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Operation Ivy (1952)

Detonation of the hydrogen bomb.


This movie is part of the collection: A/V Geeks

Production Company: Joint Task Force 132 , US Air Force
Sponsor: Atomic Energy Commision, Department of Defense
Audio/Visual: sound, color

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Crod Rootnum - - January 16, 2008
Subject: nukes
Ah yes,
I remember the days of sipping tea, wearing my nappy shorts and silly hat, while waiting for the big blast. Where are those good times today? When there are so many happy people needing a good nuking?

Reviewer: Zatanna - - August 17, 2007
Subject: History
I am so sick of people who look back on history with "god-like" vision! You know who I'm talking about, I don't have to point the finger.
I knew a girl who was very anti-war and Liberal who asked "why did they invade Iwo Jima and get thousands of people killed when the war was almost over?" After recovering from the shock of her ignorance, I replied; "Because they didn't KNOW the war was almost over. Because they weren't smart enough to look in a history book like YOU did!"

Reviewer: Effulgent - - July 8, 2007
Subject: Disturbing
This film accomplished its goal, that is clear but what I do not understand is why, why would any person, group, country, planet, create something terrible and then tell others that it is a good thing to have such a terrible weapon. Is any ideology so terrible so evil that it is worth poisoning the earth for thousands of years?
Is a thought process really cause to liquefy a country and everyone and everything even down to the ants in the ground and birds in the sky? Who are we to allow anyone to hold such a device and then threaten our own people that if this tool of massive killing were to get away from us, it would surely be used against us. How do we know that for sure, how do we know that anyone could ever see fit to make a moonscape of this place just because. If it were put to a vote, if the people could be shown this video before such a device were made, if they could be asked. "Can, should we make this?" would the people say yes? I would say no, On some level i think that we as a people should be ashamed that we introduced this to humanity. Other than that it was a good movie considering that all the guys were just regular folks.

Reviewer: catflu - - July 7, 2007
Subject: greetings from comrades;)
the biggest enemy is the enemy within:>
target it!

Reviewer: rendova - - March 22, 2007
Subject: Operation Ivy 1952
I was aboard the USS Rendova for the Ivy test. This is the first time I have seen the video of the operation. It brought back memories of an awesome experience.

I appreciate this bit of history and a reminder of my Navy years. My only comment is one I have stated often, it is my prayer that our nation will never experience an Atomic attack. This is further reason why we need to understand we are subject to enemies today who would use an Atomic weapon if they have the means. It is to bad that so many in America do not understand what we are facing.

Reviewer: toofish - - November 16, 2006
Subject: operation ivy 1952
I find the comments sited interesting. I was there. To discribe the event in a short writing is "impossible". The heat, bright light, shock waves, fallout and more would make a book. It all happened in fifteen seconds. Its like mom spending 2 month preparing for Christmas dinner, allgone in twenty minutes. It was awsome, beautiful, emotionaly devistating, and reduced my veiw that "people count" to "0". I will add that, I am not alone in this feeling.

Reviewer: Phil Karn - - August 31, 2006
Subject: A real time capsule
Much of this was obviously staged by nonprofessional actors, and it's quite a hoot. For example, at the beginning the narrator says it's one hour to shot time. Ivy Mike was fired just after local dawn, yet it's clearly mid-day when these scenes were filmed!

Reviewer: RonPeter - - July 30, 2006
Subject: What a wonderfull movie
I'd like to say how we apreciate this movie me and my child. Thanks for this opportunity.
Regards

Reviewer: abu - noor - - July 11, 2006
Subject: egar
rgfare

Reviewer: Purrkins - - May 15, 2006
Subject: I remember
I remember my father taking me to the Grant Heights Theater in Tokyo, Japan, early in 1953 to see War of the Worlds, and him staying for this short feature which was shown before the feature presentation.

He said that he sat with me thru it, so that I "wouldn't be scared," but I know he wanted to see it, too.

For myself, I thought it was pretty cool, and, you know what...it still is.

The truly frightening thing: sizewise...this was NOTHING! Thank God that for the most part, the world is a bit smarter this day and age. There are the odd exceptions of course.

Pray!

Reviewer: Truxton - - May 4, 2006
Subject: The bomb is our friend !!!
Remember Dr. Strangelove?
Everybody loves a good mushroom cloud!!!

Reviewer: Spuzz - - January 15, 2006
Subject: Blow it all to hell!
Not bad overview of the Bikini Atoll tests.. This almost looks like it's 3 films. The first features a guy on a ship that is witnessing the blast, and has interviews with people involved with measuring the blasts, and the camera goes into 'meetings' about it, but they look faked. It's just a wee bit too technical for my tastes.. After the blast hits (great pics by the way), we go on to the 2nd part, which tells us how large the bomb really was by using nice looking animation. The crater the bomb left could fit 12 pentagons, if you get my drift. The third part features a atomic energy flacky telling us about why we need these tests and how we hope we don't need to use them and blah blah blah. This lecture was the more boring of the 3 parts. Otherwise not bad. But there are far more interesting 'bomb' movies on the archive.

Reviewer: tambora - - August 9, 2005
Subject: FYI
This film was featured - minimally edited, and with the same old music - in Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (Peter Kuran's exquisite 1995 documentary).

So go ahead and watch this source film, and then go find a copy of that documentary. Both are essential records of the darker side of our scientific and military past, and both present very capably a major turning point in human history that just happened to take place on Halloween.

Reviewer: nightwatchdog - - April 3, 2005
Subject: A well done and interesting bit of history
An interesting little short subject about the first hydrogen bomb test. It has a good cautionary message for us today.

Recomended

Reviewer: Violet Red Bile - - October 4, 2004
Subject: Good old cold war
A documentary about the first H-bomb test at Eniwetok atoll. Frightening stuff.