Particle Fever is a 2013 American documentary film that meticulously chronicles the groundbreaking initial experiments conducted at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland. The film offers an intimate look into the lives of both experimental physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) as they orchestrate the monumental endeavors, and theoretical physicists who strive to formulate conceptual frameworks for the LHC's anticipated results. Spanning a critical period from the LHC's inaugural firing in 2008 to the triumphant identification of the Higgs boson in 2012, the documentary captures a pivotal moment in modern science. Its excellence in communicating complex scientific concepts to the public earned its creators, David Kaplan and Mark Levinson, a prestigious $20,000 Communication Award from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2015.

The documentary weaves together two compelling narrative threads. One follows the immense team of experimental physicists at CERN as they navigate the formidable challenges of getting the LHC operational. This includes an initial promising test run followed by a significant setback in 2007—a liquid helium leak that severely damaged electromagnets, forcing physicists like Fabiola Gianotti, Martin Aleksa, and Monica Dunford to manage negative publicity and coordinate extensive repairs. After years of work, the LHC eventually resumed experiments in 2009, though at half power. The other thread delves into the intellectual rivalry between theoretical physicists Nima Arkani-Hamed and his mentor Savas Dimopoulos, as they champion competing theories regarding the universe and the expected mass of the Higgs boson. Arkani-Hamed advocated for the "multiverse" theory, predicting the Higgs mass at approximately 140 giga-electronvolts (GeV), while Dimopoulos supported the more established supersymmetry theory, which estimated it around 115 GeV.

These two narratives converge dramatically with the momentous announcement from CERN: the confirmed existence of a Higgs-like particle, measured at an approximate mass of 125 GeV. This revelation, met with a tearful Peter Higgs and a standing ovation, marked a monumental achievement for particle physics. However, the film astutely highlights that this discovery did not definitively support either Arkani-Hamed's multiverse theory or Dimopoulos's supersymmetry. This ambiguity is underscored by theoretical physicist David Kaplan's later admission that the findings did not align with his own theoretical models, leaving the long-term implications of the discovery open to further exploration and without a clear theoretical victor.

Particle Fever was the culmination of seven years of filming, directed by Mark Levinson, a former theoretical physicist himself, and produced by Levinson alongside David Kaplan, a professor of physics, and others. The production team amassed nearly 500 hours of footage, blending professional camera work with candid self-recordings by the physicists. This vast material was skillfully edited by Academy Award winner Walter Murch, with animated sequences created in collaboration with MK12 to elucidate complex scientific principles. Premiering in 2013 and released in 2014, the film garnered widespread critical acclaim for its ability to render theoretical arguments comprehensible, make scientific experiments thrilling, portray physicists as relatable individuals, and effectively promote physics outreach. Its exceptional quality is reflected in its 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a "universal acclaim" score of 87 on Metacritic. The film's impact was further recognized in 2016 when it was awarded the inaugural Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, and intriguingly, a musical theater version titled Particle Fever: The Musical was announced in 2024, promising to bring the story to a new audience.