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Almost everyone knows something about the cataclysmic end to World War II, when U.S. bombers dropped atomic bombs onto populated cities for the first and last time in history. But what came next in the arms race--how we got from those tubby little A-bombs to today's self-propelled intercontinental multiwarhead arsenal--is largely overlooked. This documentary takes the desperate, paranoid timeline of the Atomic Age and generously leavens it with explosive eye candy. Some viewers might find the sensational presentation a bit too close to the vintage exploitation films it mimics--melodramatic narration is provided by Star Trek's William Shatner and the director's cut includes a mini-documentary on the present-day Nevada Test Site tourist attraction shot entirely in classic 3-D (glasses included). The film's main draw is previously unreleased military footage of full-color monumental destruction, cut against occasionally goofy newsreels and period "educational" films. The heavy soundtrack, combined with endless shots of sand being fused to glass and buildings reduced to dust, tends to drag. But there are a few moments that give an unusually human face to our quest for mass destruction: an interview with aged H-bomb inventor Dr. Edward Teller early in the film, declassified footage of soldiers strapping livestock onto battleships used as floating nuclear test targets, and the haunting closing shots of Chinese cavalrymen charging their gas-masked horses into a rising mushroom cloud. --Grant Balfour

• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 4.3 x 2.1 inches; 11.2 ounces
• Release date ‏ : ‎ November 16, 1999
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ September 29, 2006
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Goldhill Home Media