Radioactive

2019 1h 49m English 6.3

Action, Biography, Drama, Romance

In 1934, Paris, Marie Curie (Rosamund Pike), collapses in her lab. Marie met Pierre Curie (Sam Riley) in 1894 at a random street when she ran into him and Pierre saw her book and saw she is interested in radioactivity.Marie is a professor at a French university and shares lab space with Gabriel Lippmann (Simon Russell Beale). But she is not respected as she is a female and Polish, and her experiments and lab equipment are constantly moved without her agreement. Marie's sister advises her to apologize, but Marie is stubborn and wont.Marie runs into Pierre again at the theatre and is shocked to know that Pierre knows her name (she is one of the only 23 female scientists in Paris, has read her paper on magnetic properties of steel, and has heard of her fight with Lippmann). Pierre is a renowned scientist and offers his lab for experiments to Marie. She is insistent that she wont be Pierre's mistress and wont accept interference in her experiments. Soon, she figures that the Uranium Ore is more potent than the element itself and theorizes the existence of a new element. Marie is afraid of hospitals as her mother died in one and doesn't accompany Pierre to the Paris hospital for an equipment that will help them identify elements in microscopic quantities.Marie theorizes that Uranium atoms are giving off some sort of energy and transforming into a new element. Up till that point, the uranium effect was considered a chemical reaction with the air. Soon, Pierre married Marie. Paul Langevin (Aneurin Barnard) is their lab associate. She continues her experiments with more bigger quantities of Uranium Ore. soon, she is preggers. She gives birth to Irene Curie (Anya Taylor-Joy). Soon, Marie and Pierre are able to isolate a pin-prick of Radium & Polonium from 4 tonnes of uranium ore. Marie also coins the term "Radioactivity" for the rays coming from these "unstable" atoms.The results are accepted by the scientific community and Pierre makes professor at a prestigious university. Marie is preggers again. She sleeps with a vial of radium in her bed and soon Pierre falls sick. Pierre convinces Marie not to patent Radium so people can discover the possibilities of their new science. Marie sees radium being used for X rays and even as a possible cure for cancer. Pierre develops a bad rash on his wrist from exposure to radium and Marie is preggers again. Ève Curie (Cara Bossom) is born. In 1903 Marie and Pierre win the Nobel prize for discovery of radioactivity. Pierre talks about the dangers of radioactivity (which ultimately lead to the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima in 1945). Marie is super angry at Pierre for going to the ceremony alone (Marie had just given birth) and she thinks Pierre stole her brilliance and made it his own.Pierre's coughing grows and he begs Marie to leave Paris, but she wont budge. Pierre has a coughing fit on the street and runs into a horse carriage and is crushed underneath. Marie is inconsolable. Marie is offered Pierre's job at the university, but she declines at first. Paul advises her to accept Pierre's death and move on. She starts teaching at the university. Rumors start appearing that radium is making people sick. Marie is defenseless and starts an affair with a considerate Paul. A few months later Paul confirms studies that have linked Radioactivity as the source of cancer. Soon, Paul's wife releases details of their scandal to the press and Marie is disgraced and asked to leave France. Paul leaves Marie under threat from his own wife.The movie talks about other effects of radiation, such as ever powerful nuclear weapons, cure for cancer and then the explosion at Chernobyl. Marie wins the Nobel prize again in 1911 for chemistry. She goes to Sweden for her acceptance speech and is applauded for her work. Irene grows up and is a nurse in WW1. she asks her mother to make the war her own war and do something about it. Marie approaches Lippmann for funds to device a mobile x ray unit that could determine if troops need amputation at the fronts, before their limbs are chopped off. Marie advises Irene to stay away from radiation as its effects are not fully understood yet. Lippmann again denies Marie, but this she threatens to go to the press and sell her pure gold Nobel medals to raise funds for her machines. She gets her funding. The machines work and start savings lives and limbs on the battlefield. She died on July 4, 1934 and was buried next to Pierre. Irene went on to win the Nobel prize with her husband for discovery of artificial radioactivity. In France, to this day, radioactive treatment is called Curietherapie.