King's Game - Plot

Plot

Eleven days before the parliamentary election, the Centre Party's main candidate, who is about to become the next Danish Prime Minister and his wife have a car accident. His situation is critical and nobody knows if he will survive. Even his wife, who is also hospitalised, is not informed. The next day, Torp is assigned to cover the election. Quickly, he is drawn into the internal power struggle in the Centre Party where two very different politicians, Erik Dreyer and Lone Kjeldsen, show interest in gaining power and potentially becoming the next Prime Minister. Torp, the son of a previous justice minister, writes his first front-page story after a tip-off from the Centre Party press coordinator, Peter Schou. The story turns out to be "planted spin" in order to damage Lone Kjeldsen (Nastja Arcel) to allow the advantage to Dreier who benefits from her lost credibility.

Ulrik is determined to get to the truth behind the lies that drive Kjeldsen's vulnerable husband to suicide. Tracing the misinformation to its source, he reveals what he knows to his editor and the paper's owner who turns out to be an old college friend of Dreier's. Both close ranks and Torp is fired. Torp tries to confront Dreier over what he knows to be a cover-up of the death of the leader Aksel Brunn who is reported as being still on life support though sources tell him the man was "brain dead from day one". Even Brunn's 22-year-old son is paid out to back Dreier's stalling. But Dreier dismisses Torp as an enemployed malcontent. Finally, by joining forces with a left-wing stringer, Henrik Moll (Nicolas Bro), Torp succeeds in exposing the plot and Dreier on national television. The effects last only a short time before Dreier's contacts and influence push him on a wave to the top.