Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Zero Day.Zero Day cast and show creator explain why congress members coordinated the cyberattack in the Robert De Niro-led Netflix series. After a nationwide cyberattack, former US president George Mullen comes out of retirement to lead an investigation commission. Despite a series of misleading information and hallucinations, Mullen realizes the true origin of the attack comes from people within the White House and Congress, including Speaker of the House RIchard Dreyer (Matthew Modine) and Mullen’s daughter Alex (Lizzy Caplan).
Now, Caplan and show creator Eric Newman shed some light on the motives behind the organization in an interview with Tudum. Newman explained that “a lot of the worst endeavors in human history” were motivated by the idea of trying to “make the world a better place,” which is what Alex, Dreyer and their group intended to do with the Zero Day attack. He also informed the actors of Alex and Dreyer about the twist in the casting process. Check out what he said below:
They weren’t looking for money, they weren’t looking for revenge; they were looking to make the world a better place. And a lot of the worst endeavors in human history begin that way.
I think I told them [Modine and Caplan] both in the casting process, “And by the way, you’re the bad guy, but no one will know that until the end.” We were always protecting what we called the “second watch.” Whether anyone watches the show twice doesn’t necessarily matter, but we were always thinking, “Oh, if you watched it knowing that she’s a part of it, does it still play?”
My hope is that, through this story, people will recognize that just because the intention behind an action is good, the means can’t always justify the end. I do think that people believe — as the creative team behind this show does — that we’ve got to do something to protect ourselves before a real Zero Day event occurs. Maybe we can make some small difference.
Caplan shares that though she knew Alex was a bad guy, she didn’t portray her character as a straight-up villain. Check out what she said below:
If anything, I think there are a lot of characters that have villainous moments throughout this entire piece. [For Alex, Zero Day attack] was the thing that needed to be done to get the country back on track.
What This Means For Zero Day
Things Are Not Black & White In Zero Day
In the same interview, Zero Day‘s executive producer and co-creator, Michael S. Schmidt, revealed that the way the nation united after the 9/11 attack served partially as an inspiration for the show and why Alex and her co-conspirators would opt to attack their own country. As Newman pointed out, both good and bad choices can be born from the same intentions. As things are hardly black and white, the series intends to provoke thoughts on morality and integrity, as Screen Rant‘s Grant Hermanns notes in his Zero Day review.
There’s also another layer to the attacks in Zero Day. Those within the government system are more divided than ever, and the same also reflects upon how the public react to a catastrophe. The Zero Day attack not only results in massive deaths but also further divides the country. Schmidt explains that he was interested in exploring how “the government responds” to an attack when “there are facts that the left and the right don’t agree upon” and people are living in “completely different realities,” which explains the show’s different portrayal of villains.
Our Take On Zero Day’s Theme
It Asks Some Tough Questions
Even George Mullen is faced with difficult decisions in the end. He’s torn between protecting his family and telling the truth. President Mitchell further nudges him to consider Dreyer’s plan, which is to hide the truth from the public and let the tech billionaire Monica Kidder take the fall. The intentions are again for the greater good, and Mullen is on board as well, except that Mullen starts hallucinating again.
Zero Day‘s ending doesn’t offer many answers but poses important questions, like “Who Killed Bambi.” Perhaps the biggest takeaway is how truth is integral in learning past mistakes. At least that’s the conclusion Mullen makes at the end of Zero Day. What it means for the country and his marriage are left for viewers to contemplate.
