History NightmareFuel / Chernobyl

* In episode 4, the scene with the "bio-robots". It takes place in real time and we already know 90 seconds on the roof will give you a lifetime dose of radiation and much more than that means death. We see the conscripts lining up and wearing pitiful outfits, mostly rubber with some home-made leaden armour. The bell goes and they madly rush out to the roof, and we watch one in particular struggle to lift up a few heavy chunks of graphite with his shovel. All their Geiger counters are going berserk the whole time. After 90 seconds, the bell rings again and they all run inside, except one conscript who trips and gets his foot stuck under a chunk of graphite. Precious seconds go by until he manages to break free using his shovel. He runs towards the door, stumbling and falling into a puddle of water, but eventually clambers inside. He takes a second to catch his breath and then looks down at his rubber boot. There's a tear in it.

* [[TruthInTelevision The real nightmare fuel is that this actually happened]]. Think, we dodged a bullet and the world managed to recover from this, but if we didn't, this could have been the end of Europe, but not only that, [[NothingIsTheSameAnymore it could have been the end of civilization as we know it]]. This tragedy has inspired countless stories just to remind of us of ''this cautionary tale''. '''It must never be repeated'''.

* The real nightmare fuel is that this actually happened.

* The later shots of the evacuated city of Pripyat. Its quiet stillness is unsettling, combined with the harsh realization of the nightmare just miles away unfolding. In RealLife, even today the AbandonedTown is an undeniably spooky place to visit, especially at night.

* And yet despite all the horror involved, the creators actually chose to leave out some for fear that it would look exploitative. According to the real Lyudmilla, Vasily spent his last two days vomiting parts of his internal organs, and his arm's muscles became dislodged from the bone when she rised it.

* And yet despite all the horror involved, the creators actually chose to leave out some for fear that it would look exploitative. According to the real Lyudmilla, Vasily spent his last two days vomiting parts of his internal organs, and his arm's muscles became dislodged from the bone when she rised it.

* As the helicopter carrying Shcherbina and Legasov approaches Chernobyl, the former orders that they fly over the reactor to get a good look at the damage. The latter tries to warn about the intense radiation that they will be subjected to if they do. Shcherbina tells the pilot to obey him or he'll be shot, finally Legasov retorts that if he does, he'll be ''begging'' to be shot within a day. Later, a helicopter flies directly over the reactor to drop sand on the core, and the two men watch as it falls right out of the sky.

** As Lyudmilla watches her husband die in utter agony, she's dragged out of the room by Khomyuk and asked if she's pregnant. When Khomyuk is asking her why she would go inside the plastic, Lyudmilla just stammers that Vasily is burnt - implying nobody ever told her about the radiation until the time for the funeral.

** We see Toptunov turning red, and Vasily turning black and yellow. But Akimov is kept offscreen. Later, Khomyuk mentions that by the time she met Akimov, ''[[BodyHorror his face had fallen out]]''.
** And yet despite all the horror involved, the creators actually chose to leave out some for fear that it would look exploitative. According to the real Lyudmilla, Vasily spent his last two days vomiting parts of his internal organs, and his arm's muscles became dislodged from the bone when she rised it.

* If the images of people with severe radiation burns in the first two episodes weren't enough to keep you awake, stay tuned for Episode 3 where you can see [[NauseaFuel the final stages of acute radiation syndrome]]. The skin is burned and blackened beyond all recognition, eyes are discoloured and the technically-still-alive patients howl in incessant pain. As Legasov points out, their bodies are so far gone from internal and external haemorrhaging that even morphine doesn't work.
** As Lyudmilla watches her husband die in utter agony, she's pulled aside by a doctor and asked if she's pregnant.

** As Lyudmilla watches her husband die in utter agony, she's pulled aside by a doctor and asked if she's pregnant.

** What’s more disturbing? On HBO’s YouTube video of the trailer, one user’s comment is about their father, who was 14 and living in the area when the real disaster happened. According to the user, their father said that upon seeing it, the events were ''completely accurate.''

-->'''Ulana:''' [[EarthShatteringKaboom We estimate between two and four megatons]]. Everything within a 30 kilometer radius will be completely destroyed, including the three remaining reactors at Chernobyl. The entirety of the radioactive material in all of the cores will be ejected at force, and dispersed by a massive shockwave that will extend approximately 200 kilometers and likely be fatal to the entire population of Kyiv as well as a portion of Minsk. The release of radiation will be severe and will impact all of Soviet Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Byelarussia, as well as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and most of East Germany.

* If the images of people with severe radiation burns in the first two episodes weren't enough to keep you awake, stay tuned for episode three where you can see [[NauseaFuel the final stages of acute radiation syndrome]]. The skin is burned and blackened beyond all recognition, eyes are discoloured and the technically-still-alive patients howl in incessant pain. As Legasov points out, their bodies are so far gone from internal and external haemorrhaging that even morphine doesn't work.

** To add a RealLife layer to this: the radiation billowing out of that reactor core was so intense that Kudryavsev and Proskuryakov were doomed just by looking at the core for several seconds. Both men were dead from radiation sickness less than one month later.

* Kudryavsev and Proskuryakov are sent to Unit #4 to manually lower the control rods into the reactor core, only for Yuvchenko to tell them that the control rods and the core don't exist anymore. Upon entering the ruined reactor hall, the two men find themselves staring into the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBpckbB5_Sw gaping, flaming, hellish maw]] of what used to be Unit #4. They quickly realize just how FUBAR the situation really is and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere hi-tail it out of there]].

* At one point in episode 1, a firefighter picks up a piece of debris out of curiosity. Unbeknownst to him, this is a piece of graphite from the core, one of the most radioactive pieces there were. Within seconds, the poor guy is on the ground screaming in intense pain, [[BodyHorror his hand horribly burned]] from the radiation passing through his glove.

* If the images of people with severe radiation burns in the first two episodes weren't enough to keep you awake, stay tuned for episode three where you can see [[NauseaFuel the final stages of acute radiation syndrome]]. The skin is burned and blackened beyond all recognition, eyes are discoloured and the technically-still-alive patients howl in incessant pain. As Legasov point out, their bodies are so far gone from internal and external haemorrhaging that even morphine doesn't work.

* Three men are wandering through heavily radiated water on their way to manually open a gate to drain the water when their flashlights go out, [[HellIsThatNoise all while their Geiger counters are reading so much radiation that the noise has become a constant screech]].

** Note that the helicopter doesn't fall out of the sky because the men piloting it crashed (though they ''were'' almost certainly dead already), but because the radiation over the reactor is so intense it causes ''the rotors of the helicopter itself to fail and fly apart''.

* Three men are wandering through heavily radiated water on their way to manually open a gate to drain the water when their flashlights go out.

* As the helicopter carrying Shcherbina and Legasov approaches Chernobyl, the former orders that they fly over the reactor to get a good look at the damage. The latter tried to warn about the intense radiation that they will be subjected to if they do. Shcherbina tells the pilot to obey him or he'll be shot, finally Legasov retorts that if he does, he'll be ''begging'' to be shot within a day. Later, a helicopter flies directly over the reactor to drop sand on the core, and the two men watch as it falls right out of the sky.

* As the helicopter carrying Shcherbina and Legasov approaches Chernobyl, the former orders that they fly over the reactor to get a good look at the damage. The latter tried to warn about the intense radiation that they will be subjected to if they do. Shcherbina tells the pilot to obey him or he'll be shot, finally Legasov retorts that if he does, he'll be ''begging'' to be shot within a day. Later, a helicopter flies directly over the reactor to drop sand on the core, and the two men watch as it falls right out of the sky.

* At 1:23am, Lyudmilla is making tea in her apartment, oblivious to the bright light coming from Chernobyl in the background. Then the light gets brighter, signaling an explosion has taken place, and she doesn't notice until the shockwave hits seconds later.