How The Cabin in the Woods Was Inspired by the Manhattan Project

Over a decade before Christopher Nolandelivered a data-entity-href="https://www.uphe.com/movies/oppenheimer" data-entity-title="https://www.uphe.com/movies/oppenheimer" href="https://www.uphe.com/movies/oppenheimer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"emOppenheimer/em/a's Oscar-winning look at the development of the world's first atomic bomb through the eyes of theoretical physicist a data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/oppenheimer" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/oppenheimer" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/oppenheimer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"J. Robert Oppenheimer/a, writer/director Drew Goddard was offering up his own tribute to the top-secret Manhattan Project by way of emThe Cabin in the Woods/em (airing regularly a data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/schedule" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/schedule" href="https://www.syfy.com/schedule" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"on strongSYFY/strong/a)./p pAn unabashed love letter to the horror genre as a whole, the directorial debut from the writer behind ema data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/cloverfield" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/cloverfield" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/cloverfield" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Cloverfield/a/emstarts off as a typical tale of hair-raising suspense with a group of sexed-up teenagers experiencing supernatural events at an a data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/evil-dead" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/evil-dead" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/evil-dead" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"emEvil Dead/em-style/a cabin in the middle of the woods./p pIt's not long before the movie (co-written by Goddard and Joss Whedon) pulls the rug out from under the viewer, revealing that the teens are actually part of a carefully-orchestrated ritual meant to appease eldritch gods. The entire farce is run out of a high-tech facility containing state-of-the-art surveillance equipment and a rich menagerie of monsters, ghosts, demons, and slasher baddies just waiting to be unleashed on unfortunate sacrifice victims./p pstrongFor More on emThe Cabin in the Woods/em:/strongbrstronga data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-end-of-cabin-in-the-woods-wtf-moments" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-end-of-cabin-in-the-woods-wtf-moments" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-end-of-cabin-in-the-woods-wtf-moments" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"WTF Moments: The perfectly apocalyptic end of The Cabin in the Woods/a/strongbrstronga data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-cabin-in-the-woods-connection-to-a-nightmare-on-elm-street" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-cabin-in-the-woods-connection-to-a-nightmare-on-elm-street" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-cabin-in-the-woods-connection-to-a-nightmare-on-elm-street" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"How Cabin in The Woods Got a Helping Hand from Nightmare on Elm Street Star Heather Lagenkamp/a/strongbrstronga data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/cabin-woods-monster-containment-science-biolab" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/cabin-woods-monster-containment-science-biolab" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/cabin-woods-monster-containment-science-biolab" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Microbial monsters and chemical cocktails: The science behind 'The Cabin in the Woods'/a/strong/p h2How 2011'semThe Cabin in the Woods/em Pays Homage to the Manhattan Project/h2 p/pdiv class="embed-code-other embed-code-youtube"iframe loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" src="about:blank" data-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NsIilFNNmkY?si=3Ambztk6JMFYwWf5" class="optanon-category-13" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen style="width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 560 / 315;"/iframe/div pCatching up with a data-entity-href="https://gizmodo.com/why-cabin-in-the-woods-really-is-like-a-very-special-bu-5901458" data-entity-title="https://gizmodo.com/why-cabin-in-the-woods-really-is-like-a-very-special-bu-5901458" href="https://gizmodo.com/why-cabin-in-the-woods-really-is-like-a-very-special-bu-5901458" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"emGizmodo/em/aem/emback in 2012, Goddard explained how the look of emCabin/em'ssecret headquarters was inspired by his hometown of Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the United States government constructed a laboratory (and adjoining town) for the sole sake of creating an atomic device before the Nazis could. The lab, as you're probably aware, a data-entity-href="https://www.lanl.gov/" data-entity-title="https://www.lanl.gov/" href="https://www.lanl.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"still operates to this day/a./p p"That just felt like the world ofemCabin in the Woods/emfor me. It inspired all of the design, I just handed manuals of what Los Alamos looked like in the 1950s to my production designer [Martin Whist]," the filmmaker said. "We even studied the costumes. I just keep coming back to where I grew up, watching these decent kind suburban men go to work, every day making these weapons of mass destruction. And I wanted to explore that more. It's a strange town, it's a very strange town to grow up in… I can't escape its influence and I'll probably be influenced by Los Alamos for the rest of my life."/p pGoddard called on his historical roots several years later when it came time to pen the screenplay for Ridley Scott's adaptation ofem The Martian/em. "I was surrounded by real scientists growing up and I was impressed by their great sense of humor and positivity,” he told the a data-entity-href="https://ladailypost.com/screenwriter-drew-goddard-comes-home-to-los-alamos-for-screening-of-the-martian/" data-entity-title="https://ladailypost.com/screenwriter-drew-goddard-comes-home-to-los-alamos-for-screening-of-the-martian/" href="https://ladailypost.com/screenwriter-drew-goddard-comes-home-to-los-alamos-for-screening-of-the-martian/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"emLos Alamos Daily Post/em/a. "emThe Martian /emis a movie about scientists, and scientists taking care of one another and trying to solve problems."/p pemstrongThe Cabin in the Woods airs regularly on SYFY. a data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/schedule" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/schedule" href="https://www.syfy.com/schedule" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Click here/a for more scheduling details! Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer — which recently won a total of a data-entity-href="https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/how-many-oscars-did-oppenheimer-win-at-academy-awards" data-entity-title="https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/how-many-oscars-did-oppenheimer-win-at-academy-awards" href="https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/how-many-oscars-did-oppenheimer-win-at-academy-awards" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"seven Academy Awards/a (including Best Picture) at the 96th Oscars — is now available to own from a data-entity-href="https://www.uphe.com/movies/oppenheimer" data-entity-title="https://www.uphe.com/movies/oppenheimer" href="https://www.uphe.com/movies/oppenheimer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Universal Pictures Home Entertainment/a./strong/em/p