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* OnlySaneMan: The one guy at the emergency bureaucrat meeting who points out that Bryukhanov is bullshitting--aid workers are vomiting, the air is glowing blue, the radiation is out of hand and they need to evacuate the town. He is ignored.
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For goodness' sake
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At 01:23:45 on April 26, 1986, reactor #4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station explodes. It soon becomes clear to personnel on the ground that a catastrophic failure of the reactor vessel has blown up the whole building it's in, and is sending a cloud of radiation all over Eastern Europe. Russian authorities race to contain the disaster--or at least some of them do, while others are more interested in denial and cover-ups.
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At 01:23:45 on April 26, 1986, reactor #4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station explodes. It soon becomes clear to personnel on the ground that a catastrophic failure of the reactor vessel has blown up the whole building it's in, and is sending a cloud of radiation all over Eastern Europe. Russian Soviet authorities race to contain the disaster--or at least some of them do, while others are more interested in denial and cover-ups.
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* ImplausibleDeniability: None of the plant management can grasp that the reactor has exploded.
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* ImplausibleDeniability: None of the plant management can grasp that the reactor has exploded. Dyatlov and Fomin especially stand out, one denying Sitnikov saw graphite (when Dyatlov saw some himself), the other condescendingly demanding to know how Sitnikov would think a reactor core can explode - not meltdown, literally explode - since that is "impossible".
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** Several people, especially Fomin, disregard the news of the reactor exploding on the grounds that reactor cores "don't/can't explode".
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* HellIsThatNoise: The constant droning repetition of "Vnimanie, vnimanie..." (Russian for "Attention, attention") serves as this in the trailer.
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* HeadInTheSandManagement: Given how "nothing bad ever happens in the Soviet Union," the Soviets refuse to believe the seriousness of the disaster.
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[[caption-width-right:350:''"Vnimanie, vnimanie..."'']]
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[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9APLXM9Ei8 Official trailer.]]
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[[caption-width-right:350:''"Vnimanie, vnimanie..."'']]
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* InfantImmortality: Heavily implied that [[AvertedTrope this will not be the case]], most notably in the Bridge of Death scene, where multiple people gather on a nearby bridge to watch the fire, unwittingly exposing themselves to lethal doses of radiation. Multiple children are seen among them.
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* ChildrenAreInnocent: The first episode ends with children heading to school, oblivious of what is happening around them.
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* {{Understatement}}: The Soviet ministers try to dismiss the accident as "nothing more than an x-ray." An x-ray for the entire planet, though.
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* {{Understatement}}: The Soviet ministers try to dismiss the accident levels of radiation as "nothing more no worse than an x-ray."a chest X-ray." An x-ray for the entire planet, though.Even if this were accurate, though, continuous exposure to even that level of radiation is dangerous, which is why technicians who have to administer X-rays every day stay behind special shielding.
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* CanaryInACoalMine: Not an intentional one. But a pigeon flopping down to Earth and dying as the people of Pripyat go about their daily routines is an indication of the danger they're in.
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** The two plant workers sent to manually lower the control rods into the reactor, when they find themselves staring into the exposed, burning reactor core.
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** The Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov, the two plant workers sent to manually lower the control rods into the reactor, when they find themselves staring into the exposed, burning reactor core.
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[[quoteright:335:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/66ddb25d_0ecc_418e_a802_37d622ac3f30.jpeg]]
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** At the emergency meeting Sitnikov reports that he saw graphite debris scattered around--a ''very very bad'' sign, as it shows that the whole reactor vessel exploded. Dyatlov, who is still insisting that the reactor is intact and the explosion was only the water coolant tank, digs further into denial: "You didn't see graphite! YOU DIDN'T! Because it's not there!"
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** At the emergency meeting Sitnikov reports that he saw graphite debris scattered around--a ''very very bad'' sign, as it shows that the whole reactor vessel exploded. Dyatlov, who is still insisting that the reactor is intact and the explosion was only the water coolant tank, digs further into denial: "You didn't see graphite! graphite....YOU DIDN'T! Because it's not there!"there!" What makes this really horrible is that Dyatlov saw graphite himself when making his first look-see around the building.
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* DownerBeginning: The story ''begins'' with a heartbroken and traumatized Legasov recording his thoughts about Chernobyl a few years after the event and then committing suicide, implicitly over the guilt of the events of Chernobyl. We then flash back to the actual disaster and see how things got this badly.
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* DownerBeginning: The story ''begins'' with a heartbroken and traumatized Legasov recording his thoughts about Chernobyl a few years after the event and then committing suicide, implicitly over the guilt of the events of Chernobyl. We then flash back to the actual disaster and see how things got this badly.bad.
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Used a quote that seems more fitting for the series.
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->''"We are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet before."''
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* DownerBeginning: The story ''begins'' with a heartbroken and traumatized Legasov recording his thoughts about Chernobyl a few years after the event and then committing suicide, implicitly over the guilt of the events of Chernobyl. We then flash back to the actual disaster and see how things got this badly.
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* ForegoneConclusion: Most people are at least passingly familiar with the amount of horror the Chernobyl disaster brought and its ultimate consequences (i.e the exclusion zone). We also know from the opening scene Legasov kills himself.
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* NothingIsScarier: Several scenes are sold entirely on silence and atmosphere. This is particularly evident because radiation often kills without making any visual cues.
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** The two plant workers sent to manually lower the control rods into the reactor, when they find themselves staring into the exposed, burning reactor core.
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* SicklyGreenGlow: This series was heavily researched and is highly accurate, which is why we see a sickly ''blue'' glow. Blue light is seen shooting into the sky and the horrified (and soon dead) operators who look into the core see it glowing blue. This is Cherenkov radiation, a natural effect that is also seen in pools that are used to store nuclear waste.
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* SicklyGreenGlow: This series was heavily researched and is highly accurate, which is why we see a sickly ''blue'' glow. Blue light is seen shooting into the sky and the horrified (and soon dead) operators who look into the core see it glowing blue. This is ionized-air glow, caused by the intense radiation exciting the air molecules, with light emitted as the gas (particularly the nitrogen in the air) deexcites[[note]]This is commonly confused with Cherenkov radiation, caused when charged particles pass through a natural effect medium faster than the phase velocity of light in that medium. Air isn't dense enough for this to occur, but water is. This is also most commonly seen in pools that are used to store nuclear waste.underwater reactors and spent fuel pools. Dyatlov makes the same mistake when [[OnlySaneMan a board member points out the glow]], though at this point, Dyatlov is deep in denial over the gravity of the situation.[[/note]].
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* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Dyatlov thinks one of the workers stating the reactor has exploded is merely in shock.
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* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: After the jump back to 1986, the series cuts to a sleepy Lyudmilla wandering around the apartment. A small dot of light is seen reflecting in the TV. It then grows to a bigger ball of light. Then the shock wave of the explosion arrives.
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* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: After the jump back to 1986, the series cuts to a sleepy Lyudmilla wandering around the apartment. A small dot of light is seen reflecting in the TV.distance through the window. It then grows to a bigger ball of light. Then the shock wave of the explosion arrives.
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* SicklyGreenGlow: This series was heavily researched and is highly accurate, which is why we see a sickly ''blue'' glow. Blue light is seen shooting into the sky and the horrified (and soon dead) operators who look into the core see it glowing blue. This is Cherenkov radiation, a natural effect that is also seen in pools that are used to store nuclear waste.
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* CompositeCharacter: Most of the characters are specific RealLife people, but Ulana Khomyuk is a composite meant to represent various scientists who were raising the alarm bell in the days immediately after the disaster.
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At 01:23:45 on April 26, 1986, reactor #4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station explodes. It soon becomes clear to personnel on the ground that a catastrophic failure of the reactor vessel has blown up the whole building it's in, and is sending a cloud of radiation all over Eastern Europe. Russian authorities race to contain the disaster--or at least some of them do, while others are more interested in denial and cover-ups.
Creator/JaredHarris stars as Valery Legasov, a nuclear physicist called in to give advice on the unfolding disaster. Creator/StellanSkarsgard is Boris Shcherbina, a Soviet apparatchik who works with Legasov. Creator/EmilyWatson is Ulana Khomyuk, another physicist who is the first person to see just how dire the situation is.
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* BadBoss: Fomin refuses to believe Sitnikov's report of the explosion and orders him to climb onto the plant roof to survey the site, which the latter obeys despite knowing that the rising smoke plum from the fire there will give him a fatal dose of radiation.
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* BadBoss: BadBoss:
** Fomin refuses to believe Sitnikov's report of the explosion and orders him to climb onto the plant roof to survey the site, which the latter obeys despite knowing that the rising smoke plum from the fire there will give him a fatal dose ofradiation.radiation.
** Dyatlov sends two junior operators down into the interior to manually open the coolant valves, an action that will certainly result in their deaths given how long they'll have to be down there. That would be defensible if it did any good, but by this point two different people have told him that the reactor has blown up and there is nothing left for the coolant to cool.
* BodyHorror: Death by radiation poisoning, which is basically your body dying and rotting from within while you're still alive, if you even make it that far. Yuvchenko holds the door to the reactor room open, then starts spurting blood from the parts of his body exposed to the doorway as soon as he closes it. A fireman picks up a chunk of graphite--blown out from the reactor core, and just about the most radioactive piece of debris there was--and within moments is screaming in pain from a horribly burned hand.
* CutPhoneLines: An elderly Party man whose natural first instinct is to cover things up and keep people quiet orders that all the phone lines out of the town be cut.
* DutchAngle: Dyatlov, the watch supervisor at the time of the explosion, is shown this way the very first time he appears onscreen, moments after reactor #4 has blown up, as the panicked control room technicians try and figure out what is going on.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Fomin, a senior administrator, meets his boss Bryukhanov about an hour after the disaster. Fomin's first words are "Whatever the cause, the most important thing is that you and I--" before Bryukhanov blows past him. Fomin is immediately established as a weasel covering his own ass.
* HowWeGotHere: After Legasov's suicide exactly two years after the disaster, the series jumps back to the moment the reactor blew up.
** Fomin refuses to believe Sitnikov's report of the explosion and orders him to climb onto the plant roof to survey the site, which the latter obeys despite knowing that the rising smoke plum from the fire there will give him a fatal dose of
** Dyatlov sends two junior operators down into the interior to manually open the coolant valves, an action that will certainly result in their deaths given how long they'll have to be down there. That would be defensible if it did any good, but by this point two different people have told him that the reactor has blown up and there is nothing left for the coolant to cool.
* BodyHorror: Death by radiation poisoning, which is basically your body dying and rotting from within while you're still alive, if you even make it that far. Yuvchenko holds the door to the reactor room open, then starts spurting blood from the parts of his body exposed to the doorway as soon as he closes it. A fireman picks up a chunk of graphite--blown out from the reactor core, and just about the most radioactive piece of debris there was--and within moments is screaming in pain from a horribly burned hand.
* CutPhoneLines: An elderly Party man whose natural first instinct is to cover things up and keep people quiet orders that all the phone lines out of the town be cut.
* DutchAngle: Dyatlov, the watch supervisor at the time of the explosion, is shown this way the very first time he appears onscreen, moments after reactor #4 has blown up, as the panicked control room technicians try and figure out what is going on.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Fomin, a senior administrator, meets his boss Bryukhanov about an hour after the disaster. Fomin's first words are "Whatever the cause, the most important thing is that you and I--" before Bryukhanov blows past him. Fomin is immediately established as a weasel covering his own ass.
* HowWeGotHere: After Legasov's suicide exactly two years after the disaster, the series jumps back to the moment the reactor blew up.
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: After the jump back to 1986, the series cuts to a sleepy Lyudmilla wandering around the apartment. A small dot of light is seen reflecting in the TV. It then grows to a bigger ball of light. Then the shock wave of the explosion arrives.
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* StartsWithASuicide: The first episode opens with Valery Legasov hanging himself in his flat, two years after the incident.
* ThisCannotBe: The plant supervisor refuses to believe when one of the workers says that the reactor is "gone" (ie exploded).
* ThisCannotBe: The plant supervisor refuses to believe when one of the workers says that the reactor is "gone" (ie exploded).
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* ReadingsAreOffTheScale:
** The dosimeters at hand immediately after the explosion are pegged at 3.6 roentgen, the high end of their range. Multiple characters note this, but Dyatlov, deep in denial, decides that 3.6 roentgen, a higher-than-normal but manageable level, is the true number. He continues to believe this even as an operator comes into the control room to report and vomits on the floor.
** Later a horrified Sitnikov reports to Fomin and Bryukhanov that his 1,000 roentgen dosimeter fried when it was turned on and his 200 roentgen dosimeter also pegged at the top of the scale. This information, followed by Dyatlov vomiting on the floor of the conference room as he's trying to deny it, forces Fomin and Bryukhanov to admit that something has gone very wrong.
* StartsWithASuicide: The first episode opens with Valery Legasov hanging himself in his flat, two years down to the minute after the incident.
*ThisCannotBe: The ThisCannotBe:
** Dyatlov the plant supervisor refuses to believe when one of the workers says that the reactor is "gone" (ieexploded).exploded).
** At the emergency meeting Sitnikov reports that he saw graphite debris scattered around--a ''very very bad'' sign, as it shows that the whole reactor vessel exploded. Dyatlov, who is still insisting that the reactor is intact and the explosion was only the water coolant tank, digs further into denial: "You didn't see graphite! YOU DIDN'T! Because it's not there!"
** The dosimeters at hand immediately after the explosion are pegged at 3.6 roentgen, the high end of their range. Multiple characters note this, but Dyatlov, deep in denial, decides that 3.6 roentgen, a higher-than-normal but manageable level, is the true number. He continues to believe this even as an operator comes into the control room to report and vomits on the floor.
** Later a horrified Sitnikov reports to Fomin and Bryukhanov that his 1,000 roentgen dosimeter fried when it was turned on and his 200 roentgen dosimeter also pegged at the top of the scale. This information, followed by Dyatlov vomiting on the floor of the conference room as he's trying to deny it, forces Fomin and Bryukhanov to admit that something has gone very wrong.
* StartsWithASuicide: The first episode opens with Valery Legasov hanging himself in his flat, two years down to the minute after the incident.
*
** Dyatlov the plant supervisor refuses to believe when one of the workers says that the reactor is "gone" (ie
** At the emergency meeting Sitnikov reports that he saw graphite debris scattered around--a ''very very bad'' sign, as it shows that the whole reactor vessel exploded. Dyatlov, who is still insisting that the reactor is intact and the explosion was only the water coolant tank, digs further into denial: "You didn't see graphite! YOU DIDN'T! Because it's not there!"
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* ImplausibleDeniability: None of the plant management can grasp that the reactor has exploded.
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* InstantThunder: Averted. When Chernobyl explodes, it takes several seconds for Pripyat to feel the shockwave nine miles away.
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* InstantThunder: Averted. When Chernobyl explodes, it takes several seconds for Pripyat to hear it and feel the shockwave nine miles away.
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* ThisCannotBe: The plant supervisor refuses to believe when one of the workers says that the reactor is "gone" (ie exploded).
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* InstantThunder: Averted. When Chernobyl explodes, it takes several seconds for Pripyat to feel the shockwave nine miles away.
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->"We are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet before."
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-->-- '''Valery Legasov'''
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* BadBoss: Fomin refuses to believe Sitnikov's report of the explosion and orders him to climb onto the plant roof to survey the site, which the latter obeys despite knowing that the rising smoke plum from the fire there will give him a fatal dose of radiation.
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* StartsWithASuicide: The first episode opens with Legasov hanging himself in his flat, two years after the incident.
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* StartsWithASuicide: The first episode opens with Valery Legasov hanging himself in his flat, two years after the incident.
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* StartsWithASuicide: The first episode opens with Legasov hanging himself in his flat, two years after the incident.
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->"We are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet before."
''Chernobyl'' is a 2019 miniseries, chronicling the aftermath of the infamous nuclear accident.
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!!Tropes Include:
* InsistentTerminology: Anything regarding the seriousness of the situation is merely "misinformation."
* OhCrap: The plant operators when they realize their experiment is going seriously, seriously wrong.
* {{Understatement}}: The Soviet ministers try to dismiss the accident as "nothing more than an x-ray." An x-ray for the entire planet, though.
''Chernobyl'' is a 2019 miniseries, chronicling the aftermath of the infamous nuclear accident.
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!!Tropes Include:
* InsistentTerminology: Anything regarding the seriousness of the situation is merely "misinformation."
* OhCrap: The plant operators when they realize their experiment is going seriously, seriously wrong.
* {{Understatement}}: The Soviet ministers try to dismiss the accident as "nothing more than an x-ray." An x-ray for the entire planet, though.
