Zero Contact (2022) User Reviews

Zero Contact

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 2 June 2022]

A movie made during the Covid pandemic by first time director Rick Dugdale. If he had not secured the services of two time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins, I doubt I would have been watching it.

Hopkins plays mysterious megalomaniac Finley Hart. He has died but he left his final project unfinished. 'The Quantinuum Initiative.'

This project was a source of controversy which led to a family feud within his company and left him ousted.

Now a group of people have been summoned for a video chat where they need to enter a secret code.

Easier said than done as they are being killed off by an intruder. One person in the video chat is Hart's estranged son who is suddenly contacted by a familiar face.

Although the makers claim that the movie was shot in multiple countries. It was in effect shot on smartphones in living rooms or offices or someone's backyard. There is a glimpse of the Burj Khalifa from one participant's window.

This is a zoom movie with the action taking place on computer screens. The plot is silly as all manners of excuses are summoned up not to punch in the codes as the killer looms nearby.

Hopkins pops up here and there with some musings about life, even playing the piano at one point. He manages to deliver some charisma that the rest of the movie is lacking.

Everything you hated about working during the panemic.

[tracieg-95-395578 · 5/10 · 12 February 2023]

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.

Waste of time

[cjstanford-65097 · 3/10 · 20 October 2022]

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!

Zero stars

[synnyzter · 1/10 · 30 May 2022]

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.

The movie title reveals the problem

[frank_kneepkens · 1/10 · 17 June 2022]

A movie made with "Zero Contact" between the actors. The first (and hopefully last) Covid19-movie. This is not a movie, this is a replay of saved internet zoom sessions with so called actors which do their trick before their laptop camera (or something). It gets annoying within 10 minutes. One starts to ask "What am I viewing?" Then at some point I called it a day, waste of time to watch. An experiment gone bad (i'm referring to the movie, not the story which is basically near absent). To summarize: please skip this one, not worth any attention.

A tedious slog of confused actors rambling through an incomprehensible mess of a narative

[IonicBreezeMachine · 2/10 · 18 February 2023]

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.

Confusing, messy and lacking coherence

[bofid-21027 · 1/10 · 23 June 2022]

A strange film. Shame Mr Hopkins put hsi good name to this "film".

Save yourself the time and the mental taxation by trying to follow what is going on.

It's coming from inside the house

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 19 June 2022]

Finley Hart (Anthony Hopkins) a tech guru passes away. He had started the Quantinuum Project which will allow people to teleport and other stuff. Five trusted people are needed to input codes or else. And there are those opposed to having them put in the codes. We watch most of the drama play out looking at folks on their computer.

Film was boring. Might appeal to some geek who loves low budget science fiction drama.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Challenge accepted

[stitch87 · 10/10 · 9 July 2023]

Personally these are my views.

1. Anthony Hopkins is a phenomenal actor and I have such a high respect for is acting skills no matter what film he is in. A fan of his work through and through. There has not and most likely will not be another actor of his calibre in years!

2. The film was filmed, produced, managed throughout Lockdown. Kudos to the entire team for being able to take on the challenge and still succeed in producing a film!!

3. Yea the storyline is a little "wavey" and you feel a little unfinished however! Just for the pure ethos behind it being filmed during a worldwide pandemic makes me still rate this as a 10!

We are all entitled to our opinion. I feel the lower rates are forgetting the other side of film making here. What a challenge! Good to see it unfold whilst sitting in their own places.

Another worst film! Full of boring conversation, and annoying overuse scene! Avoid at all cost!

[kwenchow · 1/10 · 11 July 2022]

This film start with a man "Finley" talking about an experiment called "Humanity", and the news broadcasting about him scene! As turnout, this film is about a father "Finley" need to fake his death, in order to deceive his son "Sam"! Entire film full of boring conversation, and annoying overuse scene! Such as, overuse of the walking scene, overuse of the searching scene, overuse of the arguing scene, overuse of the calling names scene, overuse of the changing camera angle scene, overuse of the blackout scene, overuse of the glitch scene, overuse of the interview scene, overuse of the drinking scene, overuse of the video call scene, overuse of the video conferencing scene, and overuse of the acquiring target scene! Make the film unwatchable! At the end, Finley saying he want to talk with Sam! Still have a series of filming video footage alongside the end credit! That's it! Wasting time to watch!

Breathtaking - first of its kind masterpiece

[briandevans · 10/10 · 29 April 2023]

Zero Contact is a breathtaking display of directorial prowess, seamlessly blending innovative techniques and creative storytelling. The film was the first mainstream NFT released film of its kind and highlights the brilliant mind of director Rick Dugdale, who crafted a film that defies genre constraints and delivers a poignant message, resonating with audiences in unexpected ways.

The ensemble cast delivers powerful performances that breathe life into the intricate narrative. Each character is carefully developed, allowing audiences to connect on a personal level, and the chemistry between them is palpable. This authenticity is a testament to Dugdale's skill as a director, drawing out the very best from his actors.

The film's innovation lies in its unique visual language, employing a mix of traditional cinematography, cutting-edge CGI, and artful practical effects. Dugdale has expertly merged these elements to create a rich and immersive atmosphere, taking viewers on an unforgettable journey through time and space. Every frame is a testament to Dugdale's talent as a visual storyteller, and his ability to evoke emotions through the imagery is unparalleled.

A really misunderstood film

[lonnielongino · 6/10 · 23 October 2022]

This film was filmed entirely during the isolation period during the COVID period. Most of it was shot on webcam sessions with the actors in several countries. First off the movie is complex and a lot of the subject matter was over my head, and I'm a college graduate. I'm not a physicist and don't understand dark matter,time travel possibilities or quantum physics. All that being said, the actors did an excellent job with a very confusing script. Anthony Hopkins can make any role better.

The film effects that were added to make it look more like webcam footage did get annoying. Lots of flickers added for effects. The story itself was interesting and the mystery of a story was suspenseful. I really did enjoy the film overall.

Zero talent

[aircodh9 · 1/10 · 17 March 2024]

This is a terrible movie. As an initial idea for a story idea, it potentially had some promise. Unfortunately, it comes across as though someone had that initial germ of an idea, then instead of playing around with that idea, thinking stuff up for it, fleshing it out and so, they just went straight to writing a script with no actual creative development beyond the initial thought of: What about a story where 'this' happens? To explain...

The notion that some genius Bill Gates type billionaire has come up with a concept which might make time travel possible, but their idea might actually prove devastating to the planet and so the board of directors at the company plot to oust the genius founder in order to prevent such a risky endeavour being developed, and so the guy has to continue the work covertly, is not a bad idea for a story. It sort of put me in mind of the development of the first atomic bomb in the US during WW2, where some of the scientists involved in the process were concerned that detonating an atom bomb might start a chain reaction which would not stop and might potentially set fire to the Earth's atmosphere, but they were overruled by those who thought otherwise. Kind of intriguing to have a plot along those lines.

But the problem with this film is that this is only the vague concept of an idea which it has, it needs much more to be done with the initial idea for it to be believable and interesting. Just throwing in words and phrases such as 'quantum' and 'temporal displacement' etc, is just not enough to carry things along in a satisfying manner. There is not even a vague stab at how such time travel machine might actually function, nor any attempt to show it, let alone explain, even in the flimsiest of ways, how it might cause a problem if it did work. And that's just not good enough for something which is trying to hang the entire plot of the movie upon such a concept as some kind of techie thriller.

No amount of techno-babble, nor showing computers doing surveillance, in an attempt to seem high tech, can substitute for the writers not even having a half-arsed stab at how such a time travel concept might actually work and what problems that might trigger.

So we are then left with a bunch of people talking to one another on webcams and mobile phones for the entire movie, about some truly vague 'machine' which might pose an unspecified global threat, and whether they should 'activate' said machine via some passcodes they have been given, for some completely unfathomable and unmentioned plot reason which doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It's not even lazy plot writing, it's non existent plot writing.

There are one or two good performances from a couple of the actors in spite of the lame ass script and story they are working with,but these are not enough to save it. There are some rotten acting performances too. Then you have Anthony Hopkins doing a sterling job of playing Anthony Hopkins, as per usual (yawn). Give him a hand, he's British!

As if all this wasn't as tedious as it sounds, when the thing eventually staggers to an entirely unremarkable finish, we're then treated to an end title sequence which revels in patting itself on the back by showing a bunch of cuts from when the movie was being made, which the director is clearly convinced will showcase his brilliance.

It's absolutely bloody awful. It makes the worst student film you've ever seen look like Lawrence of Arabia.

Very boring!!!

[rfhrrsc · 1/10 · 24 March 2024]

This whole movie is just a bunch of conversations and blocked up people who haven't any interaction other than on a computer screen. There are some parts that have people spied on and strange things happen. The only believable parts are when Anthony Hopkins plays piano since he does in real life. There is a couple of murders, not very violent. It takes until the end of the movie for any unbelievable ending to take place. If you have the time to waste this movie is for you. If you want something good to watch, stay away. I was so extremely disappointed in this movie. Anthony Hopkins usually does great movies but unfortunately not this time. I'm so grateful I didn't pay to watch it.

Covidly different Read the opening titles

[robert-19257 · 10/10 · 30 May 2022]

Well what to make of this? It was either very bad or exceptional as of today i consider it the latter. Tomorrow I may feel totally differently. I am drawn by how it was made using multiple actors (all excellent by the way) in multiple location around the globe so it is technically brilliantly. Done via zoom or Skype or other such things that are beyond me, it must have made directing it more than difficult, so hats off to Rick Dugdale. Clues to the plot define throughout by the sinister but "batty" genius Finley Hart, Anthony Hopkins, who then leaves it to the other members of the cast to elaborate and add to whatever is going on. All is revealed in the end I think?? So worth watching. I think.

Are u guys serious? Y'all, thee fans lol

[yankoo15 · 7 June 2022]

Do u silly humans just blindly go watch a movie? Now in 22?

And then they're like omg this was so awful, why? I saw this A list star and I thought...what did u thnk, huh? Are y'all 14 or something? :)) U should know better by now lol.