CHERNOBYL
Episode 1 - "1:23:45"
Written by Craig Mazin
August 15, 2 018
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101 OVER BLACK 101
A man's voice, tinny, over audio cassette hiss.
RECORDED VOICE What is the cost of lies?
102 INT. MOSCOW APARTMENT 102
A CIGARETTE - slowly burns in an ashtray.
RECORDED VOICE It's not that we'll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all. What can we do then? What else is left but to abandon even the hope of truth, and content ourselves instead... with stories.
The apartment is cramped. Bookshelves. Stacks of scientific journals. Soviet-era furniture. Nicotine wallpaper.
RECORDED VOICE In these stories, it doesn't matter who the heroes are. All we want to know is: who is to blame? Well. In this story, it was Anatoly Dyatlov. And he was the best choice. An arrogant, unpleasant man, he ran the room that night, he gave the orders... and no friends. Or at least not important ones.
A CAT pads softly over a TYPEWRITER on a wooden desk. Through an open archway, we see a MAN sitting at a kitchen table. Takes the cigarette from the ashtray. Smokes.
RECORDED VOICE And now Dyatlov will spend the next ten years in a prison labour camp.
IN THE KITCHEN - the soft tick-tick-tick of a small CLOCK on the kitchen table. It's a little past 1:00 AM.
TITLE: MOSCOW - APRIL 26, 1988
Next to the clock: a cup of tea, the ashtray, and a chunky Soviet-era AUDIO CASSETTE RECORDER. Tape playing.
RECORDED VOICE Of course that sentence is doubly unfair. There were far greater criminals than him at work.
The listening man is: VALERY LEGASOV, 52. Glasses. Pale skin, a bit papery. His hair is thinning in odd patches.
RECORDED VOICE And as for what Dyatlov did do, the man doesn't deserve prison.
Legasov takes a drag on his cigarette. Listening calmly to his own voice playing back through the recorder.
RECORDED VOICE He deserves death.
Legasov presses STOP on the recorder. Picks up a small microphone wired to the cassette player. Hits PLAY/RECORD.
LEGASOV
But instead, ten years for "criminal mismanagement". What does that mean? No one knows and it doesn't matter. What does matter is that to them, justice was done. Because you see? A just world is a sane world, (beat)
There is nothing sane about Chernobyl. What happened there, what happened after... even the good we did... all of it... all of it...
(beat) Madness.
He removes his glasses. Rubs his eyes. Exhausted.
LEGASOV
I've given you everything I know. They'll try to deny it, the way they always do. Will you prevail? I do not know. I only know you'll do your best to try.
Legasov presses STOP. Then REWIND. As the tape spins, we see: FIVE OTHER TAPES on the table, each numbered.
Legasov crosses to a WINDOW. Moves the curtain slightly to the side and peeks down at:
HIS POV - a CAR parked across the street. The interior LIGHT is on. It's always on. Someone's always there.
103 EXT. MOSCOW APT. BUILDING - NIGHT 103
Moscow is dead quiet. Legasov carefully steps outside, remaing in shadow, holding his COAT closed with his hands. There's a slight bulge. Across the street - THE PARKED CAR.
A MAN sits in the car. Dome light on. He's pouring coffee from a thermos into a cup, and while he's distracted, Legasov quickly PASSES through the BEAM of a streetlamp to:
A DARK ALLEY next to his building. Back in shadows. He moves past the rubbish bins and into a small garden area. Then removes the PACKAGE from inside his coat, and stashes it in a small air vent, well out of view.
Now, only one final task remains. He checks his watch. 1:19. Nearly time. He removes a single cigarette from a nearly full pack. Tosses the rest of the pack away.
104 INT. LEGASOV'S APARTMENT - MINUTES LATER 104
The cat is now on the kitchen table. It raises its head at the sound of the door opening and closing.
Legasov enters. Removes his jacket. Moves quickly to the window and checks once again.
HIS POV: the car light is still on. But no one's gotten out. He was unseen.
Legasov lights his one cigarette. A long draw. Checks his watch again. Another draw. He's rushing now.
He places four small bowls on the floor in a row. Fills each with scraps of boiled chicken from a plate.
Walks back to the table. Another drag of the cigarette. Looks at the clock. It's now 1:23. Okay. Rests the cigarette back in the ashtray. Walks out of frame.
We stay with the CAT and the CLOCK. We HEAR: a closet door opening... something jangles.
The second hand ticks. It's 1:23 and 20 seconds.
SOUND: footsteps
1:23 and 30 seconds.
SOUND: a chair is moved
1:23 and 40 seconds
...now silence as the cat lowers its head, bored. Tick tick tick tick. 1:23:41, 42, 43, 44 —
SOUND: a chair toppling and a sharp SNAP.
The cat lifts its head. Startled.
REVERSE TO REVEAL - Legasov's legs, hanging in mid-air, slightly turning, out of focus in the background.
The cigarette still burns. Smoke curls.
DISSOLVE TO:
105 EXT. PRIPYAT - NIGHT 105
VIEW THROUGH GLASS - a small city of 50,000 people, mostly living in large block apartment buildings.
Beyond that, LIGHTS clustered in the distance, perhaps two or three miles away. Some white, some red, some blinking.
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
TITLE: PRIPYAT, UKRAINE - USSR TWO YEARS AND ONE MINUTE EARLIER
We PULL BACK to see we're:
106 INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT 106
Looking out at the blinking lights of the nearby power plant through a WINDOW. This apartment is simple. Sparse. Flat, powder blue walls. Tiny kitchenette.
ON THE WALL - a PHOTO of a young man holding a woman off the ground. She's laughing. Scared. In love. Next to the photo, a calendar. The year is 1986.
We hear: a woman RETCHING off-screen. A toilet flushing.
LYUDMILLA IGNATENKO, 23, emerges from the bathroom. Catching her breath. Sick. But happy. Something beautiful.
She peers in to her bedroom, where her husband VASILY, 25, sleeps soundly. Good. She'll tell him later.
Oh. Her cigarette in the ashtray. No more smoking. She quickly stubs it out. A growing HISS. Lyudmilla crosses out of frame. We hear tea being poured.
THROUGH THE WINDOW - we see but do not hear a small EXPLOSION at the power plant, followed almost instantly by a MASSIVE EXPLOSION that turns night into day. And still, no sound. A mute apocalypse.
One second goes by. Lyudmilla re-enters frame. Oblivious. Two seconds. She sits down.
Three seconds - SHOCKWAVE - like a massive fist SLAMMING into the side of the building... and she jolts back.
The BEDROOM DOOR flings open, and Vasily emerges. Sleeveless undershirt, pyjama bottoms. Confused. The noise.
He joins Lyudmilla at the window. Sees...
FIRES ringing a terrible crimson-red GLOW at the power plant, as if the building has opened a gate to hell.
And rising out of the inferno-- an unnatural, glowing, BRIGHT BLUE COLUMN OF LIGHT, like a beacon shooting straight up into the sky... seemingly to the stars.