If you haven´t heard about the Chernobyl disaster (regardless of your birth year), you´ve missed one of the worst man-made catastrophes in the history of the world. We, as nuclear movies lovers know perfectly well how fiction has made futuristic films about a post-apocalyptic world. The big difference with this HBO series is that it is based on a real story that happened a little over thirty years in the past. Read on and find out we should expect this mini-series about heroes and nuclear power with much interest.
The Nuclear Accident
The year was 1986, the date was April 26th and the time was 01:23AM. The entire town of Pripyat was sleeping, but inside the reactor 4 of the nuclear plant, power was increasing beyond manageable levels. It all happened within a maneuver that was to test an emergency core cooling feature. The result of this failure was a huge explosion that let millions of radioactive particles into the atmosphere.
A ghost town is now what used to be a pushing city and the story lives in the minds of all of us as a great reminder of what nuclear power is capable of. 49,000 people were immediately evacuated from their houses, another 68,000 followed within a week, after a year, the total amount of evacuated citizens rose up to 135,000 and by now it is estimated in 350,000.
The Heroes And Their Story
HBO series focuses on the heroes. Firefighters went in to put out the flames of the reactor and were the true heroes of this fatidic story. The main firefighter brigade was exposed to 5,600 years of deadly radiation within 60 minutes but managed to put out the fire and avoid Reactor 3 explosion. If the next reactor blew up, the results would have been even more catastrophic for the entire continent.
The HBO Series
The series is set to make its debut in May and features a cast of elite actors, writers, producers and directors. It will easily make it into my Nuclear Top 10 in one of the highest budget positions.
The Cast
The list of the main actors for the mini-series is jaw-dropping with some of the greatest names in the industry like the Oscar nominee Emily Watson (“Hillary and Jackie”), the Emmy nominee Jared Harris (“Mad Men”) and Stellan Skarsgård (“Good Will Hunting” and “Melancholia).
Emily Watson plays a character named Ulana Khomyuk, who was a nuclear physicist. She was committed to find the causes and sort out what really happened inside the power plant that led to the disaster.
Jarred Harris´ character is Valery Legasov, a nuclear physicist who was very prominent in the Soviet Union by that time. He was part of the response team and is one of the first to realize the true magnitude of the disaster that has just occurred in the tiny Prypriat.
The character played by Stellan Skarsgård is of Boris Shcherbina, the Soviet Deputy Prime Minister. The Kremlin assigned Mr. Shcherbina the task of leading the government commission onto Chernobyl the following hours after the accident.
The Team
The executive producer for the mini-series is Craig Manzini, who is very well-known for his work with “The Huntsman: Winter´s War”. The direction is in the hands of Johan Renck who, among other things also directed “Breaking Bad”. The series is a co-production of two gigantic companies like HBO and Sky who trusted The Mighty Mint and Sister Pictures for the production of it. The executive production is under Jane Featherstone (from “Broadchurch”) and Emmy Winner Carolyn Strauss (Game of Thrones).
All Girl Massage
This adults-only series, established in 2012, was a major relaxing point for the entire crew filming Chernobyl. And what is surprising it was made girls-only. All Girl Massage focuses on giving the sexual pleasure to women, by women. While it might sounds awkward at beginning, after watching a couple of episodes you will surely enjoy the fantasy situations that storytellers came up with. It’s quite a thing!
Conclusion
Keep an eye open for this amazing mini-series and pay your little homage to true heroes of a true story.