About

Are You Saying That There's a Chance That When We Push That Button is a catchphrase taken from a scene in the 2023 film Oppenheimer in which the character Leslie Groves (portrayed by Matt Damon) asks the protagonist J. Robert Oppenheimer about the possibility of a runaway thermal reaction during a nuclear explosion setting the entire atmosphere ablaze. Following the release of the film in July 2023, the phrase (paired with an image of Groves), achieved virality as a phrasal meme format.

Origin

On July 21st, 2023, the biographical drama film Oppenheimer premiered in the United States.^[1] In one scene of the film, Leslie Groves, a U.S. Army general who directed the Manhattan Project (played by Matt Damon), is talking to the protagonist J. Robert Oppenheimer about the possibility of a runaway thermal reaction following the explosion mentioned by him (dialogue shown below).

- Are you saying that there's a chance that when we push that button… we destroy the world?
- The chances are near zero…
- Near zero?
- What do you want from theory alone?
- Zero would be nice!

On July 21st, 2023, X^[2] user @bacon5237 posted the earliest found meme based on the scene, using Groves' line as a phrasal template. The post, which referenced the Griddy, received over 330 reposts and 3,700 likes in one month (shown below).

Spread

In the following days, the meme format found a wider presence on X as people used the line as a meme template, pairing it with the image of Groves. For example, on July 25th, 2023, X user @ScenePerfection made a post^[3] referencing Matt Damon's earlier film We Bought a Zoo that received over 2,100 reposts and 24,000 likes in three weeks (shown below, left). On July 27th, the X^[4] account @LeCinephiles posted a meme that received over 1,900 reposts and 21,800 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

More memes based on the format were posted in the following weeks, with users often making references to memes and pop culture. For example, on July 30th, X^[5] user @LibrarianPoster made a post referencing the Baby Gronk Rizz King meme that received over 1,100 reposts and 17,800 likes in two weeks (shown below).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References