New Mexico city Los Alamos, where Oppenheimer tested the atomic bomb, set to become ‘morbid tourism’ site – with U.S. Army already warning fans to stay away from planned open day

The New Mexico city where the first atomic bomb was tested looks set to see a huge influx of visitors following the release of blockbuster Oppenheimer.

Los Alamos, a remote settlement created to become the hub for the Manhattan Project, which developed the nuclear bombs that would kill more than 220,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, features heavily in Christopher Nolan’s film about the life of American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. 

Following global interest in the film since it opened on Friday, the city could become the latest ‘morbid tourism’ hotspot – places visited because they’re associated with death or tragedy, with thousands likely to want to see first-hand the locations featured in Nolan’s film. 

The US Army has already warned fans that two rare open house days in October and April at the Trinity Site, on the highly protected White Sands Missile Range near where the first test bomb was detonated, is likely to be vastly oversubscribed. 

Oppenheimer’s actors, including Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon (left) travelled to Los Alamos in March 2022 for filming 

Trinity Site, on the White Sands Missile Range, where the first nuclear arms were developed and detonated is opened just twice a year to the public by the U.S. Army

Annual access days have allowed visitors at the site where the test bomb ‘Gadget’, which carried a ball of plutonium the size of a grapefruit inside it, exploded at 5:29am on July 16th 1945.

However, a notice on the official Army website is already warning of long wait times being likely, saying: ‘Due to the release of the movie, Oppenheimer in July, we are expecting a larger than normal crowd at the 21 October open house. 

‘If you are not one of the first 5,000 visitors, you might not get through the gate prior to its’ closure at 2pm.’

The Trinity test explosion was deemed ‘brighter than a thousand suns’ and gave the atomic age its unforgettable visual symbol of destruction: the mushroom cloud.

A monument is seen at the Trinity Site to mark the detonation of the first atomic bomb on July 16th 1945

The base camp at the Trinity nuclear test site pictured as the bomb was being developed

A photo taken five seconds after Gadget’s detonation at 5:29am on July 16th shows the tremendous fireball erupting in the early morning sky in New Mexico

Bronze statues of Dr Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves, played by Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon, stand in a park in the city, and tourists can still visit Los Alamos National Laboratory, which was established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project. 

Other key sites that are likely to feature on tourists’ wish-lists include the Los Alamos Ranch School, where children of the scientists involved were educated, and Fuller Lodge, the home that J. Robert Oppenheimer shared with his his wife Kitty, daughter Toni, and son Peter from 1943 to 1945.

Director Nolan and the cast, which includes Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr, visited the city in March 2022 to film at various locations including Fuller Lodge, the Civilian’s Women’s Dormitory and the United Church. 

In 2023, Los Alamos has a population of 13,000 and was granted city status in 1969.