Visualising Einstein's past for Netflix

Lux Aeterna honed its expertise in CG to bring the famous physicist's memories back to life for Einstein and the Bomb

- Lux Aeterna

Carefully reenacted with the support of historical footage and imagery, Netflix’s 2024 release of Einstein and the Bomb has brought Albert Einstein’s greatest discovery back to life. The feature length docu-drama uses the iconic physicist’s real words, alongside expertly crafted visual effects and motion graphics, to contextualise Einstein’s journey to his Theory of Relativity and the resulting creation of the atomic bombs that devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Renowned for its expertise in cosmology, history and natural history VFX, longtime Netflix collaborator Lux Aeterna delivered the inspiring visual effects that depict Einstein’s earliest memories through to his final days in the United States in 1955. The film was released in February this year, timed alongside the Academy Awards attention for Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer.

CHASING THE SPEED OF LIGHT

At the very centre of the story is Einstein’s development of the Theory of Relativity and his famous E=mc2 equation, which identifies the relationship between energy, mass, and the speed of light. In a scene at Roughton Heath, the Norfolk estate of Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson, Einstein looks back on his early ideas en route to the momentous discovery with his hosts.

Locker-Lampson was the member of parliament who pushed the government for the Nationality of Jews Bill, which aimed to extend British citizenship to Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution. Although the bill was never legalised, the former Navy commander took the 54-year-old Einstein into refuge in a cabin on his estate.