Deserted myths and nuclear realities: Revisiting the symbolism of nuclear weapons in contemporary popular culture through Oppenheimer (2023)

Abstract

This article makes a necessary intervention in Critical Nuclear Studies which thus far lacks engagement with popular culture since the Cold War. There is a significant gap in our knowledge about contemporary representations of nuclear weapons and their significance for nuclear politics in the current moment. Using Oppenheimer (2023) as a catalyst, this article navigates a setting central to the origin story of nuclear weapons: the desert. The desert is shown to have a complex literal and symbolic history that is intertwined with nuclear politics and contributes to nuclear weapons’ continued mythological status in an age defined by an increasingly partisan trust and distrust in science. The desert setting in popular culture exemplifies the paradoxical and contradictory meanings of nuclear weapons and war. The desert is both the symbolic frontier to the land of opportunity and freedom, and a land of isolation and nothingness. In a retelling of the story of the Manhattan Project – the ‘origin story’ of nuclear weapons – Oppenheimer (2023) offers an opportunity to navigate these tropes in the current moment. Navigating competing representations of nuclear weapons and war reveals some of the hidden logics and relations of power that remain at the foundations of nuclear knowledge – from high politics to popular culture.