The men laugh.
525 OMITTED 525
526 INT. CLEAN ROOM - MOMENTS LATER 526
White uniforms-- pants, jackets, boots, hats, underclothes— are stacked on tables.
Nude men filter in from the locker room and grab uniforms. Others (Perevozchenko, Toptunov, Brazhnik, Yuvchenko) are already in the process of getting dressed.
The room is remarkably sterile, except for the fact that most of the men are SMOKING.
As he suits up, Perevozchenko sees Khodemchuk enter.
PEREVOZCHENKO Khodemchuk...
KHODEMCHUK Forget it. Find another fool.
Perevozchenko sighs. Then turns to:
PEREVOZCHENKO
Toptunov—
BRAZHNIK Toptunov? Look at him. He's too young to drive. He's got more hair on his face than on his balls.
The men laugh. Yuvchenko points at Toptunov's mustache.
YUVCHENKO Hair? Is that what's on his lip?
More laughter. Toptunov shakes his head. Come on guys...
As Toptunov puts on his boots, Proskuryakov (the trainee),
already in uniform, pops his head into the room.
PROSKURYAKOV Leonid Fedorovych... Akimov says to come to the control room as soon as you're ready.
TOPTUNOV He's already here?
PROSKURYAKOV He came in a little early. Something about a test.
A test? What test?
527 INT. CONTROL ROOM - REACTOR #4 - MOMENTS LATER 527
Toptunov enters with the trainee. Akimov is at the main control panel, staring at an open BINDER. Flipping pages.
Stolyarchuk and Kirschenbaum are at their panels. The other trainee, Kudryavtsev, stands in the back, watching.
TOPTUNOV
Sasha?
Akimov turns, and Toptunov sees the worry on his face. Akimov waves him over. Keeps his voice low.
AKIMOV
You know the test they were supposed to run?
No, he doesn't. Then he glances at: THE OUTPUT DISPLAY - a large box with RED LED DIGITS. It reads 1600. Why so low?
AKIMOV
The turbine rundown. The one they tried last year? They couldn't do it on the day shift so... they've given it to us.
TOPTUNOV
To us? We don't even know what it—
Akimov puts a hand up. Sshhh. People are always listening.
TOPTUNOV (voice low) We don't know what it is.
AKIMOV
It's fine. We take it down to 700, hold it there, and the rest is Stolyarchuk and Kirschenbaum. But-- (beat)
Dyatlov is going to be supervising. Now Toptunov knows why Akimov is worried. And with cause.
TOPTUNOV
I have to do something I've never done before with Dyatlov over my shoulder?
AKIMOV
Don't worry. We'll do it together. I'm looking at the instructions now.
Toptunov glances down at the manual. Nods. All right, so far, so good. He understands. Then he turns a page. There is a NUMBERED LIST of instructions. There are black LINES drawn through several of the items.
TOPTUNOV
Are we supposed to do those or not? Impossible to say. Akimov picks up a PHONE. Dials. Then:
AKIMOV
Yes, this is Akimov in 4. We have the manual for the rundown test, you did this before on--
(listens) Well in the program there are instructions of what to do, and then a lot of things are crossed out. What should I-- ?
(MORE)
AKIMOV (cont'd) (listens) Are you sure? Right. Thank you.
He hangs up. Turns to Toptunov.
AKIMOV
He says to follow the crossed out instructions.
TOPTUNOV Then why were they crossed out?
The door flings open. DYATLOV strides in. Dressed in the same white uniform. No warning, no greeting. All business.
DYATLOV
We've been cleared to run the test.
(checks the power) 1600. Good. Now— is it too much to ask that you all know what you're doing?
TOPTUNOV
Well-- we...
AKIMOV (cuts off Toptunov) Yes. Absolutely.
DYATLOV
Stolyarchuk?
STOLYARCHUK
Yes.
DYATLOV Kirschenbaum?
KIRSCHENBAUM I haven't reviewed— we only just found out we--
Dyatlov grabs a BINDER from the desk in the center of the room, and flings it at Kirschenbaum.
DYATLOV
There. Review it. Or just do what I tell you. I think even you, as stupid as you are, can manage that.
Dyatlov deliberately lights a cigarette. Checks his watch.
DYATLOV Well? Let's go.
ON KIRSCHENBAUM - flipping through the binder. He's muttering to Stolyarchuk.
KIRSCHENBAUM I'm supposed to switch the turbine off while the reactor's still running? That's not a good--
But he's just loud enough for Dyatlov to hear.
DYATLOV
SHUT THE FUCK UP and do your job. Kirschenbaum puts his hand up. Sorry... sorry...
DYATLOV
Toptunov. Reduce power to 700.
ON TOPTUNOV and AKIMOV, side by side over the controls.
TOPTUNOV (a bare whisper) I've never done this with the power so low.
AKIMOV (whispers back) It's okay. I'm with you.
ON THE PANEL - Toptunov's finger begins pushing down on buttons. One after another.
TOPTUNOV Reducing power to 700...
KHOMYUK (V.O.) I want you to think of Yuri Gagarin.
528 INT. TRIAL ROOM - DAY 528
Khomyuk addresses the room.
KHOMYUK
I want you to imagine he had been told nothing of his mission into space until the moment he was on the launch pad.
(MORE)
KHOMYUK (cont'd) I want you to imagine all he had was a list of instructions he'd never seen before, with some of them crossed out.
The room is silent.
KHOMYUK
That is exactly what was happening in the control room of Reactor 4.
She walks toward the defendants.
KHOMYUK
The night shift had not been trained to perform the experiment. They hadn't even been warned it was happening. Leonid Toptunov-- the operator responsible for controlling and stabilizing the reactor that night— was all of 25-years old. And his total experience on the job?
(beat) Four months.
(beat)
This was the human problem created by the delay. But inside the reactor core-- in the space between atoms themselves-- something far more dangerous was forming. A poison, (beat)
The time is 28 past midnight.
She crosses back to table and takes her seat next to Legasov. Her part is over. It's up to him now.
Legasov takes a breath. Sweaty palms, tick tick tick of the fan. In the back, someone coughs.
STEPASHIN (glaring) Comrade Legasov.
He nods. Yes. It's time. He rises, and:
529 INT. TRIAL ROOM - DAY - MOMENTS LATER 529
CLOSE ON - the WOBBLING WHEEL of a small metal pushcart.
A SOLDIER guides the cart into place in front of a large white MAGNET BOARD on an easel, which another soldier adjusts into place.
A LINE runs down the middle of the board, dividing it in two. On the cart: PLACARDS, some BLUE, some RED. They each have something written on them in Cyrillic.
It's all rather functional.
The guards step away, and Legasov takes his place by the cart and easel. Looks out at the room. The lights. The camera whine. Someone sniffles. His throat is closing.
He takes a breath. Focuses. And again, he sees them, sitting in their row, listening attentively: THE SIX SCIENTISTS.
LEGASOV
I am pleased to see some of my colleagues are here-- from the Kurchatov Institute and Minenergo.
Khomyuk straightens up. He's acknowledged them. He's thinking about them. There's a chance...
LEGASOV
But you don't need to be a nuclear scientist to understand what happened at Chernobyl. You only need to know this: there are essentially two things that happen inside a nuclear reactor.
He holds up a RED placard, and a BLUE placard.
LEGASOV
The "reactivity"-- which generates the power— goes up, or it goes down. That's it. And all the operators do is maintain the balance.