Oppenheimer is the constant but-for factor in the lead up to the development of the bomb

do you remember any examples? The sense I got from the movie is the opposite. It is basically suggested every physicist in the world more or less understood the technology at least potential if not on the horizon when the findings were published at the beginning, and many of the scientists seem to have a good guess what they are being recruited for despite it being a top secret project. Also, The USSR getting the bomb is treated as an inevitability prior to it was even known whether espionage occurred. I guess the best counter to this is why do we care about Oppenheimer sad at the destruction he helped unleashed if it was basically soon going to arrive anyway, and the only answer is that because the movie is about him.