*What’s your favourite nuclear/radiation themed story, true or fictional?* If you wanna get early access, vote on future videos and become part of our Discord community, please consider supporting me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/ryanhollinger
Ryan Hollinger S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Metro ( and that includes the books ) Fallout New Vegas, obviously Chernobyl cause I always found that disaster fascinating.
@@AtrocityEquine01 That guy who opened the vault door to the reactor and started bleeding from the hip is still alive, his name was Aleksandr Yuvchenko. He explains in modern interviews how that radiation fucked him up. He has a constant taste of metal in his mouth, and his skin doesn't heal right anymore because his blood wont congeal properly, which means he must live his life very carefully. He also mentioned his skin cannot touch gasoline or oil anymore. I believe he had to undergo numerous bone-marrow transplants and skin graft operations. Years after the accident and his recovery, people were still terrified of him, afraid that they might contaminate them if he got close to them.
@@AtrocityEquine01 he survived because he was only radiate in the part of him holding the door (his left side, I think), and because he was a beast. He was like an athlete (I think Midnight in Chernobyl mentions he was into rowing). And that minute he held the door basically crippled him for life.
"But we are still alive" "We are alive, but we will be dead in five years" *The facial expression of Boris Scherbina quickly changes from confident to existential crisis.*
that dude in the hospital that was essentially melting, has been the most grotesque look at radiation poisoning i've ever seen in a visual medium. Makes me easily consider the quote " you won't be dead but you'll wish you were"
@@matthewchristiansen9978 I literally can't think of a worse state to be kept alive in. It looks like it would be as painful as constantly being engulfed flame.
The most haunting scene for me was when the fireman held the graphite, only for a few seconds, and moments later had a growing hole in his hand, screaming in agony. Radiation is so invisible, and horrifying.
You are aware you are exposed to radiation every day? Humans live in pretty much a soup of radiation. Ultraviolet from the sun and radon from the soil.
And the scariest part is that as you see this the other firemen are ordered to go even closer to the reactor. The reason the main characters aren't introduced until episode 2, is because most characters in ep 1 is either dead or deadly ill.
@@RaySquirrel Yeah, still horrifying. But those pieces of graphite were so ASTRONOMICALLY radioactive that entire LIFETIMES in full sunlight couldn't compare.
That part was one of the most criticized by professionals that watched the show, they said it would have taken hours for the radiation to start dissolving his hand.
Most people can't imagine how nasty radiation sickness is. As someone who has has radiation therapy, I can tell you that radiation burns are nasty business. Radiation in general is nasty business. I felt like a hollowed-out shell who's innards were replaced by lead. Moving took an enormous effort and I had trouble even breathing. At some point, I developed sores in my esophagus and eating was extremely painful and difficult. I also kept vomiting up food. Now, take the (relatively) minor dose of radiation I had for a bone marrow transplant and multiply it times 5,000. That's the shitshow that was Chernobyl.
had to watch 2 grandparents go through cancer treatments and when i put my self in the shoes of people who have to do it weekly or people who suffered in Chernobyl i get sick because I cant imagine that pain. I hope you are doing better and I wish you well in recovery
I’m in remission and I’m not expected to get leukemia ever again, but a lot of people I know who have seen this show have asked me what it’s like. It’s not fun, but Cthulhu help you if you get blasted with an uncontrolled mass of radiation. Mine was controlled.
I love the quote from Harris' character in the final episode: "When the truth offends we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth, and sooner or later that debt is paid." What a powerful and heartbreaking series!
I think there's another underlying motivation. If it was just some ordinary "disposable" low-rank soldier, the lying propaganda machines who are supposed to be managing the whole affair could easily lie and say "you're mistaken" or "you misread it" and have it all covered up. The fact that it's a high-ranking and respected general, however, means they HAVE to trust his word. Real mind game stuff. I love it.
General Vladimir Pikalov was a WWII veteran who survived Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk. He died of natural causes in 2003. He was the definition of soviet badassery and bravery. Not even radiation dared to fuck with him lol
"Don't let them suffer." "In five years will be dead." "I did everything right." "It will burn and spread it's poison until the entire contenitent is dead." Some of these quotes were downright haunting.
That scene where the guy is forced to go up to the roof to have a look and report back, when he turns around with his face now bright red knowing he’s a dead man was really impactful to me.
The 500,000 (!!!!) people that saved Europe from becoming a total wasteland and save as much of Ukraine and Belarus as possible I will forever remember and be grateful to. It was sheer horror. RIP those who died and I never stop thinking about those who are dying long, drawn-out deaths to this day.
The greatest thing about the series for me was just how horrifying it is. Radiation can be measured and we can see what it causes. But the scariest part is that it’s completely invisible. The roof scene alone oozes Lovecraft-ian cosmic horror dread. Incredible series.
Don't be horrified. The show was all dramatized bullshit. You wan't to see what real radiation is like watch this: ruclips.net/video/y5dV3IuNWvU/видео.html
@@JoviaI1Nope sorry final stages of ARS are NOT exaggerated, here is a video of some of the victims. Go to the 25th minute and you will see a man completely blackened from body wide tissue necrosis which is what occurs in severe ARS.ruclips.net/video/um1-Ub5BGac/видео.html
@@JoviaI1 Again here is some more, note one of them is post mortem and it’s VERY graphic. www.reddit.com/r/chernobyl/comments/f9yjy1/are_there_any_burns_photos_that_are_confirmed_to/
It is literally eldritch horror; something the world has never seen before, you look at it it kills you, it's unseen, unknown, could be anywhere and there's no way of knowing if you're too close until it's too late.
I see the Chernobyl mini series much in the same way I I view Schindler’s List, absolutely worth watching, just don’t expect to have any fun whatsoever
Similarly, it was almost all lies. Well, the Nazis were killing a bunch of people, especially Jews, so that part was true. But almost everything in Chernobyl was outright propagandizing lies.
Reshpeck that was kinda the point. Everything the Soviets said about Chernobyl was a lie, even when telling the truth would have helped them (e.g. the problems with the Joker robot). As for the series, some of the details, well, we’ll never know for sure exactly what role Dyatlov played or did not play as the witnesses are dead, and some of the inclusions were pure artistic convenience (Khomyuk). Is it false because it portrays the Soviet Union as a government more interested in suppressing embarrassing facts than in the well being of the people?
Chernobyl is what I call “Horror Non Fiction”. The entire series has this sense of dread with the focus on the scientific community and the USSR trying their damndest to minimize the damage, which only gets worse with each tiny detail missed out by either side or pointed out when one situation is resolved. I am sorry if this seem edited now, I just had to fix the comment since it felt a bit vauge in its description.
This series was so dark and oppressive that when I stopped to take one of many mental breaks, I looked at my shitty life with a dead end job and thought, "hey, life isn't all that bad."
That's what made me hesitate from watching this video. I got traumatised by the ARS victims in the show that I couldn't sleep for a night after watching episode 3. I knew those pictures of them would be in here and I didn't want to have to see them again.
The makeup and prosthetic artists used actual photos taken of the dying firefighters and reactor operators to create those effects. I've seen some of those photos; they did a good job. But honestly it's even worse to read about their fate and let your imagination fill in the visuals. The entire plot line of poor Vasily the firefighter and his madly loyal wife Lyudmilla is the first chapter of the book "Voices From Chernobyl" by Svetlana Alexandrevich, who won a Nobel Prize for it. It's as told directly by Lyudmilla, and the details of how those men died are not anything they could even reasonably portray on television. As with so many other details in this book. I can't recommend it highly enough.
@@neuralmute I've seen an interview with a first hand responder in the Ukraine and she said the makeup effects were way too exaggerated. Especially the one with the Firefighter, who turned green and all sorts of funky colors. It is a Docudrama, makes sense that they overblow it, but even the worst radiation burns don't look like that
I'm sorry to hear that dude :c It sucks that so many have to lose so much time in their lives over this. Chernobyl teaches everyone a very important lesson, and we should all seek to embrace the truth. Even if it's scary.
@@Outoinen Its sad, I'm sorry to hear about this but its not radiations... As the UN report says (www.unscear.org/unscear/en/chernobyl.html) there is no scientific evidence to support such increase of cancer. Over 6000 scientists from all over the world worked on it and there is no way to fake the data... as the conclusions suggest "Apart from the dramatic increase in thyroid cancer incidence among those exposed at a young age, and some indication of an increased leukaemia and cataract incidence among the workers, there is no clearly demonstrated increase in the incidence of solid cancers or leukaemia due to radiation in the exposed populations. Neither is there any proof of other non-malignant disorders that are related to ionizing radiation. However, there were widespread psychological reactions to the accident, which were due to fear of the radiation, not to the actual radiation doses."
The Geiger counter clicking sound.. is scarier than the soundtrack for the movie Jaws .. Radiation?!! ..WTF!! .. I think I'd rather deal with the shark😉👍🏽
Ashlie Hood a phobia is typically defined as an irrational fear, which drives me to say that you dont have a phobia. Not that you dont fear geiger counters, but that you dont fear them irrationally. It’s completely understandable to fear a force which is powerful enough to kill the hundreds of people involved in the Chernobyl disaster, a force that can give you cancer just by being in its presence, one that can burn through your flesh without you realizing until after it’s done. If you dont fear radiation, then you’re irrational
Strange how they even thought having one down there was such a great idea. They knew the place was irradiated as hell and should've got out of there as soon as possible anyway.
The graphite itself is harmless, this one was dangerous because of how incredibly irradiated it was. So don't fear your pencils, a banana emits more radiation than them :)
Interesting fact in the scene where The Firemans pregnant widow is holding his shoes it’s because they had bury him without them because his feet had swollen up so much from the radiation. Also next to where there is another woman holding a portrait of the soldier that went to the roof to escort the engineer to look into the reactor core implying that he had also died from radiation poisoning.
The scene in the first episode where the children are playing and catching the “snow flakes” on their tongues made me realize how awful this event really was
I was 5 when Chernobyl happened. Chernobyl is about 2000Km away from my country, but all the milk at the time was thrown out and all fresh vegetables was dumped. The amount of radioactive material that landed in my country was luckily very minimal, but it was significantly higher them the background radiation.
From what I also been told by family, people were also required to drink this thing which helped with the compound. Sorry I don't know how to exactly describe it in English.
The scene where the guys have to volunteer is so emotional. They are literally told that they will not live and do it anyway. It’s so bleak and straight to the point. I loved this miniseries, it’s terrifying
the universe rewarded them, two of them are still alive today, the third only died recently, they all were even able to have kids and raise their own families despite their exposure to the radiation :)
That cliffhanger where their flashlights malfunction and go out while they're in the flooded basement gave me chills. It was a weird sort of tension bc I know history so I obviously know they survived and succeeded in draining the water tanks, but for a split second I almost thought they wouldn't. It was terrifying.
@@LilySaintSin I very much respect that. he doesn't want the horror of it all to come simply from the shock of seeing it, but the lasting implications that impact you from seeing it.
Actually I saw a video of a doctor that was there. And she says its the contrary, the wounds and the skin falling is not at all like that. She said they were kinda exaggerating with the black skin.
If there's one thing to take away was the powerful friendship and their last bits of dialog together. Very well done. Boris is the very definition of a character arc.
@@santiagobarrett7417 To be fair there are about a billion movies/tv shows that had great source material and weren't turned done justice in their transition from page to screen. I'd give the dude a little more credit than just saying he copied and pasted. Thanks for the book recommendation though
I know, like the last three seasons of game of thrones, but anyway, i comment that because sometimes the source material or the influences not get the credit deserve
Santiago Barrett that’s true! Thanks again for pointing me towards the source material. I doubt I would have found out about it if you hadn’t said anything lol.
This show made me think of Hitchcock's "bomb under the table". Only that the bomb already exploded and most of the characters are already dead, and we, the viewers, are burdened with this horrifying knowledge.
I'm completely shocked Craig Mazin wrote this. I remember listening to an episode of his screenwriting podcast for an assignment in one of my film classes. After looking at his filmography it seemed odd that he was giving out advice. Kinda cool to see someone be responsible for something so universally praised after being known for a string of comedies that weren't really critically popular.
Chernobyl is absolutely brilliant! The depiction of the events, lack of information people have and the lies by the state is absolutely haunting. It's also staggering how close to the facts they manage to stay throughout.
Except there are numerous gross exaggerations, sensationalism and falsehoods throughout the show. Like radiation isn't spread like a disease where touching someone will give you "the radiation" this shit was well made but it is SUPER far from accurate.
As well radiation never took down a helicopter and the Soviet Government was a lot better than the show gives them credit for at addressing then crisis. A helicopter crashed 6 months after the accident because their rotor accidentally hit a crane, not because "the radiation got em!" Like I get that a good show is a good show but people really shouldn't be taking this as accurate history the most egregious thing is the scene on the bridge Ryan talks about being so horrifying, like I get it its a terrifying thought but the idea that a "bridge of death" where all the onlookers stood and later died from cancer is a complete and 100% myth that has not only never had any proof has been conclusively disproved as distance DOES protect you from radiation for the most part.
Zorblec Maybe you should go into the hospital basement in Pripyat and roll around in the big pile of uniforms still laying there today. After all, nothing can spread “the radiation” as you say.
I was 14 when this happened in remember the radiation clouds coming over UK contaminating live stock and milk supply we had news broadcasts on how to test milk and water before consuming also a lot of people I know got scared to eat meat etc. I actually remember poring a glass of milk taking a mouthful and it burning like crazy I spat it out and washed my mouth with tons of cold water I saw the Dr the next day lucky I never actually swallowed any but it scared the shit outta me my mouth was painful for a couple of weeks.
"Don't let them suffer" was a line I never possibly thought could redeem a character who's literal job is to shoot sweet happy puppies. A man who knows his job has to be done and he would rather do it then let someone else do it wrong. Every character feels real in this show and even the worst possible one's give a convincing enough performance that you buy their reasons for their horrible actions and almost sympathize with them on some level.
my father was a liquidator, he described the general feelings of the men with him as willing to die for the soviet union, he felt proud and still does about what he did, he’s fine today and thankfully didn’t contract cancer or radiation sickness
I'm amazed someone has not put this series on RUclips yet. Seems like more people visit this place than Disney Land. There are videos all over the place and they are pretty much the samething.
@@ethhics Because the money represents the country and what it stands for. Russia constantly hid the truth and acted like it would be fine until much later.
@@ethhics Many countries will put their national motto on their currency, and those mottos usually try to summarize the values that the country stands for. Like "E Pluribus Unum" for America, "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" for France, etc.
I'm disturbed and terrified just seeing your take on it. It looks really well done. Haunting. Not sure I could actually watch it though. Love your insights and commentary and you narrate well.
Anna Talyn it’s definitely worth watching it if you think you can. It’s a new standard for TV drama. And it’s so well done. Honestly. Best mini series I’ve ever seen
This gave me anxiety tbh, it slow closely mirrors what is going on today with authority trying to seem powerful instead of just dealing with the issue head on. Something about real life situations freak me out, normal sci-fi horror is pretty tame compared to what real life can cook up.
They didn't force those people into danger unnecessarily as you claim. The radiation on that roof was so high that there was no machine on the planet that could withstand it. Probably still is not to this day. They had robots break down in Fukushima in 2011. Those 3828 men were desperately needed and very necessary. I am forever grateful for their sacrifice. There is also a lesson in this: With all our great technical and scientific achievements, in the end, if everything fails, what we fall back on, is the greatest machine of them all, our body and our best tools, our hands.
In real life version they thought the robot was stuck on something and sent people up to move it. That much was unnecessary. The robot had broken down due to the radiation being much higher than it was designed for.
Well from my understanding it wasn't an engineering failure if that's at all comforting. It was a bunch of people living in a system where if anyone brought up the issues they would be considered responsible and potentially killed, rather than being thanked for noticing the issue. I'm just waiting for something like this to happen in China they have a lot of the same blame passing that existed during the soviet union.
@@ChaosTherum BULLSHIT. The accident happened because one man played with a reactor till the point of no return. Other RBMK reactors worked flawlessly.
It wasn't poor engineering that caused Chernobyl; it was politics. The engineers made a plant that acted exactly as intended. The rods, for example, were made the way they were because that is what the people who backed the project wanted them to be. They *knew* that making rods that way would introduce a source of potential failure, but they decided the risk was acceptable and then *hid* that risk from those charged with operating the plant. As the MC said: it was lies that made the reactor explode, that more than anything.
My old economics professor was from the Ukraine and she never used microwaves and doesnt even like to be in the same room as them as they're being used. She also told us how they used to have drills for girls and drills for boys if the U.S. bombed them. The girls would dress wounds and the boys would help put masks on everyone.
A very fitting meme, knowing that the quote comes from a 1984-1988 anime series called Fist of the North Star (and the action takes place in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by radiation). knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-are-already-dead-omae-wa-mou-shindeiru
Even the brilliant Marie Curie wrote that she would stay up over night to look at the pretty glow of the radioactive materials she was studying with no way of know how lethal it was just like the people of Pripyat gazing at the core. To this day if you want to look at her papers you have to wear protective clothing.
As someone who’s gone through multiple angles on the history of Chernobyl (the disaster, and mostly for school sciences), watching this felt like being sent back in time. This entire show was a masterpiece. The performance and writing is helped by accounting actual events, but the show still presents itself in a believable, real, painfully human way. Human desires, love, sacrifice, patriotism, greed, fear, confusion, suffering, denial, hope, despair, realization. You can tell even minor characters feel 3 dimensional and incredibly real (probably because they are), and just the atmosphere alone is so powerful. I’ve listened to the mentioned podcasts and know that not every scene is historically accurate, but it’s still one hell of a trip no matter how many times you watch it. A great and thorough review man, looking forward to more from you!
Back in 2001, there was a small ukrainian game developer company, GSC Game World, that announced they were developing a game based on the aftermath of the Chernobyl incident. The basic plot was that there was a second explosion at the plant, and after that, weird events started to happen inside the exclusion zone, with tales of artifacts appearing in zones with high radiation, wielding weird and strange powers, and everyone wanted one, scientists, collectors, military, etc. So the military took over the exclusion zone, but that didn't stopped people sneaking inside the zone, the so called stalkers (we play as one), to retrieve said artifacts and to explore the weird events that made it all happen. The developers were inspired by a russian book called Roadside picnic and the movie Stalker, based on said book. This game was released in 2007 and was called S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, and it was said by many that it captured the bleakness of the environment perfectly, it has such an amazingly bleak and dread ambience to it that it almost makes you feel like you are really there, exploring the streets of Pripyat. If anyone's curious about it, I would recomend to try it out, it's really an awesome and unique look at this tragic event, made with passion by people that grew up hearing stories about it, surrounded by people that lived trough it.
@@schokoladenjunge1 In the gaming community yes, but outside of it not so much, which is why I take every opportunity I can to promote it, so more people know about it :)
@@mykolasrazanta8464 It's right there among the best games for me, just the ambience and mood alone that they were able to achieve it's amazing, it totally immerses you in that place.
The episode where the soldiers go around shooting dogs because they where infected from the nucler meltdown it was hard to watch but in all it was a very good mini series and should win golden globes and oscars.
I was eight nearly nine when this happened, I do remember it but I remember the children of Chernobyl who used to come to our school for visits more than the details of the actual disaster. They would stay with local families and come to school, think they stayed for about two weeks. I remember seeing bits about the disaster on the news when my Dad was watching it, but I didn't really understand the gravity of it. I have recently watched the TV series and I think they did a really good job with it. Its pretty much true except the woman scientist is supposed to represent all the scientists that were involved in the aftermath and a few other parts. It's a hard to watch how some of the bosses acted and put so many people at risk to try to save themselves, but it's part of history that shouldn't ever be forgotten about. I've watched some videos on RUclips of the deserted town and how everything was left, it's so sad to see how these people were lied to and told they'd be home in 3 weeks. The reactor has the containment building over it now but the damage is still there and will be for a very, very long time.
Except there is really not much we can do on that matter. Sure, reduce CO2 emissions and maybe try to not use as much fossile fuels as we use now but there's is no clear correlation between CO2 levels in the atmosphere and climate chenge. Also, little known fact is that the core of the poles are actually freezing up instead of melting and we can't understand how or why. Truth is, there is very little we really understand in climate change and our (possible) role in it
God created the earth out nothing. Genesis 1:1. I'm sure He has the situation under control. For example, The hole in the ozone layer is smaller than when it was first discovered. I forget which national park it is, Alaska maybe, but they had to move a sign saying this glacier would be gone by 20xx because it GREW.
This show blew my mind! It was so good! Also, the friendship between Stellan’s And Jared’s characters was so touching and believable, and it makes me happy that they seemed to have been friends in reality as well, seriously though, watch the show!
Also the guy they sent to look down into the reactor, he doesn't only look back with hopelessness, he immediately gets affected by the radiation and turns red. He probably didn't feel too good either. And those 3 "suicide" divers, it's just amazing they actually survived and went on to live good lives. But yeah Chernobyl was scary, but even more so the oppression the people of the USSR where under
Watched this last night. Bleak is the word. Watching the poor workers just accept their fate was heartbreaking. The Bridge of Death was also incredibly sad.
By far the scene that actually gave me shivers was the two guys staring down at the exposed core I remember reading a comment on a video that said it was like looking into hell itself
My dad went to Chernobyl like 2 days after the disaster , he was in the Baltic Army during the Russian Federation times- he had no choice- they weren’t told where they were going. He said it was an unforgettable period in his life
So three things about this series: I actually found it kind of uplifting in a way to see the soldiers, miners, the divers and all the other heroes after the catastrophe doing what they could to fix things and that together their actions save the world from how much worse things could have turned out. Having seen the shows approximation of ARS a lot of "pulpy" post-acop stories like Mad Max and Fallout have lost a fair bit of their appeal. The music in this show fits it so very well.
When Boris (skarsgard) and Valery (Jared harris) show up to the site for the first time and the first thing Viktor does is hands Boris a list of names for people responsible for the accident. That one scene said alot about how shit was ran back then.
And Superhero Movie too, if you can believe that. He had the best character arch of all--writing that trash to writing something as great as Chernobyl.
"beautiful" is the worst possible attribute in this context, even though I understand that you praise the work of the man who wrote this documentary-like movie.
@@chrismueller8861 beautiful as in how well it was made, as you stated. Of course I'm not referring to the events of the series, I didn't look at the Fireman slowly decomposing and go "Aww that's cute", I was horrified.
Your comment actually reminded me of another story I read a few years back. I very vividly remember reading about how, a day or so after the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima (my memory is a little fuzzy on which city, it might have been Nagasaki, or even both cities), it started to rain...the rain was black like ink. A lot of people who had survived the explosion were trying to care for other survivors who had been incapacitated from their injuries, and the rain was the only water easily accessible...so they gathered up as much as they could for drinking. The rain was black because fallout from the blast had mixed with the clouds. Almost everyone who was caught outside in the rain soon came down with serious radiation sickness; those who actually *drank* the rainwater died almost without exception from fatal levels of radiation poisoning. Nuclear disasters are some serious nightmare fuel.
@@willrogers3793 That exact event plays out in harrowing detail in Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン / Hadashi no Gen), a Japanese film about the bombing of Hiroshima. It's horrific enough depicted in animation. I can't imagine how the people who survived through it in real life managed.
Radiation sickness summerizesd in one sentence “you fly us over that reactor by tomorrow you’ll be begging for that bullet!” A great quote from the show
I compulsively watched as many clips from this as I could. It hit me at the core and made me truly question if I would make the sacrifices that the men made on that roof. I now know, with a clarity that I would never learn in school, how eerily similar the obsession with appearance the US has with the former Soviet Union. We need to appear strong at all costs- even though that is not the most important thing at all. Thanks for the video.
Goddamn amazing show. Seriously, the panic I felt when the divers were in the water and all you can hear is the Geiger counter until the screen fades to black and still, that's all you can hear. They didn't need music or dialogue to make us worried. Just the sound combined with the knowledge of what it meant.
The last episode I think is the most chilling (warning spoilers) The fact that it was caused by one problem that they knew about, thousands of people died and the people who pointed it out were punished, both befor and after Chernobyl showing just how far the ussr went to coverup their failings
Men in 1986: Sure, I'll help you clean up radioactive waste so we can save some lives and get people back to living normal lives. Men in 2020: Nope. I'm not wearing a mask, I'll look like a wimp. I'm also terrified of vaccines.
@@sorenp1332 Women in 1986: Sure, I make you dinner and spend all day cleaning the house and take care of the children. Women 2020: I can't cook and don't want to serve men, but I still expect men to die for my comfort.
Great vid with a very worthy point - my favourite show since Band Of Brothers. One little detail i would point out, is that you mention the "Bio-Robots" for the roof being "forced unnecessarily" - however, sadly, they were necessary. No robot or machine of that time would have been capable of handling the sheer level of radiation being emitted from that one spot of roof. That's why they were forced to use the brave men who cleared that roof of radioactive debris. Also, random little tidbit i found super interesting was a interview with Oleksiy Ananenko - one of the three who went into the underwater section to access the drainage valve: "It was our job," says Oleksiy Ananenko, who was on shift at the time, while the others had been ordered in by their manager. They knew where the valves were, so they were the right men for the task. "If I didn't do it, they could just fire me. How would I find another job after that?" He points to a few inaccuracies in the TV portrayal: Their faces were not covered by respirators, so they could speak to each other, they were not offered a reward, and they were not clapped on their successful return. "It was just our work. Who would applaud that?" Love the channel though :) Keep it up.
9:24 that’s General Vladimir Pikalov for you. The man participated in the battle of Stalingrad and even tho he went to see the reactor to get the real readings… he lived for 17 years after that to die of old age at 79 in 2003.
Of all things, I’d never expect the “You serve the Soviet Union” meme come from such a dark and sad show. The scene is that 1 guy shaking the hands of the guys in the gray suits. At least I think it’s the case
*What’s your favourite nuclear/radiation themed story, true or fictional?*
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The Stalker games are great! really gives that sense of dread around every corner.
Ryan Hollinger S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Metro ( and that includes the books ) Fallout New Vegas, obviously Chernobyl cause I always found that disaster fascinating.
Please do a video on AMC's The Terror too!
Definitely fallout!
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro games. And Fallouts 1, 2 and New Vegas.
Can we just appreciate that apparently 2 of the 3 men that went into that water are still alive and kicking? Those guys need more love
Didn't two of them keep working on that field as well? I would've been like NAWW time for a career change!
kitteh daylilly the other three reactor were being worked in till the 2000’s
Becouse water protected them.
@@jounazi8125 Water doesn't protect you from radiation well at all
@@Anj28t yeah, but it was somewhere than becouse of water they didnt get that mutch radiation. I could be wron tho.
*"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid."*
- Valery Legasov
This quote will forever haunt me.
YES, my favourite quote! ;x
That is a really powerful quote.
@conan263 lol troll ALERT!
Yo that is some sick ass quote mate
Mckenzie .Latham stop trolling Conan
“They’re already dead, they just don’t know it yet”. That shit gave me chills
Echoed in the show too when characters say "Do you taste metal?"
@@AtrocityEquine01 That guy who opened the vault door to the reactor and started bleeding from the hip is still alive, his name was Aleksandr Yuvchenko. He explains in modern interviews how that radiation fucked him up. He has a constant taste of metal in his mouth, and his skin doesn't heal right anymore because his blood wont congeal properly, which means he must live his life very carefully. He also mentioned his skin cannot touch gasoline or oil anymore. I believe he had to undergo numerous bone-marrow transplants and skin graft operations. Years after the accident and his recovery, people were still terrified of him, afraid that they might contaminate them if he got close to them.
@@Edax_Royeaux poor guy, but amazing he survived!
honestly that line scared me
@@AtrocityEquine01 he survived because he was only radiate in the part of him holding the door (his left side, I think), and because he was a beast. He was like an athlete (I think Midnight in Chernobyl mentions he was into rowing). And that minute he held the door basically crippled him for life.
"But we are still alive"
"We are alive, but we will be dead in five years"
*The facial expression of Boris Scherbina quickly changes from confident to existential crisis.*
That scene alone adds depth to Boris's character, with him realizing how more dire the disaster is.
boris died 4 yrs and 4 months after the incident
"But we're here."
"Yes we are. And we'll probably be dead in five years."
@@az6077 yeah, when he was almost 71 years old(1919-1990) rip
Now Boris could be 101 years old, and in 50 years he would be 151.
Stellan and Jared really knocked it out of the park
that dude in the hospital that was essentially melting, has been the most grotesque look at radiation poisoning i've ever seen in a visual medium. Makes me easily consider the quote " you won't be dead but you'll wish you were"
And even worse to think that actually happened to Ignatenko in real life.
@@matthewchristiansen9978 I literally can't think of a worse state to be kept alive in. It looks like it would be as painful as constantly being engulfed flame.
Comrade Seanski I’d imagine that that’s what it FELT like, too...
@@ComradeSeanski nah there is a point of pain where you just dont feel it like a bad thing it keeos you alive and actualy sane .
Anikin Skywalker looks healthy in comparisson
The most haunting scene for me was when the fireman held the graphite, only for a few seconds, and moments later had a growing hole in his hand, screaming in agony. Radiation is so invisible, and horrifying.
You are aware you are exposed to radiation every day? Humans live in pretty much a soup of radiation. Ultraviolet from the sun and radon from the soil.
And the scariest part is that as you see this the other firemen are ordered to go even closer to the reactor.
The reason the main characters aren't introduced until episode 2, is because most characters in ep 1 is either dead or deadly ill.
@@RaySquirrel Yeah, still horrifying. But those pieces of graphite were so ASTRONOMICALLY radioactive that entire LIFETIMES in full sunlight couldn't compare.
@@RaySquirrel Bananas are radioactive, you just need a few considerable tons to become ill.
That part was one of the most criticized by professionals that watched the show, they said it would have taken hours for the radiation to start dissolving his hand.
Most people can't imagine how nasty radiation sickness is.
As someone who has has radiation therapy, I can tell you that radiation burns are nasty business. Radiation in general is nasty business. I felt like a hollowed-out shell who's innards were replaced by lead. Moving took an enormous effort and I had trouble even breathing. At some point, I developed sores in my esophagus and eating was extremely painful and difficult. I also kept vomiting up food.
Now, take the (relatively) minor dose of radiation I had for a bone marrow transplant and multiply it times 5,000. That's the shitshow that was Chernobyl.
Jesus Christ.
I’m sorry to hear, I hope you’re doing better.
My mom had to have radiation therapy for breast cancer. Damn, those burns looked ugly. Glad you saw yourself through it.
had to watch 2 grandparents go through cancer treatments and when i put my self in the shoes of people who have to do it weekly or people who suffered in Chernobyl i get sick because I cant imagine that pain. I hope you are doing better and I wish you well in recovery
I’m in remission and I’m not expected to get leukemia ever again, but a lot of people I know who have seen this show have asked me what it’s like.
It’s not fun, but Cthulhu help you if you get blasted with an uncontrolled mass of radiation. Mine was controlled.
I love the quote from Harris' character in the final episode:
"When the truth offends we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth, and sooner or later that debt is paid."
What a powerful and heartbreaking series!
Richard Hewitt Jared is a very Oscar worthy actor
"When a man lies, he murders some part of the world." - Merlin
The Dracobirthstonian It literally happens regardless of the political system or political ideology.
@The Dracobirthstonian /sarcasm Tell that to the Right and that stupid ideology of destroying Democracy and the entire World for profit.
@@Edax_Royeaux Barrack Obama was Right?
"I'll do it myself"
That guy makes Thanos seem like a punk.
Pikalov. A true man, balls of steel.
Thanos is dumb.
I think there's another underlying motivation. If it was just some ordinary "disposable" low-rank soldier, the lying propaganda machines who are supposed to be managing the whole affair could easily lie and say "you're mistaken" or "you misread it" and have it all covered up. The fact that it's a high-ranking and respected general, however, means they HAVE to trust his word. Real mind game stuff. I love it.
I love your perspective
General Vladimir Pikalov was a WWII veteran who survived Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk. He died of natural causes in 2003. He was the definition of soviet badassery and bravery. Not even radiation dared to fuck with him lol
“Do you see the Bog Monster?” is, in my opinion, one of the best delivered lines in history. It’s just so haunting.
I forgot... when was this line said ?
Kiril Postnikov like several times after the explosion in episode one. The guy in the control room and one of the firemen said it
@@bluebaconjake405 Thanks !
@@kirya7177 that was radioactive iodine
Radiation charging the iron molecules in our blood actually. Worst way to die due to the body not allowing high-energy cells to thrive.
"Don't let them suffer."
"In five years will be dead."
"I did everything right."
"It will burn and spread it's poison until the entire contenitent is dead."
Some of these quotes were downright haunting.
"You'll never be you again. Then next morning you wake up...and realize that's who you were all along."
@@mckenzie.latham91 😱😨😢
"Senior engineer? How old are you?""I'm 25."
"The happiness of all mankind."
"What?"
points behind a Soviet placard
"Our goal is the happiness of all mankind"
"I'm still wearing the fucking hat!"
That scene where the guy is forced to go up to the roof to have a look and report back, when he turns around with his face now bright red knowing he’s a dead man was really impactful to me.
To all those who died as a result of the containment and cleanup: Thank you for your heroism, and Rest In Peace.
Thank you, we'll try
@@OmarLivesUnderSpace i see wi-fi is good in the afterlife
@@SOLARITY333
Never better 👌🏻
The 500,000 (!!!!) people that saved Europe from becoming a total wasteland and save as much of Ukraine and Belarus as possible I will forever remember and be grateful to. It was sheer horror. RIP those who died and I never stop thinking about those who are dying long, drawn-out deaths to this day.
K m😅
The most terrifying moment for me was when the akimov and the other guy looked directly into the burning core. It looked like the entrance to hell.
I could littrealy feel the heat without even being there
So true
Or like staring into the failing heart of a dying mechanical Titan
That’s exactly what I thought it looked like an entrance to a very dark dimension
The control rods bent and twisted into an obscure terrifying face, when I saw it only 3 words occurred in my mind “the devils grin”
The greatest thing about the series for me was just how horrifying it is. Radiation can be measured and we can see what it causes. But the scariest part is that it’s completely invisible. The roof scene alone oozes Lovecraft-ian cosmic horror dread. Incredible series.
Don't be horrified. The show was all dramatized bullshit. You wan't to see what real radiation is like watch this: ruclips.net/video/y5dV3IuNWvU/видео.html
@@JoviaI1Nope sorry final stages of ARS are NOT exaggerated, here is a video of some of the victims. Go to the 25th minute and you will see a man completely blackened from body wide tissue necrosis which is what occurs in severe ARS.ruclips.net/video/um1-Ub5BGac/видео.html
@@JoviaI1 Again here is some more, note one of them is post mortem and it’s VERY graphic. www.reddit.com/r/chernobyl/comments/f9yjy1/are_there_any_burns_photos_that_are_confirmed_to/
It is literally eldritch horror; something the world has never seen before, you look at it it kills you, it's unseen, unknown, could be anywhere and there's no way of knowing if you're too close until it's too late.
I see the Chernobyl mini series much in the same way I I view Schindler’s List, absolutely worth watching, just don’t expect to have any fun whatsoever
Its pretty fun tho. Havent seen Schindler's List yet but Chernobyl was hella fun.
It's a little like peering into the abyss. I can dig it sometimes.
Grave of the Fireflies falls into that camp as well.
Similarly, it was almost all lies.
Well, the Nazis were killing a bunch of people, especially Jews, so that part was true. But almost everything in Chernobyl was outright propagandizing lies.
Reshpeck that was kinda the point. Everything the Soviets said about Chernobyl was a lie, even when telling the truth would have helped them (e.g. the problems with the Joker robot).
As for the series, some of the details, well, we’ll never know for sure exactly what role Dyatlov played or did not play as the witnesses are dead, and some of the inclusions were pure artistic convenience (Khomyuk).
Is it false because it portrays the Soviet Union as a government more interested in suppressing embarrassing facts than in the well being of the people?
Chernobyl is what I call “Horror Non Fiction”. The entire series has this sense of dread with the focus on the scientific community and the USSR trying their damndest to minimize the damage, which only gets worse with each tiny detail missed out by either side or pointed out when one situation is resolved.
I am sorry if this seem edited now, I just had to fix the comment since it felt a bit vauge in its description.
Historical horror.
Really enjoyed this show, can anyone recommend any other horror non fiction films or shows?
Taylor Davison that’s an accurate description
@@keithdeegan462 Come and See (1985), Man Behind the Sun (1988) and Threads (1984).
@@keithdeegan462 There's a film about Ted Bundy on Netflix. Have you seen that?
“They’re already dead; they just don’t know it yet...” - This simple sentence perfectly sums up why this series was so harrowing.
Technically everyones already dead, we just dont know when.
thats something from a breaking bad song that its in spanish XD
Too bad it's fake. That incident never happened.
@@Mortablunt Which one?
@@Mortablunt nigga what?
This series was so dark and oppressive that when I stopped to take one of many mental breaks, I looked at my shitty life with a dead end job and thought, "hey, life isn't all that bad."
nothinmulch for me it somehow made me feel more depressed about life lol
Then came Corona.
@@samcad-ho3ze corona is in no way close to the level of tragedy that occurred in Chernobyl.
I wanted to move to Europe. I have one more reason not to.
@@scottjoplin.1429 what?
How is that connected?
The bodies of those poor firefighters still haunt me...
That's what made me hesitate from watching this video. I got traumatised by the ARS victims in the show that I couldn't sleep for a night after watching episode 3. I knew those pictures of them would be in here and I didn't want to have to see them again.
The makeup and prosthetic artists used actual photos taken of the dying firefighters and reactor operators to create those effects. I've seen some of those photos; they did a good job. But honestly it's even worse to read about their fate and let your imagination fill in the visuals. The entire plot line of poor Vasily the firefighter and his madly loyal wife Lyudmilla is the first chapter of the book "Voices From Chernobyl" by Svetlana Alexandrevich, who won a Nobel Prize for it. It's as told directly by Lyudmilla, and the details of how those men died are not anything they could even reasonably portray on television. As with so many other details in this book. I can't recommend it highly enough.
@Hitler
They basement has since been sealed off. Filled it with dirt I believe.
The radiation burns were a bit exaggerated, but it worked for the story nevertheless.
@@neuralmute I've seen an interview with a first hand responder in the Ukraine and she said the makeup effects were way too exaggerated.
Especially the one with the Firefighter, who turned green and all sorts of funky colors.
It is a Docudrama, makes sense that they overblow it, but even the worst radiation burns don't look like that
I am a pure slav, and almost everyone here knows someone ages 40-60 that have cancer, possibly from the explosion. The whole thing was a feel trip
I'm sorry to hear that dude :c It sucks that so many have to lose so much time in their lives over this. Chernobyl teaches everyone a very important lesson, and we should all seek to embrace the truth. Even if it's scary.
Almost every person in the west knows someone who has cancern, it's super common.
I'm Finnish and my husband died of cancer a year ago. He was 39. It doesn't affect just the Slavs, the cloud was all over Northern Europe.
Also there is a raise of thyroid and lymfatic cancers in people born in 1986 in western europe. Too much to be a coincidence
@@Outoinen Its sad, I'm sorry to hear about this but its not radiations...
As the UN report says (www.unscear.org/unscear/en/chernobyl.html) there is no scientific evidence to support such increase of cancer. Over 6000 scientists from all over the world worked on it and there is no way to fake the data...
as the conclusions suggest
"Apart from the dramatic increase in thyroid cancer incidence among those exposed at a young age, and some indication of an increased leukaemia and cataract incidence among the workers, there is no clearly demonstrated increase in the incidence of solid cancers or leukaemia due to radiation in the exposed populations. Neither is there any proof of other non-malignant disorders that are related to ionizing radiation. However, there were widespread psychological reactions to the accident, which were due to fear of the radiation, not to the actual radiation doses."
I’ve always hated the sound of Geiger counter but Ep. 3 made it into a true phobia
The Geiger counter clicking sound.. is scarier than the soundtrack for the movie Jaws .. Radiation?!! ..WTF!! .. I think I'd rather deal with the shark😉👍🏽
Ashlie Hood a phobia is typically defined as an irrational fear, which drives me to say that you dont have a phobia. Not that you dont fear geiger counters, but that you dont fear them irrationally. It’s completely understandable to fear a force which is powerful enough to kill the hundreds of people involved in the Chernobyl disaster, a force that can give you cancer just by being in its presence, one that can burn through your flesh without you realizing until after it’s done.
If you dont fear radiation, then you’re irrational
I love that sound somehow
@@MisTracy39TheVeganLady At least you can see the shark 😯
Strange how they even thought having one down there was such a great idea. They knew the place was irradiated as hell and should've got out of there as soon as possible anyway.
Ash and graphite has now become legitimate fears of mine.
Same here - especially graphite. There's a box of pencils on my desk that I'm now terrified to even go near.
✏
shitkickertv stop it Patrick you’re scaring him!
✏✏✏✏✏✏✏✏
The graphite itself is harmless, this one was dangerous because of how incredibly irradiated it was. So don't fear your pencils, a banana emits more radiation than them :)
Interesting fact in the scene where The Firemans pregnant widow is holding his shoes it’s because they had bury him without them because his feet had swollen up so much from the radiation. Also next to where there is another woman holding a portrait of the soldier that went to the roof to escort the engineer to look into the reactor core implying that he had also died from radiation poisoning.
It's because she didn't have a picture of him.
@@norfangl3480 ow my heart
The scene in the first episode where the children are playing and catching the “snow flakes” on their tongues made me realize how awful this event really was
Especially when the baby is on screen. I was like "NO! Not the BABY!!"
I havent watched the show. What Was the ”snowflakes” actually? Was it something dangerous?
Haven't seen the show. But it was probably radioactive ash or dust.
@@Real_gandalf See above.
God almighty...
I was 5 when Chernobyl happened. Chernobyl is about 2000Km away from my country, but all the milk at the time was thrown out and all fresh vegetables was dumped. The amount of radioactive material that landed in my country was luckily very minimal, but it was significantly higher them the background radiation.
@@itsJWPH In parts of northern Sweden, game, mushrooms and berries are still dangerous to eat.
From what I also been told by family, people were also required to drink this thing which helped with the compound. Sorry I don't know how to exactly describe it in English.
@@robertohlen4980 Sweden? wtf thats so far from Ukraine
Storm Some sheep in Norway still contain radiation i believe.
Kobe Dancil Coo obvsly if he was 2000km away he would be more than fine
"Fly us over the reactor or I'll have you shot"
"If you fly over that reactor, you'll be begging for that bullet by the morning"
Valery - 1 Boris - 0
The scene where the guys have to volunteer is so emotional. They are literally told that they will not live and do it anyway. It’s so bleak and straight to the point. I loved this miniseries, it’s terrifying
the universe rewarded them, two of them are still alive today, the third only died recently, they all were even able to have kids and raise their own families despite their exposure to the radiation :)
@@InitialPCdied in 2005. 19 years after the incident. Which is way better than what they were told they would get.
That cliffhanger where their flashlights malfunction and go out while they're in the flooded basement gave me chills. It was a weird sort of tension bc I know history so I obviously know they survived and succeeded in draining the water tanks, but for a split second I almost thought they wouldn't. It was terrifying.
its amazing how 90 seconds clip of people clearing rubble from a roof made me more tense than a 2 hour long horror movie
I don't understand how this lost make up effects. There was NOTHING as striking on TV as the horror show that was the irradiated human beings.
Maybe because it wasn't fidel to reality? They look like aliens. Real radiation burns are more like your skin turning into charcoal.
They toned down the effects to make it more tv friendly. Craig Mazin said he didn't want to gratuitous or exploitative
@@LilySaintSin I very much respect that. he doesn't want the horror of it all to come simply from the shock of seeing it, but the lasting implications that impact you from seeing it.
@@uffy That's true. Have you listened to the podcast?
Actually I saw a video of a doctor that was there. And she says its the contrary, the wounds and the skin falling is not at all like that. She said they were kinda exaggerating with the black skin.
boris & valery's relationship evolution is one of the best parts of this stellar series.
If there's one thing to take away was the powerful friendship and their last bits of dialog together. Very well done. Boris is the very definition of a character arc.
"They made a mistake and sent the one good man...."
Boris may have had the best fictional character redemption arc but Craig Mazin had the best redemption arc in his writing of all time.
Read "voices from Chernobyl" by Svetlana Alexievich, its all there, the dude just copy pasted
@@santiagobarrett7417 To be fair there are about a billion movies/tv shows that had great source material and weren't turned done justice in their transition from page to screen. I'd give the dude a little more credit than just saying he copied and pasted. Thanks for the book recommendation though
I know, like the last three seasons of game of thrones, but anyway, i comment that because sometimes the source material or the influences not get the credit deserve
Santiago Barrett that’s true! Thanks again for pointing me towards the source material. I doubt I would have found out about it if you hadn’t said anything lol.
Boris is a real person you know
This show made me think of Hitchcock's "bomb under the table". Only that the bomb already exploded and most of the characters are already dead, and we, the viewers, are burdened with this horrifying knowledge.
I am from Lithuania so this mini series was super creepy for me. Knowing that if not those people i might not be alive today.
I think they filmed it in Lithuania
@@robbiecoombes1649 they recorded some parts that echoed the sight soviet russia
@@razkis9136 it's in the EU so it must be a lot easier to film there
Short answer: It's a masterpiece of cinematography and is not one of, but the best pieces of film I have ever seen. Period.
Every scene was bone chilling
I'm completely shocked Craig Mazin wrote this. I remember listening to an episode of his screenwriting podcast for an assignment in one of my film classes. After looking at his filmography it seemed odd that he was giving out advice. Kinda cool to see someone be responsible for something so universally praised after being known for a string of comedies that weren't really critically popular.
Read "voices from Chernobyl" by Svetlana Alexievich, its all there, the dude just copy pasted
maybe comedy wasnt his thing. happens
@@santiagobarrett7417 That's obvious. Do you expect a fictional story like the russians will make about chernobyl and fucking CIA conspiracy?
I mean “Go” was pretty good imo 😂
Oh wait scratch that, that was the other guy in the podcast. Craig Mazin did the fourth best Scary Movie
Chernobyl is absolutely brilliant! The depiction of the events, lack of information people have and the lies by the state is absolutely haunting. It's also staggering how close to the facts they manage to stay throughout.
Except there are numerous gross exaggerations, sensationalism and falsehoods throughout the show. Like radiation isn't spread like a disease where touching someone will give you "the radiation" this shit was well made but it is SUPER far from accurate.
As well radiation never took down a helicopter and the Soviet Government was a lot better than the show gives them credit for at addressing then crisis. A helicopter crashed 6 months after the accident because their rotor accidentally hit a crane, not because "the radiation got em!" Like I get that a good show is a good show but people really shouldn't be taking this as accurate history the most egregious thing is the scene on the bridge Ryan talks about being so horrifying, like I get it its a terrifying thought but the idea that a "bridge of death" where all the onlookers stood and later died from cancer is a complete and 100% myth that has not only never had any proof has been conclusively disproved as distance DOES protect you from radiation for the most part.
@@Ireallylikepie22 The helicopter that crashed in the show was as a result of hitting a crane line.
@@McDylbot Ah fair dinkum. I guess I misunderstood.
Zorblec Maybe you should go into the hospital basement in Pripyat and roll around in the big pile of uniforms still laying there today. After all, nothing can spread “the radiation” as you say.
I was 14 when this happened in remember the radiation clouds coming over UK contaminating live stock and milk supply we had news broadcasts on how to test milk and water before consuming also a lot of people I know got scared to eat meat etc. I actually remember poring a glass of milk taking a mouthful and it burning like crazy I spat it out and washed my mouth with tons of cold water I saw the Dr the next day lucky I never actually swallowed any but it scared the shit outta me my mouth was painful for a couple of weeks.
I hope you are doing okay. I know it was a long time ago, but that must have been truly petrifying and painful. Thank goodness it wasn't worse.
@northern_lights well shit.
So this is what a Coronavirus "survivor" experience will look like in a few decades.
"Comrade Dyatlov, I see your condition has improv..."
"nO LeAvE."
🤢🤮😵
"Don't let them suffer" was a line I never possibly thought could redeem a character who's literal job is to shoot sweet happy puppies. A man who knows his job has to be done and he would rather do it then let someone else do it wrong. Every character feels real in this show and even the worst possible one's give a convincing enough performance that you buy their reasons for their horrible actions and almost sympathize with them on some level.
"why you should watch"
Super eyepatch Wolf would like to know your location
Burningpaladin1 lmfaoo
Burningpaladin1 I believe they both live in Ireland.
ryan hollinger and john are the same person
Animu is trashu
“Dude from United Kingdom narrating an analysis video” is my favorite genre on RUclips
I filmed that clip of Craig Mazin for a Deadline interview! That's so cool that you used something I filmed! Keep up the good work
+
+
I was in college when this happened. We didn't realize how truly awful it was. There are so many who are truly heroes of the whole world.
my father was a liquidator, he described the general feelings of the men with him as willing to die for the soviet union, he felt proud and still does about what he did, he’s fine today and thankfully didn’t contract cancer or radiation sickness
I used to be a GoT fanboy
Until I used the good dosimeter
Now the entire GoT show feels not great, not terrible
Chernobyl 5 episodes is the best show
I'm amazed someone has not put this series on RUclips yet. Seems like more people visit this place than Disney Land. There are videos all over the place and they are pretty much the samething.
you did'nt watch a good GOT Season 8 cause it is not there
Stellan Skarsgard after a fit of righteous rage: We need a new dragon.
Actually, I'd say the reverse: GoT is in fact both great and terrible. It depends on the season.
@@bificommander Season 1 = magnificent triumph of The Soviet People! Season 8 = burned out smoking core of death.
"Why worry about something that isn't going to happen?
That's good they should put that on our money."
I still don't understand that quote. What does it have to do with money
@@ethhics Because the money represents the country and what it stands for. Russia constantly hid the truth and acted like it would be fine until much later.
@@ethhics Many countries will put their national motto on their currency, and those mottos usually try to summarize the values that the country stands for. Like "E Pluribus Unum" for America, "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" for France, etc.
They should put that on all the money in the world.
@@MySerpentine can you imagine this today....? " radiation is not that bad, the explosion was set by the goverment, is all agenda.."
I'm disturbed and terrified just seeing your take on it. It looks really well done. Haunting. Not sure I could actually watch it though. Love your insights and commentary and you narrate well.
Anna Talyn it’s definitely worth watching it if you think you can. It’s a new standard for TV drama. And it’s so well done. Honestly. Best mini series I’ve ever seen
@@emilysyoutubechannel2259 I'll work my way up to it!
Unrelated, but, Marco Polo was one of my favorite series I've seen in a long time.
Check that out if you guys get a chance.
It's a challenging watch at times but so worth it. Hell it was all worth it for that Legasov speech in the hearing for the last episode.
This gave me anxiety tbh, it slow closely mirrors what is going on today with authority trying to seem powerful instead of just dealing with the issue head on. Something about real life situations freak me out, normal sci-fi horror is pretty tame compared to what real life can cook up.
They didn't force those people into danger unnecessarily as you claim. The radiation on that roof was so high that there was no machine on the planet that could withstand it. Probably still is not to this day. They had robots break down in Fukushima in 2011.
Those 3828 men were desperately needed and very necessary. I am forever grateful for their sacrifice. There is also a lesson in this: With all our great technical and scientific achievements, in the end, if everything fails, what we fall back on, is the greatest machine of them all, our body and our best tools, our hands.
In real life version they thought the robot was stuck on something and sent people up to move it. That much was unnecessary. The robot had broken down due to the radiation being much higher than it was designed for.
The Soviets were VERY good at this. Have an unsolvable problem? Throw bodies at it until it's fixed.
@@tenfivesmiths7802 So how would you have solved it in a less soviet way?
@@catriona_drummond I wouldn't have. I didn't say it was a bad solution in that situation.
This is classic anti Soviet propaganda. Protray the Soviets as stupid unfeeling brutes.
"He is already dead. It is only a question of how long until he falls."
Ive been on a Chernobyl based binge past few days so this is perfect timing 😳
So I went from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream to this and that was not a good pair of videos to watch in sequence 😭😭
Same! gonna cry in a corner now...
Theres a movie for that?!?!?
Ive watched the entire series 3 times. Its absolutely hypnotic, every time I start I can't stop. IT IS PERFECTION!
Because of this, I started studying my engineering seriously. I don't want to be the reason of next Chernobyl.
Well from my understanding it wasn't an engineering failure if that's at all comforting. It was a bunch of people living in a system where if anyone brought up the issues they would be considered responsible and potentially killed, rather than being thanked for noticing the issue. I'm just waiting for something like this to happen in China they have a lot of the same blame passing that existed during the soviet union.
@@ChaosTherum BULLSHIT. The accident happened because one man played with a reactor till the point of no return. Other RBMK reactors worked flawlessly.
It's easy to point the man as a scapegoat, when in reality he was following the orders of his superiors. The whole system at the time is to blame.
It wasn't poor engineering that caused Chernobyl; it was politics. The engineers made a plant that acted exactly as intended. The rods, for example, were made the way they were because that is what the people who backed the project wanted them to be. They *knew* that making rods that way would introduce a source of potential failure, but they decided the risk was acceptable and then *hid* that risk from those charged with operating the plant. As the MC said: it was lies that made the reactor explode, that more than anything.
That haunting sentence when the men are cleaning the roof of graphyte "you're done" . Its simple yet so terrifying knowing the lad will soon be dead
My old economics professor was from the Ukraine and she never used microwaves and doesnt even like to be in the same room as them as they're being used.
She also told us how they used to have drills for girls and drills for boys if the U.S. bombed them. The girls would dress wounds and the boys would help put masks on everyone.
Iwasneverhere it was mostly to keep people calm
astor Just UKRAINE. NOT ‘the’ UKRAINE
well we had the same drills here in America, if the Russians bombed us
astor NOT “THE” UKRAINE.... Just UKRAINE
@@michaelnakonecznyj6770 repeat it 10 more times. Just to disgust people. :)
Pripyat citizens: *look at the glow in awe*
Radiation: ”Omae wa mou shindieru”
NANI?!?!?!
*(radiation sounds)*
A very fitting meme, knowing that the quote comes from a 1984-1988 anime series called Fist of the North Star (and the action takes place in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by radiation).
knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-are-already-dead-omae-wa-mou-shindeiru
I'm gonna end this man's whole career
Even the brilliant Marie Curie wrote that she would stay up over night to look at the pretty glow of the radioactive materials she was studying with no way of know how lethal it was just like the people of Pripyat gazing at the core. To this day if you want to look at her papers you have to wear protective clothing.
As someone who’s gone through multiple angles on the history of Chernobyl (the disaster, and mostly for school sciences), watching this felt like being sent back in time. This entire show was a masterpiece. The performance and writing is helped by accounting actual events, but the show still presents itself in a believable, real, painfully human way. Human desires, love, sacrifice, patriotism, greed, fear, confusion, suffering, denial, hope, despair, realization. You can tell even minor characters feel 3 dimensional and incredibly real (probably because they are), and just the atmosphere alone is so powerful. I’ve listened to the mentioned podcasts and know that not every scene is historically accurate, but it’s still one hell of a trip no matter how many times you watch it. A great and thorough review man, looking forward to more from you!
The sound of a giger counter screaming is horrifying to me
Probably one of the best dramas I’ve ever seen. Completely harrowing and terrifying but always brilliant. HBO have really outdone theirselves
1:14
“Minor Spoilers”
Shows Miners
Galaxy Brain Move
Heigh-ho...heigh-ho...
Shows the robot.. episode ab dogs.. ok guess i wont watch episode 4
Back in 2001, there was a small ukrainian game developer company, GSC Game World, that announced they were developing a game based on the aftermath of the Chernobyl incident.
The basic plot was that there was a second explosion at the plant, and after that, weird events started to happen inside the exclusion zone, with tales of artifacts appearing in zones with high radiation, wielding weird and strange powers, and everyone wanted one, scientists, collectors, military, etc. So the military took over the exclusion zone, but that didn't stopped people sneaking inside the zone, the so called stalkers (we play as one), to retrieve said artifacts and to explore the weird events that made it all happen. The developers were inspired by a russian book called Roadside picnic and the movie Stalker, based on said book.
This game was released in 2007 and was called S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, and it was said by many that it captured the bleakness of the environment perfectly, it has such an amazingly bleak and dread ambience to it that it almost makes you feel like you are really there, exploring the streets of Pripyat.
If anyone's curious about it, I would recomend to try it out, it's really an awesome and unique look at this tragic event, made with passion by people that grew up hearing stories about it, surrounded by people that lived trough it.
Dude stalker was a huge thing, I think most people remember it well enough
@@schokoladenjunge1 In the gaming community yes, but outside of it not so much, which is why I take every opportunity I can to promote it, so more people know about it :)
Well i just started playing it and it is really good that they made it like RPG style game but in overral amazing game
@@mykolasrazanta8464 It's right there among the best games for me, just the ambience and mood alone that they were able to achieve it's amazing, it totally immerses you in that place.
lol dude... we all know what Stalker is
The episode where the soldiers go around shooting dogs because they where infected from the nucler meltdown it was hard to watch but in all it was a very good mini series and should win golden globes and oscars.
Had to hug the dog after that one
@@crimsondynamo615 same
What is more scary and horrifying? Hearing Geiger Counter screaming constantly in a quiet eerie scenes in this series.
I was eight nearly nine when this happened, I do remember it but I remember the children of Chernobyl who used to come to our school for visits more than the details of the actual disaster. They would stay with local families and come to school, think they stayed for about two weeks. I remember seeing bits about the disaster on the news when my Dad was watching it, but I didn't really understand the gravity of it. I have recently watched the TV series and I think they did a really good job with it. Its pretty much true except the woman scientist is supposed to represent all the scientists that were involved in the aftermath and a few other parts. It's a hard to watch how some of the bosses acted and put so many people at risk to try to save themselves, but it's part of history that shouldn't ever be forgotten about. I've watched some videos on RUclips of the deserted town and how everything was left, it's so sad to see how these people were lied to and told they'd be home in 3 weeks. The reactor has the containment building over it now but the damage is still there and will be for a very, very long time.
As someone obsessed with Chernobyl for six years, it's awesome 2019 made me normal.
It also works great as a methapor for our handling of the clima crisis.
Ignoring facts, pretending like everything is okay
Except there is really not much we can do on that matter. Sure, reduce CO2 emissions and maybe try to not use as much fossile fuels as we use now but there's is no clear correlation between CO2 levels in the atmosphere and climate chenge.
Also, little known fact is that the core of the poles are actually freezing up instead of melting and we can't understand how or why.
Truth is, there is very little we really understand in climate change and our (possible) role in it
@@Lemuria1993 So your conclusion is - if we do not understand it we should not experiment with it.
@@klokoloko2114 you missed his entite point..
God created the earth out nothing. Genesis 1:1. I'm sure He has the situation under control. For example,
The hole in the ozone layer is smaller than when it was first discovered.
I forget which national park it is, Alaska maybe, but they had to move a sign saying this glacier would be gone by 20xx because it GREW.
@@sunshinepurple1043 fucking idiot. Glaciers grew each year yes, but it also looses a lot more than it gained.
This show blew my mind! It was so good! Also, the friendship between Stellan’s And Jared’s characters was so touching and believable, and it makes me happy that they seemed to have been friends in reality as well, seriously though, watch the show!
Fiction can be scary, but non fiction is terrifying
Also the guy they sent to look down into the reactor, he doesn't only look back with hopelessness, he immediately gets affected by the radiation and turns red. He probably didn't feel too good either.
And those 3 "suicide" divers, it's just amazing they actually survived and went on to live good lives.
But yeah Chernobyl was scary, but even more so the oppression the people of the USSR where under
why compare the two things? Both were bad.
Hyttel : And just think, our politicians are pushing as hard as they can towards that model.
By this period, Stalin style oppression was a distant memory from decades prior. Khruschev changed things much for the better.
A true horror series. Just imagine being there at that time not knowing that just by the mere fact of standing there you are basically dead
I remember my dad walking out after watching one of the episodes with tears in his eyes.
*I’ve never seen my dad cry*
😭
Skarsgard killed it with his reaction to 5 years and "tell fuckin Gorbachev" were amazing. The entire cast did a bang up job.
Watched this last night. Bleak is the word. Watching the poor workers just accept their fate was heartbreaking. The Bridge of Death was also incredibly sad.
By far the scene that actually gave me shivers was the two guys staring down at the exposed core
I remember reading a comment on a video that said it was like looking into hell itself
My dad went to Chernobyl like 2 days after the disaster , he was in the Baltic Army during the Russian Federation times- he had no choice- they weren’t told where they were going. He said it was an unforgettable period in his life
So three things about this series:
I actually found it kind of uplifting in a way to see the soldiers, miners, the divers and all the other heroes after the catastrophe doing what they could to fix things and that together their actions save the world from how much worse things could have turned out.
Having seen the shows approximation of ARS a lot of "pulpy" post-acop stories like Mad Max and Fallout have lost a fair bit of their appeal.
The music in this show fits it so very well.
When Boris (skarsgard) and Valery (Jared harris) show up to the site for the first time and the first thing Viktor does is hands Boris a list of names for people responsible for the accident. That one scene said alot about how shit was ran back then.
You're telling me, the guy who wrote the Hangover sequels made this?
Don't let that fool you. Chernobyl is quite good.
And Superhero Movie too, if you can believe that. He had the best character arch of all--writing that trash to writing something as great as Chernobyl.
It's a beautiful show, in terms of storytelling, atmosphere, and cinematography.
"beautiful" is the worst possible attribute in this context, even though I understand that you praise the work of the man who wrote this documentary-like movie.
@@chrismueller8861 beautiful as in how well it was made, as you stated.
Of course I'm not referring to the events of the series, I didn't look at the Fireman slowly decomposing and go "Aww that's cute", I was horrified.
@@AtrocityEquine01 haha, language can be a bitch sometimes ;-)
My dad had a friend. The friend once decided to walk in the rain a few weeks after Chernobyl. He got leukaemia and died
Your comment actually reminded me of another story I read a few years back. I very vividly remember reading about how, a day or so after the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima (my memory is a little fuzzy on which city, it might have been Nagasaki, or even both cities), it started to rain...the rain was black like ink. A lot of people who had survived the explosion were trying to care for other survivors who had been incapacitated from their injuries, and the rain was the only water easily accessible...so they gathered up as much as they could for drinking.
The rain was black because fallout from the blast had mixed with the clouds. Almost everyone who was caught outside in the rain soon came down with serious radiation sickness; those who actually *drank* the rainwater died almost without exception from fatal levels of radiation poisoning.
Nuclear disasters are some serious nightmare fuel.
@@willrogers3793 That exact event plays out in harrowing detail in Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン / Hadashi no Gen), a Japanese film about the bombing of Hiroshima. It's horrific enough depicted in animation. I can't imagine how the people who survived through it in real life managed.
Anybody remember The Terror, that show about the Franklin Arctic Expedition? I thought that was really good
Yeah I loved that it was amazing.
HistoryBuffs made a video on the series recently. As the name implies he goes over movies on a historic way more that a cinematographic .
@@Zeliek I think he posted that 2 weeks ago, right?
@@Zeliek yeah ive seen that its a very good video to be honest .
@@Josep_Hernandez_Lujan wait there is going to be a 2nd season ? since when ?
Radiation sickness summerizesd in one sentence “you fly us over that reactor by tomorrow you’ll be begging for that bullet!” A great quote from the show
The scene In the hospital where you see vasily's face shortly before he dies is truly haunting.
I compulsively watched as many clips from this as I could. It hit me at the core and made me truly question if I would make the sacrifices that the men made on that roof. I now know, with a clarity that I would never learn in school, how eerily similar the obsession with appearance the US has with the former Soviet Union. We need to appear strong at all costs- even though that is not the most important thing at all.
Thanks for the video.
“It hit me at the core”... I see what you did there ;)
Goddamn amazing show. Seriously, the panic I felt when the divers were in the water and all you can hear is the Geiger counter until the screen fades to black and still, that's all you can hear. They didn't need music or dialogue to make us worried. Just the sound combined with the knowledge of what it meant.
The last episode I think is the most chilling (warning spoilers)
The fact that it was caused by one problem that they knew about, thousands of people died and the people who pointed it out were punished, both befor and after Chernobyl showing just how far the ussr went to coverup their failings
This show is even more haunting considering that the same thing happened with the current pandemic. Leadership still distorts the truth to save face.
Men in 1986: Sure, I'll help you clean up radioactive waste so we can save some lives and get people back to living normal lives.
Men in 2020: Nope. I'm not wearing a mask, I'll look like a wimp. I'm also terrified of vaccines.
There are no man left in our time they are all pussies
@@sorenp1332 Women in 1986: Sure, I make you dinner and spend all day cleaning the house and take care of the children.
Women 2020: I can't cook and don't want to serve men, but I still expect men to die for my comfort.
@@alexschon6064 incel
@@alexschon6064 the fuck?
@@alexschon6064 sure I’ll make dinner so my husband donsent beat the shit out of me
Great vid with a very worthy point - my favourite show since Band Of Brothers.
One little detail i would point out, is that you mention the "Bio-Robots" for the roof being "forced unnecessarily" - however, sadly, they were necessary. No robot or machine of that time would have been capable of handling the sheer level of radiation being emitted from that one spot of roof. That's why they were forced to use the brave men who cleared that roof of radioactive debris.
Also, random little tidbit i found super interesting was a interview with Oleksiy Ananenko - one of the three who went into the underwater section to access the drainage valve:
"It was our job," says Oleksiy Ananenko, who was on shift at the time, while the others had been ordered in by their manager. They knew where the valves were, so they were the right men for the task.
"If I didn't do it, they could just fire me. How would I find another job after that?"
He points to a few inaccuracies in the TV portrayal:
Their faces were not covered by respirators, so they could speak to each other, they were not offered a reward, and they were not clapped on their successful return.
"It was just our work. Who would applaud that?"
Love the channel though :) Keep it up.
I would make a STALKER joke...
But I won't.
I'll just get out of here.
I said come in, don't stand there.
To the infirmary you go
I'll take your stalker joke and raise you a Metro Joke:
........
I uh ... yeah Metro's pretty bleak for jokes.
I think the original Stalker story was written years before the Chernobyl disaster happened.
Not sure if that's better or worse.
I would make a Fallout joke, but 76 made it for me.
I can just hear the intro of modern warfare:
“ 30,000 people used to live here, but now it is a ghost town.”
50,000*
Nah, I just hear “cheki brekis” and “GET OUT OF HERE STALKERs”.
9:24 that’s General Vladimir Pikalov for you. The man participated in the battle of Stalingrad and even tho he went to see the reactor to get the real readings… he lived for 17 years after that to die of old age at 79 in 2003.
Absolutely LOVE the scene where Boris murders the telephone. That is oscar material.
" we need a new phone "
Great video comrade Hollinger!! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Literally just finished the show and BOOM new video from Ryan Hollinger about Chernobyl.
We live in a simulation I swear.
who ever is playing me is on Extreme Hardcore Mode then
"Same universe confirmed!" - YMS
Elon Musk told you that
@@klokoloko2114 Adam & Scoot confirmed, so... _shrug_ and I give it a 6/10.
Of all things, I’d never expect the “You serve the Soviet Union” meme come from such a dark and sad show. The scene is that 1 guy shaking the hands of the guys in the gray suits. At least I think it’s the case
Vasilys deterioration was by far the most haunting thing I’ve ever seen from a TV Show/Movie
Just watching this kicked my anxiety into high gear.