In the middle of the night, George Mullen (Robert De Niro) searches frantically through his office, as someone tries to open the locked door. He finally remembers the entry to his safe, and opens it, just as the door bursts open.
What was George searching for? Who broke in? Here’s what happens in the opening episode of the new Netflix political thriller Zero Day.
Who is George Mullen?
Three days earlier, George wakes up in bed alone at his home in Hudson, New York. He swims in his pool and runs with his dog. We learn he’s a former President Of The United States, and he’s waiting for his wife Sheila (Joan Allen) to land.
George is dilly-dallying over writing his own memoir. As the last president to rally bipartisan support, his ghostwriter Anna Sindler (Hannah Gross) insists his memoir could make a real impact. We learn George didn’t serve a second time as President after the death of his son. George promises to write the memoir soon.
America is attacked
As she is driven home, Anna's phone suddenly stops working. The traffic lights stop working, too. A message comes up on the phone, insisting: "This will happen again". Suddenly, her car is hit from the side by a train. It explodes and she is killed.
At home, George watches the news as there were widespread cyber outages across the country. This resulted in numerous train, plane, subway, and car crashes, as well as thousands of deaths. No one knows exactly what happened, who did it, and why.
House Speaker Richard Dreyer (Matthew Modine) blames the current President for the cyber attack.
George's wife Sheila returns home. They speculate over what happened and wait for current President Evelyn Mitchell (Angela Bassett) to address the nation. From the speech, George can decipher that Mitchell doesn’t know anything about what happened.
George rallies America
George reads over his morning intelligence briefing. He's told that his bag man Roger Carlson (Jesse Plemons) is here and has been waiting for George since 5 am. Roger got a call from the White House asking for George to meet with first responders and rally the people and support. George initially declines. But Roger convinces him to go out to sites and show people they’re not alone.
George arrives in downtown Manhattan, where two subway cars crashed underground. People are still trapped. The local crowd starts shouting out conspiracy theories. George gives a speech to calm down the crowd, saying that they’re all Americans and they need to support each other. The crowd reacts uproariously to the speech, which soon goes viral, too.
The President asks for George’s help
After seeing his speech, Mitchell wants George in DC. Sheila warns George not to be pulled back into the political game. George drives through a heavily guarded DC with Roger. George meets with Mitchell in the Oval Office. She says they have no idea what’s going on and no-one at the CIA does, too. This attack exploited vulnerabilities on dozens of systems, not just one, shutting them all off for one minute, then turning them back on again. There’s no ransom threat or anyone taking responsibility.
Congress has started a special investigatory commission and given it huge powers of surveillance, search and seizure, and the suspension of habeas corpus — the legal procedure that allows prisoners to challenge their detention. Mitchell wants George to oversee the commission. They need to find the perpetrators quickly and make sure that the American people trust the result.
Should George help?
Back in Hudson, George holds a dinner party for Sheila's own election campaign. Their daughter Alexandra (Lizzy Caplan), who is also a Congresswoman, is there, too. She tells George she’s going to vote against the commission, calling it fascist. George promises it will be temporary. She tries to convince George not to do it. But he's still undecided.
Roger and Alexandra argue over whether George should work for the commission. Alexandra says the country has changed and if he goes back, he'll be buried.
Sheila calls the commission the single greatest threat to civil liberties in human history. George says that proves he shouldn’t do it. But Sheila believes that’s exactly why he should do it. He’s the only one who can be trusted with it.
George holds a press conference outside his home, where he tells the gathered media he will lead the Zero Day commission. For a brief moment, he thinks he sees Anna in the crowd. George promises to find out who did the attack and make them pay.
Is Russia behind the attack?
In Brighton Beach, a Russian (Nikita Bogolyubov) meets with a nervous looking man in a quiet cafe. The nervous man promises that they’ll hear from Felix soon. The Russian looks worried. Later, the Russian gets Felix’s location. He then starts to shred comments.
Natan (Mark Ivanir), George’s Russian insider, reveals that the GRU has been funding money to a group of New York hackers for six months. Their leader is Felix. Natan says there’s a chance the next time George calls he won’t answer.
Natan calls George in the middle of the night. George writes down his specific instructions. Then puts them in his safe.
George might not be up to it
Very early in the morning, as George is about to board a helicopter to Manhattan, Natan calls George again and tells him everything he said was true.
George goes back into his house and to his safe to get the notebook. But George can't remember the combination. After George doesn't respond to the secret service agents banging on his door, they break it down.
George finally opens the safe. But inside the notebook, George has repeatedly written the question, "Who killed Bambi?" He tells the secret service someone must have broken in and replaced the notebook.
When he walks into the kitchen, his usual chef Hector (Geoffrey Cantor) isn't there. He asks the new chef where Hector is. Sheila comes downstairs to tell George that Hector retired five years ago. The new chef is Wayne. George looks confused.
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