Icarus: See the Chilling Moment Russia’s Doping Doctor Realizes His Life Is in Danger – Vanity Fair

Filmmaker Bryan Fogel set out to make a gonzo documentary about dopingand ended up unearthing the largest, most unbelievable sports scandal in recent memory. The entire saga is captured in Icarus, a Sundance darling that made waves this January when Netflix acquired it for $5 millionone of the highest sums a doc has ever fetched at the festival.

The story begins with Fogel, a cyclist as well as a documentarian, investigating the effects of performance-enhancing drugs by injecting himself with those very substances. His goal is to prove how simple it is for even an amateur like him to evade anti-doping tests. For assistance, he reaches out to Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the Russian doctor in charge of drug testing at Moscows Olympics lab . . . and, as Fogel soon finds out, the mastermind behind the state-approved doping program that boosted his nations performance at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and beyond; as the film reveals, up to 99 percent of Russian athletes are guilty of doping.

As Fogel and Rodchenkov become more closely entwined, more and more details about the Russian doping program emerge, even as Russia denies that its Sochi medals were ill-gottenand the doctor gradually begins to realize that his insider knowledge has put a target on his back. Things come to a head in the pivotal scene youll find above, exclusively on Vanity Fair, in which Rodchenkov compares himself to Edward Snowden.

Icarus premieres on Netflix August 4.

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From Getty Images.

From Getty Images.

2016 Getty Images

2016 Getty Images

From Getty Images.

From Getty Images.

From Getty Images.

From Getty Images.

From Getty Images.

From Getty Images.

2016 Getty Images

2016 Getty Images

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Icarus: See the Chilling Moment Russia's Doping Doctor Realizes His Life Is in Danger - Vanity Fair