Gaining Traction

As I’ve mentioned in the past, Peter Jackson is a filmmaker whose work I admire more than like. A big exception is the World War One documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, a stunning film that I both like and admire, though the theater in which I saw it was almost empty. But even though films such as Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are not for me, I recognize them as remarkable moviemaking. For that reason, I skipped Mortal Engines in the theater and wasn’t particularly eager to see it on DVD, but didn’t fear hating it either. This instinct proved sound. Jackson’s own involvement in this film was peripheral, but his usual team of fx engineers were at the core of its production, so calling it a Peter Jackson movie is not entirely unfair. The movie is based on the Young Adult novel series by Philip Reeve.

In a dystopian world long after the “sixty minute war” destroyed the bulk of civilization, cities on giant caterpillar tractor treads wander around the wastelands consuming surviving smaller towns for fuel and resources: a system known as Municipal Darwinism. London is a big player in this system. Traditional static villages of the Anti-Traction League exist beyond a great wall in Asia, however, and they support subversive Anti-Tractionists in the Western mobile cities: a well-worn rapacious-West vs spiritual-East trope. London bigwig Valentine (Hugo Weaving) has a secret project in St Paul’s Cathedral that may allow the city to take on the wall. Opposing him are the Anti-Tractionist Hester (who has a personal as well as political grudge), the hapless Tom (Robert Sheehan) who follows Hester like a puppy-dog, and Anna Fang (Jihae) whose warrior chops are oddly impersonal. There is also a reanimated killer cyborg named Shrike, who is the only one in the movie to show any depth or character development.

Even a fantasy film benefits from exposing the human heart and human values. Little of either beyond the shallowest is on display here. Nonetheless, the movie has glitzy fx, nicely done action sequences, protagonists that are (though not engaging) not dislikable, and a more or less coherent plot – and it just looks good, which counts for something.

The Upshot: entertaining enough to watch once – twice, not so much. Thumbs ever so slightly tilted above the horizontal.

**** ****

It seemed appropriate to follow up the movie with a book about the sort of weapon likely to be used in a “sixty-minute war.”

Revisiting South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Program: Its History, Dismantlement, and Lessons for Today by David H Albright and Andrea Stricker is a heavily documented look at the nuclear weapons program of the only country ever to develop nuclear weapons and then give them up. South Africa built 8 active devices between 1979 and 1989, the year the decision was made to dismantle them. South Africa signed the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) in 1991, which was followed by an inspection regime by the IAEA that was highly intrusive and not specifically required by the NPT; amid the contemporaneous transition from apartheid to a broadly representative government, it was one to which Pretoria (grudgingly) nonetheless acceded in order to help rebuild the country’s international standing. Accordingly, there are detailed records of nuclear-related facilities (right down to storage sheds), of the production and disposition of enriched uranium, and of the dismantling procedures.

As the book explains, the biggest obstacle to building a fission nuclear weapon is not engineering the device but obtaining the fissile material to put in it. There are two practical options, both of which require a sophisticated industrial capacity: U235 or Pu239. Weapons grade for either is usually regarded as 90% pure, though as low as 80% U235 can work at a reduced yield. The advantage of Pu239 is that plutonium can be extracted from spent fuel rods of nuclear reactors, which is why the NPT requires strict accounting of spent fuel by signatory states. Uranium deposits occur naturally, but natural uranium is more than 99.274% U238, which is not bomb material; separating out the 0.72% U235 (other isotopes make up the difference) from natural uranium is a complex and laborious process. The advantage of uranium, however, is that the weapon itself can be much simpler, e.g. a gun device that shoots one chunk of U235 into another to create a critical mass; plutonium requires a more complicated implosion mechanism to create a critical density. South Africa took the uranium route.

The book reveals how a relatively minor power with stiff sanctions against it was still able to home-grow its own nuclear program. It reveals why: in this case because the South African regime felt its existence was threatened by Soviet-backed communist forces in Angola and Mozambique. It also reveals how it is possible to undo a decision to go nuclear. Once again, there is a reason why: in this case the end of the Cold War and of the Marxist threat. All four points are definitely relevant with regard to current and aspirational nuclear states.

  

As a history, the book is more informational than engrossing, but it is enough of the former for a Thumbs Up.

Trailer Mortal Engines