Today Alex Wellerstein, an historian of nuclear weaponry, breaks down the science behind Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film “Oppenheimer.” Which historical moments were drawn from as inspiration for what became the film—and how accurate are the depictions? Hear directly from an atomic expert how the science of “Oppenheimer” was translated onto the screen.
Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Francis Bernal
Editor: Richard Trammell
Expert: Alex Wellerstein
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyasm, Kameryn Hamilton
Production Manager: Eric Martinez
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila
Camera Operator: Rahil Ashruff
Sound Mixer: Gabe Quiroga
Production Assistant: Noah Bierbrier
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Paul Tael
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
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Shrek's brother
July 18, 2023 at 11:01 am
Atomic Expert demonstrates “Oppenheimer” Bomb Scenes with real atomic bombs☠☠
just something
July 18, 2023 at 11:23 am
Pretty interesting
Aloof
July 18, 2023 at 11:54 am
MACH STEM
Kuku
July 18, 2023 at 12:09 pm
Oppenheimer was so devoted to Knowledge that he Learnt Sanskrit to read Bhagavad Gita – The Song of the Lords & Upnishads to absorb the Original true Knowledge lies in the ancient scriptures.
Liz
July 18, 2023 at 1:10 pm
Where I live is where the plutonium reactors were (Hanford) and I’m looking forward to watching Oppenheimer as I never really took an interest in the history due to the sections afterwards. Thank you for your easy to understand explanation and what it all truly entailed to create these world destroyers.
Zacque Sin
July 18, 2023 at 1:13 pm
Crazy. I was Crazy once, they put me in a room, a rubber room…
Finarium TV
July 18, 2023 at 1:16 pm
I always wondered what would happen if a meteor strikes directly into a dense natural uranium deposit. And whether or not that would be enough to trigger a reaction.
Robert Bridges
July 18, 2023 at 5:22 pm
In Africa … there were natural reactors… a long time ago.
Mateusz Cielas
July 18, 2023 at 1:38 pm
what inside this tamper plug?
Mateusz Cielas
July 18, 2023 at 1:50 pm
did they really have big red button doing this explosion in real life?
Paul Negrean
July 18, 2023 at 2:03 pm
gotta be lit 😀 watching friday
John Watson
July 18, 2023 at 2:14 pm
2:10 – pics show both tamper plug insertion in the movie and in real life. Why did the movie switch to showing men doing it by hand and not like it was really done with a chain hoist? In any case, the tamper plug weighed 105 pounds and would be impossible to insert by hand as shown in the movie.
chriscf686868
July 18, 2023 at 2:22 pm
some say that there should have definitely been a third drop on a third City after they found out about Unit 731 and how horrifying that place was and what took place there for years hardly known of the grizzly human experiments that were done over the many years the codename for killing the humans was called logs the dead humans were called logs and that’s only the beginning of the nightmare that took place in The Unit 731 for more information read the books if you dare guarantee you’ll have nightmares and it’s all 100% historical and really did happen so I say again there are people that wanted to do a third bomb on a third City
Dave Lewinsky
July 18, 2023 at 2:22 pm
Professor Wellerstein taught at my school and he’s an awesome dude
Raza Ali
July 18, 2023 at 2:36 pm
Great quality content! Keep it up!
Bruce Lee
July 18, 2023 at 2:55 pm
Tom Cruise will kill Openzheimer
Rich M
July 18, 2023 at 3:51 pm
The hype on this movie has gone super critical.
Timothy Dana
July 18, 2023 at 5:32 pm
Demon orb!
Ahsan Siddiqui
July 18, 2023 at 5:45 pm
Oh my god!
Mashallah! Such a good job with research! Really good video love you
jacob lindemann
July 18, 2023 at 6:34 pm
80 degrees farenheigt . i google it is about 26,5 degrees celsius . thats not that hot to touch…. i know its radioactive.. But still not hot to touch.
Charlie Levine
July 18, 2023 at 6:45 pm
4:15 – Robin Williams, that you?
Justin
July 18, 2023 at 7:29 pm
thumbnail gotchu lookin sus 💀
Michael Wiebe
July 18, 2023 at 7:41 pm
The 3 in 1 million risk estimate is made up. See Bethe’s statements.
John Chessant
July 18, 2023 at 7:56 pm
nice
HaHaBlah
July 18, 2023 at 9:03 pm
Literally the first time I’ve heard of this movie
Joshua Gold
July 18, 2023 at 9:19 pm
His enthusiasm and knowledge makes this a pleasure to watch!
Adit S
July 20, 2023 at 8:03 am
I’m wondering if some country already built the H bom now.
Imperial Doggo
July 20, 2023 at 10:50 am
Russia built a Hydrogen bomb back in 1980
Behram Cooper
July 20, 2023 at 8:33 am
Excellent explanation. Why were they not wearing proper gear when handling radioactive material? Both in the movie and in real life.
Buckhorn Cortez
July 20, 2023 at 3:04 pm
There was no such thing as “proper gear” at that time since it was a totally new and relatively unknown area of science and materials. It’s not like there was an agency that had all of the safety protocols in-place prior to the development of the atomic bomb.
Abe S.
July 20, 2023 at 8:36 am
The Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb went up 3 times its intended yield of 5 megatons when the initial reaction made the hydrogen in the sea water fused and acted as a natural booste. So there’s some validity to this scenario.
Buckhorn Cortez
July 20, 2023 at 3:01 pm
No that’s not what happened with Castle Bravo. The scientists did not understand that lithium-7 would change to lithium-6 under immense heat and pressure and the conversion of lithium-7 to lithium-6 is what increased the yield. Has NOTHING to do with seawater.
mirskym
July 20, 2023 at 5:39 pm
No, it was because they didn’t think that the lithium 7 in the lithium deuteride would fuse. It was 40% lithium 6 and 60% lithium 7. SO they got a lot more than the expected when the lithium 7 also fused.
Ryan Underwood
July 20, 2023 at 9:43 am
Wasn’t this guy trying to get Alvin and the Chipmunks?
practicaltheory
July 20, 2023 at 10:07 am
Germany was defeated. They did it to threaten USSR…
SL4PSH0CK
July 20, 2023 at 10:51 am
Veritasium already spoiled it for me, content creators takin that hype and marketing opportunity that the movie built
Navoo2008
July 20, 2023 at 10:56 am
The casual way in which he mentions the atrocities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is chilling. This was not a cool invention, people. This was how hundreds of thousands of innocent lives were literally burnt alive because of sick American world domination fantasies. Geeking over the physics of it all without mentioning the horrors that the atomic bomb brought with it is seriously f***ed up.
Cody Curnutte
July 20, 2023 at 12:33 pm
The mix of science and history is the perfect combo for any movie
Ren Garcia
July 20, 2023 at 2:08 pm
At 1:49 is that Louis Slotten?? The who was killed by the Demon Core later on??
mirskym
July 20, 2023 at 5:43 pm
Yes
gary euscher
July 20, 2023 at 2:34 pm
Atomic Expert !
Yuh
Sure!
Buckhorn Cortez
July 20, 2023 at 2:52 pm
Nixie tubes are not “period appropriate.” The nixie tube was patented in the early 1950s and did not become readily available until 1955.
RETRORAMA
July 20, 2023 at 2:57 pm
“Wants peace, but he did it through war.” He clearly has zero idea about Oppenheimer.
crack61616
July 20, 2023 at 3:27 pm
humans in a nutshell:”there is a chance we burn our atmosphere ,if we press this button……press it.”no freakin alien race would give us morons,the key to space travel.never.
ILikeTofu
July 20, 2023 at 3:50 pm
Thanks for the vide, algorithm. Still not seeing Oppenheimer.
Kristian179
July 20, 2023 at 4:54 pm
How would you compare the Atom Bomb to the nukes that were dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki & also to the Tsar Bomba
Heather Draper
July 20, 2023 at 5:47 pm
Great science
Eee Bee
July 20, 2023 at 6:45 pm
The problem is women think he will change; he won’t. The mistake men make is thinking she’ll never leave; she will
Mihail Pinot
July 20, 2023 at 6:46 pm
You should have a BIG SPOILER ALERT! you assume that all people know what happended, and believe me some people just dont know about history😅
Cro Nos
July 20, 2023 at 6:50 pm
I was really invested until this so called scientist said Fahrenheit
(JOKE)
Sega Genysis
July 20, 2023 at 6:54 pm
This movie sucked. Badly.
Inner🌟Luminosity
July 20, 2023 at 7:26 pm
Brooooo just imagine seeing this bomb go off at night😱😱😱😱
The Alejandro Show
July 20, 2023 at 8:36 pm
Fun fact: The scientist that looked at the Trinity test without googles on purpose was Richard Feynman!
ThreePhaseHigh
July 20, 2023 at 8:45 pm
Can’t quite understand why he was bothered by it. Science continues to advance. If it hadn’t been it would have been someone else. I would imagine his main fear. Was he president like Joe Biden coming along?
Icehamjello
July 20, 2023 at 9:07 pm
This guy pulled me in till the very end
Ar- Rayyan
July 21, 2023 at 8:43 am
Thats thing can’t explode without spark plug.technician/pilot put the ‘spark plug’ few minute before drop the ball on enemy territory.what happen if ‘baksin shadidin’ carry own spark plug to the termonuclear orb?u dome?done lmao
Rick1234567S
July 21, 2023 at 8:54 am
Ever see the movie Fat Man and Little Boy? All about Oppenheimer. How did it do at the box office? 3.563 million USD
You might have spent more than that at the Pentagon on this new movie.
TheManWithNoName
July 21, 2023 at 8:59 am
Fascinating.
Shawn/IO
July 21, 2023 at 9:25 am
you do realize you just showed the enemy how to make the bomb right
Buggy😘
July 21, 2023 at 9:27 am
When Jews talk about how they indiscriminately massacred unarmed Japanese citizens, their eyes shine and they talk a lot, don’t they?
Buggy😘
July 21, 2023 at 9:28 am
Wow, this idiot proudly tells how his grandpas slaughtered the unarmed civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Espírito Consolador
July 21, 2023 at 9:43 am
Salmo 27:13-14
Espera tu pelo Senhor; anima-te, e fortalece o teu coração; espera, pois, pelo Senhor. Uma coisa que devemos sempre manter, mesmo quando nossas vidas se tornam escuras, é a esperança.✨
ImVegeta
July 21, 2023 at 10:51 am
8:34 , people living there watching this video 😳😳
finsclapping
July 21, 2023 at 10:59 am
last sentence doesnt quite make sense. he wants peace but does it through war. he wanted to test the excellence of both himself and his team while being in an arms race that had the potential to end the war if they made it first. THAT was the goal. he just hoped for moderation in terms of the use of the weapon. as ofc any person that doesnt want humanity to extinct itself.
Lit Chi
July 21, 2023 at 11:18 am
Fries the murderous east sea demons.
Donald Sayers
July 21, 2023 at 12:20 pm
5:28. Those are not the X-Unit. That shows one of the 32 twin exploding bridgewire detonators. The X-Unit was a large assembly of high voltage capacitors to fire the exploding bridgewire detonators, along with the cascade of discharge tubes to fire the capacitors and the associated charging equipment to charge the capacitors. The X-Unit is to the far right, not completely in shot.
Sashi De / TRAVEL / LIFESTYLE / FOOD / LUXURY
July 21, 2023 at 12:55 pm
North Korea taking notes diligently 😂
Michael Hill
July 21, 2023 at 3:31 pm
It is naive to think that if the U.S. hadn’t been the first to make an atomic bomb then no one would have ever made one. It’s also very likely that more people would have died (including more civilians) if the two atomic bombs hadn’t have been used.
Living Corpse
July 21, 2023 at 3:55 pm
“Originally they wanted to drop the bombs at night to turn it into day for a moment to be more psychologically stunning.”
I think a second sun showing up and being brighter than the first and then the city being gone and almost cartoonish soot outlines of people being left behind when it fades is psychologically stunning enough.
RAHUL GAUTAM
July 21, 2023 at 5:30 pm
Bhagwat gita quote that people forget
Buggy😘
July 21, 2023 at 6:49 pm
So, does this stupid mad scientist believe that the people of the bombed countries would enjoy the genocidal process he so gleefully describes?
Ron Caruso
July 21, 2023 at 8:17 pm
This bomb would never have been created if it were not for Einsteins e=mc2. Correct?
Satan Official
July 21, 2023 at 8:52 pm
The heavens declare the glory of the Bomb, and the firmament showeth Its handiwork. Glory be to the Bomb, and to the Holy Fallout. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. World without end. May the Blessings of the Bomb Almighty, and the Fellowship of the Holy Fallout, descend upon us all. This day and forever more. Amen.
Sazoji
July 21, 2023 at 9:02 pm
arent nixie tubes russian? the US had their own numeric displays.
E B
July 21, 2023 at 9:13 pm
This was so much more interesting than the Oppenheimer movie which barely touched on the science of the Manhattan Project and instead turned into a 3-hour lecture on the McCarthy Era.. In the whole movie there were just a few vague mentions here and there of some physics concept because the movie director obviously thought the audience was way too stupid to be interested in science.
Sal Sanchez
July 21, 2023 at 9:21 pm
Excellent review. Thank you.
NOPE
July 21, 2023 at 9:27 pm
“I’M CRUSHING YOUR HEAD!”😂
Joseph Burns
July 21, 2023 at 9:29 pm
“ I have become death, the destroyer of worlds” never a more appropriate quote has been chosen for anything before or after this…..
Michael Noble
July 25, 2023 at 9:35 am
I hardly think 80F is “hot” (02:30). More like “very slightly above room temperature”.
lancelot1953
July 26, 2023 at 8:53 am
You are right, Michaelnoble2432, 80°F is not hot but scientists (world and even American scientists used and use the metric system – the “historian expert” meant ~80°C). The United States is the only country in the world where the population does not want to use the metric system. Ciao, L (Yes, I am an American).
George Meade
July 25, 2023 at 10:53 am
This is why to get rid of now . These weapons are the devil and anyone using them
Tim Renken
July 25, 2023 at 11:10 am
There was one bomb scene, and it was extremely underwhelming.
ΩLUL
July 25, 2023 at 11:11 am
the bomb scene is the biggest hollywood scam ever
Monica A. Moser
July 25, 2023 at 11:13 am
I took two of Prof. Wellerstein’s classes in college, super knowledgeable and I’m happy to see him getting a wired interview!
Sweet Gav
July 25, 2023 at 11:37 am
Ummm yeah. Hardly any of this is in the movie. Which is one of the reasons I hated the movie.
Mike Nundahl
July 25, 2023 at 2:10 pm
Peace through strength unless your Biden, then you sell secrets to potential enemies.
Ildarioon
July 25, 2023 at 2:32 pm
The high explosive was mainly RDX not TNT. Later designs used the much more expensive HMX I believe.
Rafa T
July 25, 2023 at 2:34 pm
‘Historian of science’ sounds totally made up
Fariston T
July 25, 2023 at 2:53 pm
This is how the true expert should talk. easy to understand, clear and not too serious. he seems fun to be around. most physicist out there are a total a**hole
Jim Cypher
July 25, 2023 at 5:38 pm
Atmospheric ignition sort of sounds like a variation of Project Genesis in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan…🤔
darkstack
July 25, 2023 at 6:36 pm
i think the inner sphere encased after the explosive layers is uranium and then the casing is more uranium enclosing a smaller polonium-beryllium shell finally encasing the plutonium but tomaTO/toMAto
KOZAK'S FAVORITE VIDS I SMASHED A LIKE BUTTON FOR
July 25, 2023 at 7:27 pm
The ending of Oppenheimer was great. When they finally showed what He n Einstein were talking about, how they were worried before they tested the atom bomb that if the reaction didn’t stop and it burned the atmosphere destroying the world, and then Oppenheimer said I’m afraid we did destroy the world referencing the fact that creating the bombs in the first place gave man the means to destroy themselves and the world!!!
DirtbikerPlay11
July 25, 2023 at 7:28 pm
I just screamed IS THAT JOSH PECK!
Didn’t realize he was in the movie 😅
soylentgreenb
July 25, 2023 at 7:44 pm
You’re kind of glossing over why they chose those times of day to drop the bombs on japan with “statistical reasons”. Most of the fires were not caused by the fireball or the flash but by knocking over coal-fueled braziers that were used for cooking. They chose that time of day because there are more people out in the open and there are more flamming objects to knock over in homes made of wood with paper room dividers.
Tae Yoo
July 25, 2023 at 8:06 pm
This is amazing. If this was 20 years ago, and this type of “How it works” was online, it would be banned, Wellerstein would be arrested, locked up with keys thrown away. What a time to be alive!
CybershamanX
July 25, 2023 at 8:42 pm
(9:33) Is the remaining core the so-called “demon core”? (If you don’t know what that is, gentle reader, look it up.) 👹👿👺
CybershamanX
July 25, 2023 at 8:44 pm
Cigarettes. So many cigarettes. 😉
robert sarmast
July 25, 2023 at 9:07 pm
We’re still just savages.
K Davidson
July 25, 2023 at 11:53 pm
Has anyone sent this video to that absolute nut job/former comedian, Owen Benjamin? I know there will be a few in this video and please do, the man is not well.
Robin Wyatt
July 26, 2023 at 1:07 am
I find the science behind nuclear weapons fascinating.. Wired’s guests have been killin it recently.
macforme
July 26, 2023 at 2:58 am
This was an awesome explanation and insightful…thank you so much.
If anyone is still wondering why we had to use atomic bombs on Japan….it became clear to the President and the US military that Japan would NEVER SURRENDER under the current conditions in the war. In order to end the war AND save lives ( mostly American’s) they had to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. But still that didn’t deter the Japanese military … or Emperor Hirohito. So a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and the message was made clear… surrender. A tragic action that worked… the war ended on the USS Midway…with the signing of papers.
Ali Chamas
July 26, 2023 at 9:13 am
Isn’t it amazing how much money, time, brains, effort, and determination we can give as a species when it comes to blowing each other up. The justification is “if we don’t do it, they will”. Dumb geniuses we are, smart enough to invent nuclear weapons, dumb enough to use them.
Lorenzo Giaretta
July 26, 2023 at 11:12 am
More about Oppenheimer Here —> 🥸