Why worry about something
that isn't going to happen?
Oh, that's perfect.
They should put that
on our money.
STELLAN SKARSGÅRD:
What's really interesting is how
 the ideology
 of the Soviet Union--
 the idea of a system
 that was infallible,
 and the fear of people
 to point out any flaws
 or mistakes,
 everything had to be perfect.
 You had to pretend
 it was perfect.
 Any system with too strong
 an ideology,
whether it's the idea
of a perfect nation
or a perfect belief,
 leads to exclusion of facts.
(HEART PALPITATIONS)
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
(MUFFLED EXPLOSION)
The West is now satisfied that
Chernobyl was solely the result
of operator error,
which it essentially was.
JARED HARRIS:
 What you start to look at
 all the different causes
 of this accident to happen,
 it's this sort of accumulation
 of that kind of a mentality,
which is, "It's more convenient
 to believe comfortable truths,
and comfortable facts
than it is to have to face
difficult choices
and difficult realities."
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
How much time?
BORIS SHCHERBINA: Maybe a year.
HARRIS: Shcherbina,
 he's confronted with his...
 sense of mortality.
 That he's presented
 with that idea of,
 "What was his life worth,
 and does it mean anything?
 Did he have an impact
 on this situation?"
Because he was a party man,
because he was an insider,
he knew how to get the machinery
of the state to work.
For God's sake, Boris.
You were the one
who mattered most.
HARRIS:  Dyatlov,
 who's been this very stubborn,
recalcitrant person,
who refuses to accept
any responsibility
for what happened...
I wasn't in the room
when they raised the power.
CRAIG MAZIN:
 Anatoly Dyatlov made decisions
no rational person
should've ever made.
He made crazy choices.
I'll have 'em reviewed.
We only just found out--
There. Review it.
MAZIN: In the trial, Dyatlov,
 historically,
 does say the following thing.
 "I will not say
 that I am guilty.
But I cannot say that I am not."
 And I thought
 that was a remarkable...
expression of-- at least
the potential of guilt.
 It was very Soviet
 in its own way, the statement.
To have it both ways.
SKARSGÅRD:
 The trial is, as always,
 we want to find who's guilty.
 The people's lust for revenge,
 which is something really,
 really dangerous,
 it makes it very attractive
 to find scapegoats
and throw as meat to the dogs.
Once it's over,
we will have our villain,
we will have our hero,
we will have our truth.
SKARSGÅRD:
We established pretty early on,
 what mistakes did those people
 do in the control room.
But the thing is that the system
was guilty.
Professor Legasov,
if you mean to suggest
the Soviet State is somehow
responsible for what happened,
then I must warn you,
you are treading
on dangerous ground.
VALERY LEGASOV:
That is how...
an RBMK reactor core explodes.
Lies.
