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- Thread starter Krusty
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From the Interwebz...
The nuclear bombs in Dr Strangelove looked nothing like the actual devices B-52s carried at the time. Kubrick modeled them to look like intercontinental ballistic missiles of that era, not the Mk41 (B41) thermonuclear bomb Major T.J. Kong would have been carrying in real life. The Mk41 entered service in 1961 and was the only bomb in the US arsenal capable of yields in the 20–30 megaton range, as specified in the movie. Kubrick’s bombs even have roll marks painted on them (the black and white checkerboard patterns) which were used on rockets to help observers detect roll around the vertical axis during testing. They weren’t used on gravity bombs (ones that were simply dropped from planes), and they certainly wouldn’t have been painted on a bomb already in active service. And of course, a real bomb wouldn’t have the Air Force insignia painted on it, either. B41’s (the real thing) were rounder and shorter than Kubrick’s models, and would have been painted drab green. Kubrick almost certainly knew this — after all, he was able to accurately re-create the interior of a B-52 at a time when that information was still classified. He likely chose the ICBM look because it was longer, more dramatic looking, and more pleasing to the eye when viewed in black and white. The explosion you see when Kong hits the ground was a 31-kiloton test that was part of Operation Buster-Jangle (the Easy shot). Visually it gets the job done, but Kong’s 20-megaton bomb would have produced a much bigger explosion.
