The Secret of Nikola Tesla

Tesla arrives in the United States in the 1880s. He seeks to persuade his new employer, Thomas Edison, to adopt his induction motor running on alternating current. Edison insists direct current is superior and dismisses the idea, setting up a long-running rivalry.

After the failed meeting, Tesla quits his job at Edison and is seen digging a ditch while contemplating his future. He begins to seek investors to back his motor and alternating current ideas. This moment marks his transition from employee to independent inventor.

Tesla strikes a deal with two investors to finance the development of his AC motor. He begins engineering demonstrations to prove the viability of the system. The investors become essential backing for his later experiments.

Tesla showcases his AC system at a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Edison sits in the audience, dismissing the invention as impractical. The moment highlights the rift between DC and AC camps.

George Westinghouse persuades Tesla to license his AC patents, offering a royalty contract. Tesla signs the deal, hoping it will fund widespread adoption of AC. The arrangement shifts momentum away from Edison’s DC campaign.

A public battle unfolds as Edison attempts to demonstrate the danger of AC and disparage the technology. Tesla defends the system's efficiency and practicality in contrast to DC. The ongoing clash deepens the national debate over electricity.

J. P. Morgan pulls the strings and calls Tesla and Edison into a meeting. He hints that he could help prove that AC has a place in his factories. The meeting casts Morgan as a powerful, cautious influencer behind the technology’s fate.

A banquet celebrates the completion of an AC-powered plant at Niagara Falls. Tesla confuses the audience with his visions of high-frequency wireless transmission and suddenly announces a trip to Europe to visit his family. The moment blends professional triumph with personal longing.

On the European trip, Tesla visits his bed-ridden mother, who dies in his arms. The loss deepens his emotional life and spurs flashbacks to his childhood and his late brother. The journey intertwines personal sorrow with his unfolding scientific ambitions.

Tesla returns to New York to work on a wireless power system funded by Morgan, launching the Wardenclyffe project. He reports progress to Morgan, who remains skeptical but provides at least tentative support. The project embodies his dream of free, wireless power.

Morgan informs Tesla that Marconi has stolen his wireless patents. Tesla also confronts Einstein's new theories about matter and energy, calling them a crime against nature. He pleads with Morgan to back a free wireless system before it's too late.

Morgan decides not to back a system that would put him out of business and cuts funding for Wardenclyffe. Tesla watches the station fall into disrepair as resources dry up. The project collapses, leaving his groundbreaking ideas unrealized in his lifetime.

In 1943, Tesla sits with a reporter in a hotel room, recounting his life and what might have happened if Morgan had listened. He reflects on early struggles, scientific battles, and personal losses. The conversation frames his enduring legacy and unfulfilled promises.

The film closes with Tesla looking over the demolished Wardenclyffe station and lamenting that Morgan did not listen to him. He observes a world increasingly choked by smog, hinting at the costs of unheeded innovation. The legacy remains, even as the dream fades from reach.