19 Documentary films about nuclear war and weapons

Assassins is a 2020 American documentary film, directed and produced by Ryan White. It talks about the assassination of Kim Jong-nam and the two assassins who were tricked.

The Atomic Cafe is a 1982 American Cold War documentary film directed by Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty.

Atomic Ed and the Black Hole is a documentary released in 2001 by filmmaker, Ellen Spiro. The documentary was made for HBO's Cinemax Reel Life Series. Sheila Nevins served as Executive Producer and Lisa Heller served as Supervising Producer. Karen Bernstein served as Producer. Laurie Anderson provided her song, Big Science, for the soundtrack.

Atomic Power is an American short documentary film produced by The March of Time and released to theaters August 9, 1946, one year after the end of World War II. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

The Bomb is a 2015 American documentary film about the history of nuclear weapons, from theoretical scientific considerations at the very beginning, to their first use on August 6, 1945, to their global political implications in the present day. The two-hour PBS film was written and directed by Rushmore DeNooyer, who noted the project took a year and a half to complete, since much of the film footage and images was only recently declassified by the United States Department of Defense. According to DeNooyer, “It wouldn’t take very many bombs to really change life on Earth, ... The idea that there are thousands of them sitting around is pretty scary. I don’t think people today realize that. They don’t think about it. I don’t think they are scared. But in a way, they should be.” Mark Dawidziak, of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, summarized the film as follows: "The Bomb moves swiftly to cover Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cold War, the arms race, the Red Scare, the witch hunt, the Cuban Missile Crisis, test-ban treaties, the "Star Wars" initiative, the anti-nuke movement, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of new nuclear threats." According to historian Richard Rhodes, “The invention [of 'The Bomb'] was a millennial change in human history: for the first time, we were now capable of our own destruction, as a species.”

Building Bombs is a 1990 American documentary film produced and directed by Mark Mori and Susan J. Robinson.

Command and Control is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Robert Kenner and based on the 2013 non-fiction book of the same name by Eric Schlosser. It was released initially in the United States at the Tribeca Film Festival and then in the United Kingdom at the Sheffield Doc/Fest on June 11, 2016. It is based on the 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion in Damascus, Arkansas between September 18–19, 1980. The film aired on the PBS network series American Experience on January 10, 2017.

Countdown to Zero is a 2010 documentary film by British filmmaker Lucy Walker. The film argues that the likelihood of the use of nuclear weapons has increased since the end of the Cold War due to terrorism, nuclear proliferation, theft of nuclear materials and weapons, and other factors.

The Day After Trinity is a 1980 documentary film directed and produced by Jon H. Else in association with KTEH public television in San Jose, California. The film tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), the theoretical physicist who led the effort to build the first atomic bomb, tested in July 1945 at Trinity site in New Mexico. Featuring candid interviews with several Manhattan Project scientists, as well as newly declassified archival footage, The Day After Trinity was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 1980, and received a Peabody Award in 1981.

The Day Called 'X' is a dramatized CBS documentary film set in Portland, Oregon, in which the entire city is evacuated in anticipation of a nuclear air raid, after Soviet bombers had been detected by radar stations to the north; it details the activation of the city's civil defense protocols and leads up to the moment before the attack. The operations were run from the Kelly Butte Bunker, which was the emergency operations center at that time. It was filmed in September 1957 and aired December 8 of that year. Apart from presenter/narrator Glenn Ford, none of the people shown are actors. They are locals of Portland shown in their real jobs, including Mayor Terry Schrunk.

Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment is a 1991 American short documentary film directed by Debra Chasnoff. It won an Oscar at the 64th Academy Awards in 1992 for Documentary Short Subject. It focuses on General Electric's role in producing nuclear weapons.

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara is a 2003 American documentary film about the life and times of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara illustrating his observations of the nature of modern warfare. The film was directed by Errol Morris and features an original score by Philip Glass. The title derives from the military concept of the "fog of war" depicting the difficulty of making decisions in the midst of conflict.

If You Love This Planet is a 1982 short documentary film recording a lecture given to SUNY Plattsburgh students by physician and anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott about the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. The movie was directed by Terre Nash and produced by Edward Le Lorrain for Studio D, the women's studio of the National Film Board of Canada. Studio D head Kathleen Shannon was executive producer.

Iranium is a 2011 documentary film by director Alex Traiman, Written and Distributed by Clarion Fund.

Nuclear Tipping Point is a 2010 documentary film produced by the Nuclear Threat Initiative. It features interviews with four American government officials who were in office during the Cold War period, but are now advocating for the elimination of nuclear weapons: Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Sam Nunn, and William Perry. Michael Douglas narrated the film.

Radio Bikini is a 1988 American documentary film directed by Robert Stone. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1988 for Best Documentary Feature. It was later aired on the PBS series The American Experience.

Silent Storm is a 2003 Australian documentary film written and directed by Peter Butt.

Target Nevada Special Film Project (S.F.P.) 281 (1951) is an instructional documentary short film produced by United States Air Force (USAF). The film documents the story of the USAF support to the United States Atomic Energy Commission for 1949–1951 continental atom bomb tests. In an era of postwar "atomic scare" films, Target Nevada is a straightforward documentary film on nuclear weapons testing.

Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie is a 1995 American documentary film directed by Peter Kuran and narrated by William Shatner.