Chernobyl

Why didn't you press the AZ-5 button?

We did. And that's when it exploded.

I don't want my men here one more second

than they need to be.

If these worked, you'd be wearing them.

Vasily...

We're gonna have a baby.

Do you have any idea what you're dealing with?

People are going to hear.

What is everyone gonna hear?

We have to pursue every possibility,

no matter who is to blame.

This entire region must be completely evacuated.

How many men do you require?

Approximately 750,000 men.

It's time to go.

Did you hear me?

This is an evacuation. You understand?

You have to come with me.

Why?

Because they told me, so now I'm telling you.

Everyone in this village, everyone.

It's not safe here. There's radiation in the air.

What's wrong with you?

Do you know how old I am?

I don't know. Old.

I'm 82.

I've lived here my whole life.

Right here, that house, this place.

What do I care about safe?

I have a job. Don't cause trouble.

Trouble?

You're not the first soldier to stand here with a gun.

When I was 12, the revolution came.

Czar's men. Then Bolsheviks.

Boys like you marching in lines.

They told us to leave. No.

Then there was Stalin and his famine,

the Holodomor.

My parents died. Two of my sisters died.

They told the rest of us to leave.

No.

Then the Great War.

German boys. Russian boys.

More soldiers, more famine, more bodies.

My brothers never came home.

But I stayed, and I'm still here.

After all that I have seen...

so I should leave now,

because of something I cannot see at all?

No.

Just one moment!

It's time to go.

Please stand up now.

This is your last warning.

It's time to go.

Come on.

Point four.

Point six.

Fifteen.

Legasov.

I'll meet him there.

The atom is a humbling thing.

It's not humbling, it's humiliating.

Why is the core still exposed to the air?

Why have we not already covered it up?

We want to, but we can't get close enough.

The debris on the roof is graphite from the core itself.

Until we can push it off the roof back into the reactor,

it'll kill anyone who gets near it.

You can see the roof is in three levels.

We've named them... The small one here is Katya.

One thousand roentgen per hour.

Presume two hours of exposure is fatal.

The one on the side... Nina.

Two thousand roentgen. One hour, fatal.

We used remote-controlled bulldozers in Afghanistan.

Too heavy. They'd fall right through.

- So then...? - Moon rovers.

Lunokhod STR-1's. They're light.

And if we line them with lead, they can withstand the radiation.

We couldn't put a man on the moon.

At least we can keep a man off a roof.

That is the most important thing, General.

Under no circumstances can men go up there.

Robots only.

What about this large section here?

Masha.

Twelve thousand roentgen.

If you were to stand there in full protective gear head-to-toe for two minutes,

your life expectancy would be cut in half.

By three minutes, you're dead within months.

Even our lunar rovers won't work on Masha.

That amount of gamma radiation penetrates everything.

The particles literally shred

the circuits in microchips apart.

If it's more complicated than a light switch,

Masha will destroy it.

It would be fair to say that

that piece of roof is the most dangerous place on Earth.

So... what do we do?

That's what we wanted to ask you.

Tent 181?

It's all right. It's free.

It's a little early.

Bacho.

Pavel.

- Yeah? - Mm.

What unit were you in?

Uh, they had me in motor pool in Kiev,

- but then they... - Not this bullshit.

In Afghanistan.

Oh, um, I wasn't in Afghanistan.

I'm not in the military.

They're running out of men.

Showers. Food.

Those guys, they dig up the ground.

Those guys, they cut down trees.

Those guys, they evacuate people, I think,

like villagers.

What about them?

I don't know them. Fuck them.

Janek!

- What do you want? - Give me an egg basket.

- No, I've only got the one... - Give me the fucking basket!

He's with me, you understand?

Nobody fucks with him.

We make these from lead scrap.

- Put it on under your balls. - Now?

No, no. You can wait until the radiation gives you a cunt.

Yes, now.

Over your clothes. Fucking shit.

- You ever go hunting? - No.

Well... today's your lucky day.

You, me,

that ugly Armenian in the tent, Garo, we do animal control.

Animal control?

Yeah, they're radioactive,

so they have to go.

But it's not hard. They're mostly pets.

They're happy to see you. They run right up to you.

Bang!

You load the bodies on the truck,

dump them in a pit, bury them in concrete.

And then we drink.

As much vodka as you want, plus a thousand rubles.

Let's go get you a gun.

Yes?

I need to see the following documents.

They're listed as permission only.

I'm working for the Central Committee.

Comrade?

She can have that one.

Thank you, Comrade.

All clear.

Bring up the cameras.

- Signal? - Acceptable.

Running onboard diagnostics.

Tell me when we're ready to move it.

To think that's what we put on the moon.

Well, not that one.

I know not that one.

This rover was in storage. They can build two more.

That should cover Nina and Katya.

And Masha?

The Central Committee have informed me

that they may have found something

that could work up there. From the outside.

American?

Of course not.

It's a German police robot.

West German, so, as you can imagine,

that wasn't an easy conversation to have.

Diagnostics complete.

Ready to engage main power and motor.

Begin.

Can we move it?

Valery, what's that? A smile?

I see your condition has improved, Comrade Dyatlov.

No. Leave.

I need your help.

Akimov initiated AZ-5.

- When you gave the order... - Order? What order?

Toptunov called it out, Akimov pressed it.

It was the only good decision they made.

Incompetent morons.

Can you confirm that the reactor exploded

after they attempted to shut it down?

How do I even know it exploded, huh?

I found this in the state archive.

Written in 1976.

It's about the operation of RBMK reactors under extreme conditions.

So?

The names of the authors have been redacted,

and two pages have been removed.

Well, the State must protect its secrets, Comrade.

Do you dare suggest otherwise?

They made a mistake.

They didn't redact the table of contents.

The missing pages apparently refer