Experimental Documentary Film ‘The Bomb’ Hopes to Prevent the Nuclear War Everyone’s Freaking Out About

Netflix is usually way more “Netflix and chill” than “doom and gloom,” but one documentary may change all that.

Earlier this month, Netflix added experimental documentary The Bomb to its library. The 59-minute film forces viewers to contend with the true strength of nuclear weapons and asks them to push for regulations that will reduce nuclear stockpiles around the world. This plea isn’t explicit until the very end of the film, when filmmakers Kevin Ford, Smriti Keshari, and Eric Schlosser include text urging viewers to act:

“A nuclear war anywhere in the world would affect everyone in the world. These weapons pose an existential threat. The widespread lack of knowledge about them, the lack of public debate about them, makes the danger even worse. Our silence is a form of consent.”

The 56 minutes prior are made up entirely of carefully collected footage of Cold War information, bomb testings, nuclear explosions, and modern news clips from around the world. There’s no narration to explain what we’re seeing; instead, the filmmakers rely on loud electro-rock music from The Acid. The combined effect is jarring; the beat pulsates steadily as one bomb explodes after another, destroying homes, people, and ecosystems.





Ford, Keshari, and Schlosser first premiered The Bomb at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival as a complete multimedia experience. The filmmakers set up multiple 30-foot-high screens and The Acid accompanied the film with live music, creating what was sure to be an incredibly jarring effect. If you weren’t previously concerned about the very real threat posed by nuclear weapons, being surrounded by screens showing a nuclear bomb decimate a rural town as deafening music plays probably changed your mind.

Even without all the bells and whistles, the version of The Bomb on Netflix is sure to resonate with viewers. At times, it’s hard to watch: in one sequence, we see videos of the animal research subjects that were used during early nuclear testings, and the viewer is forced to watch the incredibly graphic death in its entirety. But even the horrific parts are important to the film’s overall goal, and the filmmakers are sure to be respectful of the destruction brought on by the nuclear arms race rather than simply ogle it.





At its core, the film urges viewers to see nuclear weapons as not just an international threat, but a domestic threat. These bombs and missiles aren’t perfect. They’re man-made, and problems can arise that have deadly consequences. The film features over a dozen instances where bombs were accidentally detonated or fires occurred inside a nuclear storage facility, destroying everyone and everything nearby. “We’ve had an anomaly,” someone on a newscast says after an explosion. Unfortunately, as the documentary shows us, fatal accidents involving nuclear weapons aren’t that far out of the ordinary.

But for all its doom and gloom, don’t think that The Bomb is entirely negative. As the text at the end reminds us, we can reduce the threat of nuclear weapons through education and increasing awareness of the dangers. That doesn’t seem so hard, right?

So don’t go ordering any freeze-dried meat, there’s hope for us yet.





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Watch The Bomb on Netflix