Since I'm on a "Cold War" run to start off the site, lets look at 1995's "Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie."

"Trinity" is a documentary that explores the creation and development of nuclear weapons technology, primarily in the US military, but with a little bit of Soviet action thrown in as counterpoint.

Being a documentary, action is non-existant. That's not the point. The big draw of this film is the absolutely stunning film of the seemingly endless nuclear tests conducted in the South Pacific, in atmosphere (which I never knew were conducted) and underground. It's absolutely incredible to believe that something so infinitely destructive could at the same time be so, well, beautiful. You will find yourself feeling guilty at marvelling at the slow-motion footage of these detonations, only to realize their intended purpose. The different stages of the explosions, how they progress from initial detonation, to shock wave, thermal expansion and beyond are visible in nearly every one.

It starts off detailing how they came up with the "benchmark" for nuclear weapons strength, the kiloton. In essence, they put 1000 tons of TNT up on a test stand and set it off. I felt honestly scared for these guys manually carting box after box of TNT up onto the stand and tapping it firmly into place with their hammers. shudder

The absolute devastation of the bombs are shown in detail, both at their first two actual uses in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and at the various test islands and atolls. Literally wiping them clean of pretty much everything.

There's a bit of a look at the 50s-60s cold-war hysteria that went on, and when you look at this footage and what was being developed, its easy to see why the entire country was so nervous.

I'd recommend this to anyone interested in the history of nuclear weapons, and to anyone who scoffs at the seriousness and destructive power of the atom. I'd put it in the "must see at some point" category.



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