Can we PLEASE get a breakdown of nuclear weapons use in cinema. I'd tune in for every episode

I always considered this scene from Terminator 2 to be the scariest thing put on film. Much much more scary than all the monster/ghost/serial killer/zombie horror films ever made. And the fact that it could happen for real, today, in ~20 minutes if someone in power got crazy enough to press the wrong button makes it even more scary.

FINALLY wow I never knew how much I wanted this broken down

I've always considered the nuke scene in Terminator 3 more terrifying.

They got the physics more or less right in that scene

Also, not sure if you knew this, but Nukemap lets you export a model of the fireball and mushroom cloud to Google Earth so you can view it in 3D over the terrain. It's not detailed, just translucent grey blobs. But one could recreate the movie viewpoint from Elysian Park and see how they match up.

It would be interesting to see your analysis of the other nuke blasts in the various Terminator films as well, and maybe see how they all compare and rank in realism. Genisys has a particularly nasty one where one detonates above the water in the San Francisco bay.

As always, thank you for your insight. I wouldn’t say that the Cold War was over though. It just had a temporary pause for 30 years, in much the same way that (IMO), WW2 was merely a continuation of WW1.

I use nukemaps in my history class. Very cool!

As always, a great presentation...but one minor correction I think it is important to note is about how big the "really big" bombs were in the Cold War...you said they were in the range of 1mt to 3mt, but the big ones were much much bigger. For many years the US kept 54 Titan II ICBMs on alert in silos, each armed with a 9 megaton warhead...and the Soviets deployed a similar number of the SS-18 mod 1 (R-36M) ICBMs on alert in silos each armed with a warhead in the 18-25 megaton range. Of course, both the US and USSR developed and fielded very large nuclear gravity bombs of at least 20 megaton yield as well. Of course, it is not the kind of detail that a nuclear engineer would usually have in their heads for immediate recall in a reaction video, so absolutely no worries about be off on these numbers. I mostly wanted to comment because you would find it interesting how big the bombs got.

Sobering to think of, but fascinating to listen to

This and Barefoot gen are images that still frighten me to this day.

Do the fridge scene from Indiana Jones 4 next.

I’m guessing given the location of the initial explosion it is a above ground or airburst dethonation.

While I don't know if the movie did this deliberately, I noticed another realistic touch: Oil production and refining were high-priority targets, and they were big/soft enough that they would have been hit with airbursts. Los Angeles, besides being a major city, sits on top of active oil fields. The LA City Oil Field ran east-to-west a bit south of Route 101 and was still producing in the 1990s. Shift your Nukemap hypocenter about a mile northwest and you'll be right on top of it. It makes perfect sense that the Russians would have programmed at least one ICBM for that aim point.

Thanks for the content. Maybe something lighter. Theres a good couple “nuclear reactor” scenes in Dr No. Also there’s an iffy version of the Nagasaki blast in The Wolverine.

I still say a nuclear bomb there's no match for a phased plasma rifle in a 40 watt range

Hey, not sure where else to message. I just walked through the Boston airport and saw a guy that looks just like you at the TSA line.

I've been to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and their respective museums. It's kind of cruel to think about, but like... there's a small mercy in being at ground zero and outdoors, when.. this happens. Because when you get exposed to a 277,000 centigrade fireball (using Hiroshima as a reference, I'm sure this bomb was more modern and powerful), that is it. Lights out. It's basically instantaneous. Being just far enough from the blast zone to catch fire? No thanks. Same with everything else at varying distances. I'm totally fine with instant deflagration.

When the Terminator movies came out I would tell folks this is the future, they laughed at me, ‘planes flying with no pilots, big brother watching, robots that would take over human functions (AI). The same folks are no longer laughing at me, funny that🤨. I really appreciate your unbiased insight into the world of nuclear issues. Kindest regards from Bonnie Scotland. Joe.

Can you do Threads?

LA gets what it deserves in T2.

Hey I see my house. I’m gonna get burnt to hell

Can you please watch/review super sus? He swam in reactor 5 water.

You’re sh!tting me?

I can't say I enjoyed it , very depressing and I don't understand why people are not protesting the wars going on now that can make this scenario happen.