April 19, 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Timothy McVeigh’s act of terror took the lives of 168 people, including 25 children, who were inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building when McVeigh’s truck bomb detonated outside. A powerful new three-part National Geographic documentary series revisits the tragedy this week, seeking to connect the bombing starkly to the present day.
New Oklahoma City Documentary Calculates the Human Cost of Extremism
Fire personnel gather at the base of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City on April 20, 1995. (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Unfortunately for the makers of Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America, the series trails behind another impactful documentary on the subject by almost a year. Max’s Katie Couric-produced film, An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th featured many of the same interviewees who tell their stories once again in Oklahoma City Bombing. These include former President Bill Clinton, District Fire Chief Mike Shannon and FBI agent Bob Ricks. The families of victims, including brothers Chase and Colton Smith who died at the building’s day care center, and interpreter Julie Welch who was working on the first floor, are also featured in both.
While some of the quotes offered during The Road to April 19th are repeated almost word-for-word in Oklahoma City Bombing, the new series differs enough to make a viewing worthwhile. The Road to April 19th focused primarily on the social and economic circumstances that led not just to McVeigh’s actions, but to a move towards extremist ideologies in America’s heartland. Oklahoma City Bombing takes a much more personal approach and does a far deeper dive into the minute-by-minute events of the day.
One of Oklahoma City Bombing’s most valuable assets is Mike Shannon. The agony he experienced on April 19 as he made life-and-death decisions for his fire crew, as well as for victims still buried in the rubble, provide tension and an emotional wallop that The Road to April 19th often lacked. One of the victims trapped in the debris, Amy Downs, also talks with visceral candor about the hours she spent waiting for death in the half-collapsed building. The experience inspired her to transform her life and pursue a path to honor the many coworkers she lost that day. Julie Welch’s father, Bud, also movingly describes how his daughter’s death transformed his life’s purpose.
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The stories of survivors bring the horror of April 19 to vivid life in Oklahoma City Bombing. An ATF agent named Luke Franey talks of being trapped on the ninth floor after his office was cut in half by the explosion. Fran Ferrari, a worker from The Journal Record building across the street, recalls managing to modestly pull her skirt into place even as she was carried, drenched in her own blood, to first responders. One of them, an EMT scrambling to save the lives of small, terrified children, shares her struggle to hold tears back as she worked.
One of the most impactful elements of Oklahoma City Bombing comes in the final episode with the arrival of Stephen Jones, the defense attorney who was assigned (somewhat reluctantly) to Timothy McVeigh’s case. The footage of Jones and McVeigh engaged in pre-trial meetings is chilling; McVeigh appears unperturbed shortly after committing mass murder. Jones says he was disturbed by McVeigh’s calm demeanor.
It is these kinds of personal perspectives that make Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America such a compelling watch. Footage of the subsequent memorial service and the final demolition of the Federal Building close out the story effectively. In the end, Oklahoma City Bombing ends up being an excellent companion piece to An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th. Where Max’s documentary was an effective warning about far right extremism and the dangers it still poses to the United States, National Geographic’s effort is a poignant reminder of the human toll of such ideologies.
Towards the end of the series’ final episode, Bill Clinton offers a sobering warning about the cost of homegrown extremist ideologies. “We need for people to recognize that our differences are good, healthy, even essential — but only if our common humanity matters more,” he says. “On April 19, Timothy McVeigh showed us what happens when our common humanity doesn’t matter anymore.”
‘Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America’ premieres on National Geographic on April 2, 2025 at 6 p.m. The series begins streaming on Hulu and Disney+ the following day.
