Unseen Oppenheimer Bomb Test Footage Sparks Fierce Debate Over Historical Truths

So, you just wrapped up Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and that Trinity Test scene? Kinda left you scratching your head, right? Like, where’s the boom that shakes your soul? Well, what if I told you the real deal—the actual explosion that made J. Robert Oppenheimer mumble that haunting “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”—is just a click away? Nolan poured his heart into this 2023 biopic, finally snagging that elusive Oscar after dazzling us with The Dark Knight, Interstellar, and Inception. But listeners, not everyone is on board with how the movie portrayed the iconic atomic blast, sparking a fiery debate hotter than the bomb itself. Curious how the director traded CGI for sandbox thermite explosions? Or maybe you’re wondering what the real Trinity Test actually looked like compared to Hollywood’s version? Buckle up, because we’re diving into the nitty-gritty of film magic versus historical reality—and trust me, it’s a blast worth watching. LEARN MORE

Finish watching Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer feeling like the infamous Trinity Test scene didn’t quite hit as hard as you were expecting?

Well, why not watch the real footage of an explosion which lead to J. Robert Oppenheimer to utter the phrase ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’ instead.

The 2023 biopic, detailing how the the US physicist created the atom bomb, would be the film which finally won Nolan an Oscar – and the 54-year-old pulled out all the stops to make sure Oppenheimer was able to achieve the praise which The Dark Knight, Interstellar and Inception hadn’t quite achieved.

However, not every moment in the Cillian Murphy-led film – which was added to Netflix over the weekend – was a home run for viewers, with fans particularly divided over how the Trinity Test was depicted.

What does the Trinity Test look like in Oppenheimer?

(Universal Pictures)

In Oppenheimer, we see Murphy’s titular character nervously awaiting the results of his experiment while alongside the rest of the team at Los Alamos (played by the likes of Matt Damon, Benny Safdie and Josh Peck).

The experiment is of course a success, with the group witnessing the world’s first atomic detonation. But how did Nolan go about recreating the moment for screen?

Of course, the easy option for the director would be to do what every other filmmaker in Hollywood does and utilise CGI to recreate the explosion, but he instead decided to take the traditional route.

Nolan, of course, wasn’t allowed to pillage the US military arsenal and detonate an actual bomb for obvious reasons, which meant that he and Andrew Jackson had to experiment on how to capture the most realistic looking explosions.

After numerous rounds of trial and error, they settled on exploding thermite in a sandbox, which you can see in the final scene below:

What did the Trinity Test actually look like?

The events of 16 July 1945 were also recorded in real time, which meant crews working on Oppenheimer had some source material to go off when recreating the moment.

Footage from the test is no longer classified, which means that you and I can also watch the world-changing moment from the comfort of our screens over and over.

The footage is rather grainy compared to Nolan’s recreation, the footage is 80-years-old to be fair, but we’re able to make out the moment the bomb detonates before seeing the familiar mushroom cloud.

However, it’s not as nearly as fiery as what we see in Oppenheimer.

Of course, Nolan and Jackson deserve full points for not taking the easy way out, but not everybody was impressed with the final result.

And the familiar mushroom cloud (YouTube/AtomicHeritage)

“What? That is not even a pale shadow of what the Trinity explosion looked like,” one person wrote under a clip of the explosion taken from the film.

“I can’t believe they used that. It looks just like a gasoline fire,” penned a second, while a third added: “The explosion doesn’t feel like a nuke.”

Someone else praised the film explosion’s ‘build-up’ as being ‘very good’, however, they continued: “The explosion looked nothing like a fireball that came out from the real Trinity footage…”

Here is the big fireball we see in Oppenheimer (Universal Pictures)

While others praised Nolan for the anticipation which he was able to create in the scene, the consensus seems to be that using CGI would’ve been forgiven for this scene.

“All for practical effects, but they could have used some cgi to make the explosion look like an actual nuke,” a fourth person commented.

Oppenheimer is available to watch on Netflix in the UK and Ireland.