| Particle Fever | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mark Levinson |
| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Narrated by | David Kaplan |
| Cinematography | Claudia Raschke-Robinson |
| Edited by | Walter Murch |
| Music by | Robert Miller |
Production company | Anthos Media |
| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.4 million[1] |
| Box office | $869,838[2] |
Particle Fever is a 2013 Americandocumentary film tracking the first round of experiments at theLarge Hadron Collider (LHC) nearGeneva,Switzerland. The film follows theexperimental physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) who run the experiments, as well as thetheoretical physicists who attempt to provide a conceptual framework for the LHC's results. The film begins in 2008 with the first firing of the LHC and concludes in 2012 with the successful identification of theHiggs boson.[3]
The Communication Awards of theNational Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine awarded a $20,000 prize for excellence in communicating science to the general public in Film/Radio/TV to David Kaplan and Mark Levinson for "Particle Fever" on October 14, 2015. The awards are given to individuals in four categories: books, film/radio/TV, magazine/newspaper and online, and are supported by the W. M. Keck Foundation.[4]
The film is composed of two narrative threads. One follows the large team of experimental physicists at CERN as they try to get the LHC running properly. After a promising initial test run, the LHC suffers a liquid helium leak in 2007 that damages itselectromagnets.Fabiola Gianotti, Martin Aleksa, and Monica Dunford are all shown discussing how to handle the negative publicity surrounding the accident, and how to proceed. After repairs in 2009, the LHC begins to run experiments again at half power.
The other thread follows the competing theories ofNima Arkani-Hamed and his mentorSavas Dimopoulos. In the film, Arkani-Hamed advocates for the "multiverse" theory, which predicts the mass of the Higgs boson to be approximately 140giga-electronvolts. Dimopoulos argues for the more-establishedsupersymmetry theory, which predicts the mass of the Higgs boson to be approximately 115 GeV.
The narrative threads combine at the end of the film, when CERN announces the confirmed existence of a Higgs-like particle, with a mass of approximately 125 GeV. The discovery of the particle is met with a standing ovation, andPeter Higgs is shown wiping away tears. However, neither of the competing theories of the universe is definitively supported by the finding.
Later, Kaplan is shown admitting thatnone of his theoretical models are supported by this finding, and that the long-term implications of the discovery are unclear.[5][6][7]
The film was shot over a period of seven years. It was directed byMark Levinson, a former theoretical physicist with a doctorate fromUC-Berkeley. Levinson produced the film along withDavid Kaplan, a professor of physics atJohns Hopkins University and producers Andrea Miller, Carla Solomon and Wendy Sax.[8] The team gathered nearly 500 hours of footage from both professional camera crews and amateur video self-recordings shot by the physicists themselves.[9] This footage was then edited byWalter Murch, who had previously wonAcademy Awards for his work onApocalypse Now andThe English Patient.[5] Kaplan worked closely withMK12 to create the animated sequences which are used throughout the film.[10]
The film premiered atSheffield Doc/Fest on July 14, 2013.[11]
Particle Fever was shown at severalfestivals before opening inlimited release in the United States on March 5, 2014.[8]
The film received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the film for making theoretical arguments seem comprehensible, for making scientific experiments seem thrilling, for makingparticle physicists seem human, and for promotingphysics outreach. Several reviewers singled out Murch's editing for praise.[12] On his blog, theoretical physicist andstring theory criticPeter Woit called the film "fantastically good", but cautioned that Arkani-Hamed's linking of the Higgs boson to multiverse theory was a tenuous proposition, as this theory did not currently make testable predictions.[6]
OnRotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 7.92 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "The concepts behind its heady subject matter may fly over the heads of most viewers, butParticle Fever presents it in such a way that even the least science-inclined viewers will find themselves enraptured."[13] OnMetacritic, the film has an 87 out of 100 rating, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[12]
In 2016, it was one of the inaugural winners of theStephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication.[14]
On July 27, 2024, atSan Diego Comic-Con, composerBear McCreary announced that he is working on a musical theater version of the documentary film, calledParticle Fever: The Musical. He also announced that he's working with composer/lyricist Zoe Sarnak, playwrighterDavid Henry Hwang, and art directorLeigh Silverman.[15]
| Large Hadron Collider (LHC) | |
|---|---|
| Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) | |
| Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) | |
| Proton Synchrotron (PS) | |
| Linear accelerators | |
| Other accelerators | |
| ISOLDE facility | |
| Non-accelerator experiments | |
| Future projects | |
| Related articles | |
