Night Zero (The Strain)
| "Night Zero" | |
|---|---|
| The Strain episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
| Directed by | Guillermo del Toro |
| Teleplay by |
|
| Featured music | Ramin Djawadi |
| Original air date | July 13, 2014 |
| Running time | 70 minutes |
"Night Zero" is the first episode of the American television series The Strain. It first aired on FX on July 13, 2014.
A disturbance inside the cargo hold of an inbound jet to JFK International Airport alarms the flight crew. Upon landing, the plane immediately loses all contact with ground control and all but one window shade are drawn. It is feared everyone aboard is incapacitated, possibly by a contagion or some other mechanism. The CDC Canary team, headed by Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, is called to investigate. Goodweather and Dr. Nora Martinez enter the plane, finding all passengers seemingly dead. They also discover strange parasitic worms on the plane and fear an Ebola-like plague could break out. Four people are unexpectedly found alive, including the pilot, Doyle Redfern, though none know what happened. While at JFK, Goodweather is approached by Abraham Setrakian, an elderly Armenian Harlem pawnbroker who insists the victims' bodies must be destroyed and the elaborately carved, coffin-like cabinet that was removed from the stricken plane's hold must not leave the airport. Meanwhile, recently paroled Gus Elizalde is hired by Mr. Eichhorst, a mysterious man connected to Eldrich Palmer, a wealthy and powerful entrepreneur. Gus is to retrieve the cabinet from the airport, and Eichhorst assures him there will be no difficulty in removing it. When Eph and Nora discover the cabinet missing, they are unaware that Jim Kent, their CDC co-worker, has improperly allowed its release from the quarantine area. An airport official is attacked and killed by an enormous human-like creature that uses a throat appendage to suck out blood, before smashing his head.
In September 2012, it was announced that FX had acquired the rights to The Strain trilogy of novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, and ordered a pilot episode to be directed and executive produced by del Toro and co-written by del Toro and Hogan. Carlton Cuse would help develop the project and serve as executive producer and showrunner on the series, which was envisioned as having a limited run of three to five seasons.
The pilot episode began principal photography on September 17, 2013, in Toronto, Canada. The 13-episode series order was announced on November 19, 2013. The airport scenes were filmed at Toronto International Airport, and the interior airplane scenes were filmed on the same set used in Stoll's previous film Non-Stop. The pilot adapts the first 150 pages of the first novel, which is 300 pages long. The remainder of the first season comprises an expanded version of the novel's second half.
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