There’s no question Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is currently blowing up theaters everywhere thanks in part to a commanding performance by Cillian Murphy as the titular historical figure, the father of the atomic bomb. However, the film is not the only movie out there about nuclear weapons that you can watch. So here’s our list of the top 10 atomic bomb movies and documentaries to quench that irradiated thirst that you might have about the subject after watching Nolan’s latest masterwork.
10. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
It might sound strange to put an action movie blockbuster on a list of important films about atomic bombs, but James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day has an astoundingly effective anti-nuclear weapons message at its very core. What other movie in the history of cinema has so breathtakingly reconstructed the hypothetical scenario of a nuclear bomb dropping in a major American city, like L.A., in the unforgettable dream sequence of Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor? The film focuses on a ragtag group including Connor, her son, and a benevolent robot from the future with an Austrian accent, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, banding together to stop a permanent nuclear winter from falling upon Earth in the decades to come. You can currently watch Terminator 2: Judgement Day on Netflix or rent it on your digital platform of choice.
9. “The Manhattan Project” – Modern Marvels
The Modern Marvels episode focused on Oppenheimer’s atom bomb is the focus of an episode called “The Manhattan Project.” However, the 45-minute documentary takes a slightly different angle to the entire story that just might offer some additional historical context and information you never heard of before. “The Manhattan Project” recounts the New Mexico desert laboratory project that culminated in the creation of the atom bomb from a civil engineering standpoint, with particular emphasis on the significant logistical problems that Gen. Leslie Grove had to solve. What’s more, there are considerable technical explanations about how nuclear fission actually works. Using archival footage and interviews of some of the major players, including some of the Manhattan Project scientists, this episode of Modern Marvels gives an impressive birds-eye view of the entire historical event and its consequence. You can watch the entire episode on YouTube.
8. “The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer” – American Experience
If you want a more straightforward telling of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life, the development of the atom bomb during World War II, and subsequent security hearing told in a more straightforward manner than Nolan’s non-chronological take, look no further than the American Experience PBS episode “The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer.” The feature-length documentary features a combination of voice-over narration and re-enactments that tell the story of Oppenheimer’s life in a more linear fashion and stays strictly with the facts, rather than taking minor poetic licenses here and there like Nolan’s movie. What’s more, the Oscar-nominated David Strathairn, from Good Night and Good Luck, gives his take on the paradoxical Oppenheimer in a performance of cinematic quality all its own. You can currently watch the entire documentary “The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer” on YouTube.
7. “Oppenheimer vs Heisenberg” – American Genius
If you are curious about the man behind the failed development of Germany’s would-be atomic bomb during World War II, a fascinating documentary about the physicist Werner Heisenberg can be found in the episode of American Genius called “Oppenheimer vs Heisenberg.” The tale, told through a combination of voice-over narration and re-enactments, depicts Yosef Podolski’s Heisenberg as something of a morally enigmatic figure, much like how Oppenheimer himself is often depicted.
Though Heisenberg was not a Nazi, he did have a fierce loyalty to Germany during World War II, which eventually led him to being recruited by the German Army to try and develop an atom bomb. In real life, Heisenberg had known Oppenheimer and they even got along pretty well before the war. However, that all changed when lines in the sand of national loyalty had to be drawn, even though the Nobel-prize-winning Heisenberg became a physicist that advocated for peace after the war ended. The documentary also goes into detail about things not depicted in Nolan’s Oppenheimer, such as America coming quite close to assassinating Heisenberg by way of a spy. You can currently watch the entire 45-minute episode of American Genius “Oppenheimer vs Heisenberg” on YouTube.
6. “The Firecracker Boys” – Book TV
An oft-forgotten part of American history involves the physicist and Manhattan Project alum Edward Teller (played in Oppenheimer by Benny Safdie) taking his hydrogen bomb creation to Alaska. His proposed plan, which had the backing of the Atomic Energy Commission, was to set off six of the Earth-shattering weapons to create an “instant harbor” on Alaska’s shore. This absurd idea, known as Project Chariot, was only narrowly thwarted by a grassroots resistance effort led by a local Inupiat Native Alaskan village.
This story is recounted in the book The Firecracker Boys, whose author Dan O’Neill originally conceived as a documentary film. The film never came to fruition, so O’Neill put together The Firecracker Boys as a book, using the research he gathered instead. Luckily, C-SPAN’s Book TV created a fascinating 30-minute program featuring an extensive interview with O’Neill that can essentially serve as the documentary that never was, complete with clips of pro-nuclear bomb propaganda cartoons commissioned by the U.S. You can watch “The Firecracker Boys” Book TV episode on C-SPAN’s website.
5. Dr. Strangelove
Speaking of Edward Teller, he is considered one of the inspirations for the titular character in the darkly satirical Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made, Dr. Strangelove is a whip-smart send-up of the lunacy that underlined the Cold War’s policy of mutually assured destruction. Featuring comedic giant Peter Sellers taking on three roles, including the titular Strangelove, the entire cast is packed with legendary actors front to back, including James Earl Jones, George C. Scott, and Sterling Hayden, among many others. The 1964 classic is currently available to rent or buy on most digital platforms, including Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, and Vudu, according to TV Guide.
4. I Live in Fear
When I first watched I Live in Fear in college, I remember feeling chills get sent down my spine at the dramatic concluding scene of a man looking out the window at the sun. The meditation of the main character’s descent into madness due to his overwhelming fear of nuclear annihilation is not your typical atom bomb movie, taking place a decade after the end of World War II. Any fan of influential filmmaker Akira Kurosawa owes it to themselves to watch what I believe is one of his most underrated works. The 1955 film starring the director’s mainstays, Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura, is something of a dialogue-driven family drama with very little graphic content associated with it. Instead, the movie serves as a psychological study of the post-war state of Japan at the time, and underlines the existential terror that nuclear weapons bring to day-to-day life.
Mifune particularly shines with chameleonic aplomb as the elderly Japanese industrialist Kiichi Nakajima, who is obsessed with moving his entire extended family to Brazil to avoid nuclear annihilation. It’s a Kurosawa and Mifune collaboration at the peak of their powers, and not one for any cinema fan to skip. You can watch I Live in Fear with a subscription to The Criterion Collection’s streaming service, The Criterion Channel, or on DVD.
3. Godzilla (1954)
It can be easy to forget that 1954’s Godzilla is not merely a mindless monster movie, but an incredibly effective metaphor for the devastation that nuclear weapons bring; nearly ten years after Japan was devasted by the atomic blasts that killed hundreds of thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The creature’s origin centers around radiation from America’s rampant nuclear testing, a commentary on the real-life series of tests the U.S. had been conducting in the Pacific at the time, such as at Bikini Atoll Island. Like Terminator 2, mentioned earlier on this list, the filmmakers cleverly used the action film genre to not only portray an important message about the dangers of nuclear technology, but bring “a remarkably humane and melancholy drama” to the screen, as The Criterion Channel notes. You can watch the original classic that spawned one of the world’s biggest disaster movie franchises on the aforementioned prestige streaming service, or on Max. Otherwise, it’s also available on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital.
2. When the Wind Blows
When the Wind Blows is an animated 1986 film that focuses on a cute couple who try diligently to “duck and cover” to survive a scenario in which the horrors of Hiroshima happen to Great Britain. Using a unique mixture of live-action shots and gorgeously realized hand-drawn animation, the movie will absolutely devastate your soul with its depiction of the tragedy of trying to survive a nuclear Holocaust. Just imagine the heartbreaking opening scene from Up, but turned up to 11, and you have an idea of what to expect. The movie provides an important message regarding the fact that even if you are not eviscerated in a nuclear bomb’s blast, radiation could still have a devastating effect on you. You can currently watch When the Wind Blows on Tubi for free; but seriously, get the tissues ready.
1. Barefoot Gen
Like Studio Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen is based on original manga author Keiji Nakazawa’s own life experiences, according to IMDb, and it is rendered to devastating effect. The film is not merely a drama but can be readily described as a horror movie, to boot. Indeed, if one aspect of Oppenheimer was glaringly missing from its narrative, it is showing the graphic and up-close consequences of the atomic bomb’s creation, which this movie more than makes up for. You may frankly have nightmares after watching it, but Barefoot Gen, which traces the Hiroshima bombing and its aftermath from the point of view of a little boy, might just be one of the most important movies about nuclear annihilation ever conceived.
Barefoot Gen is available to rent digitally on Amazon in some countries, but the U.S. is currently not one of them as of this writing. However, you can find the movie on DVD, if you look hard enough.