Plot

Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey's quest to break the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Two-time Academy Award® nominee Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman, An Education) and Emmy nominee Zoe Kazan (The Plot Against America, The Big Sick) star as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who together broke one of the most important stories in a generation--a story that shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood and impelled a shift in American culture that continues to this day.—Official synopsis

New York City, 2016. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, journalists for the New York Times, have spent months reaching out to abuse survivors to open up to them about predatory Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct and power abuse. For this reason, the two working mothers deal with stress and exhaustion as they uncover a three-decade history of intimidation, extreme harassment, and rape that spans as far back as the 1980s. And in their unrelenting pursuit of the truth, the two investigative reporters confront years of silence and an extensive, well-organised system protecting male abusers. But as the two journalists give the objectified women a chance to tell their stories, their detailed accounts of repeated harassment and sexual assault spark a global movement. As a result, their noble cause helped inspire women to speak out and seek justice.—Nick Riganas

In 2017, New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) receives a tip that actress Rose McGowan (Keilly McQuail) was sexually assaulted by Indiewood producer Harvey Weinstein (Mike Houston) in 1992. McGowan initially declines to comment, but later calls her back and describes an encounter in which Weinstein sexually assaulted her when she was 23. Rose says that she told a lot of people but nobody did a thing about it.

Megan is a fellow reporter at NYT and was in touch with Rachel Crooks (Emma Clare O'Connor), who alleged that Trump had sexually assaulted her. Kantor encouraged Rachel to go on record but said that if Trump sued her, NYT would not be able to provide legal assistance. As Megan publishes the Crooks article, Crooks gets a bag full of feces in the mail. Megan is married to Vadim "Jim" Rutman (Tom Pelphrey).

Post the Trump story, sexual harassment at work becomes a hot topic. Kantor brings the McGowan story to her news editors Rebecca (Patricia Clarkson) and Matt Purdy (Frank Wood) who allow her to pursue it further. Kantor believes that sexual harassment is pervasive in Hollywood. Kantor also speaks with actresses Ashley Judd (Judd says that she refused to have sex with Harvey in his hotel room, and in response he blackballed her career. He made phone calls to get her rejected for roles and she lost advertising gigs) and Gwyneth Paltrow, who describe their own experiences with Weinstein, but both ask not to be named in the article for fear of career blow-back. Frustrated by a lack of progress in her ensuing investigation, she recruits Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) to help with the piece. Megan had demonstrated with the Crooks article that she knew how to get women to talk about their trauma.

Megan starts investigating complaints against Miramax, the studio that Harvey worked for. She finds several complaints from 2001, but none that went to court. Going deeper, she is only given the name of the Government investigator assigned to the case. But the investigator refuses to share any details with Megan. Twohey tracks down a woman who worked as an assistant to Weinstein at Miramax decades ago and disappeared; the woman fearfully declines to speak on the matter due to having signed an NDA. Kantor confronts the former CFO of Miramax John Schmidt (John Mazurek) about past settlement payouts by Weinstein against his accusers, but he is hesitant to divulge any information about it.

Twohey is similarly rejected by the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunities Commission) after requesting more information about the settlements. Megan and Kantor find that most sexual harassment claims are settled out of court, and with a non-disclosure clause. 40% of the claim's money goes to the lawyers who encourage the settlement. Women who take the settlement have to hand over all the evidence including diaries, emails, phones. The cash for silence allows the perpetrators to continue. Ambra Battilana accused Harvey of groping her. NYPD gave her a wire and sent her back to meet Harvey. The whole sexual solicitation was recorded but the DA said that this was not enough evidence to prosecute. Megan speaks to Linda Fairstein, a former member of the district attorney's office about why criminal complaints against Weinstein were dropped so quickly; she learns that Weinstein had social connections with Fairstein and the DA's office.

Kantor receives a tip (from one of Harvey's Miramax assistants) about three former Weinstein assistants who may have been abused: Rowena Chiu (Angela Yeoh), Zelda Perkins (Samantha Morton), and Laura Madden (Jennifer Ehle). She flies out to confront each of them individually. Unable to meet with Chiu, Perkins recounts an incident to Kantor in which Chiu had a breakdown after an encounter with Weinstein. Perkins recounts how Harvey sexually assaulted Chiu in his Venice hotel room and denied it the next morning when Perkins confronted him, after Chiu reached out to her for comfort. Perkins and Chiu resigned after returning to London and wanted a criminal proceeding against Harvey. But their lawyer said that they had no proof and encouraged them to settle. Perkins put some conditions in the settlement designed to get Harvey to stop his predatory behavior like getting therapy, more HR observation on people working with Harvey, and Harvey being fired if there was another incident within 2 years. But the women were gagged with Harvey's own set of conditions for the settlement. Perkins never got a job after that. Perkins says that the system was protecting the abusers, and she hands over all the evidence over to Kantor, despite the gag order.

Madden (who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer) initially declines to speak with her but changes her mind after a Weinstein representative reaches out to discourage her from speaking to reporters about her experience.

Weinstein learns of the investigation and sends a lawyer Lanny Davis (Peter Friedman) to attempt to appease reporters (Including Rebecca and Matt's boss Dean Baquet (Andre Braugher)), but declines to go on the record and denies all wrongdoing. The lawyer acknowledges a number of past financial settlements but declines to say how many. Lanny characterizes Rose's complaint of that of mental bullying and intimidation, rather than of a sexual assault. Kantor receives an anonymous tip to speak with Irwin Reiter (Zach Grenier), one of Weinstein's former accountants; he shows her an internal memo that circulated at Miramax in 2015 detailing abuse allegations from a former employee named Lauren O'Connor. Irwin tells Kantor that Harvey has had many recent incidents and the allegations from the 90's are old news. Megan meets Lanny unofficially and he confirms 8-12 settlements made by Harvey.

Chiu finally meets Kantor and gives her story from the Venice incident to Kantor, off the record. Chiu says that she never got a job after resigning from Miramax. Chiu says that she was forced to return to Miramax and took up a job in Hong Kong assuming it was far enough from Harvey. She felt so isolated and unneeded that she contemplated suicide.

The Times notifies the Weinstein Company board of the impending article and asks for a statement. One board member from the company meets Megan and says that the entire board was worried about Harvey's behavior. Weinstein denies the allegations and pressures the reporters to name their sources, threatening to talk to other publications to discredit the story. He eventually releases a statement acknowledging that he has caused pain to others in the past and that he is taking a leave of absence from The Weinstein Company. Kantor and Twohey attempt to convince their sources to go on the record; all initially decline, but Judd and Madden later agree to be named in the article, believing it is the right thing to do.

The Times publishes the story on October 5, 2017. After the article's publication, 82 women come forward with their own allegations against Weinstein, leading to workplace and legal reforms. Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year sentence for sexual assault in New York.