  Thin films, bubbles and membranes are central to numerous natural and
engineering processes, i.e., in thin-film solar cells, coatings, biosensors,
electrowetting displays, foams, and emulsions. Yet, the characterization and an
adequate understanding of their rupture is limited by the scarcity of atomic
detail. We present here the complete life-cycle of freely suspended films using
non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of a simple atomic fluid free of
surfactants and surface impurities, thus isolating the fundamental rupture
mechanisms. Counter to the conventional notion that rupture occurs randomly, we
discovered a short-term 'memory' by rewinding in time from a rupture event,
extracting deterministic behaviors from apparent stochasticity. A comprehensive
investigation of the key rupture-stages including both unrestrained and
frustrated propagation is made - characterization of the latter leads to a
first-order correction to the classical film-retraction theory. Furthermore,
the highly resolved time window reveals that the different modes of the
morphological development, typically characterized as heterogeneous nucleation
and spinodal decomposition, continuously evolve seamlessly with time from one
into the other.
