Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV News
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsABFFPride MonthOutfest OutfrontsSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Zygote

  • 2017
  • Not Rated
  • 23m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
5.6K
YOUR RATING
Zygote (2017)
ShortHorrorSci-Fi

Stranded in an Arctic mine, two lone survivors are forced to fight for their lives, evading and hiding from a new kind of terror.Stranded in an Arctic mine, two lone survivors are forced to fight for their lives, evading and hiding from a new kind of terror.Stranded in an Arctic mine, two lone survivors are forced to fight for their lives, evading and hiding from a new kind of terror.

  • Director
    • Neill Blomkamp
  • Writers
    • Neill Blomkamp
    • Thomas Sweterlitsch
    • Terri Tatchell
  • Stars
    • Dakota Fanning
    • Jose Pablo Cantillo
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    5.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Neill Blomkamp
    • Writers
      • Neill Blomkamp
      • Thomas Sweterlitsch
      • Terri Tatchell
    • Stars
      • Dakota Fanning
      • Jose Pablo Cantillo
    • 34User reviews
    • 5Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos16

    Zygote (2017)
    Dakota Fanning in Zygote (2017)
    Jose Pablo Cantillo in Zygote (2017)
    Dakota Fanning in Zygote (2017)
    Zygote (2017)
    Zygote (2017)
    Dakota Fanning and Jose Pablo Cantillo in Zygote (2017)
    Zygote (2017)
    Dakota Fanning in Zygote (2017)
    Jose Pablo Cantillo in Zygote (2017)
    Zygote (2017)
    Dakota Fanning and Jose Pablo Cantillo in Zygote (2017)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Dakota Fanning
    Dakota Fanning
    • Barklay
    Jose Pablo Cantillo
    Jose Pablo Cantillo
    • Quinn
    • Director
      • Neill Blomkamp
    • Writers
      • Neill Blomkamp
      • Thomas Sweterlitsch
      • Terri Tatchell
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Firebase
    7.0
    Firebase
    Rakka
    7.3
    Rakka
    Adam: The Mirror
    6.6
    Adam: The Mirror
    God: Serengeti
    6.6
    God: Serengeti
    Adam: The Prophet
    6.7
    Adam: The Prophet
    Kapture
    5.9
    Kapture
    God: City
    6.0
    God: City
    Cooking with Bill
    5.0
    Cooking with Bill
    Gdansk
    4.7
    Gdansk
    Zygote
    7.2
    Zygote
    Bad President: Oil Spill
    4.5
    Bad President: Oil Spill
    Adam
    7.1
    Adam

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Filmed at the Diefenbunker, a decommissioned Cold War era nuclear fallout shelter of the Canadian government - now the Canadian Cold War museum. The Sum of All Fears (2002) among other movies have used the location in the past.
    • Quotes

      Quinn: Synthetics must be used as mining labour. Protocol 7, statute 9. But do you know how much true synthetics cost? The overhead involved? Synthetics... They cost more than orphans. We purchased you from the Strata Group. The company bought you when you were two weeks old. You're a fucking human, Barklay. That barcode we put on you was to fool the OSHA inspectors. We bought a couple of synths just to fool them. You're Canary class, right? What's their job? Your job is to crawl down in the mineshafts, deep down into the asteroids. Your job is to die if you walk into a pocket of poison gas, right? Now, do you think a synthetic would get sick like that? Here, take the gun. Take it. You're going to get out. You're going to tell everyone about this place. About you, about who you are. About the quartz, how it flashes. You tell them.

    User reviews34

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    Familiar but still effectively horrific in design and delivery
    The plot here is somewhat of a sci-fi/horror staple: an isolated location (base) and monsters at (or inside) the door. Many shows and films have done it, but in particular Zygote brings The Thing and Alien to mind. The delivery is simple too; after some dialogue in a contained room to set the scene, two survivors must try to make it across the base to the point they can escape. At first the dialogue was a little uninteresting, but as the film goes on I realized that this opening scene did add a lot to the film. Okay it is direct exposition, but the short running time doesn't give you the freedom to let it play out another way, unless you use a narrator in the same way as Rakka did, or a similar device such as the opening footage of Firebase.

    This opening scene does ask a lot though, because in addition to the exposition, the male actor is not particularly strong – feeling a bit forced and trying too hard to do what he is doing. Once the beast comes though, the film takes on a great pace and sense of horror. The beast itself is a horrific and chilling piece of body horror; the CGI feels real in the way it moves (and moves not just as one creature, but as a horrid composition of people). Through the escape, there are scenes reminding us of what we already heard – and there is a real horror here which the film does well to link to even if it doesn't have the time itself. Fanning is good in the lead, convincing in her fear and limits.

    As with the other shorts in this Volume 1 of release, it doesn't feel like a whole (because it is not) but at the same time there is more than enough here to make it effective.
    helpful•17
    7
    • bob the moo
    • Jul 15, 2017

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 12, 2017 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • Canada
    • Official site
      • Official site - Oats Studios
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Зигот
    • Filming locations
      • Diefenbunker Canada's Cold War Museum, Carp, Ontario, Canada
    • Production company
      • Oats Studios
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      23 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Zygote (2017)
    Top Gap
    By what name was Zygote (2017) officially released in Canada in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.