Zero Contact

Academy Award winner? Absolutely not. But I do not understand why all of the hatred with this film.

It was a challenge to make this movie during the COVID-19 pandemic, so that alone is a type of cinematic breakthrough and the film and directorial/production staff should get a positive acknowledgement for trying something different.

Is the plot line a bit sloppy? Absolutely. Tricky to follow at times? Yup. But movies are supposed to be a form of escapism. This qualifies as that. Different type of story with a unique production value and let's not forget Sir Anthony Hopkins....always a pleasure.

This movie was so awful I really have nothing to say. I am dumbfounded that Hopkins was in this and I can only assume he did this as a favor for someone. Probably the worst movie I've ever seen.

I cracked about to submit this at the "Does this contain spoilers" button... The script was so awful there's really no spoilers that could be given. There's basically no plot, no suspense, no surprises, no twists, just 90 minutes of nothingness. So no, it does not contain spoilers lol. For the love of god don't waste your time like I did. Find another movie.

I did find the concept interesting, and I felt that the acting was reasonably good. Sadly, the things I hate on every Zoom, FaceTime, Teams, or other virtual meeting existed here. If I had been able to mute certain participants at certain times, I may have made it through the movie, but the quiet clacking drove me nuts. I had to tap out.

The rest of the elements brought on by the pandemic existed as well. The isolation, the loss of "safety in numbers," the inability to respond to emergencies because you're all in very different locations, and the constant intrusion into our lives of cameras were all highlighted in the film.

Following the death of controversial tech mogul and innovator Finley Hart (Anthony Hopkins), Hart's legacy has been one of shadowy complications ranging from unscrupulous data mining and collection allegations to siphoning off money to finance a project called the Quantinuum Initiative that lead to his ousting from his company. Some time later, Hart's estranged son Sam (Chris Brochu) and a collection of Hart's closest allies Veronica Schultz (Veronica Ferres), Trevor Williams (Aleks Paunovic), Riku Matsuda (TJ Kayama), and Hakan Nordquist (Martin Stenmarck) and each given mysterious packages that lead them to a digital conference with one another where they must choose whether to input an activation code to reactivate the Quantinuum Initiative, but some of the group think the machine may have catastrophic effects on the world itself as a shadowy third party is also involved in the events.

Zero Contact is 2021 techno thriller that was virtually produced by Enderby Entertainment at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic as a way of seeing if they could produce a viable feature film with absolutely zero contact among the cast and crew (hence the name). Beginning development under the working title "92", the film was shot in 17 countries using digital conferencing software such as Zoom and using the actor's homes as the sets. The film premiered on NFT platform Vuele via a series of NFT "drops" on September 24, 2021, but was eventually released in for traditional distribution on May 27, 2022. The film appears to have been at least somewhat successful as in January of 2022 Enderby announced that the film will have two sequels shot back-to-back, but that's less a promise and more of a threat as Zero Contact is one of the most rambling and incomprehensible films I've had the pleasure of seeing outside of maybe a Neil Breen movie.

When you look online for information regarding Zero Contact, you'll notice that there's very few dives into the "plot" of this movie and there's a good reason for that. Trying to unravel what's going on in Zero Contact is a matter about as complicated as trying to untie the fabled Gordian Knot as the movie starts with a long winded spiel about Finley Hart throwing a ton of exposition at the audience before we're even introduced to the main characters and conflict and the motivations behind what's going on and why are so muddled and confused it took me three days to get through this thing as I'd find myself horribly confused and annoyed at opaque and needlessly dense this film was with incomprehensible techno-babble and rambling from confused actors gassing on about nothing. The movie's presented in a "kind of" screenlife manner similar to Timur Bekmambetov's productions like the two Unfriended films and Searching and I know for a fact this filmmaking format can work, but because the movie is using conventional vid conferencing software so things like the obnoxious rhythmic squeaking of hinges or audio dipping in and out are present in this allegedly professional made film. In terms of acting nobody really gives a "good" performance, but some are at least trying and when you have to make nonsensical dialogue about electro magnetic destabilization leading to a scorched Earth come out of your mouth it's little wonder that the actors often seemed confused and not able to understand what they're talking about. Chris Brochu is clearly trying to make something of his role as Sam and maybe if the script had been refined you could see him bringing something here, but the character is so inconsistent (as often pointed out by other characters) it erects a barrier to identifying with the character. And then of course we have Anthony Hopkins in the top billed role of Finley Hart and what the producers used as the primary crux to get the movie off the ground. Anthony Hopkins clearly filmed all his scenes in one or two days at maximum, and his scenes primarily consist of him sitting in a leather arm chair rambling flowery prose about human drive whose volume massively outweighs its actual content and Hopkins is clearly on "not give a damn" mode as he talks quickly and often with a smile on his face even when it's not appropriate. I guess my best comparison would be with Bela Lugosi's role as "The Scientist" from Glen or Glenda by way of one of Marlon Brando's paycheck appearances in something like Island of Dr. Moreau or Christopher Columbus: The Discovery as Hopkins does at least look like he enjoys being there unlike Brando, even if he doesn't have the out of place exuberant energy of Ed Wood era Lugosi.

This is honestly one of the most frusturating films I've ever seen. Maybe if someone like Timur Bekmambetov had made it and refined the screenlife aspects then maybe it would've been a workable idea, but as is it's a convoluted mess of a movie played by confused actors in a nonsensical premise that causes more irritation and confusion than mystery and intrigue. If you ever wanted to know what a Neil Breen movie would be like with slightly more polish on the cast and production while keeping the same type of script, here it is I guess.

Starts off with a long, boring philosophical soliloquy by Anthony Hopkins. Once that tedium is over the movie begins and gains a little traction with 5 people being summoned to a critical conference call, each taking it from their home. We learn that they are being asked to sign off on finalizing a highly secret and scary futuristic machine. With that little bit of interesting dilemma, the movie showed promise. But it goes downhill in nearly every respect. Featuring Anthony Hopkins, I figured it had to be good. Five loosely connected individuals all of whom had a close relationship with a tech genius (Hopkins) who recently died. Quickly we learn that they are brought together to provide the go-ahead of a cutting edge device that can lead to teleportation. The project poses risks to the continued survival of the Earth. But it's not clear if turning it on fully or not will be the trigger for a cataclysmic doomsday. Meanwhile there are strange happenings during the call and we suspect there is a 6th menacing participant. The whole movie occurs as part of a few one-on-one video calls and the majority of the movie takes place on a video conference and the audience gets views of covert texting or calling discretely between participants on the video . This novel style is the only "edge" of interest. The movie never really pulls together, and the cutting edge secret project is barely discussed. It does wrap up, but it makes little sense. Not only does the main conference call gets old fast, but the side communications often add no value whatsoever. The sets are idiotic. Even though each person was among the closest business associate with the dead top 5 tech billionaire, they all appear (except for the son that moved into the billionaire home) to have homes that are nice but not "high end." It's as if while the billionaire makes a $100+ million a year,, his closest righthands make a few hundred thousand.a year. Not likely!