Dr. Harold Abramson

Dr. Harold Abramson is a psychiatrist and CIA-linked consultant who appears among the buttoned-up scientists and officials gathered at a lakeside retreat organized around military and intelligence work. Genial and credentialed, he carries himself with a doctor's calm reassurance even as the room around him grows tense with things left unsaid.

Bob Balaban plays him with a soft, unhurried courtesy that never tips into menace, which is exactly what makes him unsettling — a mild professional manner sitting comfortably alongside institutional secrecy. The performance trusts restraint, letting the gap between bedside warmth and the era's grim experiments do all the disquieting work.