I think the main reason they don’t show the dropping of the atomic bomb is that the movie is not about the Manhattan project or World War Two. The movie is about Robert Oppenheimer. His involvement in the project as the director of Los Alamos and the trinity test, as well as his involvement in the decision making about the use of bombs during and after the war were certainly shown and covered in the movie. I think the dropping of the bombs and the horrors of their effects would be more appropriate for a different movie.

The movie is primarily about Oppenheimer and his loss of security clearance. It then shows most of the events that occurred leading up to that event.

Oppenheimer’s initial rejection of the hydrogen bomb was due to the fact that it needed a fission explosion to initiate it, so they still needed a fission bomb before they could work on a fusion bomb.

I watched the movie, and I would like to add on what you said about the other bombs not being shown because Oppenheimer didn't witness the bombs and its more of a biography than just the bombs and Christopher Nolan made the trinity test worth it by making it as real and possible without dropping his own nuclear bomb but in those silent moments the awe and power was intense without shaking the theater. Would it be nice to see the others sure but in my opinion, it would take away more than it gives to the film because it would take away from the dramatic feel when you see all three when all you need to see is one.

Like many people have commented. The movie is not about using the nuclear bombs or the war. It is about Oppenheimer and his life and struggles while overseeing the manhattan project.

Just a small correction, Trinity (test in New Mexico, 25kt) had a greater yield than Little Boy (Hiroshima, 15kt) and Fat Man (Nagasaki, 21kt).

The reason why there was no sequences from the actual bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is because the movie only follows Oppenheimer’s point of view on the events he witnessed (mostly as director of the Trinity test). There were other scenes shot from the point of view of other characters present in the movie but they are shown in black and white. The only time Nolan used sequences other than character’s point of view were to represent the dramatic reality of the Nuclear Race at the very end of the movie.

Adding the Hiroshima scene would defeat the point of the movie. Don't forget that after the bombs were delivered to the military, Oppenheimer was deliberately excluded from the loop. He was anxiously waiting for the outcome, but only learned it from the announcement from the President as everybody else. From Oppenheimer's perspective, he didn't experience it at all. Excluding the bombing helps the audience understand how Oppenheimer felt.

It was a biopic about Oppenheimer, not the 'fruits' of his labour (for want of a much better term). The movie was filmed largely from two perspectives, that of Oppenheimer and that of Strauss - Hence the switch between colour and black and white film. In that sense, it would have been strange for them to show us something neither of them witnessed themselves.

Regarding Nolan choosing not to show the two bombs being dropped on Japan, this is mostly a story-telling choice. The whole movie is meant to immerse you in the life of Oppenheimer and give you his perspective. Just like Oppenheimer, the audience got to see everything up to Trinity, then the Army taking the two other bombs off without knowing what will happen until it's in the papers. Ripping the audience away from that narrative and showing them Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be immersion breaking and not serve the rest of the film, in my opinion.

6:40 I think the reason they didn't actually show the bombs dropping was because this was focusing on the scientists more than the war in the Pacific itself. So they instead showed the reaction of the people at Los Alamos who didn't actually see the bombing and the aftermath. We got to see what was going through Oppenheimer's mind since he knew what it would look like. I don't see it at all as avoiding the negative aspect because it's an American film, I see it as Christopher Nolan liking to get inside your head and show inside the mind of others. I may be biased as an American though.

The movie was about the human drama , more than the physics or the historical significance. It was from Oppenheimer's perspective. He learned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the radio. It was the most appropriate way of portraying those events.

Hi Elina, I love your videos. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t put the Manhattan Project in context with the war itself. At the time, Allied war planners were planning for the invasion and occupation of the Japanese main islands. At the time, they estimated that Japanese and Allied casualties would come to 5,000,000 people. My Dad was in the Navy and his ship was supposed to be part of the invasion fleet. The invasion of Japan was called Operation Olympic. Growing up in a house where Mom was a victim of the indiscriminate Allied bombing of Europe, and Dad, who was going into the meat grinder of Japan, led to some lively conversations.

I was waiting for them to show the real bombs being used too, but I think they decided to stick with what Oppenheimer himself actually witnessed. It was also effective in showing the mindset of the bombs being dropped "over there" and not having that immediacy for the people who made and used them. I liked the scene where they view the report of the after effects and radiation poisoning, and seeing the realization hit Oppenheimer. Looking back it was pretty effective storytelling

The movie showed things from Oppenheimer's perspective and he did not experience the events in Japan. It was emersed from what he could see from start to finish.

I've watched your videos for a year and liked them alot! I just saw that you work/studie in Sweden at KTH. As a Swede I welcome you and your knowledge to our country. We realy need more scientists as you...

Tube Alloys (UK) was actually the foundations of the Manhattan project which was a joint US and British op. The UK which was a lot further along at the time in that area of tech agreed to send its research and scientists (Including Klaus Fuchs!) to complete the work because it didn't have the finances to do so, as well as quite a list of other top secret tech, in exchange for sharing the completed project with them. Which the US agreed to, 3 times, but then reneged by signing the McMahon act in 1946 which forbade any sharing of nuclear technology with any foreign state.

The reason we did not see the dropping of the bombs is because Oppenheimer didn't see them. We are viewing what happened through Oppenheimer (as much as possible). His experiences are with Trinity and not the actual bombings.

I love that more movies about historical events are produced. Thanks for reviewing it! 😊

The movie was about Robert Oppenheimer. Although they did not show the explosions over Japan, they did clearly show the horrific effects to the human body such as a charred corpse, which is more startling than showing an explosion. Also, the fact that it was a huge moral dilemma to him was clearly depicted. Great review and thanks!

After the bloodshed in the Okinawa and other Islands battles, and slaughter on all sides, the belief was this would happen with the mainland invasion, which was next, the bomb would end the war, which it did. That is the context at the time. You are certainly right on the issue of Technological Momentum, major factor in the decision as well.

My own college history classes went into the “why drop the bomb” debate in detail. While getting a fast surrender from Japan was certainly a big reason, just as big a reason was the desire to show it off to the Soviet Union and put the fear of obliteration into them.

"they didn't know the effects of radioactivity" Marie Curie - 1867-1934

Got to love your sense of humor, that modified smile flash at :25 was just scary. 😂😂 Keep up the great videos. Making knowledge fun is a gift. 😊😊

Hi Elina, this is not a war movie, the movie is about the life of Oppenheimer and his work and aftermath of the invention of nuclear bomb, that's the reason there is no scene of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Because Oppenheimer was never involved in Japan bombings. That's why he said in the end, that we might have started a chain reaction, and here the chain reaction referring to building more and more nuclear weapons. Like if USA invented one then Russia or its enemies must invent even more nukes to safeguard themselves, and then other countries will go on to create their own atomic bombs just like a chain reaction in nuclear fission process. This is Christopher Nolan movie, you need to be very attentive while watching his movies. @elina

Reminding us all of the extreme horror and the gravity of these weapons is a necessary thing - and also the flip side - that this technology can be used in a positive and peaceful way to benefit us all, is a necessary thing. 😊

The show trials that Oppenheimer was subjected to, seemed a bit belabored in the movie - but, if that what he went through... Sad to see a national hero who, arguably shortened the was tossed under the bus. Never realized Truman held that opinion of Oppenheimer. Movie seemed a little long.

I with the whole squad were dressed for a movie like it was 1940 in poland and people were laughing that we are going on barbie, it happend like 13 times at least xD. About movie itself wow, the suspens during trinity final countdown was soo intense to the point that we all were sligtly standing and holding chairs and then i covered my ears bcs it was my second time watching and i knew what was coming and my og bro asked "hey why re u covering them its silent" i replied "EXCATLY" and then who was on a movie knew what happend lol. Fantastic videography piece christ one of the best ive ever seen

This is cool! I am a history professor. Saw Oppenheimer and loved it! I made my own review from a history perspective, overall, it was very spot on, so nice to hear your take on the science part!

Actually, the Manhattan Project started in Oakridge, Tennessee. And they did know about the long-term effects and severity of radiation on humans. That was one of the missions of Oakridge, Tennessee. They did experiments on minorities, the elderly, orphans, and death row prisoners that would put nazi experiments to shame. They just didn't talk about it in the movie.

The movie is about Oppenheimer, not WWII, even though WWII was going on during the movie it wasn't the subject of the movie, nor was the devastation of bombs. The movie isn't about the a-bomb itself as well. It is about Oppenheimer, his role, and his behavior during that time. Anyway, great video. I loved the movie. It is the best I've seen in a long time. Thank you.

I would actually rate it a 10/10. It is the best movie I have seen in years! I disagree a little bit with you Elina on the disappointment that the actual dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not depicted. The artistic intent, IMHO, seems to be to represent the struggles of Robert Oppenheimer, both with is moral and ethical struggles, but also with the subsequent blacklisting from the political establishment. The resulting power battles are a good social comment on what we face even today. I loved how the physics world and it's discoveries were portrayed. That was a fast-paced and challenging romp through my memories of what I learned in university. Having a knowledge of the discoveries and scientists of the time really helped me to appreciate the movie even more. Thanks for your review. You do awesome work, so keep up the efforts in educating us all.

Great summary of the movie, I learnt a lot from watching it, oh and btw love your T-Shirt too!

IMHO the amphibious assault on Okinawa on April was such a bloodshed that they had an excellent point on using the bomb. And the fact that the Japanese refused to even acknowledge the bomb on Hiroshima when the Japanese scientists told their military that "the US could not possible have more than one of those bombs due to the extraordinarily rare materials". And the fact that even when the second bomb dropped on Nagasaki and the emperor pushed to surrender, part of their military tried to make a coup against the emperor to avoid surrender! which eventually failed. All that summed up shows that they were not going to surrender AT ALL... They were ready to loose a couple millions civilians without caring for anything.

Others have made quite extensive comments over the movie's central focus on Oppenheimer himself. One of the most striking moments in the movies (SPOILER ALERT) was Oppenheimer approaching Gen Groves, stating he needed to go to Washington DC over his fears of nuclear proliferation. Groves curt response was "What for?" The nuclear scientists were paid to research, develop and test the potential for nuclear weapons, not to engage in anyway with their use or targetting. His pain, seeing the film of casualties frmo the two bombs On another point, the urgency over use of atomic weapons was not about forcing Japan to surrender. Japan had already suffered catastrophic damage from conventional and firebombing campaigns on each city throughout the country that began in November 1944, the most severe being one night/day over Tokyo on 9-10 March 1945 that destroyed half the city and killed ~100 000 people. A proposed land invasion was planned for between November 1945 to February 1946. Truman knew the Russians had committed to enter the war no more than three months after Germany's surrender on May 8. That meant Russia would go to war with Japan by August 9. The Allies had already seen the Soviet Union seize territory in Eastern Europe and East Germany, installing puppet governments, silencing populations, murdering politicians and academics known to oppose Soviet domination. Truman was determined the Soviets would play no part in occupation of Japan or anywhere in east Asia. Truman needed a means to convince Japan to surrender unconditionally, with the Emperor either removed from power or not to be held in a position of reverence/obedience in future. The Russians declared war on Japan August 8, 11.45pm and invaded Manchuria at 12.15 am August 9. Two and a half hours later, the B29 carrying the Fat Man atomic bomb flew from Tinian, dropping the bomb on Nagasaki at 11.00 am. The Japanese War Cabinet met that morning to be confronted by messages on both the Russian invasion and the second atomic bomb attack. The debate over whether either or both atomic bombs should have been used seems a bit academic, considering the horrendous death toll from the conventional bombing campaign. I still believe it was BOTH the atomic bombs (and conventional bombings) AND the Russian entry into the war that finally sank any hope by the militarists the war could continue.

Thank you Elina for the nice review. Appreciate.

Thanks for this review. I can’t wait to see it. Where did you get that shirt?

Elina, congratulations on 60K!

Great review, Elina.

Gadget, the a-bomb that was used for the trinity test, was actually quite a bit larger (having a 25kt yield) than the bombs dropped on Japan.

I saw the movie and it was awesome to see the scientists responsible. The Teller design was used in the "Shrimp" device that caused the Lithium bonus in Castle Bravo. I enjoyed seeing where all of that came from.

Thank you for the careful review of this movie. Although I haven’t seen it yet I feel better prepared for if and when I do. Your thoughts are appreciated!

The reason that we didn't see the bombs dropped on Japan, is because the focus of the movie was on Oppenheimer himself more than anything else.

Have you seen "Fat Man and Little Boy"? It was a feature film that feels more like a made-for-TV-movie (not intending to slag, that's just the vibe I got). It roughly covered the same material - focused mostly on Oppenheimer & slightly less on his 'boss' Lesley Groves ....a true technocrat, bent on fulfilling his orders. (Not judging - just a personality type) It's a surprisingly good film - considering its narrow scope and TV-ish narrative. A LOT of fascinating stuff was left out or glossed over - the Oak Ridge & Hanford facets of the project and all the ancillary tales that could come out of those... It's an important and vast story. Countless films couldn't cover it all. The more attention given to this piece of history, the more viewers will be intrigued & inspired to learn more. And that can only be a positive thing. Right? Thanks for the review! 😁

It's not a movie about the bomb, it is a biography of Oppenheimer. The bomb was an important part of the plot, but not it's main focus. As others have pointed out, it was all centered around Oppenheimer - I will just add that it was so much focused on him that the script was written in first person (so it didn't say 'Oppenheimer entered the room", but "I entered the room"), which is unheard of in the industry. Given that neither Oppenheimer nor Strauss ( the other major character) witnessed the bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki it would be really strange to show it.

☢☢☢I can't wait to see this movie.☢☢☢

Thank you for sharing. I am going to wait and watch the movie at home. I have read a lot about the history and the war.

The insert of your location in the cinema cracked me up!😂

The movie is largely from the perspective of Oppenheimer. This is a biopic after all. Therefore, it seems reasonable the two bombings are not shown since Oppenheimer was not included after the successful test (and not informed according to the movie).

I'd suggest the story was more about Oppenheimer, as a sort of biography used to teach history and teach some science whilr exploring human nature. The bombs dropping is documented and (if one were to be accurate or honest) horrifying in terms of results; depicting only reactions can effectively unleash the imagination to imagine worse than any movie might want to show. I also think the timing might affect nuclear development but (more importantly) underlines what's being threatened in Ukraine with all the blustering about using nuclear weapons

Trinity had essentially the same yield as the two dropped on Japan. The Nagasaki bomb was a duplicate of Trinity. Also, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories are the two US labs focused on maintaining our nuclear stockpile. Sandia in Albuquerque, NM and Livermore, CA is the main engineering lab for our stockpile.

I loved the ending and how it pointed out most people celebrate the achievements of others not for the person who accomplished it, but for themselves

I couldn't see a subscription button but I will want to see your videos on some of the gen IV designs when you put those up. Now I must go see Oppenheimer. I already know the story, I worked in Oak Ridge for a number of of years.

Interesting take! I like your energetic way of talking.

I've seen Oppenheimer twice I'm even thinking of seeing it one more time lol. To me it is one of the greatest films I've ever seen. I look forward to the 96th Oscars and hopefully seeing Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., and Christopher Nolan getting wins among other nominations.

I think an interesting line in the film that kind of casually got ignored was at one point where they were talking about differences between nuclear fission and fusion. They mentioned that temperatures in stars are so hot that hydrogen atoms get converted into helium through fusion. They also talked about gravitational forces being so strong that stars can collapse upon themselves such that not even light can escape. They were talking about black holes although they didn't use that terminology. I guess it wasn't really a common term at the time. At any rate, at one point someone said they didn't really know how to describe it because they didn't have any mathematical formulas to handle it. I immediately thought Ramanujan did, but no one knew it at the time!

Am I tge first comment? Holy shit I am! What am I even supposed to say? I like your shirt, Elina.

One other point about the hydrogen bomb, the original Teller designs were not really workable until Ulam got involved in studying this along with Von Neumann around 1950 and they (Teller and Ulam) figured out staged radiation implosion with the fissile spark plug. Oppenheimer implies this in the movie but it was mentioned only in passing. Although the first Russian hydrogen bomb test seems remarkably like the original Teller “Alarm Clock”.

Premier in Greece is in August 24th 😢. How expensive are flights to Sweden?

While it was late in the war Japan was no where near surrender, we were facing unprecedented causalities ending the war, there was also the ramifications of China and Russia attacking. Every possible ending for WWI and Japan was actually worse without the bomb and their unilateral surrender.

I absolutely agree with what you said about not showing the Hiroshima and Nagasaki drops. Like it was incredible without it. But maybe the ethics around showing it were shaky but at the same time, I really believe that Nolan would’ve found a way to showcase them in an entertaining way. Definitely a missed opportunity.

US Army estimates for the landings in Japan put casualties at around 1 million US soldiers... Japan still had around 1.5 million soldiers in China and could continue the war from there. We had already fire bombed most targets in Japan and they had not surrendered yet, in Tokyo alone we killed 100-200 thousand in one fire bombing mission.... they did not surrender then. The atomic bombs saved lives on both sides, also what wasnt mentioned in the movie was the Japanese atomic bomb research taking place... the army and the navy both had their own research teams, and the navy was much closer though arguably still years away due to funding and materials and was located in what is now North korea....

Is there any discussion of the "Tube Alloys" project in the film?

You said the Trinity test was orders of magnitude smaller or weaker than the two bombs used on Japan but it had the same yield as the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Both bombs and Trinity were around 20kT. And regarding whether nuclear weapons eliminated future wars: we haven’t had another world war since then. Considering the festering hostilities between the US and the Soviet Union near the end of the war, I think there is no doubt there would have been another world war even more devastating than WWII by 1950 if there were no nuclear weapons to stop it.

MAD has worked to ensure that (at least for now) nuclear armed nations have not gone to war directly against each other, but has not stopped wars in general, especially where the nuclear powers use proxy nations to pursue their international interests. 8( As to the movie not showing the actual bom drops on Japan, it does only limit itself to what Oppenhimer experienced, that once proven and built, the military took the weapons and used them as they saw fit, he only found out the results when announced publicly.

Some details were missed. for instance two academic scientists from two small countries near Denmark smuggled blueprints of the Soviet atom bomb to the White House in 1942. they offered to lead a nuclear program based on the Soviet blueprints of their atom bomb. The duo came to Washington Dc and to the White House in about 1942, with detailed blueprints of the Soviet atom bomb along with materials lists and air blast calculations. All Europeans are brothers, as Americans like to say when they leave the western hemisphere. The Soviet nuclear weapons program started in 1936 and lasted till 1945, and building of the atom bomb were delayed by a few dissident scientist there. The nuclear blueprints of the Soviet atom bomb and these Soviet blueprints were already in final stages for production purposes by 1942. Nuclear weapons design teams of nuclear scientists worked in the Soviet Union and these blueprints were made between 1937 and 1942. The Soviet design team delayed production as much as possible, by focusing on air blast calculations per unit increase in nuclear radiation. Nuclear weapons air blast calculations of the Soviet Atom bomb and materials lists were given also given as gifts to the White House in 1942. the smugglers hired by dissident nuclear scientists were two scientists from either Holland Or Denmark or some other country in that area. The drawings of the Soviet atom bomb were smuggled to the White House itself by 1941 or 1942. The drawings of the Soviet atom bomb, along with air blast calculations and materials lists were ready by 1941 at the Soviet nuclear weapons research center. Soviet Union had the best nuclear scientists, with a human tough and humane mentality. At the time the focus of the United States was in radio waves. So, right after the Soviet drawings of the atom bomb and air blast calculations were smuggled to the office of President Roosevelt, President Roosevelt initially put together a rag tag team with G. Marconi, the inventor of the radio, in charge of the American nuclear program in 1942 - 1943. Soon someone mentioned to him that the United States too had a bright scientist trained in nuclear physics who was in a scientific company somewhere else in the USA. In 1942 or so, Oppenheimer called back the White House: he needed two months notice, at the very least. He told officials in 1942 to let Marconi continue, and that he had to give two months notice to his current employers in 1941 or 1942. Robert Oppenheimer and President Roosevelt were both very impressed with the Soviet papers of the Soviet atom bomb, as these were accompanied by extensive airblast calculations . president Roosevelt commented that even he could understand the air blast calculations ND the Soviet design papers, despite being a history major. Their brilliant nuclear scientists decided to have a go slow approach till a Slav (East European) is selected as the Secretary general of the Soviet Union in place of Joseph Stalin. These were smuggled out of the Soviet Union by a few dissident nuclear scientists of the Soviet Union on to the White House in 1941 or 1942. the dissident nuclear scientists of the Soviet Union didn't like the idea of a communist country like their county building the first atom bomb. original atom bomb drawings and materials lists and air blast calculations were prepared in a nuclear bomb research center in the Soviet Union by a team of nuclear physicists, led by Egor Kurchatov. In his younger days, Mr. Kurchatov looked like a handsome man. Soviet chief scientist and project manager of the Soviet atom bomb program looked more like a white beach boy on a surfboard and more like a slim fraternity member an any college in the USA. Later, he started looking more like a mad scientist with age. During the initial successes of the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Kurchatov and his team of dissident nuclear scientists decided to smuggle out the papers of the Soviet nuclear weapon to the United States. and atom bomb including the original drawings and materials lists and formulas and air blast calculations. These were were smuggled out of the Soviet nuclear weapons research center by two real Europeans:: The two smugglers were two academic scientists from central Europe, actually western Europe. The duo who reached the United States also reached the White House in 1942, give or take 6 month, along with the Soviet designs of the atom bomb were from one or two central / west European countries, either Holland or Denmark or a similar country. came from Igor Kurchatov lead scientist of the atom bomb research center. The rest is history. He almost didn't respond to the President's invitation. He was working in a company working or wired signals and other radio signals. Oppenheimer was the only knowledgeable authority in nuclear scientist in the western hemisphere, unlike the Soviet Union and Germany. Initially he told the White Science he had forgotten nuclear science even he had studied nuclear science. President had an answer to Oppenheimer's excuse at not being in a hurry to join the nuclear program of the United States in 1942. He said his last name is German, and that he may be mistakenly associated with Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany had already been committing a number of atrocities across the Soviet Union. President Roosevelt promised to refer to him as an American Jew. American Jews have German last names. So Oppenheim became a Jewish American overnight after a meeting with President Roosevelt in 1942. before that he was a non practicing Jew. Some say he may have been a Lutheran Christian with a German last name before ww2.

The reason the bombings where excluded is that this is NOT a war movie. Nolan wished to tell a story from Oppenheimer's perspective.

Just watched it yesterday in imax totally loved it Love all the realism to it all and for a 3 hour film it definitely didn’t feel that long highly recommend it I just hope the team make another film showing the journeys the 2 bombs took from being built to getting over to the planes that finally dropped them

Love your channel and learning about nuclear physics. And as a side note, you’re one beautiful woman.

Waiting to see on streaming

What would really disquieting would be show the size of the original trinity test device with all the stuff required to fire it in comparison to a modern nuclear weapon. A modern thermonuclear device with all the firing circuitry could very easily fit on the back seat of a full sized car and produce more than 100 times the power of the trinity device (up to 2.2Mt)

How is a nuclear reactor turned off. I don't mean short term I mean OFF. I ask this since it seems that a reactor require coolant at all times, so is there an actual off position where the reactor does not require oversight and coolant. If so how long dies it take to get to the OFF position. Is it days, weeks, months or years.

I always felt that the reason why US dropped the bombs was not because it was needed to win the war, but rather that they wanted to show that they could and they wanted to do it first.

Haven't watch the movie. But I read a lot about Manhattan project. Should I continue to watch ?

i think you should see By Dawn's Early Light (also known as The Grand Tour) is an HBO original movie, first aired in 1990. It is based on the 1983 novel Trinity's Child, written by William Prochnau. The film is one of the last to depict the events of a fictional World War III before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War

The bomb they tested at Trinity site was the exact same specs as the one they dropped on Japan.

As terrible as it was and Thank G-d it has not happened again, let's not forget the devastation of civilians and property heaped upon the Chinese and Koreans by the Japanese at that time. It was not at all clear that Japan was going to surrender at that time. My father would have been one of the men to enter in the invasion of Japan if the bomb had not ceased the war. There was an estimate of 1 million allied soldiers and sailors would be lost in an invasion. And, let's not forget that those cities were major war industry centers producing their own war materials that would have been used against an invasion. Please tell the whole context of this event.

Ελίνα είσαι πολύ γλυκιά! (if you are not Greek, forgive me!) I love your videos. You explain things so well. 😃😃

If you want a thorough reveal and discussion of the true reasons for dropping the bomb go see the video created by the channel Shaun.

I'll rate the movie as a 9.5 out of 10. One of the best movies I've seen in years. Incredible cinematography, incredible acting performances by everyone involved, and stellar sound design for the movie. It didn't feel like a 3 hour movie, and I want to see it in the theater again. And I never see a movie twice in the theater. Glad to hear that you thought it was a good movie. They didn't show the actual bombings of Japan because the movie was mainly focused on Oppenheimer, which I feel was the right choice as it worked very well. As for if the bombs actually needed to be dropped, that's a very complicated subject with a ton of differing viewpoints. I'll say that the stated reason from the US Government why we dropped the bombs was to save lives because the fear was that invading mainland Japan would involve at least 1 million casualties combined and it was believed that Japan would never surrender.

I'm confused about 6:30, the Trinity test was slightly more powerful than Fat Man dropped on Nagasaki, why are you saying Trinity was orders of magnitude less powerful?

I response to your question of why Oppenheimer decision not to pursue a hydrogen bomb (at 3:20), I would have thought it obvious that they would have have to start over again, after two years in, on a project they don't even know will work, or whether they could even meet the delivery timeline. Oppenheimer, as a project manager, made the right call - focus and deliver on what they were actually tasked with doing, and deliver when they needed to do it. Yeah, Teller's ideas may lead to something "better", but no good if it blows out the project timeline, when the war is happening now.

In the movie he seems pretty split by the intent to just make the bomb, and then he sort of resists using it. Then he gets confused about stopping races for future devices. He should have figured out those problems before getting involved. Really the way I see it is the mechanism of distrust mandates all powers develop nuclear and then thermonuclear devices so it really isn't going to come down to anyone's decision making.

I guess it would be an impressive movie especially for people who know nothing or almost nothing about the Manhattan project. For all others, it's probably a bit more of a memory-refresher than anything else. I didn't see it yet, but I plan to, since I'm curious how it turned out :)

Great shirt!

The movie was about Oppenheimer, his personal relationships and is troubled relationship with the US government, not the bomb. The bomb was a "supporting character", but not central to the story. So it was not surprising to me that they did not show the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That deserves a whole other movie with those cities as the "main characters". The question is whether Hollywood will ever make that movie, especially fully revealing (as only really hinted in this movie), that it was wholly unnecessary to drop the bombs to bring a swift end to the war.

I'm getting a little nitpicky here, but the first research into this was really done at a university in Chicago where they actually did have a self sustaining nuclear reaction going. It was then they realized a bomb was likely possible and was the impetus to start bomb building lab at Los Alamos. Several others have said this, but this movie was more about Oppenheimer's experiences and not the physics as was the book on which it is based. If one wants detailed treatment of the physics a good book is The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes.

Elena, Cariad, If you are going to use the Rutherford Model of the Atom, please don’t have two Electrons in the same Orbit. There was a similar Graphic at the Franklin Institute Science Museum a few Years ago and it made me crazy!

I do think the moral dilemma was actually well done throughout the movie. It is shown across many scientists including Oppenheimer himself as well as even the general who wants the risk to be "zero" (he is taken aback when he understands the risk of destroying the world as "near zero"). I disagree a bit that Japan was near surrendering. Sure, it had less of a naval threat, but in the United States' eyes, the only way to ensure the safety of the US and its allies and to ensure we did not suffer another Pearl Harbor or something more massive in the future was to force their hand at surrendering. We could do that with hundreds of thousands or millions or troops (an extremely high casualty rate on both sides) or use what we've developed as a shock and awe campaign of limited extent to try to force their hand without a costly invasion (both in lives and expense for both sides). It certainly is a tragedy and I also wish nuclear weapons did not have to be developed (but instead if there was a way to do nuclear energy without the weaponization aspect), but the movie can only show so much. This topic is vast as I don't think nuclear energy was really a concern here as much as the bomb. I think that nuclear scientists advocating for nuclear energy, such as yourself, simply have the responsibility for continuing to promote public discourse and help the public understand the context. It's not the onus of the movie to say, "Now that we've talked about Oppenheimer and his life and the fulfillment of a creation and the anxieties around it, let's branch off to all related topics for this movie that have little to do with Oppenheimer himself and reassure the public that these things are safe, but the bomb is not." It's a movie so that wouldn't be practical. The movie ends more about missiles being launched and Oppenheimer envisioning himself as flying the plane and the world being destroyed by the use of nuclear weapons. But yeah, the movie was less about WWII and even the project than Oppenheimer himself. I'd say Oppenheimer, which the movie is titled, is the focus, followed by the Manhattan Project, followed by a focus on human morality and consequence, followed by the war. The war was really the backseat here I think but understood as being the "looming threat" that pressed the program forward. Overall, glad you liked it, hope you continue putting things in context for education, and keep up the good work.

Just a ? Curious idk where if ur American or whatever but what’s that accent or lineage if u don’t mind me asking, ur accent is super nice

On a related not to Trinity, I own a small piece of trinitite from the test blast on 16th of July 1945 :)

The estimates of Allied csualties for an invasion of the Japanese home islands was greater than 850000 with more than 250000 deaths. Add on to that the number of Japanese casulaties (both combatants and civilians) which would also be in the hundreds of thousands and you can get some idea as to why 'the Bomb' was seen as a good idea...

If you want to review the darkside of your field, may i suggest the movie Atomic Cafe. I also suggest you visit the site of the Chicago pile. There is nothing left of the squash court, and the site has been built over. But, Chicago is home to Fermilab and a gorgeous lakeshore. It

The decision to use the bombs on Japan shortened the war by as much as 3 years. A mainland invasion of Japan would have taken much longer and would have resulted in millions more deaths, most of them on the Japanese military and civilian sides. And the invention of nuclear weapons did prevent another world war, the only wars we see nowadays are between non-nuclear powers or between a nuclear power and a non-nuclear power

Radioactive the Marie Curie movie, covers the negatives and the positives of nuclear materials in history.

I grew up and live in the secret city oak ridge "dox" if anyone has the chance to visit we have a great museum and we would love to have you visit

Its a film about Oppenheimer's pov. More importantly people should watch two great Japanese films called, "Children of Hiroshima" or in Japanese its called "Genbaku no ko" (1952) and also a film called "Hiroshima" (1953). Shows the devastation in the city and its people's lives, obviously from a Japanese perspective.

I think i read somewhere that all nuclear power stations today use uranium as a result of the investments made during the manhatton project. Apparantly it would be a lot more effective and cheaper to use thorium reactors, but no one wamts to invest in them since the technology is already developed for uranium light water reactors.

Great review, I look forward to seeing the movie. I was shocked recently on Twitter to find many people believing the nuclear bombs were all fake. They show old black and white footage. Then they comment how small model they blew up. Maybe the Russia will prove nuclear explosions are real. The problem is they will be vaporized before they realize they are real. “Fat Man and Little boy” (1989)was a good movie, also. I like the “demon core” scene. He does the calculations and then says, “I,m Dead”

Kokura Japan was the original target of the second nuclear attack but was saved do to bad weather.