Particle Fever

This is the story of the LHC. This is the story of several people at CERN. This is the story of Particle Fever.

This movie is basically the history of the LHC, as shown through several major events. We get the slow build up of the build up of the LHC. Then jump to the first time it is switched on. Then it breaks down. Then back up again… and then Higgs! It does jump around a lot. Now, time is spent on each point, but if you want to see the inner workings and day to day activity, this isn't the movie for you.

We get a lot of shots of the LHC itself, and I'm impressed by where the cameras were allowed to go (unless they used other people's footage). There are a handful of personalities we follow, and it's their talking heads to help explain what's going on. (And some rather basic graphics.) And, because this is a documentary and we know history, there's no simple nice wrap-up at the end. This is history in progress, not narrativium in practice.

Definitely an interesting movie for the LHC, although I'm not sure how well it plays to a general audience as I already have (limited) understanding of what’s going on, which is a help.

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