I do not own any of the footage. All credit's go to HBO, SKY UK, the creator Craig Mazin and the cast crew. hbogo.mk/ www.sky.com/ / clmazin Thanks for Watching !!!
Legasov was the bravest. He even got a death sentence from this invisible poison and decided to self terminate on the anniversary of Chernobyl just to get his work and truths out in the world. He was a great man and there should be statues of him all over Ukraine and Russia.
@@flightofthebumblebee9529 unfortunately Sam, I’ve a feeling any statues of Legasov would be pockmarked by bullets and replaced with some hideous likeness of the Butcher of Ukraine
The look on Legasov's face when he hears it's 15000 is incredible. He suddenly realizes that he and everyone around him are actively dying and will live shorter lives just by standing where they are.
Also look at the young soldier who listens to the discussion. The actor played his role very well, not being able to hide the terror when he heard about the atom bombs.
@lionhead123 Yes, but the point is they're still in proximity to the Reactor even when it's measured by a few miles that's still enough exposure to destroy them over time. Not as fast as those who were at the plant but enough to guarantee they were screwed anyway.
That was no exaggeration, because no accident of this kind has ever really happened before. There were meltdowns and fires in nuclear reactors before, some intentional. None of them however released more radiation than the explosion of hundreds of nuclear weapons at or below ground level, until Chernobyl who released far more radiation than the Fukashima accident. This was an accident involving hundreds and hundreds of tons of graphite and at least 100 tons of Uranium burning and going prompt critical, BEFORE it melted down and turned into nuclear lava, which is why much of the building is still lethally radioactive.
Except he clearly wasn't a geologist. Radionuclide decay has been occuring in the core since at least the Gaia impactor. Otherwise we would not have plate tectonics. It's just convenient that the place it occurs most frequently is quite a ways under our feet.
That is terrifying but here is a weird bit of getting info, there is a site in west Africa with nuclear waste estimated to be 2 billion years old, from the little I’ve read about it it still wasn’t more than this so his statement is still true
One of the very few faults of this series is how they actually downplayed just how fucking important Pikalov was for the entire Chernobyl reponse. He was head of the Chemical Troops of the USSR and of that unit was the first to arrive on scene. He coordinated the entire immediate response to the accident, and unlike what the series shows, he didn't just drive up to the plant for a quick measurement, he actually drove circles around the plant to track precisely where the radiation was heading. Essentially he knew that he was dealing with an invisible cloud of poison and thought "Well before the experts arrive, I better figure out where that invisible cloud is heading".
The chemical troops knew exactly what was happening. It was their job. I’m sure he’d been to the Semipalatinsk Polygon for nuclear and chemical weapons tests. I’m sure he’d seen what the signs of radiation exposure were. My dad was in the US analogy to that. He was involved in Vietnam with a lot of the chemical defoliants. He has neurological damage from it.
@@ADHDfuntimes I hope that one day, when you grow up, you realize the consequence of saying, 'My dad was xxxx, so I must know .' It has the opposite effect of what you think it is doing, which of course leads many people to the conclusion that you are an idiot because you don't understand the logical chain of events. Or treating training like it's the flu, and you are somehow more likely to understand by proximity. So dumb.
My favourite quote from the entire series: Legasov: "At least evacuate Pripyat, it's 3km away." Scherbina: "That's my decision to make." Legasov: "Then make it." Scherbina: "I've been told not to."
The reality is - as soon as they saw what happened, the evacuation was ordered, that same morning. It took a whole day to gather thousands of trucks and buses from as far as Minsk and Kiev in order to evacuate 50.000 people from the city and at least as many from the surrounding areas. The whole evacuation lasted around one hour and was done in perfect order. The show just decided to lie because it fitted their original narrative. There are a few scenes like that in every episode, where they try to bash you over the head how bad USSR was, using lies. Lies anyone can uncover with 2 minutes of google time, but rarely anyone wants to.
@@Wustenfuchs109 the evacuation took at least two days and Sowjet bureaucracy and ineptitude killed dozens of people there. so maybe when complaining about lies, don't lie.
@@euronimo34 The lying one here is you. Anyone can go and check - so don't be a dick. The accident happened on 26th, buses and trucks were gathered during the course of 26th and were in place by 11AM on 27th. At 2PM the evacuation started, by 3PM it was over. The entire city within 1 hour. So I have no idea what the hell are you talking about. Oh, wait, were you watching a fantasy series as a documentary? Just use google, it is your friend. If you can't be bothered with an actual book on the topic. It's is OK not to know, but it is not OK to be a dick about it.
That man is Vladimir Karpovich Pikalov and a certified badass. He survived the battles of Moscow, Kursk and Stalingrad in WWII and also through the events of Chernobyl only dying of old age in 2003.
I have no love for the Soviet Union or the Red Army, but I will give my respect to men like him who were shining beacons of honor and loyalty to their homeland even in the darkest of times. Thank you for your service, General Pikalov. You have earned your rest.
@@thegrimcritic5494 I was reading the comments and did not see once somone asking you about your fkn love for the red army or the soviet Union you bitchass bullied girl
@@thegrimcritic5494 Men are not at fault for their regimes. Brave, courageous, talented men are to be respected, even if they fought for someone as evil as the soviet union. The same applies to men like Manstein, Rommel and other german generals of the time
General Vladimir Pikalov who rammed his truck into the plant grounds to measure the real radiation levels fought in the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk receiving several wounds in them. Nothing scared him after those terrifying battles; not even an exposed nuclear core.
@@unelectedleader6494 he didn't ask for the hotel, he's telling Valery that he can stay at a hotel in that area. Army men have their accommodations always 😂
It's morbidly funny how Shcherbina treats bringing 5000 tons of sand and boron on short notice as a far easier task than getting past the political hurdles in the way of evacuating the entirety of Pripyat.
A bit of an underlying part of Shcherbina’s character is that while Legasov understood the scientific reality of the situation, Shcherbina understood the political reality of the situation. He somewhat tried to clue Legasov in on this, otherwise he would work through or around it to get or do what was needed.
Well he was only in charge of the cleanup, Gorbachev will give him almost anything he needs for the cleanup, materials, men etc. But evacuation and health policies are not under Boris. That will have to be decided by the central committee back in Moscow.
General Pikalov didn't just drive into the facility himself to protect his own soldiers from the radiation. He did it because he understood that the situation was very serious and that the facility directors were trying to hide something. As such, he needed to make sure that everyone knew the correct radiation levels and being the reputable and highly honourable soldier that he was, no one with half a brain would be so insane as to question the reading that he got in there. If it was anyone else, the directors might try and claim another faulty meter or that his guy didn't read it right, but you'd need to be suicidal to question a legendary General's honour and honesty. That's the main reason he went for it and managed to expose the true nature of the beast beyond all doubts to everyone.
He was a great man. Can you imagine walking into invisible yet certain death (prolonged) while having to force yourself to do so because it was the right thing and you were saving millions of lives and an entire continent.
"There's a hotel." Colonel General Pikalov is like, "I realize I just gave you the worst possible news... But there's a nice place downtown." Dude is an absolute rock. Perhaps my favorite character in the series.
It’s the contemporary Soviet version of “We’re actively dying right now of radiation poisoning, but the good news is you could save money by switching to GEICO.”
It's the good and the bad of dictatorships. They're much more brutally efficient at solving catastrophes. But because of the ideological, Lysenkoist basis of their regimes, they're also likelier to create them.
@@Nabium this and to protect the radiator and engine in front. It's the same reason demolition derby drivers drive into each other with their rear end.
1:52 Honestly, the entire sequence of them washing off the truck and Pikalov is eerily creepy on its own. Watching the runoff dripping to the ground, knowing it's carrying lethal amounts of an invisible killer is the perfect imagery of the true horror of what happened.
I get what you mean. But the washing wasn't the real issue - at 15,000 roentgen per hour that truck would have been so damaged by a few minutes of gamma rays that they would have needed to dig a truck-sized hole and bury the thing. The General will be fine, radiation knows better than to mess with him.
@@Rutherford_Inchworm_III IIRC gamma rays knock electrons, and occasionally protons and neutrons - off of atoms, ionizing some elements and converting others. But gamma rays are photons, they are emitted and absorbed. It's alpha and beta radiation, while far less penetrative, the particles persist, and their interactions with other atoms can lead to chain reactions and further radioactive elements.
@@nickandres7829 You are correct. Activation is not a concern in that scenario re: direct gamma. Not sure why I said that... too much cross pollination with criticality accident research, I suppose.
@@KittyPieVibes This one I know for sure: they used a substance they called "bourda" which is the Russian word for molasses and also a slang word meaning basically "goop" - it was sticky brown brewery waste that they mixed with water to form a foamy liquid which captured dust like soapsuds (except far cheaper). It was already in widespread use in the USSR to keep dust down on dirt roads.
Did anybody notice how the eyes of the soldier standing behind Valery nearly bulge out as he explains the reality of the situation? He has a pure "I'm fucked" expression
You are exaggerating but at 2:41 he is indeed look scared. Actually it's another amazing detail because he isn't reacting until the "entire continent is dead" part. Because he don't know anything about roentgen and even Hiroshima probably.
Seeing all those abandoned fire trucks to me is one of the most Scariest scenes in the series, fire trucks that are always filled by people trying to help and you just see those fire trucks sitting there knowing that their crew Will probably never get in a fire truck ever again
Creepier still when you consider that the fire trucks and all the vehicles and helicopters used in the clean up are still there today, abandoned and too irradiated to ever use again. A vehicle graveyard inside an abandoned, decaying Soviet dream, frozen in time.
@@ErikJ05 They were finally shredded and buried a few years ago. The problems went from people looting parts from the radioactive vehicles to keep other vehicles operating to people just flat-out stealing steel to cash out as scrap metal and they finally decided to do away with all of it. That motor park of contaminated vehicles no longer exists.
Surprisingly, quite a lot of the firefighters who arrived on the site survived the initial radiation dose, most of the ones who died of ARS were the ones who climbed on the roof and were directly exposed to the highly radioactive material.
Theres a vehichle cemetery of all tanks, trucks, cars, choopers abandoned in a secluded area. It was planned to be decontaminated and scrapped, or just burried in the ground. As of 2017, the vehichles have been removed from that place
Once he understood Legasov was right he knew Legasov was one of the only men there who would be honest about the disaster and the stakes of said disaster.
"What does that number mean"... its a rethorical question he put on the Director and Lead-Engineer of the Plant....and they couldnt give him an awnser... Which proved that Bryukhanov and Fomin were not only denying the truth, and lying to his face, only to save their skins... They didnt have a clue on the real size of the disaster.... And 15.000 Roentgen gave a perfect picture on how massive a disaster it was.... still, with Pikalov himself reporting thát gruesome number... the Director and Lead-Engineer would still try and wiggle around the gruesome truth.... Hence their only purpose left was to be escorted to a Party HQ, be detained and held accountable for their part in this... Maybe not causing the disaster, but their absolute failure in taking their responsibility in assessing the situation, realistically! The way that Bryukhanov and Fomin tried to hush it up, and even lie to Shcherbina about it, would be seen as a highly treasenous crime by the Communist Party! Hadent it been for the publicity of this disaster, even the KGB would have frowned upon this, and have reserved a véry special place in thé worst Gulag in the USSR for Bryukhaniv and Fomin for this...Lucky enough for them, Publicity exposed the disaster, meaning Bryukhaniv and Fomin were to be served a húge Tribunal, alongside Dyatlov, as the USSR had to show the WORLD how they would deal justice!! The Communist party couldnt afford to lose face on the hlobal political stage in this... They couldnt put this genie back in the bottle...
@@stefanodegioia1598 looking at when they first show him you can already tell the sheer rage and disgust he currently has. and then the end of the scene he's just staring at the reactor staring at a more assured death then war before giving the most old warrior look to Legasov.
Notice how Shcherbina turns to Legasov after hearing 15,000 Roentgen, he suddenly realises that the only person not bullshitting him has been the one who he thought was bullshitting him. And even though he yells at Legasov, Shcherbina immediately does what he says and heads off to organise the Boron.
@@eliteofthe9136 Well in Ted 2 Tom Brady’s bedsheets glowed brightly when Mark Wahlberg and Ted tried to steal his ‘genes’, so he was probably radioactive…which actually explains a lot.
"Give them as much protection as you can but even with lead shielding it may not be enough." "Then I'll do it myself" a general truly worthy of the rank.
Love that line. I don't know if it is historically accurate, but it is an excellent example of true leadership. Rather than send some grunt on a suicide mission, and have the communist party apparatchik scream "fake news" yet again, the general puts his own life on the line.
@@texaswunderkind It's accurate. General Pikalov figured a cover up was already in the process, and this was one event that he absolutely could not allow to be covered up. So part of why he went himself was so that none of the corrupt party members trying to cover up the situation could dispute his claim.
My favorite line in this episode, he was told that even with all the protection someone under his command might not be safe, he willfully went in to protect his men. Truly one of the most honorable men I have heard of.
Hell of a man. He and all of them who were actually fixing the problem and cleaning up definitely deserve to be honored and remembered by all of humanity. Thanks to this series, I feel like they will.
Props to Shcherbina for being so on-point and willing to listen to Legasov for advice after having discovered that he was completely right and that those two clowns were lying to his face in order to cover up their blunder. Get the problem under control ASAP, the consequences be damned if they're less serious than letting things just escalate further.
The quick reaction shot of Legasov after the general tells them the number says it all. Scherbina's face and manurisms when Legasov tells him they are dealing with something that had never happened before is also great. His face says "That's not what I asked. I asked for a solution.".
The general is really intelligent. He understand and believes Legasov. He is also a veteran politician and know how to make his moves. He also performs well as a decision-marker: listens to Legasov to know what the problem is, what needs to be solved and executes the steps to do that: final line "going to get you 5000 tons of sand" just brilliantly exemplifies this.
In this scene, intelligent and practical. A military leader understands logistics, and the need for food and shelter. The "There's a hotel" line shows that he sees the greater picture as well as the minor bullshit that can effect how it's handled. Get the freaking genius scientist a bed and some food, so we we can solve the problem. Love it.
An amazing show. You do not understand the magnitude of this situation but this show does a fantastic job of showing it. Later in the series, Boris has this look about him that speaks volumes. When he realizes that they are so far over their heads and there is nothing they have that can counter the 15000 roentgen per hour, you feel for him and the scientists involved in this cleanup. The area around Chernobyl is still incredibly toxic and life is starting to return but the reactor and the radiation in the surrounding area will not fade away for at least 100 years. At the least! Gorbachev even says in his memoirs that it was Chernobyl that brought down the Soviet Union.
I've just came back from Chernobyl and the town of Pripyat. The guide said, that the fatal radiation MIGHT fade out in 100 years, but the radioactive particles that could be ingested and could be fatal won't fade away for at least 50000 more years. So basically, forever.
Bonus points when you notice Legasov turned to them when he was explaining what 15000 meant. As if to say "THAT is what happens when an RBMK reactor explodes you morons".
+thomas mayer-m. and his second "oh....... sh*t" moment came not 20 seconds later as legasov explains just how much radiation the reactor is emitting every hour.
I love how at 2:17 he shuts up the directors, before later 'excusing' them to 'party headquarters' by the soldier who had been visibly reacting to the entire conversation.
That genius cut at 3:55, when the camera is focusing on literally nothing in the distance, completely blurring the main character. Telling a whole story about radiation in three seconds.
It could be deliberate, but it would also not be the first time that a faintly visible special effect did not show well on the consumer end of devices (though I'd say that taking that into account these days is much more of a thing than it might have been 20-25 years a go.
When Pikalov approached reactor number 4, out of sheer respect the core stopped emitting, came outside to give Pikalov the correct reading, then returned to continue emitting once Pikalov was gone.
I loved this series SO much. It's one of the best things I've seen in any form of media. Lines like the dire delivery of "we are dealing with something that has never occurred on this PLANET before" really make it clear to the viewer how serious this disaster really was.
Nope, Three Mile Island was very different. When he says never occurred before on the planet, he is referring to the core being open to the air, putting off the radiation of two Hiroshima bombs per hour. Three mile island had a meltdown and released radiation, however the containment vessels held. So the US had to deal with a meltdown, the US did not have to deal with an open core.
I've seen just about every horror movie/tv show in the last 75 years. And HBO's "Chernobyl" is BY FAR, the scariest thing I have ever viewed in my life.
Vladimir Pikalov, the general depicted in this series, happened to live until the age of 78, dying in 2003. He served in WWII, where he participated in the Battles of Stalingrad, Moscow, and Kursk. He would also receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, for his work during the Chernobyl Disaster.
I watched this series at least 5 times now all the way through and this part and the buildup to it is almost heartbreaking. It's like even the most naive knew something was TERRIBLY wrong, even Dyaltov. They just couldn't admit the worst and wanted to believe the core was in tact and able to be cooled. When they say 15000 and ask Jared Harris what that means he casually says "it means the core is exposed" and then proceeded to tell them what they should've already known. The fire brigade never stood a chance and Dyaltov should've been indicted for that choice alone by calling them to put out a fire that was exposing them to rapid death by invisible poison.
Except that this part is completely fictional. Dyatlov claimed in later interviews that he himself visited the reactor building to evaluate the damage, he ordered the shutdown of reactor 3 and adviced the fire brigade to secure the generator hall to prevent further damage. I'm aware that he's probably not the best source and for sure he wasn't the hero in this story, but I think he wasn't the villain either. It just happens that he was the guy who the Communist party could blame, and I'm not very happy that the mini series followed this narration.
@@tobiaswilhelmi4819 but they do a good enough job of showing the corruption in the Soviet command structure that it makes you wonder automatically what actually happened. I mean you can't tell me you didn't go online and look into the incident further after watching this.
@@tobiaswilhelmi4819 It seems the more I look into Chernobyl nobody in the control room was at fault. Dyatlov did everything right with the information he was given. And had he not tried to get the reactor running he would've lost his job if not worse. The control room operators were also severely undertrained and ill informed on what to do. Shame they're seen as villains in this series.
One of the firemen who survived later said that they did in fact have a strong suspicion that the core itself had exploded, but duty compelled them to put the fire out. Because if they hadn't it would have spread to the other reactors, and Europe would be uninhabitable. They may not have been properly trained or informed, but people are smart and they figure stuff out. I think they knew, just not how bad it was going to be. They should have indicted the idiot who used flammable materials like that in the roof of a nuclear reactor, because the firefighters that died were the ones that went up there
I love how they took a “less is more” approach to the music. Gives a sort of creaking “metal settling down” vibe. On a different note, I can only imagine what was going through the mind of the Colonel as he made the approach by himself. The plant grounds evacuated, the site dark and abandoned, everything eerily still and silent and the invisible danger in the very air he was passing through. But when he came to the locked gate he just bulldozed right through it, because he had a job to do and he was going to see it through. Nerves of steel indeed. And they were going to need every person just like him that they could get. Viktor Bryukhanov and Nikolai Fomin were lucky that they weren't stood in front of a firing squad.
The woman who made the music said in a video that she went to a nuclear powerplant to record all the sounds and then pieced together the sounds into the soundtrack. Very atmospheric.
If you listen close during the closeup of Legasov while they are waiting in the tent, you can hear a dosimeter gradually getting louder in the background.
@FloatingOer Yeah, I heard the same thing. In fact if I remember correctly, she recorded the sounds at Ignalina, another RBMK reactor, the very same one where Chernobyl was filmed.
Wasn't viktor bryukhanov fault that he want the test? When the nuclear explode he denying the high radiation, says is not high, tried to cover up his responsible, prevent citizen to evacuate pripyat
Skaarsgaard plays the bureacrat fear very well. You can see him confidently handling the situation, and then Legasov starts going into the technical details and how bad this actually is (killing the continent, fighting a fire even the experts don't know how to fight)...and he increasingly gets short with them all. You can actively see Scherbina moving into fight or flight mode as the leader...such great acting. He has already decided that he has to do something, and NOW all the subject matter experts are prevaricating and panicky. "For god's sake rough estimate!" I need something to say to action what you need! Don't try to insinuate yourself into the political problem of evacuation...I already know what has to be done, and I have to fight the authority structure to get it done and you won't help that!
The sad thing to think about is how the USSR refused to evacuate until the US got satellite images of the plant and showed the world what was happening, which was about 36 hours later. To put that into their words, that’s 72 Hiroshima bombs worth of radiation released before they evacuated anyone, just to try and protect their image.
What's sad is there are those who would do that in the United States as well, The Three Mile Island incident proved that and the way people are today just makes it doubly so.
At first the Colonel was going to walk to the plant with a dosimeter to save gas but they managed to convince him time was critical. Every Chuck Norris joke ever uttered should be changed to Vladimir Pikalov.
I don't know if that was intended but the way General Pikalov is acting in this scene makes it look like he already dealt with similar event in the past...
Pikalov actually survived through many battles like in Kursk, Stalingrad and Moscow. Also survived WW2 after being wounded. So yeah this is almost another day in the office for him :)
@@dnsvls Chernobyl disaster is noting in comparison to horrors of war. But I'm thinking it's possible he dealt with radiation effects before Chernobyl. Maybe during nuclear bomb tests.
@@divinemoments5344 I don't know if he had anything to do with it, but the Soviets had a nuclear waste accident in the Ural mountains at Mayak in the 50s.
He was head of the command that handled radiation and chemical spills in the Soviet Union. The Soviets had several more isolated nuclear waist accident before when they first started their nuclear program. I’m sure it wasn’t even the first time he was near lethal levels of radiation.
Our man here drove straight towards the dying heart of a false star because he knew the risk it would have on his men and wanted none of that shit. I have no love for the Soviet Union nor for the Red Army, but I do have respect for good men who rise up and do the right thing in dark situations. Thank you for your service, General Pikalov. You were, and always will be, a credit to your nation and her peoples.
Love or hate the USSR, you have to admit the sheer bravery of the Russian people. They have been through literally hell for the survival of their people.
It’s the USSR culture of lies, cover up, propaganda, politicization of everything and shoot the messenger culture that provoked the Chernobyl accident in the first place.
The whole reactor number four exploding? Yes,It happened.Chernobyl as a show might have been embellised a bit for drama purposes BUT, It is kinda a documentary of what happened irl.
A true leader. Not only did he not want to put any of his soliders in harms way, but as the most high ranking officer at the scene, he wanted everyone to know what the correct reading was, and he knew Fomin and Bryukhanov were not telling the whole story. General Pikalov is a true hero.
Pikalov knew that Legasov was probably right, right from the start. But he needed a politically-acceptable way to out Brykhanov and Fomin. By telling them all that the "high rate dosimeter had just arrived" (he probably already had a clear idea of the problem before Shcherbina arrived)... but with this fact shared at the opportune moment came, gave Shcherbina the opening to force the decision (neatly sidestepping Brykhanov and Fomin's conclusions - outright lies). This might seem machiavellian, but it's how a skilled operator works around a problem. Pikalov fought in many battles (both with guns and brains), and knew his duty was to his mission and his men (in that order)... his management of the situation was flawless and saved lives.
3:10 I love this exchange between Legasov and Shcherbina because it illustrates their roles and how they work together. Legasov understands the situation but even he is overwhelmed by the magnitude of the disaster. Shcherbina can't understand the disaster like Legasov but he can see it as a problem to be dealt with. Shcherbina works towards a solution while Legasov helps to keep from making things worse than they already are.
if it's 15000R, then they would get a high reading even from outside the facility. Shows you how incompetent USSR was that the Swedes were able to detect the high levels before the Soviets were. Yet, they kept thinking that it's a fluke
Because, in those days, in the USSR, it was inconceivable that ANY disastrous event could possibly occur when everyone knew that it would be an embarrassment to the nation, and embarrassments do not happen to the USSR. It was not necessarily incompetence, but hubris and a blind devotion to what superiors tell you.
The Soviets knew of the radiation, they didn't need the Swedes to tell them. They had to measure the radiation levels at the site to evaluate how much boron is needed. You shouldn't mix the content of this SHOW with reality. To speak of: even in the mini series it is shown like that. The measurements in the nuclear institute in Minsk is right before the alarm in Sweden.
They also didn't believe that over pressure of steam could lead to an explosion which is just laughably stupid Normal boilers can explode from excess vapor pressure, so why would a larger scaled one be any different?
"You're dealing with something that has never accrued on this planet before." ....that is so utterly chilling to hear. Couldn't imagine being told that in person and not shitting a brick.
Firefighting equipment from the real events are still parked there even today among multiple other pieces of heavy machinery and equipment. I hope very soon the war will be over and you will be able to come and see the relics with your own eyes and get a grasp of the scale of the operation that took place after the reactor exploded. It is quite a sight. Just don't go too close to the stuff as some parts of it can not be decontaminated and they are still mildly radioactive.
@Kirillissimus Just like the FDNY rigs from 9/11, they honor their crews' sacrifice simply by being. I would question if I was worthy enough to be in their vehicle's shadow, far below walking in their footsteps. We should be honored for the fact that we know that there are people like this, and the sacrifices made were really for the true good of humanity.
I love the part when he turns the truck around to back through the gate. It's like a Tarantino level of "useless dialogue" that helps to add realism and even a bit of suspense to the scene. Really like how the people running the show put that little detail in.
There is a deliberate effort on the part of the creators to avoid showing the viewer the exposed reactor core for most of the show. The characters and the audience know where it is, the characters are able to look at it directly, but the audience does not see it. We see evidence of it - the readings, the horrible burns on the victims, the eerie glow. We hear the creepy music when it's close by. It's like a character on its own, like a sentient otherworldly presence; like a monster in a horror film. It's such a simple cinematographic device: whatever you do, don't show the monster's face. But it's so terrifically suspenseful, and so masterfully done! Really adds to the sensation that these tiny humans, so full of hubris and recklessness, really fucked with a force of nature that's now out of their control.
It gives us more of the perspective of the regular people in the area. Pripyat was an atomgrad. So its citizens likely had an idea of the things that could go wrong with a reactor. Knowing that a monster was loose, but not being able to see it or know just how big and dangerous it is, must have been terrifying.
"I'm going to get you 5000 tons of sand and boron" is such a dense line. Shcherbina presses Legasov to make up a number on the spot and immediately trusts his judgement and gets it done, no matter the price tag. "Why did I see graphite on the roof" was the first glimpse of trust, but this is where the duo really gains traction. At the same time it's another perspective on the immense scale of the problem: Try getting a hold of 5000 tons of _anything_, let alone flying it in with helicopters in just a few hours. Whole supply chains, defense capabilities - none of it matters. And all that in one line!
Scherbina trusted Legasov well before this. Scherbina was IIRC the reason Legasov was even in the room getting briefed on the problem. He NEEDED an expert, and Legasov suited that need. He also needed something even more important, an honest man who could look at the problem and tell him what the truth is, and Scherbina saw in the briefing that he'd chosen well. Boris is being manipulative, but most of his manipulations for the entire miniseries, even the early bits, was to get Legasov into a position where he could come up with a solution. He showed his trust more openly as the series developed, but it's clear that Scherbina's solution to this crisis was "make Legasov come up with a soltuion."
"Boron... Boron and Sand. That'll create problems of its own, but i-i-i dont see any other way." Damn man, you know your situation is fucking dire when you gotta pull some shit thatll cause another major and critical issue just to deal with the current one. Thats just not something you wanna hear.
Because movie and TV productions are billion dollar industries. Investors want massive returns, so every project has to be massively profitable. Every new project has to be a guaranteed success before it's even considered, so the executives want everything to be as generally bland and safe as possible.
@@mathewfinch Meanwhile, loads of movies made by these big studios are flopping. Indy 5, The Marvels, Wish and many more in the last few years. They didn't make back their budget+marketing. Oppenheimer and Barbie made money though.
Every scene....every conversation....the writers did such a great job.....the actors were awsome.....hands down one if not the best miniseries of the last 10 years.
The part that struck me the most out of this scene is the part were u see where the firetrucks were at made me think this guy needed a full suit n a Lead truck to be there yet they sent those firemen there with no radiation protection just hours after the explosion.
Fire fighters respond when called. We now have training in hazmat so something like this doesn't happen. We now know to look before we run in. You can't help someone if you're hurt.
They were deliberately obtuse. You did what the party wanted or you didn’t last. The only thing that made them fess up was that they couldn’t deny it any longer.
He wasn't scared of the radiation. The radiation was scared of him. Or alternatively, he was scared to send any of his men to an almost certain painful and slow death, and the radiation realized this. Lol