Original artwork, not a still
I am become Death, shatterer of worlds.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
A physicist reaching for scripture at the moment he has changed the world is the image that has defined the atomic age, and it is why the line is quoted at every anniversary and on every film about the bomb. It is also a recollection, not a recording: the printed 'shatterer' came first, the spoken 'destroyer' twenty years later. Pop culture keeps the first, because it sounds better and means the same thing.
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In context
May contain spoilersShow the scene
The Trinity test, the world's first nuclear detonation, went off in the New Mexico desert at 5:29 a.m. on 16 July 1945, with J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos laboratory, among those watching. A 1949 Life profile said that as the fireball rose he thought of the Bhagavad Gita, and printed the words "shatterer of worlds". In a 1965 television documentary, he recalled it himself: Vishnu, trying to persuade Prince Arjuna to do his duty, reveals his many-armed form and says he has become Death. Oppenheimer's own wording there is "destroyer", not "shatterer".
Sources (2)
- Wikipedia: J. Robert OppenheimerTrinity test sectionReference checked
- Wikipedia: Trinity (nuclear test)Lead and aftermathReference checked
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