Movie Review – Zero Days (2016)

Zero Days, 2016.

Written and Directed by Alex Gibney

SYNOPSIS:

A documentary focused on Stuxnet, a piece of self-replicating computer malware that the U.S. and Israel unleashed to destroy a key part of an Iranian nuclear facility, and which ultimately spread beyond its intended target.

In the bewildering world of information technology, data protection and cyber crime there is rarely an easy path to take.

Hoping to shine a light on this ever more complex roadmap, in Zero Days, Alex Gibney,  a documentary maker consistently on the pulse of the world at large, takes a wide angled look at cyber weaponry and the possibilities of  modern war making.

Concentrating on the 2010 so-called ‘Stuxnet’ malware conflict between US and Israeli developers and Iran, the film dramatically brings to life the tension of this recent disturbance. Despite no-one ever being officially being allowed to comment, the Stuxnet project was created to allow those western powers the scope to spy on and inhibit Iran’s nuclear capabilities. But it seems as though it has opened up a new chapter in warfare. As Iran responded with cyber attacks on, among others, the Bank of America, the potential for an entirely new kind of battleground was quickly realised.

With hacking soldiers being enlisted from the darkest corners of the web joining forces with fighters who learned their trade on powerful computer games and simulations, the future of warfare is no longer sci-fi. It is, as Gibney demonstrably points out, already with us. One obvious question the viewer will have is, if this all happened nearly seven years ago, how much has advanced even since then?

Skillfully presenting how the future of the arms race lies in the secretive and shady world of hacking and the ever advancing systems of tech geekery/wizrdry, this is a chilling film, more than capable of inducing powerful and all too real nightmares…

Zero Days is out now on VOD platforms in the UK. 

Originally published January 9, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.