Are Cassie from Euphoria and Lewis Strauss from Oppenheimer the same person?

“There are certain stories that you want to kind of wait until you feel ready to tell them,” Christopher Nolan said about his decision to make Oppenheimer in an interview with The New York Times back in August. “For me, it’s always seemed one of those stories that I don’t think it’s been told in any definitive movie sense. And yet it’s one of the most important and dramatic stories there are.” Unfortunately for Mr. Nolan, it seems like he may have been beaten to the punch by a rather unlikely source… Sam Levinson. Yes, that Sam Levinson.

This week, fans of equally important cinematic properties Oppenheimer and Euphoria noticed an odd and extremely funny connection between the two. In Oppenheimer, Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) is curved by Einstein in almost exactly the same way Euphoria’s Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) is brushed off by the object of her own affections, Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi), nearly a century later.

But wait… that’s not all! Over the course of their respective stories, both characters also lost their minds, spiraled out, and essentially ruined their own lives and reputations based on this perceived slight. And those scenes are filmed the same way too.

People on Twitter/X are, unsurprisingly, very into this connection. Downey and Sweeney’s faces have been mashed together. Someone suggested the two were each other’s Tethered, as in Jordan Peele’s Us. In the grand tradition of a New Fun Thing on the internet, an Olivia Rodrigo fancam has already been made.

But, really, this is just further proof that cinema really is nothing but a reflection of real life. Everyone, no matter if they’re a U.S. Atomic Energy Commission official or a high school cheerleader with a propensity for glittery eyeshadow, has experienced some form of rejection that feels earth-shattering in the moment. Everyone has convinced themselves that if they could just get that person, they would never, ever be happier. And if you still don’t buy it, remember: Einstein was really, really sexy.