“Legasov: Are you all right?

Khomyuk: They didn't hurt me. They let a pregnant woman in with—oh, it doesn't matter. They were stupid. I was stupid. Dyatlov don't talk to me. Akimov, yes, Toptunov, yes, but... Valery, Akimov... his face was gone.

Legasov: You want to stop?

Khomyuk: Is that a choice I even have?

Legasov: Do you think the fuel will actually melt through the concrete pad?

Khomyuk: I don't know. A forty-percent chance, maybe.

Legasov: I said fifty. [chuckles] Either way, the numbers mean the same thing: ‘Maybe.' Maybe the core will melt through to the groundwater. Maybe the miners I've told to dig under the reactor will save millions of lives. Maybe I'm killing them for nothing. I don't want to do this anymore. I want to stop. But I can't. I don't you have a choice any more than I do. I think, despite the stupidity, the lies, even this, you are compelled. The problem has been assigned, and you will stop at nothing until you find an answer. Because that is who you are.

Khomyuk: A lunatic, then.

Legasov: A scientist.”