LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A new movie directed by lauded filmmaker Christopher Nolan that hit theaters Friday follows the story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist who oversaw a massive, secret project to build the world’s first atomic bomb.
The film holds special significance for Las Vegas and a museum devoted to the bomb and its legacy.
The Trinity blast, in New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, turned night into day, according to those who witnessed it, and instantly changed the world. The scientists and engineers who built the so-called ‘Gadget’ nuclear test weren’t entirely sure what would happen when the bomb detonated.
Those scientists weren’t sure the bomb would stop.
“There were a lot of different thoughts on theories of what may happen,” said Joseph Kent, curator at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. “The hope would be that it would work and be contained.”
It did, in fact, work. Gadget’s success was proven weeks later when the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were obliterated, effectively ending the Second World War.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus, the newly-released biopic is not only the story of how Oppenheimer and a team of physicists created the bomb in a mere 27 months at a secretive enclave in the New Mexico desert but also of the internal conflicts that raged inside the man dubbed “the father of the bomb.”
Oppenheimer’s thoughts and fingerprints are everywhere at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. On display are the letter that kickstarted the Manhattan Project, bits and pieces of memorabilia from the project, and the now-famous quote wherein Oppenheimer acknowledged he had created a monster.
Even before the film’s release, museum staffers have felt its ripples.
“We’ve seen […] an uptick in visitation. We’ve also seen an increase in people reaching out and asking questions about the history of nuclear testing, about the Manhattan Project, and Oppenheimer himself as well,” Kent said.
The silver-screen version of Oppenheimer’s story includes all the drama of a Hollywood blockbuster, but the high stakes weren’t fictional. Nazi Germany was trying to build an atomic bomb, challenging the United States to create one first. Oppenheimer and his team succeeded, then regretted its creation almost immediately.
As the museum documents, Nevada became ground zero when the government ignored Oppenheimer’s warnings and launched a nuclear arms race.
The Nevada Test Site became the most “nuked” place on the planet. It meant an infusion of scientists, spies, and money that transformed dusty Las Vegas.
Atomic culture and A-bomb tourism were born. The museum avoids taking sides in the same dissonance that tortured Oppenheimer for the rest of his life.
“We’re not here to change anybody’s opinion or view on the bomb itself,” Kent said. “We’re here to make sure they leave with an educated opinion on it.”
The museum has expanded its summer hours in anticipation of what the movie might mean for attendance. Additionally, the Oppenheimer family will make a public appearance later this month.
