Fat Man and Little Boy (aka Shadow Makers in the UK) is a 1989 film that reenacts the Manhattan Project, the secret Allied endeavor to develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II. It is named after the nuclear weapons known as "Fat Man" and "Little Boy", and also potentially as a reference to the portly Gen. Leslie R. Groves and the lithe Robert Oppenheimer, respectively the military and scientific heads of the project. 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ... In general, allies are people or groups that have joined an alliance and are working together to achieve some common purpose. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War (sometimes WW2 or WWII), was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ... A post-war Fat Man model. ... Little Boy was the code name of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945 by the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay piloted by Lt. ... Leslie Groves Leslie Richard Groves (August 17, 1896 - July 13, 1970) was a member of the United States Army who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and the primary military leader in charge of the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. Born in Albany, New... // Headline text STEvE THe EGG J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, served as the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, beginning in 1943. ...

It stars Paul Newman as Gen. Leslie R. Groves, Dwight Schultz as Robert Oppenheimer, Laura Dern as nurse Kathleen Robinson, and John Cusack as young physicist Michael Merriman. The character of Merriman is a fictional telescoping of Harry K. Daghlian and Louis Slotin, two Los Alamos scientists who died in criticality accidents. (Both accidents and deaths occurred after the dropping of the two bombs on Japan; see their respective links.) Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke Paul Leonard Newman (born January 26, 1925) is an Oscar winning American actor and film director. ... William Dwight Schultz (born November 24, 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American stage, television and film actor. ... Laura Dern Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967 in Los Angeles, California) is an American film and television actress . ... John Cusack as Ed in Identity John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American film actor, born in Evanston, Illinois to an Irish-Catholic family. ... Telescope can refer to: In astronomy and in general: An optical tool. ... Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. ... A sketch used by doctors to determine the amount of radiation to which each person in the room had been exposed during the excursion. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... A criticality accident (also sometimes referred to as an excursion or power excursion) occurs when a nuclear chain reaction is accidentally allowed to occur in fissile material, such as enriched uranium or plutonium, or compounds thereof This releases neutron radiation which may be highly dangerous to surrounding personnel and which...

The film was directed by Roland Joffe and written by Joffe and Bruce Robinson. The film has been criticised for distortion for dramatic effect, and is also cited as an example of mis-casting for the parts played by Newman and Schultz. The film made under $4m on its original release and so is (ironically) regarded as a box office bomb. Roland Joffé (born November 17, 1945) is a British film director who started out directing television. ... Bruce Robinson (born May 1, 1946) is a British writer, actor and director, best known for his film Withnail and I. He was born in Broadstairs in Kent and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. ...

External link

• Fat Man and Little Boy at the Internet Movie Database