An Open Letter from Hollywood on Oppenheimer and Nuclear Weapons

Oppenheimer depicts the origin story of nuclear weapons, the history of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Oppenheimer’s subsequent warnings against an arms race and the development of even more powerful weapons.

Oppenheimer was right to warn us.

Today, 13,000 nuclear weapons are held by nine countries. Some are 80 times more powerful than the ones that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

As President Kennedy told the United Nations in 1961:

Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet  may no longer be habitable.

Every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. These weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us. 

As artists and advocates, we want to raise our voices to remind people that while Oppenheimer is history, nuclear weapons are not.

At a time of great uncertainty, even one nuclear weapon—on land, in the sea, in the air, or in space—is too many. To protect our families, our communities, and our world, we must demand that global leaders work to make nuclear weapons history—and build a brighter future.

Please join us—before our luck runs out.