King’s Game 2004

Eleven days before the parliamentary election, the Centre Party’s main candidate, who is poised to become the next Danish Prime Minister, and his wife are injured in a car accident. Their condition is critical, and nobody knows if he will survive. Even his wife, who is hospitalized, is not informed. The next day, Ulrik Torp, Anders W. Berthelsen is assigned to cover the election and is quickly drawn into the internal power struggle within the Centre Party, where two very different figures—Erik Dreier Jensen, Søren Pilmark, and Lone Kjeldsen, Nastja Arcel—jockey for influence and a potential path to the premiership. Torp, the son of a former justice minister, writes his first front-page story after a tip-off from the Centre Party press coordinator, Peter Schou, Lars Mikkelsen. The piece turns out to be planted spin designed to damage Lone Kjeldsen, giving Dreyer the upper hand as her credibility begins to crumble.

Ulrik Torp, [Anders W. Berthelsen], is determined to uncover the truth behind the lies fueling Kjeldsen’s vulnerable husband’s despair. Tracing the misinformation to its source, he informs his editor and the paper’s owner, who proves to be an old college friend of Dreyer. The two parties close ranks, and Torp is fired. He then confronts Dreyer about what he knows: a cover-up surrounding the death of party leader Aksel Brunn, who is reported as still on life support, though sources claim he was brain dead from day one. Brunn’s 22-year-old son is paid off to back Dreyer’s stall, but Dreyer dismisses Torp as an unemployed malcontent. In a final turn, Torp teams up with left-wing stringer Henrik Moll, Nicolas Bro, to expose the plot on national television. The revelation unsettles the political landscape for a moment, but Dreyer’s extensive network and influence push him toward the top once again.