Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
A disturbing detail in Oppenheimer seems to hint at a larger conspiracy... and it sees director Christopher Nolan in true "horror mode."
During a harrowing sequence of quick shots, the death of Jean Tatlock is shown as she seemingly drowns herself in the bath. However, a pair of black-gloved hands hints that all is not as it seems.
“One thing in Oppenheimer I haven't been able to get out of my head is that brief insert of black gloves in that one flashback with Florence Pugh,” said film fan Josh Lewis on Twitter. “Nolan was really in his horror mode.”
One thing in Oppenheimer I haven't been able to get out of my head is that brief insert of black gloves in that one flashback with Florence Pugh. Nolan was really in his horror mode.
— Josh Lewis (@thejoshl) July 23, 2023
He’s not the first to notice the gloved hands, and the scene seems to suggest that Tatlock’s death wasn’t suicide at all. Tatlock is played by Florence Pugh and features throughout the movie as Oppenheimer’s lover who continued to have a relationship with the scientist while he was married to his wife, Kitty (played by Emily Blunt).
Not only frowned upon due to the illicit nature of their relationship, Tatlock was also a keen member of the Communist party and was seen by many to be a security risk. Tatlock’s fate is teased throughout the film, with a flashback eventually revealing she supposedly drowned herself in the bathtub.
Of course, the gloved hands suggest otherwise, and fans have since been debating its meaning. Some believe the scene is a manifestation of Oppenheimer’s guilt and the gloved hands are meant to represent Oppenheimer blaming himself for her death.
The horrifying blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment is the closest Nolan comes to horror in Oppenheimer. However, it also teases a decades-old conspiracy. Following her death, an autopsy determined her cause of death as death by drowning, however, a “faint trace” of chloral hydrate was found in her system, a substance capable of sedating a person.
According to the book American Prometheus, on which Oppenheimer is based, at least one physician had doubts about her cause of death, speculating she may have been drugged and forcibly drowned. “If you were clever and wanted to kill someone, this is the way to do it,” said one doctor.
This subsequently led to speculation by historians, as well as Tatlock’s own brother, that she may have been killed by U.S. Government officials due to her affiliation to the Communist party, coupled with her closeness to one of the Manhattan Project’s key players.
“I do not believe that her interests were really political,” Oppenheimer told The United States Atomic Energy Commission in 1954. “She was a person of deep religious feeling. She loved this country, its people, and its life.”
Nevertheless, it looks as though Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan may have been convinced enough to tease that her death wasn’t a suicide at all.
IGN’s Oppenheimer review gave it 10/10 and said: “A biopic in constant free fall, Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s most abstract yet most exacting work, with themes of guilt writ large through apocalyptic IMAX nightmares that grow both more enormous and more intimate as time ticks on. A disturbing, mesmerizing vision of what humanity is capable of bringing upon itself, both through its innovation, and through its capacity to justify any atrocity.”
Want to read more about Oppenheimer? Check out why the dialogue in Oppenheimer might be difficult to hear and find out how historically accurate the movie really is.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
