On July 16, 1945, the scientists of the Manhattan Project conducted the Trinity Test; the first successful detonation of an atomic device. The device they detonated turned sand to glass, sent a mushroom cloud 38,000 feet into the stratosphere, and blew a 1.5-mile hole in the plains of the Alamogordo Bombing Range. Today marks the 78th anniversary of the Trinity Test. In this video–posted at the exact moment the test was initiated– filmmaker #ChristopherNolan and the cast and crew of the upcoming

💣 Interesting fact: Oppenheimer (2023) contains no CGI explosions for the Trinity test, with Christopher Nolan choosing to recreate the blast using large scale practical effects, lighting, and sound design instead. Nolan wanted the explosion to feel physically real rather than visually exaggerated, so the tension comes from silence, timing, and human reaction instead of spectacle, forcing the audience to experience the moment the way the scientists did. That creative choice reinforces the film’