Editing Chernobyl exclusion zone (section)

==In popular culture==
{{In popular culture|date=April 2025}}
* Immediately after the explosion on 26 April 1986, Russian photographer [[Igor Kostin]] photographed and reported on the event, getting the first pictures from the air, then for the next 20 years he continued visiting the area to document the political and personal stories of those impacted by the disaster, publishing a book of photos ''Chernobyl: confessions of a reporter''.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Kostin, Igor | author2=Johnson, Thomas | title=Chernobyl : confessions of a reporter | date=2006 | publisher=New York Umbrage Editions | isbn=978-1-884167-57-7 }}</ref>
* In 2014, the official video for [[Pink Floyd]]'s "[[Marooned (instrumental)|Marooned]]" features scenes of the town of Pripyat.
* In an opening scene of the 1998 film ''[[Godzilla (1998 film)|Godzilla]]'', the main character, scientist Nick Tatopoulos, is in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, researching the effects of environmental radiation on earthworms.
* British photographer [[John Darwell]] was among the first foreigners to photograph within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for three weeks in late 1999, including in Pripyat, in numerous villages, a landfill site, and people continuing to live within the Zone. This resulted in an exhibition and book ''Legacy: Photographs inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone''. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2001. {{ISBN|978-1-899235-58-2}}. Visits have since been made by numerous other documentary and art photographers.
* In [[A Good Day to Die Hard]], a 2013 American action thriller film, the protagonists steal a car and drive to Pripyat where a safe deposit box with a file is located, only to find many men loading containers into vehicles while instead they are supposed to only get a secret file. The safe deposit box with the supposed file is a secret passage to a Chernobyl-era vault containing €1 billion worth of weapons-grade uranium. It is turned out that there is no secret file and the antagonists have concocted a scheme to steal the uranium deposit to make big money in the black market. 
* In a 2014 episode of ''[[Top Gear (2002 TV series)|Top Gear]]'', the hosts were challenged with making their cars run out of fuel before they could reach the Exclusion Zone.
* [[Jeremy Wade]], of the fishing documentary ''[[River Monsters]]'', risks his life to catch a river monster that supposedly lives near or in the cooling ponds of the Chernobyl power plant near Pripyat.
* A large fraction of [[Martin Cruz Smith]]'s 2004 crime novel ''[[Wolves Eat Dogs]]'' (the fifth in his series starring Russian detective [[Arkady Renko]]) is set in the Exclusion Zone.
*The opening scene of the 2005 horror film ''[[Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis]]'' takes place within Chernobyl, where canisters of the zombie chemical 2-4-5 Trioxin are found to be held.
* The video game franchise ''[[S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'', released in 2007, recreates parts of the zone from source photographs and in-person visits (bridges, railways, buildings, compounds, abandoned vehicles), albeit taking some artistic license regarding the geography of the Zone for gameplay reasons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stalker-game.com/en/?page=dev_diary&item=3 |title=S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl |publisher=Stalker-game.com |date=13 February 2007 |access-date=31 October 2015}}</ref>
* In the 2007 video game ''[[Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare]]'', two missions, i.e. "[[All Ghillied Up]]" and "One Shot, One Kill" take place in Pripyat.
* A 2009 episode of ''[[Destination Truth]]'' depicts [[Josh Gates]] and the Destination Truth team exploring the ruins of Pripyat for signs of paranormal activity.
* In 2011, Guillaume Herbaut and Bruno Masi created the web documentary ''La Zone'', funded by CNC, LeMonde.fr and Agat Films. The documentary explores the communities and individuals that still inhabit or visit the Exclusion Zone.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/week-end/visuel/2011/04/22/la-zone-retour-a-tchernobyl_1505079_1477893.html |title="La Zone", lauréat du Prix France 24 - RFI du webdocumentaire 2011 |newspaper=Le Monde.fr |publisher=Lemonde.fr |date=22 April 2011 |access-date=31 October 2015}}</ref>
* The [[PBS]] program ''[[Nature (TV program)|Nature]]'' aired on 19 October 2011, its documentary ''Radioactive Wolves'' which explores the return to nature which has occurred in the Exclusion Zone among wolves and other wildlife.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://video.pbs.org/video/2157025070/ |title=Video: Radioactive Wolves {{pipe}} Watch Nature Online {{pipe}} PBS Video |publisher=Video.pbs.org |access-date=31 October 2015}}</ref>
* In the 2011 film ''[[Transformers: Dark of the Moon]]'', Chernobyl is depicted when the Autobots investigate suspected alien activity.
* 2011: the award-winning short film ''Seven Years of Winter''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://vimeo.com/ondemand/sevenyearsofwinter/144370813|title=Watch SEVEN YEARS OF WINTER Online {{!}} Vimeo On Demand|website=Vimeo|access-date=3 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://klymkiwfilmcorner.blogspot.de/2012/06/seven-years-of-winter-review-by-greg.html|title=The Film Corner with Greg Klymkiw: SEVEN YEARS OF WINTER - Review By Greg Klymkiw - One of the Best Short Dramatic Films I've Seen In Years is playing at the Canadian Film Centre World Wide Short Film Festival 2012 (Toronto) in the programme entitled "Official Selection: Homeland Security"|website=klymkiwfilmcorner.blogspot.de|date=3 June 2012|access-date=2016-05-03}}</ref> was filmed under the direction of Marcus Schwenzel in 2011.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3552491/resume|title=IMDb Resume for Marcus Schwenzel|website=IMDb|access-date=2016-05-03}}</ref> In his short film the filmmaker tells the drama of the orphan Andrej, which is sent into the nuclear environment by his brother Artjom in order to ransack the abandoned homes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cinema.arte.tv/de/artikel/zoom-seven-years-winter|title=Zoom - Seven Years of Winter|website=ARTE Cinema|access-date=3 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426062230/http://cinema.arte.tv/de/artikel/zoom-seven-years-winter|archive-date=26 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2015 the film received the Award for Best Film from the Uranium International Film Festival.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/award-to-seven-years-of-winter|title=Award to Seven Years of Winter {{!}} International Uranium Film Festival|website=uraniumfilmfestival.org|access-date=3 May 2016}}</ref>
* The 2012 film ''[[Chernobyl Diaries]]'' is set in the Exclusion Zone. The horror movie follows a tour group that become stranded in Pripyat, and their encounters with creatures mutated by radioactive exposure.
* The 2015 documentary ''[[The Russian Woodpecker]]'', which won the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary at the [[Sundance Film Festival]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2015/film/reviews/sundance-film-review-the-russian-woodpecker-1201420640/|title=Sundance Film Review: 'The Russian Woodpecker'|first1=Dennis|last1=Harvey|date=1 February 2015}}</ref> has extensive footage from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and focuses on a conspiracy theory behind the disaster and the nearby Duga radar installation.
*[[Markiyan Kamysh]]'s 2015 book, ''[[Stalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and the Depraved of Chornobyl]]'', about illegal pilgrimage in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.<ref>{{cite web|title=Stalking the Atomic City by Markiyan Kamysh|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/691145/stalking-the-atomic-city-by-markiyan-kamysh/9781662601279|access-date=2021-08-19|website=Penguin Random House Canada|language=English}}</ref>
* The 2015 documentary ''[https://thebabushkasofchernobyl.com/ The Babushkas Of Chernobyl]'' directed by [[Anne Bogart]] and [[Holly Morris (author)|Holly Morris]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/11839566|title=The Babushkas Of Chernobyl|website=www.hoopladigital.com}}</ref> focuses on elderly residents who remain in the Exclusion Zone. These people, a majority of whom are women, are self-sufficient farmers who receive routine visits from officials to check on their health and radiation levels. The film won several awards.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thebabushkasofchernobyl.com/awards--reviews|title=The Babushkas Of Chernobyl: Awards & Reviews|website=thebabushkasofchernobyl.com}}</ref>
* The five-part HBO miniseries ''[[Chernobyl (miniseries)|Chernobyl]]'' was aired in 2019, dramatizing the events of the explosion and relief efforts after the fact. It was primarily shot in [[Lithuania]].
*In 2019, the [[Spintires]] video game released a [[Downloadable content|DLC]] where players can drive around the Exclusion Zone behind the wheel of a Russian truck to hunt down prize logging sites, while also trying to avoid getting blasted by radiation. The power plant, Pripyat, Red Forest, Kupsta Lake and the Duga Radar have all been recreated, so players can also go on a sightseeing tour from the truck.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1151111/Spintires__Chernobyl_DLC/|title=Spintires - Chernobyl DLC on Steam|website=store.steampowered.com|language=en|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref>
* The survival horror video game ''[[Chernobylite (video game)|Chernobylite]]'' by [[The Farm 51]] is set in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
* In ''[[Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railways]]'' Season 5 Episode - "Extreme Nuclear Railway: A Journey Too Far?" (episode 22), [[Chris Tarrant]] visits Chernobyl on his journey through Ukraine.