Day One

Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard leaves Europe, eventually arriving in the United States. With the help of Einstein, he persuades the government to build an atomic bomb. The project is given to no-nonsense Gen. Leslie Groves who selects physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to head the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, where the bomb is built. As World War II draws to a close, Szilard has second thoughts about atomic weapons, and policy makers debate how and when to use the bomb.

Cast

Brian Dennehy

Gen. Leslie Groves

David Strathairn

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Michael Tucker

Leo Szilard

Hume Cronyn

James F. Byrnes

Richard Dysart

President Harry S. Truman

Hal Holbrook

Gen. George Marshall

Barnard Hughes

Henry Stimson

John McMartin

Dr. Arthur Compton

David Ogden Stiers

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Anne Twomey

Kitty Oppenheimer