie a call?
I know that you and he
had some words on the telephone,
- but I really think...
- Oh, I don't know.
He has plenty of fair grievances with me.
Well, it's time for him to move past them.
She said you could reach her on this number
for the next few minutes.
She said it was important.
She has no idea what that word means.
Dismissed.
He wanted to come.
It's just, well,
Charlie's not around very much these days.
I see.
- Well, don't beat yourself up.
- No.
I'm just glad I got to see you two.
So, what kind of work
is he doing these days?
Oh, I, um... I barely understand it.
It's um, physics, I guess.
Pillow talk ain't something
that youngsters do anymore?
Abby, look,
I know he's working for the Army.
- Oh.
- And I got a great idea.
Something where
we can all be together in the end.
You're here now and it's a start.
Exactly. Now, the war
is winding down, okay?
And you and I both know
the problem with the Jews.
We've never defended ourselves.
We need weapons.
Now, I know it's a harsh truth, Abby,
and I don't know beans about
Charlie's hush-hush project.
But I'm a betting man.
And I bet that it's a weapon.
A big one.
Now hear me out. If he'll
do something like that
for a government who turned
away the Jews by the boatload,
then maybe he could do
it for his own people.
And we can do it together.
Isaacs and Son.
You want to build weapons?
With Charlie's Army contacts
and my way around a deal?
There will be a bonanza as
soon as this war is over,
and we can help our own people.
You want to make money
selling arms to the Jewish people?
Look, if Charlie doesn't like this idea,
believe me, I got a million more
bouncing around in this head, so...
You know, I... I really
have to get Joey home.
Do you wanna go and say goodbye to him?
Of course.
- Isaac and Sons.
- Mm.
The big one.
Joey, please go wait in the car.
- Thank you.
- All righty.
Okay, you go right in.
Bye, kid. See you soon, huh?
Okay.
This is a very nice chunk.
We can parlay this kind of investment
into something good, Abby.
It's not an investment.
Well, a loan. It's okay. I'm good for it.
It's not a loan either.
And honestly, Mr. Isaacs, I
don't care what you do with it
as long as you stay away from us.
It's what you came for, isn't it?
Money.
I should've known.
Look at you.
Your fancy handbag.
Cute little hat.
I bet your family's been paying
people off for generations.
Charlie was right about you.
And, you know, I don't know how he
turned himself into the man he is today
with a role model like you.
You think you know the
man you're married to?
I know that you used him to place bets
and count cards when he was just a child.
Yeah? Was he a child nine years ago
when he lured me to his apartment
and he had the cops waiting for me?
What kind of man sends a father to prison
full of guys that wanna kill him?
But you wanna know the worst part?
The way he could look me in the eye
and lie to my face.
15 years in the business,
best poker face I've ever seen.
So, Mrs. Isaacs, think about that
next time you're sitting
across from your husband
at the dinner table.
And think about it the
next time he tells you
where he was at night.
If I was you, I wouldn't
believe anything he says.
No holding hands, I told you.
I need it for stability.
I've got an inner ear disorder.
It's just physical, you know that, right?
You realize that is exactly
what every man has been
waiting to hear his entire life.
Well, you're welcome.
And, um, thank you.
I never thought a patent lawyer
would be so avant-garde in bed.
Well, I could say the same thing
for a theoretical physicist.
Just don't go clipping at my heels, okay?
This isn't real life.
It's just some twisted holiday.
Well, it doesn't have to be.
I could be your at-home husband.
I could... I could cook you dinner.
Oh, yeah? You wanna
live on a woman's salary?
The work you've been doing on
compressed neutron generators...
Do you know what that could do for you?
Yeah, zilch.
It's worthless as a bomb initiator.
Yeah, but it's worth millions
if you're looking for oil.
The president of Texaco, he doesn't
care what's between your legs.
It's what's in your noggin
that's gonna buy him a yacht.
Yeah, but what's in my
noggin belongs to Uncle Sam.
That's why you're here, right?
It only belongs to Uncle
Sam if I tell him about it.
From the colonel himself.
You're officially a free man.
Is he expecting me?
Henry?
Is that what's eating you?
There's no trick to fatherhood, Paul.
He'll worship you no matter your faults.
It's what sons do.
If I've never said it before...
thank you.
- Turn off the engine and raise your hands.
- Shit. Stitch your trap, Paul.
- You know nothing. They can't prove anything.
- Come with us.
- Cheerio, mates.
- Ah!
So what's next, Frank?
We go back to the original designs.
Maybe I built a flaw in the
system without knowing it.
No, what's next for you?
After all this is over.
Where do you go after the Hill?
Wherever my wife goes.
Thought you two were done.
Yeah, I'm the flaw in that system.
Call it human error.
I'm still working on fixing it.
I haven't been husband of the year.
At least you didn't trap Abby here twice.
At least your kid is still with you.
The things I've done
since I got to the Hill...
My father went to prison for less,
yet somehow here I am.
I got a man killed.
Sid Liao.
Sid Liao? Sid Liao was a spy.
No, he wasn't a spy.
- He made a stupid mistake.
- He was trying to escape.
He came to me for help.
And instead of helping
him, I exploited him.
Implosion was on the ropes.
So it was Sid or my group.
I don't blame the kid who shot him.
I don't blame Sid.
There's only one person I can blame.
You come here believing that
you're here to save lives.
And you tell yourself you sacrifice the few
to save the many.
Pretty soon...
everything's negotiable
and you can't remember
what you came here for in the first place.
It's all turned around.
It...
Wait.
It was turned around.
Frank? You seein' something?
Tell me.
Frank!
Hey!
Say you're me, Charlie.
You want a voice in how the gadget's used.
You wanna minimize how
many more lives it takes.
- You wanna turn things back around.
- This isn't a game.
If you figured it out, tell me.
Darrow's gonna give a scientist
a seat on the Target Committee.
We have to use this as leverage.
Wait a minute, it's you.
They're giving that seat to you.
I'm the head of the technical staff.
Say you're me
and you're suddenly talking to the guy
who gets to help dictate
how the bomb is used.
And that guy wants to know
what happened to his test.
- What would you do then?
- What is this?
Blackmail?
Let's call this a...
A negotiation.
Bloody Yanks.
If this is some sort of prank,
I see no humor in it.
I am a member of the Royal Society.
Lord Halifax is a personal friend.
I wonder what he'd have to say
if he knew you imprisoned a Briton
in a beef locker.
How about a Briton
carrying a bag full
of atomic secrets off a military base?
Or...
are these just souvenirs
of your trip to America?
I packed five suits and a Dopp kit.
I've never seen those papers before.
You don't think that...
Paul Crosley...
could have been involved in some sort of...
Oh, my God.
Committing espionage
right out of my office.
He has seemed out of sorts.
I'm afraid this is the
curtain call, William.
Whatever he's told you, Colonel,
the man is an inveterate liar.
You recruited Paul, Dr. Hogarth.
Told him who to contact.
What information to collect.
Isn't that the truth?
It's also become apparent that the British
have been keeping atomic
secrets of their own
from the Americans.
And you from me.
So you're going to hand over
every morsel the king has been holding.
Are you taking the piss?
Your coconspirators at Site X
are sitting in rooms just like this one.
And they're cooperating with us,
so I'll let you consider your options.
You'd betray the
grandfather of your only son?
You're going to
retract your statement.
Claim full responsibility like a man.
If you ever want to hold your boy...
Oh, I did want to hold my boy, actually.
I did.
Holding his photograph
seemed the next best thing.
So I took the snapshot out
of the frame on your desk
and I turned it around.
September 1932.
So that would make him, what, 17?
Who is he?
You know, I even convinced myself
that he looked like me.
But then Lucy never got Henry back,
did she?
How long have you known?
Five months, give or take.
And all this time...
you and your new friend
have been waiting like
two snakes in the grass?
It's all been logged, William.
Every conversation, every scrap
of intelligence we've stolen.
Be smart.
Tell the truth about what the British know
and maybe you'll avoid that noose
that you've been worried about.
I pity you.
No friends.
No family.
No loyalty,
dignity,
honor.
You are a man without a country.
And without iron round his wrists.
Shall we begin?
We have power, Charlie.
Are we really gonna keep
using it to hurt people?
You're really gonna
hold the project hostage?
Germany's about to sign a peace treaty.
All eyes are turning east
toward an enemy that doesn't look like us
and doesn't talk like us.
That makes it pretty easy
to cast them as barbarians
and justify a massacre.
What do you want, Frank?
We've both stumbled.
Now we can stand up straight together.
We can do the right thing.
You're a leader.
People look to you for
guidance, so guide them.
Convince the Target Committee
to demonstrate the bomb
on an uninhabited island.
Show the world our power and our restraint.
How do you know that's the right decision?
How do you know it's enough to end the war?
It doesn't matter what I know.
You know that this is right.
I have to believe that's true.
'Cause the truth is I can't
force you to do anything.
The reason we're both standing here
is you can see the path forward to the bomb
as clearly as I can
and you always could.
You were gonna see this, too,
eventually.
The detonators?
It was the first thing I checked.
Red to positive, yellow to negative, right?
That's what the specs say.
What if things got turned around?
The polarity?
All of these wires, theywere all...
they were all color-coded by hand, right?
Well, what if someone accidentally
dipped the brush in the wrong can of paint?
Jesus.
What if the charges got turned around?
You did the right thing, Frank.
And I know you will, too.
"I hereby declare on oath
that I absolutely and entirely
renounce and abjure all
allegiance and fidelity
to any foreign prince,
potentate, state, or sovereignty"...
That's good enough, Paul.
I hereby declare you
a citizen of the United States of America.
Welcome home, son.
How long did it take him to figure it out?
He didn't.
I had to feed him the answer.
I told you not to bet on that boy.
Yeah, well...
we're all betting on him now.
Information is the future,
and Britain needs a future.
You want me to steal for you?
For king and country.
Lucy got him back, my grandson.
So help me, Paul, you'll
go home to your little boy.
Paul Crosley, he and Constance
Faraday are involved in something.
Mom's in St. Louis, Dad's in Jefferson City
at the state penitentiary.
Why am I tell you that?
My wife doesn't even know.
Enlistment papers?
You'll stay right here
as a private in the Army under my command.
Why keep me on the Hill?
They can build this bomb
without... without statesmen,
without generals, but they
can't build it without us.
Any ignorance from here on out
is willful and won't be forgiven.
- See you Friday.
- Bye.
The doctor says I still got three or
four micrograms swimming around in my gut.
How do you tell your wife that you
could have a kid with three heads?
You guys love each other.
You'll figure it out.
Are you a spy, Jim?
Are you the one the
colonel's been looking for?
Stay... stay away from me.
Jeannie... Jeannie.
They're starting.
I'll handle this.
♪ ... the cripple and lame ♪
♪ Giving the poor and needy bread ♪
♪ Healing the sick
and raising the dead ♪
♪ They tell me when he
came through Galilee ♪
♪ He passed by a man
who could not see ♪
♪ The man was blind and
crippled from birth ♪
♪ Then they tell me that his
name was blind Barnabas... ♪
Hey, bum a smoke?
Sure.
Thing is I'm out of matches.
♪ Stood on the way crying, "Oh, Lordie"... ♪
Mean anything to you?
♪ Well, old blind Barnabas... ♪
Mm-mm.
You sure?
Sorry, friend.
♪ Blind Barnabas stood
on the way crying ♪
♪ "Oh, Lordie, have mercy on me"... ♪
Um, no. I'm sorry. No, I can't help you.
You look like you're lost.
Maybe I can help.
Well, maybe you can.
"P.O. Box 1663."
Just shooting at stars here...
Maybe it's a post office box?
But let's keep that between friends.
Listen,
I know they got a whole army in there.
A whole army in a post office box?
A bunch of scientists working on something.
I know it and you know it.
Maybe you should fold
yourself into a letter,
see where the trail leads you.
- I'll lick the stamp.
- Ah, okay.
So you are the cavalry.
I am in the right place.
Listen, pal, I'm...
I'm just a guy looking
for someone I care about.
Okay, now it's my turn at bat.
You. Who are you?
Isaacs.
Ring a bell?
Triple-checked the circuits?
Twice.
Subcircuits?
Zero minus one minute.
Hey, they make a final sweep?
All areas clear, sir.
Everyone's outside the final perimeter.
Just a little more.
About 15 degrees over to the right.
Pull those wires back a bit.
Zero minus 45 seconds.
It's happening, Louis.
Uh, if it's all the same,
I... I think I'm just gonna skip the show.
Zero minus 30 seconds.
Zero minus 20 seconds.
All personnel prepare for detonation.
Do we really need Army brass at a pretest?
Well, eight weeks from now,
you'll have half the President's Cabinet
and the Joint Chiefs
breathing down your neck.
Might as well get used to it.
nine,
eight,
seven,
six,
- five...
- You gotta keep it rolling.
Four,
three,
two,
one.
Fire!
Oh, what the... ?
What just happened?
Did you see that?
Jesus.
Uh, no.
No, Private? Count the stripes.
Yeah, your stripes can march
me into a machine-gun nest
or off a cliff.
But they can't make me fix
Charlie Isaacs' broken bomb.
You think I'm bluffing?
It's this moment right here,
this is why you kept me on the Hill.
I'm your what, your
manufacturer's warranty?
I can send you off the Hill right now.
Next boat across the Pacific.
You got a confused boy
staring into the guts of a monster
he will never fully understand.
Maybe...
Maybe God will hand him some
kind of miracle, a eureka.
Put your faith in that,
put me on any boat you like.
Whatever floats yours.
So what do you want?
My old wardrobe.
An honorable discharge,
which means you can't threaten
to ship me off to Japan
every time you get the yen.
And get to see my wife whenever I like.
You think she wants to see you?
That's my concern, not yours.
Fine.
If you can clean up Isaacs' mess,
- I'll sign the papers.
- Oh, and one more thing.
I want a seat on the Target Committee.
Scientists, we built this bomb.
We want some say in how
and where it is used.
That I can't give you.
Today's detonation was
supposed to be the dry run.
My guess is every day
Isaacs can't figure out what went wrong,
you lose a week or more
on your test schedule.
Probably already blew July Fourth.
Pretty soon you'll be looking into August.
Or I could catch that cruise you offered,
maybe there will be no test at all.
Dr. Winter?
I can get the scientists a
seat on the Target Committee.
But it won't be you.
Thanks, Jim.
You shouldn't have.
So it, um...
just went up in smoke, huh?
Yeah.
Yeah, it was like a marshmallow on a stick.
Charlie's sending a bunch
of us back to the Hill
to recheck our work.
Right. Um...
I've been...
trying to write this letter
to her sister.
Only...
what do you say to someone you never met?
"Sorry you couldn't come to her wedding"?
"Sorry she wandered off into
a construction site and"...
Fritz.
I'm sure everybody just
thinks it's my fault.
It was an accident.
I should have walked her home, Jim.
She said she was feeling off
and I just let her go and...
You know, no one in her family
even knew what state she was in.
The Army is probably just gonna tell them
that she died a hero.
She did.
Jeannie was the best.
You know, people always
say that kind of bull.
But she really was, wasn't she?
Heard you're having some trouble.
You don't wanna be here.
And I told the colonel
I didn't need your help.
I think he must be hard of hearing
'cause I'm following a direct order
from my commanding officer.
So you still have no idea
which part was faulty,
which division can fix it.
Never mind how long the redesign will take.
Hell, you probably lost
another day on the schedule
since we started talking.
So maybe you should quit talking.
Yes, sir.
German radio has just announced
that Adolf Hitler is dead.
- What's going on?
- Hitler just blew his goddamn brains out.
It's all over!
Sir.
- He there?
- Hold, please.
Charlie, hello.
You're in Santa Fe County?
Well, you gotta see the
place I slept last night.
Made me nostalgic for the lockup.
Are you out of your goddamn mind?
Hey, come on. Is that any
way to greet your father
after all these years?
You shouldn't have come here.
It's reckless and stupid.
Probably a parole violation, too.
I'm a changed man, Charlie.
You were a sad old man before,
you'll be a sad old man
till the day you die.
Okay, look, don't say that, please.
That's not the way, okay?
What's he called, Charlie, hmm?
My grandson,
what's his name?
Go to hell.
Charlie?
- Abby.
- Hmm?
I was on a call.
Is there somewhere we can talk?
We are interrupting this program
to bring you a news flash.
German radio...
Well, they've already
invented a novelty cocktail.
"Hitler's Brain"...
Schnapps and red grenadine.
What's all this?
Shut the door.
We're leaving.
Thankfully for us, Europe's
down to a dull simmer
and sea-lanes should be opening up.
We're leaving when?
Tomorrow. Arranged it with the colonel.
Our war is over.
- We have no quarrel with the Japs.
- What about our side project?
Our contacts in Site X
and Site Z have gone quiet.
Could be nothing,
or it could be a rope
tightening round our necks.
We shan't wait around to find out.
What, so we poached a king's
ransom worth in nuclear secrets
to leave it all behind in the dust?
Nothing's being left behind in the dust.
We're carrying the papers with us.
In our luggage? Are you mad?
We're the Allies, don't forget.
They're not likely to go
fingering our knickers.
Yeah, well, it's, um...
Well, this is very sudden news.
Pack your things, Paul.
And don't get sentimental.
This place was always a safari,
not a home.
So your old man called, huh?
Not much older than you.
Yeah, I don't have much
use for mine either.
They all think the war's over.
Can you blame them?
We've been selling them the
German version since day one.
Guy puts a bullet in his head,
everyone acts like it's Christmas morning.
More like Hanukkah.
- I don't need your help, Frank.
- I never said you did.
I'm gonna fix it.
Well, half my experimental problems
boiled down to the detonators.
You did use 32 of them, right?
Yeah, the detonators were the
first thing I checked, Frank.
Yellow, red. I'm not color-blind.
Hey.
All right...
say you're me.
Fun game. Got a beautiful young wife.
Got my whole life ahead of me.
You've built the most complex
machine in human history
and it might have an Achilles'
heel. How do you find it?
Gee, I don't know.
Maybe ask the guy who
came up with the design.
I've been through
everything. It all checks out.
Apparently not.
What if it can't be fixed?
All right, get up.
Come on. All this shit's
just muddling your brain.
You're not gonna find your answers
sifting through the trash.
Where are you going?
I'm going back to square one.
Someone starts bellowing
about a secret project
10 miles from here, I take it seriously.
I understand, but all I'm
asking for is a day pass
and an hour with my father-in-law.
My men have informed Mr. Isaacs
that he has 24 hours to leave the county.
Country, faith, family.
Aren't those the things that
matter the most, Colonel?
It's my understanding that Charlie
wants nothing to do with this man.
- Yes, that's true.
- You do know what the Bible says
about honoring thy husband?
It also says that people are basically good
and that we all have
something to atone for.
Yes, well, you can give
him a chance to atone
after the war.
I have family in Eastern Europe.
Cousins that I never met
and some that I never will,
and my son has never met his grandfather,
who is sitting at a pay telephone
10 miles from this office.
The Jewish people don't
just need Palestine, Colonel.
We need each other.
What about this?
What if solenoid 132B
was out of alignment...
Um, an electrical arc
occurs at, uh, section P22.
Yeah, and none of the detonators fire.
But they did.
Condensers?
Totally normal.
Cork lining.
Maybe absorbed some of
the moisture in the air,
came into contact with an exposed wire.
Not a lot of moisture in the desert.
Hope one of those doughboys out there
knows how to brew a pot of coffee.
What are you doing? You shouldn't...
You shouldn't be here.
They were gonna have kids.
They were talking about it.
The girl is gone.
She has a name.
It didn't happen.
And you'll believe that eventually.
You need to believe that.
Why?
- Because the ends justify the means?
- Yes.
So long as the ends are not dead ends,
you're gonna save thousands of people.
Maybe even hundreds of thousands.
You are the linchpin.
What about a rogue lightning strike?
A what?
A bolt from the blue...
Happens all the time.
A storm can be 50 miles away.
Current travels laterally
from the leading edge of the
thundercloud through clear air...
I think we need a break.
My father used to say lightning
always strikes eventually
if you sit at a card table long enough.
Only losers get up before
the weather changes.
You're 29 years old.
Shepherding the most
important scientific project
since Louis Pasteur.
What... what has your father done?
I know a thing or two about
trying to improve your origins,
believe me, Charlie.
Okay, say I'm you.
Say I'm you and the war is done
and the bomb didn't work.
What's the worst that happens?
A bomb didn't work, a
lot of innocent people
didn't lose their lives.
No. We have no idea how it's gonna be used.
Say I'm you.
I got a beautiful wife and a son.
And I've got my whole life ahead of me.
What is it I want on my conscience?
What are they gonna say at my funeral?
You're not me, Frank.
What are you doing? Give that to me!
- Give... give that...
- "Perseus...
Perseus is immature,
distrustful of authority,
politically unformed"...
It's not what it looks like.
A crib sheet?
So you can keep me
wrapped around your finger?
No.
"He... he believes that he is
more intelligent than he is,
which makes him susceptible to flattery."
- Jim...
- This is what you really think of me?
- No, it's not.
- You think that...
you think I'm condescending?
Those notes are not about you.
Oh, well, I guess that there's
another Soviet spy on the Hill.
No.
That's not possible.
No.
I came to you.
I gave you everything.
You said I was the linchpin.
Who is it?
I would tell you if I could.
Compartmentalization.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
I let you murder my best friend's wife,
then I looked him in the
eye and I lied to him.
You didn't have a choice.
Yeah, well, I have one now.
What, you're gonna call Fritz,
tell him the truth?
Yeah. Yeah, maybe I will.
So he loses his wife and his...
And his best friend. That
somehow balances the equation?
If you stop now, then you're a killer,
- but if you see it through...
- What?
I'm a hero?
I'm not the one that's
susceptible to flattery.
No, you're the one that wanted to know
that your friend Sid's
death was worth something.
The wind must have changed direction
in the middle of an experiment...
At least one... and dispersed the barium
all the way here
from Bayo Canyon.
Let me ask you a question.
Who cares?
The work helps, Fritz.
You're out here snipping shrubs
and dissecting seedpods for what?
Barium doesn't matter.
Matter doesn't matter.
The only thing that matters is people.
Who loves you and who you love.
And Jeannie...
Boy, did she understand that.
Okay, you see this prickly pear?
This is just about the only sweet
thing that grows around here,
so the Pueblo Indians make it into candy.
Do... do you have any idea
what barium does to a child's intestines?
Me neither. Not yet.
Jeannie was right.
People matter and... and there...
And there are 20,000
of them living 50 miles
from where we are about to detonate
an atomic weapon.
You know,
we could, um, clip cactus
out here all day long,
but we'd still be two
steps down the food chain.
I know.
I had to start somewhere and...
I'm not ready to spread barium on my toast
- and wait to see what happens.
- Right, but I am.
Let me be your subject.
I mean, I've already got a few micrograms
of plutonium in my body, right?
So give me a few more
and measure the results.
Fritz.
I've got nothing left to lose.
It's perfect.
Order up!
You got 20 minutes, pal.
A free state.
All 48 are free, actually.
I told you I'm not getting...
Mr. Isaacs?
Hello.
I'm Abby
and this is your grandson Joey.
Oh, boy, that is a lady-slayer
in training right there.
Dead ringer for his Uncle Mort.
Just like him.
You watch this one, Mom.
Charlie always did have good taste.
Is he in the car or something?
He's actually very busy.
I wanted a chance to
finally meet you myself
and Joey, too, right?
Hey, Joey.
See that?
Spud Davis knocked that
out of Sportsman's Park
in '35. I want you to keep it.
- What do you say? Yeah.
- Thank you.
Mommy, could I go outside?
Of course you can, kid.
Why not, right?
All right. You go on and play.
Go on.
But, Joey, stay away from the cars.
I know a good egg when I see one.
We're family, the four of us.
It shouldn't have taken this long, huh?
- Mr. Isaacs, I...
- Oh, please, Eli.
Hell, Dad, right?
Thank you.
I know that you and Charlie
had a bit of a falling out,
but with everything that's been
happening with our people in Europe...
We all need to come together
and repair old wounds,
don't we?
"Our people."
Exactly.
You know, we got the
papers a week late inside.
But I always tried to read what I could.
- Inside?
- Oh, Charlie never told you.
Well, I'm not ashamed of it anymore.
I ran numbers. Didn't run fast enough.
You've paid your debt.
When I was in prison,
hearing the news coming out of Europe,
it made me realize that
I hadn't been a good Jew.
While so many were being slaughtered,
I took my ancestry for granted.
You understand?
Why don't we give Charlie a call?
I know that you and he
had some words on the telephone,
- but I really think...
- Oh, I don't know.
He has plenty of fair grievances with me.
Well, it's time for him to move past them.
She said you could reach her on this number
for the next few minutes.
She said it was important.
She has no idea what that word means.
Dismissed.
He wanted to come.
It's just, well,
Charlie's not around very much these days.
I see.
- Well, don't beat yourself up.
- No.
I'm just glad I got to see you two.
So, what kind of work
is he doing these days?
Oh, I, um... I barely understand it.
It's um, physics, I guess.
Pillow talk ain't something
that youngsters do anymore?
Abby, look,
I know he's working for the Army.
- Oh.
- And I got a great idea.
Something where
we can all be together in the end.
You're here now and it's a start.
Exactly. Now, the war
is winding down, okay?
And you and I both know
the problem with the Jews.
We've never defended ourselves.
We need weapons.
Now, I know it's a harsh truth, Abby,
and I don't know beans about
Charlie's hush-hush project.
But I'm a betting man.
And I bet that it's a weapon.
A big one.
Now hear me out. If he'll
do something like that
for a government who turned
away the Jews by the boatload,
then maybe he could do
it for his own people.
And we can do it together.
Isaacs and Son.
You want to build weapons?
With Charlie's Army contacts
and my way around a deal?
There will be a bonanza as
soon as this war is over,
and we can help our own people.
You want to make money
selling arms to the Jewish people?
Look, if Charlie doesn't like this idea,
believe me, I got a million more
bouncing around in this head, so...
You know, I... I really
have to get Joey home.
Do you wanna go and say goodbye to him?
Of course.
- Isaac and Sons.
- Mm.
The big one.
Joey, please go wait in the car.
- Thank you.
- All righty.
Okay, you go right in.
Bye, kid. See you soon, huh?
Okay.
This is a very nice chunk.
We can parlay this kind of investment
into something good, Abby.
It's not an investment.
Well, a loan. It's okay. I'm good for it.
It's not a loan either.
And honestly, Mr. Isaacs, I
don't care what you do with it
as long as you stay away from us.
It's what you came for, isn't it?
Money.
I should've known.
Look at you.
Your fancy handbag.
Cute little hat.
I bet your family's been paying
people off for generations.
Charlie was right about you.
And, you know, I don't know how he
turned himself into the man he is today
with a role model like you.
You think you know the
man you're married to?
I know that you used him to place bets
and count cards when he was just a child.
Yeah? Was he a child nine years ago
when he lured me to his apartment
and he had the cops waiting for me?
What kind of man sends a father to prison
full of guys that wanna kill him?
But you wanna know the worst part?
The way he could look me in the eye
and lie to my face.
15 years in the business,
best poker face I've ever seen.
So, Mrs. Isaacs, think about that
next time you're sitting
across from your husband
at the dinner table.
And think about it the
next time he tells you
where he was at night.
If I was you, I wouldn't
believe anything he says.
No holding hands, I told you.
I need it for stability.
I've got an inner ear disorder.
It's just physical, you know that, right?
You realize that is exactly
what every man has been
waiting to hear his entire life.
Well, you're welcome.
And, um, thank you.
I never thought a patent lawyer
would be so avant-garde in bed.
Well, I could say the same thing
for a theoretical physicist.
Just don't go clipping at my heels, okay?
This isn't real life.
It's just some twisted holiday.
Well, it doesn't have to be.
I could be your at-home husband.
I could... I could cook you dinner.
Oh, yeah? You wanna
live on a woman's salary?
The work you've been doing on
compressed neutron generators...
Do you know what that could do for you?
Yeah, zilch.
It's worthless as a bomb initiator.
Yeah, but it's worth millions
if you're looking for oil.
The president of Texaco, he doesn't
care what's between your legs.
It's what's in your noggin
that's gonna buy him a yacht.
Yeah, but what's in my
noggin belongs to Uncle Sam.
That's why you're here, right?
It only belongs to Uncle
Sam if I tell him about it.
From the colonel himself.
You're officially a free man.
Is he expecting me?
Henry?
Is that what's eating you?
There's no trick to fatherhood, Paul.
He'll worship you no matter your faults.
It's what sons do.
If I've never said it before...
thank you.
- Turn off the engine and raise your hands.
- Shit. Stitch your trap, Paul.
- You know nothing. They can't prove anything.
- Come with us.
- Cheerio, mates.
- Ah!
So what's next, Frank?
We go back to the original designs.
Maybe I built a flaw in the
system without knowing it.
No, what's next for you?
After all this is over.
Where do you go after the Hill?
Wherever my wife goes.
Thought you two were done.
Yeah, I'm the flaw in that system.
Call it human error.
I'm still working on fixing it.
I haven't been husband of the year.
At least you didn't trap Abby here twice.
At least your kid is still with you.
The things I've done
since I got to the Hill...
My father went to prison for less,
yet somehow here I am.
I got a man killed.
Sid Liao.
Sid Liao? Sid Liao was a spy.
No, he wasn't a spy.
- He made a stupid mistake.
- He was trying to escape.
He came to me for help.
And instead of helping
him, I exploited him.
Implosion was on the ropes.
So it was Sid or my group.
I don't blame the kid who shot him.
I don't blame Sid.
There's only one person I can blame.
You come here believing that
you're here to save lives.
And you tell yourself you sacrifice the few
to save the many.
Pretty soon...
everything's negotiable
and you can't remember
what you came here for in the first place.
It's all turned around.
It...
Wait.
It was turned around.
Frank? You seein' something?
Tell me.
Frank!
Hey!
Say you're me, Charlie.
You want a voice in how the gadget's used.
You wanna minimize how
many more lives it takes.
- You wanna turn things back around.
- This isn't a game.
If you figured it out, tell me.
Darrow's gonna give a scientist
a seat on the Target Committee.
We have to use this as leverage.
Wait a minute, it's you.
They're giving that seat to you.
I'm the head of the technical staff.
Say you're me
and you're suddenly talking to the guy
who gets to help dictate
how the bomb is used.
And that guy wants to know
what happened to his test.
- What would you do then?
- What is this?
Blackmail?
Let's call this a...
A negotiation.
Bloody Yanks.
If this is some sort of prank,
I see no humor in it.
I am a member of the Royal Society.
Lord Halifax is a personal friend.
I wonder what he'd have to say
if he knew you imprisoned a Briton
in a beef locker.
How about a Briton
carrying a bag full
of atomic secrets off a military base?
Or...
are these just souvenirs
of your trip to America?
I packed five suits and a Dopp kit.
I've never seen those papers before.
You don't think that...
Paul Crosley...
could have been involved in some sort of...
Oh, my God.
Committing espionage
right out of my office.
He has seemed out of sorts.
I'm afraid this is the
curtain call, William.
Whatever he's told you, Colonel,
the man is an inveterate liar.
You recruited Paul, Dr. Hogarth.
Told him who to contact.
What information to collect.
Isn't that the truth?
It's also become apparent that the British
have been keeping atomic
secrets of their own
from the Americans.
And you from me.
So you're going to hand over
every morsel the king has been holding.
Are you taking the piss?
Your coconspirators at Site X
are sitting in rooms just like this one.
And they're cooperating with us,
so I'll let you consider your options.
You'd betray the
grandfather of your only son?
You're going to
retract your statement.
Claim full responsibility like a man.
If you ever want to hold your boy...
Oh, I did want to hold my boy, actually.
I did.
Holding his photograph
seemed the next best thing.
So I took the snapshot out
of the frame on your desk
and I turned it around.
September 1932.
So that would make him, what, 17?
Who is he?
You know, I even convinced myself
that he looked like me.
But then Lucy never got Henry back,
did she?
How long have you known?
Five months, give or take.
And all this time...
you and your new friend
have been waiting like
two snakes in the grass?
It's all been logged, William.
Every conversation, every scrap
of intelligence we've stolen.
Be smart.
Tell the truth about what the British know
and maybe you'll avoid that noose
that you've been worried about.
I pity you.
No friends.
No family.
No loyalty,
dignity,
honor.
You are a man without a country.
And without iron round his wrists.
Shall we begin?
We have power, Charlie.
Are we really gonna keep
using it to hurt people?
You're really gonna
hold the project hostage?
Germany's about to sign a peace treaty.
All eyes are turning east
toward an enemy that doesn't look like us
and doesn't talk like us.
That makes it pretty easy
to cast them as barbarians
and justify a massacre.
What do you want, Frank?
We've both stumbled.
Now we can stand up straight together.
We can do the right thing.
You're a leader.
People look to you for
guidance, so guide them.
Convince the Target Committee
to demonstrate the bomb
on an uninhabited island.
Show the world our power and our restraint.
How do you know that's the right decision?
How do you know it's enough to end the war?
It doesn't matter what I know.
You know that this is right.
I have to believe that's true.
'Cause the truth is I can't
force you to do anything.
The reason we're both standing here
is you can see the path forward to the bomb
as clearly as I can
and you always could.
You were gonna see this, too,
eventually.
The detonators?
It was the first thing I checked.
Red to positive, yellow to negative, right?
That's what the specs say.
What if things got turned around?
The polarity?
All of these wires, theywere all...
they were all color-coded by hand, right?
Well, what if someone accidentally
dipped the brush in the wrong can of paint?
Jesus.
What if the charges got turned around?
You did the right thing, Frank.
And I know you will, too.
"I hereby declare on oath
that I absolutely and entirely
renounce and abjure all
allegiance and fidelity
to any foreign prince,
potentate, state, or sovereignty"...
That's good enough, Paul.
I hereby declare you
a citizen of the United States of America.
Welcome home, son.
How long did it take him to figure it out?
He didn't.
I had to feed him the answer.
I told you not to bet on that boy.
Yeah, well...
we're all betting on him now.