Reality for what happened was way different. Now no one knows if he really did poison the apple, but others at the school said he made statements about having done it.

So who knows, but just remember confused super unbelievably young smart person in college getting abused by their teachers and told to just take it. There was no real structure of support in those days so he snapped.

Fortunately no one was actually hurt and in the end (after disciplinary action) it all turned out ok. Just nothing like the movie trying to explain that in 30 seconds and force his connection with theory vs practical physics.