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Bigelow defended in turn, recently saying that similar films in previous eras have “trailed off.” The prospect of using nuclear weapons, she said, “has become normalized. We don’t think about it, we don’t talk about it. And it’s an unthinkable situation. So, my hope was to maybe move it to the forefront of our lives.” That’s the ethos behind ICAN’s can-do efforts as well, said Sanders-Zakre, who said that “it’s really important to use arts to educate about the risks of nuclear weapons.” Bell said it’s not surprising that “as we move into an era in which nuclear weapons are a prominent feature of international politics” that movies like “Oppenheimer” and “A House of Dynamite” become “more prominent in our collective consciousness.” So far, 95 nations have made it part of their country’s collective consciousness by signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This diplomatic development comes despite — or perhaps because of — geopolitical crises, said Sanders-Zakre. “It’s actually been at times of enhanced international tension and crisis that there has been forward movement on nuclear arms-control agreements.” To some, ICAN’s quixotic quest is naïve. But what’s naïve, said Sanders-Zakre, is “to think that nuclear weapons will continue to exist and not be used.” Mutual deterrence, she said, which assumes nations “know how to signal correctly so there’s never a mistake or miscalculation or accident,” is met with the truth “that people are fallible.” It’s easier to see this now “with some of the leaders that we have in the world today, but it’s always true, and we simply can’t rely on luck to keep us alive.”
