Eye of the Storm is a drama film centered around a hospital that goes into lockdown due to a deadly viral breakdown, forcing the people inside to make difficult decisions. The film is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Dr. Xia Zheng is a thoracic surgeon at the Taipiei United Hospital and is just about to leave at the end of his shift to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. Nurse Ang Tai-He mentions that a patient feels discomfort, but Xia says he should be ready for discharge.
The surgeon has his daughter’s gift in a bag and gets into a cab right as a patient is being brought into the hospital with severe injuries. Dr. Xia is called back to the hospital to perform surgery but leaves his bag in the cab.
While in the cab, he reads an expose about a potential SARS outbreak in the city but disregards it. He returns to find a reporter named Jing Yu-Zhong recording him. Yu-Zhong is also the one who wrote the expose and believes there is some truth to it.
Some nurses in the hospital come down with a fever and Dr. Xia goes to perform the surgery with a junior resident who is close friends with Tai-He. The cabbie returns with Xia’s bag and then heads to the washroom.
Suddenly, people in the hospital begin to panic as the shutters of the hospital are being brought down. The news reports that there has been a SARS outbreak within the hospital and a lockdown procedure has immediately been implemented.
A young girl walks into the hospital amid the chaos and the cab driver who finds himself stranded inside looks after her. Yu-Zhong is trying to get more information and runs into Dr. Xia.
Together, they decide to track down who might be the original carrier to help with their situation. The B-Wing is isolated as most of the patients that tested positive are there and Dr. Xia goes in there to have a look at the situation.
Yu-Zhong and Dr. Xia find a possible lead in their search for patient zero and he tells the head of his department this information. He also asks if he can be part of the first batch of people allowed to leave the hospital.
Tai-He has plans to go to Hong Kong the following month for an interview for ‘Doctors without Borders’. One of his patients is suffering from cancer and is refusing treatment so he asks the patient’s son to convince him otherwise.
He is told by several people that sometimes you need to learn to let go and not get too attached. The little girl’s mother is the head nurse but she was one of the first employees to come down with SARS symptoms so the girl isn’t able to visit her.
As the days go by, many members of the staff protest because they do not want to be exposed to the affected patients and risk their own lives. They go on strike, adding to the workload of the staff that is still working.
The cancer patient decides to hang himself and Dr. Xia and the others try to save him but aren’t able to. The head nurse in the B-wing also passes away despite Tai-He’s efforts.
Patient Zero is discovered and Dr. Xia is allowed to leave with the first extraction. Tai-He’s temperature begins to rise and he checks himself in after testing positive.
Eye of the Storm (2023) ending explained in detail:
Who was patient zero?
Dr. Xia is informed by his department head that patient zero was the man he suspected all along, and that they got it from their son who worked in an engineering firm that suffered an outbreak.
Dr. Xia and Yu-Zhong notice that the pipes in the hospital are made by the same engineering firm and they follow it to find that it leads to the linens department of the hospital.
He later finds out that the man he operated on right before the lockdown was also from the linens which means he might be a carrier. He informs Yu-Zhong and the two of them can do nothing else but hope.
What about Tai-He?
Tai-He is in a room dealing with his symptoms when he sees the patient in the opposite room collapse. He calls out to any doctors or nurses but no one is around.
He breaks quarantine and rushes into the other room to help the other patient and begins performing CPR. A nurse arrives and brings the crash cart so that they can use the defibrillator.
Tai-He continues to give CPR because he doesn’t want to lose another person like the head nurse. His effort pays off as the man survives and Tai-He sits down outside the room struggling with his symptoms.
What happens to Dr. Xia?
Dr. Xia is allowed to leave but when he learns that there is a pregnant woman with SARS who needs surgery in the B-wing, he volunteers to help.
It is only after that he realizes that he might have contracted the virus himself. He takes his temperature and sees that it is just below the threshold.
He goes in to perform the surgery but there is a bleed that they cannot figure out how to close. With some guidance from the OB, Dr. Xia stops the bleeding, and during the surgery, he removes his goggles because they fog up.
He is successful, even though he put himself at more risk. He steps out of the OT and calls his daughter who tells him her birthday wishes.
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