The final moments of Red Eye left Dr Matthew Nolan at his limit after staying awake for what seemed like endless hours. Even without the bullet he took to protect Hana (played by Jing Lusi), his body had already suffered greatly from sheer fatigue, and with blood sugar levels were dangerously low.
Likely worsened by him not getting that long-promised vegan meal — he probably would have still ended up in a hospital bed. Those in-flight gin and tonics he was sipping might have been refreshing, but did not come close to providing actual nourishment.
A bullet meant for Hana finds its mark in a weary hero (Photo: Red Eye/DreamWorks Pictures, BenderSpink, Craven-Maddalena Films)Dr Nolan is expected to survive, but once he’s stable, he’ll likely need a detailed explanation of everything that happened. From violent incidents like car crashes and DIY surgery with office tools, to the involvement of the CIA in sabotaging international nuclear deals.
Down to that life-risking moment where he intercepted a bullet, the conclusion of Red Eye managed to tie everything together with precision.
The Nano SIM’s Secret
Inside the Nano SIM was concrete evidence handed over by a computer programmer to a patriotic Chinese citizen, Shen Zhao (Elaine Tan). This data implicated CIA agent Mike Maxwell (Mido Hamada), who had schemed to discredit China.
His plan aimed to sabotage a nuclear partnership between China and the UK, where Chinese engineers were set to build reactors in Britain. Mike’s goal was to redirect the UK’s nuclear collaboration towards the US by creating distrust between the two original parties.
The SIM card housed both the unaltered code from an MIT graduate and the tampered version created by the CIA. This particular code enabled remote access and was designed to sit quietly within an operating system, allowing external control.
In the forged copy, it was hidden inside the control mechanisms of a Chinese nuclear plant, making it seem as though China intended to remotely take over a facility on UK soil and cause a disastrous meltdown. That was why Mike was desperate to recover the SIM — it was the only proof of his deception.
Shen Zhao, Sir George, World Pacific Medicine & Operation Broadside
Shen Zhao wasn’t working against China — on the contrary, she died trying to protect its image and expose the truth. She collaborated with Sir George Chapman (Peter Guinness), a British intelligence agent pretending to run a global medical firm.
On the night of a prestigious medical event, Shen was supposed to pass the Nano SIM to one of Sir George’s doctors. These medical professionals were unknowingly used as carriers of classified materials under the secret project called Operation Broadside.
Under the disguise of World Pacific Medicine, Operation Broadside functioned as a covert intelligence campaign. Sir George sent genuine doctors like Matthew Nolan to attend conferences abroad. These doctors were unknowingly given secret materials that would be retrieved when they returned to the UK.
That nightclub incident in Beijing, where Matthew was stabbed, wasn’t random. It was Shen Zhao who stabbed him and embedded the Nano SIM into his wound.
Who Was Responsible for the Deaths of Shen Zhao and Sir George?
CIA operatives under Mike Maxwell’s command were behind both killings. They pursued Shen Zhao from the medical gala to the nightclub, where they tortured her for details. When she refused to give up information, they murdered her and hid her body in the car that Matthew later crashed.
Accused of killing the daughter of a Chinese official, Matthew’s arrest and extradition served the CIA’s plan by keeping the evidence away from British soil. Sir George, on the other hand, was assassinated at his residence by a CIA sniper hired by Mike.
After his death, the details of Operation Broadside were exposed publicly thanks to young journalist Jess Li (Jemma Moore), who broke the story in The London Echo. MI5 Director Maddie Delaney (Lesley Sharp) intentionally leaked the story to Jess, both as gratitude and as a measure to prevent future misuse of such covert operations.
Plane Murders and Their Mastermind
Mike Maxwell was also responsible for the killings on Flight 357. He had recruited two ex-soldiers through a company with CIA ties to infiltrate the flight and recover the file Shen Zhao had passed on. One mercenary posed as air marshal Toni Zhang (Dan Li), while the other hid in the aircraft’s storage area.
These men were tasked with identifying which doctor held the data, and they went about it by interrogating and killing the doctors one after the other. One of them, Chris, who had refused to return to Beijing, was kidnapped from the Heathrow car park and later found lifeless in a van.
The information, however, wasn’t discovered until Matthew realised it was literally inside his own body. Eventually, Matthew fought and shot the stowaway attacker. At the same time, Hana knocked out the impostor posing as Toni Zhang.
The fake air marshal had a cyanide capsule in his tooth — standard CIA issue — but it gave the false impression that he was acting for China. Both mercenaries lost their lives.
The Flight Attendant’s Suitcase
During the airport bathroom scene in the first episode, a suitcase was swapped — a move orchestrated by Mike to frame Detective Constable Hana Li.
This suitcase bore Hana’s Chinese name and was filled with multiple foreign currencies and forged documents, all aimed at making it look like she was a foreign agent involved in the plane murders.
Mike’s Arrest
Mike’s entire scheme leaned on manipulation, and he successfully seduced Maddie Delaney to gain her trust while secretly orchestrating the very crimes she was probing. Her husband, who had been incapacitated, already knew about her relationship with Mike, which meant Maddie wasn’t at risk of public shame.
CIA plots unravel as the nano SIM’s secrets come to light (Photo: Red Eye/DreamWorks Pictures, BenderSpink, Craven-Maddalena Films)Mike used her influence to bring Hana, Matthew, Jess, and the Nano SIM directly into his trap once they arrived back in the UK. The first crack in his plan appeared when Mike accidentally mentioned that the crucial data was stored on a Nano SIM.
Maddie immediately realised he couldn’t have known that unless someone on the flight was feeding him information. This realisation exposed Mike’s connection to the events on the plane. Meanwhile, Matthew identified one of Mike’s CIA allies who had pretended to be a server at the medical gala.
At that point, it became clear that they were still targets. Together, they developed a plan to lure Mike away from the US embassy, where he had diplomatic protection, and get him onto Chinese embassy grounds, where he could be arrested.
As Mike tried to shoot Hana during the ambush, Matthew jumped in to shield her and took the bullet instead. His injuries didn’t reach any vital organs, and he’s expected to recover, possibly opening the door to a deeper relationship with Hana.
Her father, who had once urged her to either become a doctor or marry one, might finally ease up.
What Happened to Hana’s Mother
Maddie’s gesture of gratitude to Hana for helping foil Mike’s plan came in the form of a classified file. This document details what happened in the last days of Hana’s mother’s life. Her mother, an academic, had been arrested and died while in police custody in Hong Kong when Hana was only five years old.
Her father, lacking any closure regarding his first wife’s fate, had been left with unanswered questions for years. Initially, he refused to read the file, but by the time Red Eye closed, he had opened it. The final scene of the series settled on a framed photo of Hana’s mother in the family’s hallway — a quiet but powerful tribute.
