The movie that was filmed downwind of a nuclear testing site and its impact 72 years later

A desert site about 65 miles north of Las Vegas had been selected for nuclear weapons testing.

It was 1953 and 11 atomic bomb detonations took place here between March and June as part of Operation Upshot-Knothole. The largest of these detonations, a warhead known as Harry, yielded 32 kilotonnes of radioactive energy — more than double the amount produced from the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.

About a year later, the desert near St. George, Utah, which was downwind of the nuclear fallout, was selected as the filming location for a major Hollywood film.

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In his 2022 book, author Ryan Uytdewilligen highlights this brief period. O