The roof fires are out. But the fire within the core rages, unseen. Smoke plumes out, moving in the wind...
OVER THE FOREST BETWEEN THE REACTOR AND PRIPYAT - we can see the path the deadly wind has been taking, because a wide swath of the trees have turned a terrible RUST ORANGE color.
THE HOSPITAL, surrounded by a parking lot of emergency vehicles...
THE STREETS, as concerned shopkeepers open up for the day's business. We see MILITARY VEHICLES passing by in the B.G...
And a line of CHILDREN, 7-years old, in their uniforms and book bags, holding hands and laughing as they walk to school.
Move in and low to the ground now... until we're just looking at the children's shoes as they pass by.
A moment or two, and they're out of frame.
Then a BIRD drops to the ground in front of us, hitting the cement with a sickening sound. It twitches for a moment, then goes utterly still.
END OF EPISODE ONE
CHERNOBYL
Episode 2 - "Please Remain Calm"
Written by Craig Mazin
September 21, 2018
Copyright© 2018 Home Box Office, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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201 OVER BLACK 201
Stodgy classical music, played through a tinny radio speaker. Over it, a voice begins to recite poetry:
VOICE (ON RADIO) You know I believe that the Russia we fight for / is not the dull town where I lived at a loss /
202 EXT. BYELORUSIAN INST. FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY - MORNING 202
We PAN across an empty parking lot until we find a single car, a Lada Riva-- there all by itself in front of a drab, generic Soviet building on the outskirts of a city.
VOICE (ON RADIO) But those country tracks our ancestors followed / the graves where they lie with the old Russian cross /
TITLE:
8:30 A.M., APRIL 26 7 HOURS AFTER THE EXPLOSION
203 INT. LABORATORY - CONTINUOUS 203
A large room with multiple lab desks, sinks, cabinets and racks of scientific equipment, periodic table charts on the walls, labels with the familiar RADIATION sign...
VOICE (ON RADIO) I feel that for me, it was countryside Russia / that first made me feel I must truly belong / to the tedious miles between village and village / the tears of the widow, the women's sad song /
The room is empty but for: A WOMAN, 40's - FACE DOWN at a table, her salt-and-pepper hair splayed around her head. Next to her, a stack of technical documents. Coffee cup. Half-eaten sandwich. Soviet poetry droning from a RADIO.
We PUSH IN on her. She might be dead.
VOICE (ON RADIO) We see alongside us the deaths of our comrades / by old Russian practice, soldiers laid end to end /
We stay on the woman. Hear the SOUND of the lab door opening.
VOICE (ON RADIO) And yet I still feel proud of the dearest of countries / The great bitter land I was born to defend.
Someone enters. Drops a small paper bag next to her HEAD.
VOICE (ON RADIO) That was Konstantin Simonov's poem "to Alexei Surkov," written in--
CLICK. The unseen person turns the radio off, and ULANA KHOMYUK, the sleeping woman, raises her head.
KHOMYUK (disoriented)
Whumm?
DMITRI, 30, puts a THERMOS in front of her.
DMITRI
You work too hard.
Khomyuk rubs her face. Checks her watch. Then looks around.
KHOMYUK Where is everyone?
DMITRI
They refused to come in.
KHOMYUK
Why?
DMITRI It's Saturday.
Oh. Right. Then:
KHOMYUK Why did you come in?
DMITRI I work too hard.
(wipes his brow) Uch, it's boiling in here.
He crosses to a WINDOW. He LIFTS the window OPEN, and almost instantly:
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Dmitri and Khomyuk turn in adrenaline shock to: a DOSIMETER mounted on the wall. A split second, then:
Dmitri SLAMS the window shut. Then rushes to the dosimeter. Presses a button to silence the alarm. Reads the meter.
DMITRI
Eight milliroentgen. What-- ?
Dmitri anxiously glances at a METAL CASE with radiation stickers. Inside, boxes and tubes.
DMITRI
A leak?
Khomyuk hasn't taken her eyes off the window. Wide awake now.
KHOMYUK
No. It would have gone off before. It's coming from outside.
Dmitri sits down. Has the unthinkable finally happened?
DMITRI The Americans?
IN CUTS - Khomyuk opens her drawer, pulls out a PILL CONTAINER. Takes one pill. Then tosses him the bottle.
Snaps on LATEX GLOVES. Tears open a PACKET. A sterile WET WIPE sample cloth is removed, folded...
Khomyuk WIPES along the SILL of the WINDOW in an "S" pattern, pressing firmly, picking up dust, and then we're:
204 INT. HALLWAY 204
Khomyuk strides with purpose down the empty hall, sample in hand. There's iron in this woman.
205 INT. SPECTOMETRY ROOM 205
THE SPECTROMETER - HUMS - Khomyuk stares at the screen. Eyes flickering over the spiking lines. One line spikes much higher than the other.
And just like that, she knows.
206 INT. LABORATORY 206
Khomyuk barrels back into the lab, startling the waiting Dmitri. She thrusts the SPECTROMETER PRINTOUT at him.
KHOMYUK
Iodine 131. It's not military. It's uranium decay. U-2 35.
DMITRI Reactor fuel.
He looks at her. Then catches up. A sick realization.
DMITRI
Ignalina. Maybe 240 kilometers away.
She turns to a shelf of BINDERS... pulls one, flips pages. There. She picks up the lab phone. Dials a number.
IGNALINA OPERATOR (PHONE) (rushed, loud)
Hello?
KHOMYUK
Yes, this is Ulana Khomyuk with the Institute of Nuclear--
IGNALINA OPERATOR (PHONE) You don't think we already know? We're looking for it!
KHOMYUK Looking for--
IGNALINA OPERATOR (PHONE) We've got 4 milliroentgen here, I've got men crawling over the whole plant... no steam leak, no water leak, nothing! We can't--
KHOMYUK All right, stay calm.
IGNALINA OPERATOR (PHONE) Don't tell me to stay calm, I want to evacuate, Moscow tells us we can't, and now you call? Who the hell are you anyway--
Khomyuk hangs up on him. No time for this.
KHOMYUK
They're at 4. It's not them. Who's the next closest?
DMITRI (shakes his head) Chernobyl. But that's not possible, it's 400 kilometers away.
KHOMYUK
No, too far for 8 milliroentgen. They'd have to be split open. But maybe they know something.
She finds the number in her directory, and dials. We hear the other end - ring ring. As they wait:
DMITRI
Could it be a waste dump?
KHOMYUK
ring ring.
We'd be seeing other isotopes.
ring ring.
DMITRI
Nuclear test? New kind of bomb? KHOMYUK
ring ring.
We would have heard. That's what half our people work on here.
ring ring.