After all, the technology behind the nuclear bomb can no longer be said to be undiscovered, sadly.

He is an an American Prometheus, yes, but also a regular Yankee Frankenstein.

WellsThe Island of Doctor Moreau, respectively.

Oppenheimer and 1950s Sci-Fi Movies

Both feature creatures warped and distorted by science run amok.

Then, of course, there is the Frankenstein adjacent subgenre: What If Organ Transplants but Evil?

X(1932).

When scientists werent conducting surgerywelloutside of the realms of the Hippocratic Oath, they were inventing rays.

So what was the reason for the narrow focus?

You could make an argument that this is simply a matter of technology finally catching up with our vision.

But cinema hasalwaysbeen about spectacle.

There is a reason why one of the first movie stars is the famed illusionist Harry Houdini.

The Nuclear Influence

After 1950, the game changes.

Instead of four or five notable science fiction movies in a year, there are 15 to 20.

The creature features likeThem!

These tensions are also written loud and clear in Pals other H.G.

And not always for the better.

Sci-fi movies got serious, because the stakes of science reality had become so severe.