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.
