Created by the Federal Civil Defense Administration in 1955 and then revised in 1964, “Operation Cue” is one of the most famous films to emerge from the atomic era. Perhaps this is because of the film’s disturbing subject and odd pairing of domestic life — here shown in a “typical American house” stocked with typical foods and appliances and mannequins dressed like Mom, Dad, Sister and Brother — with an atomic explosion.

The blast shown was the Civil Defense Apple-2 shot on 5 May 1955. It was intended to test various building construction types in a nuclear blast. An assortment of buildings, including residential houses and electrical substations, were constructed at the site nicknamed “Survival Town”. The buildings were populated with mannequins, and stocked with different types of canned and packaged foods. Not all of the buildings were destroyed in the blast, and some of them still stand at Area 1, Nevada Test Site. By 1964, with the arrival of the Hydrogen bomb, it was clear that the 1955 film understated the severity of the effects of the bomb. A hydrogen bomb would be 250 times more powerful than the bomb observed — and hardly survivable except from a great distance from Ground Zero. Thus the film was revised and a new disclaimer added at the start.

• 0:21 – 0:54: Comparison of the destructive power of a 30-kiloton bomb to modern thermonuclear weapons, highlighting the much greater damage radius of the latter.

• 1:26 – 1:40: Introduction to Operation Q, a program to test the effects of an atomic blast on everyday items.

• 1:56 – 2:14: The reporter’s perspective on witnessing Operation Q and the preparations for the test.

• 2:17 – 2:33: Explanation of the test’s scope and the importance of shelter in surviving an atomic blast.

• 3:03 – 3:13: Testing various types of shelters, including industrial and family shelters.

• 3:25 – 3:50: Testing power infrastructure, including power poles, lines, and substations, to understand their resilience and repair times.

• 4:08 – 4:22: Testing radio towers and broadcasting equipment to assess their durability.

• 4:31 – 4:51: Testing gas facilities to determine their safety and potential for causing fires.

• 5:07 – 5:24: Testing different types of houses and their furnishings to evaluate their resistance to atomic blasts.

• 6:31 – 6:50: Testing textiles and synthetic fabrics for their reaction to the blast.

• 7:14 – 7:30: Testing food storage methods, including canned and packaged foods, to assess their safety.

• 7:56 – 8:12: Media and observers preparing to study the explosion’s results.

• 8:23 – 8:41: Civil defense volunteers preparing for the test.

• 8:46 – 9:15: Countdown and detonation of the atomic bomb.

• 10:02 – 10:14: Initial observations of the explosion’s aftermath.

• 10:31 – 10:50: Assessment of the damage to various types of houses and shelters.

• 11:09 – 11:21: Damage to radio towers and the resilience of broadcasting equipment.

• 11:32 – 11:47: Assessment of gas facilities and power infrastructure.

• 12:07 – 12:18: Collection of food samples for laboratory testing.

• 12:21 – 12:33: Observations of damage to clothing and textiles.

• 12:37 – 12:54: Mass feeding efforts for test observers.

• 13:02 – 13:20: Reflection on the test’s purpose and the importance of civil defense planning.

• 13:23 – 13:39: Emphasis on the lessons learned from the test for civil defense planning in the nuclear age.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com