User Reviews

This film details Stuxnet as a phenomenon. It does a good job in deliberating about its ramifications and the situations that fomented it. Although the claims it makes cannot truly be verified, it does give you the general idea about the alleged attack.

I would say there was a political angle to the telling of the tale, but the movie drives home the point that Stuxnet was the primer to the era of cyber warfare of this century. We get to see the dramatization of the 'predicament' of the Bush administration, the sepia tinted Ahmadinejad speeches (which should have been subtitled in English, but were not), and the fictional NSA agent who tells us the role Israel and the US supposedly played in the story. In the end it tries to give out a moral message that all war is bad, more weapons just mean more calamities waiting in the wings, and secrecy around a weapon is the first step to let it run amok.

Overall, it was an informative and a slightly political documentary. Definitely worth a watch.

Though I do not doubt this is an excellent piece of research as well as expose, it's a bit overwhelming for someone not very savvy, thus interested in technology. It's not that the film is too complicated in terminology or scope, but that it is very detailed and thus quite long. This requires a certain degree of interest, as previously stated, and a mature patience. If one is both interested and patient there is a lot to ponder here as this film gets into what actually happened in the what could be the first cyber attack of a certain nations particular nuclear related infrastructure by the combination of several united in purpose nations. This is huge in this regard since the attack was quite successful. Just beware that this is in no way entertainment (it's investigative and educational...even revelatory) and certainly not for casual viewing.

Zero Days is my latest review. It begins with a car exploding and a creepy, modulated voice speaking (hello "lawnmower man"). That's the vein of its excitement. At nearly two hours, this is a overly talky documentary, bent on chronicling the Stuxnet computer virus and how it posed a threat to Internet access all over the world. Stuxnet was a malicious worm. It involved the nuclear proclamations of the U.S. and Iran. Sadly, an insurance seminar is "Zero's" equivalent. A college disquisition is its symposium. This is painstakingly educational stuff.

Director Alex Gibney takes his account all the way from 1979's Iranian flag burning to said Stuxnet Trojan Horse in 2010. His docu skills aren't sloppy yet his flick crawls around in circles. Zero Days is very thought-out, very calculated, soberly streamlined, and intelligent to a fault. It gets to the point where Gibney makes Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, and Steve James out to look like slipshod artists. In truth, you wonder if he actually required multiple takes with the real-life experts he was talking to.

Now does Alex keep his audience alert to his conspiracies, his swift ending, his relentless use of news archives, and his barrage of uniform, cinematic techniques? That remains to be seen. Does his methods channel his elongated film to accrue true greatness? Not exactly.

Alex "I'm taking vigorous notes" Gibney fills the screen with lots of interviews (people are either not revealing much or hiding their faces), locales all over the world, slight visual storytelling, and images of code with Matrix-like tendencies. He goes off on tangents, even projecting an ocular segment akin to Blade Runner's cityscape. Ugh. In jest, there's almost too much information to take in. I'm no dummy but I was a bit addled. The eerie musical score helps a little but whatever entertainment value exists, it could only satisfy hardcore, cyber geeks. Oh and I almost forgot, Hillary Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush are all in the cast credits. Too bad you never really hear from them based on their scattershot, newsreel appearances. Rating: 2 and a half stars.

This documentary is a masterpiece for one single reason: it reveals something that has been and still is brewing in the wings of many governments and that can lead to a nuclear war directly from cyberspace, without being able to trace the starting point, hence the attacker without information from inside the circle that started it. And when the cyber virus or hostile program or simply malware is active where it is supposed to cause harm it is impossible to stop it. Imagine such a beast in the nuclear "defense" of the nuclear powers in this world.

The particular malware used in this case is Flame first as a precursor and then Stuxnet, code name Olympic Games. The target was Iran in 2010-2011, their centrifuges enriching uranium, and the objective was to make these centrifuges misbehave causing their self-destruction. This Stuxnet was also an artificial intelligence malware since it could circulate in a cyber system till it could find its target, it could install itself in that target, observe for a while after upgrading itself from the Internet, then determine the moment it becomes active and starts sabotaging its target. The most vicious part of it is that it sends to the various controlling systems and units messages of everything being normal as usual. When the controllers find out something is wrong because of their observation of a misbehavior or misconduct of the machines targeted by the malware, it is too late. It is also clear this malware can attack some equipment, like a nuclear plant and cause a tremendous catastrophe and a great number of casualties.

Today we can say who did it because someone from inside decided, when they realized they were on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe that could have been hundreds of times worse than Chernobyl, to leak the program onto the Internet and then to leak some details to the director of this documentary a couple of years later.

The covert operation against Iran was conducted under Obama and with his consent, a least his more or less passive consent. He will sign an executive order after the fiasco of the operation imposing the responsible services to require and obtain the President's approval, just the same way as for nuclear weapons. The accomplice who was probably a lot more than just a second fiddle, rather the first lead violin or guitar if not the whole orchestra with Obama as the solo tenor, the accomplice was Israel and its Mossad. To know the grim picture of this Mossad, just watch some episodes of NCIS in which it is more than present, actually lethally present. They are specialists of covert twisted and perverse operations that they consider as normal since it is only gathering vital intelligence for Israel and cleaning up the plate afterwards by killing all informers to leave no witnesses behind. NCIS is not a documentary and this vision is maybe slightly excessive but the plan behind Stuxnet was covert twisted and perverse.

The objective was to destroy the nuclear facilities of Iran by making the centrifuges explode. That would have blown up and out tremendous quantities of radioactive uranium, killed many people in the facility and around it, irradiated probably millions of people in Iran and then it would have spread like a cloud all over the world. Covert, twisted, perverse AND LETHAL. This malware was a potential Weapon of Mass Destruction. The only defense of Obama in this situation is that he had inherited the baby from George W. Bush and he was not informed in due time and before it was actually going. We can even think that if it had not been leaked out onto the Internet in a way we cannot know it would not have been stopped. The New York Times says the malware was by some accident downloaded onto the personal work station of some worker in the Iranian nuclear facility and from there it jumped onto the Internet. But then the Iranians knew and they protected the facility. Only a small proportion of the centrifuges were disturbed and had to be taken care of. It slowed down Iran's progress in their nuclear program, but after the event Iran caught up with a vengeance.

The documentary then explains how the Iranians decided to launch two cyberattacks onto the USA, particularly their banks to show them that if the USA can do it, Iran and many other people can do it too. Such cyberattacks can be absolutely anonymous, untraceable and yet the Iranians made them traceable so that the USA could get the message. Obama got it. He signed the executive order I have already mentioned and he started moving towards a diplomatic treatment of the situation after the second election. Israel and their Prime Minister were furious and rejected in the United Nations the Iranian deal. But I guess Obama was furious enough to have been manipulated to keep some cool distrust and distance towards the Israeli Prime Minister known as BIBI.

But you must understand that we know about it, and we are still here to know about it because it failed because of a leak. But any US President can use such technological malware to destroy someone, some country he or she considers an "adversary" as the US Coast Guard says so well in its latest Cyber Strategy report (June 2015). When you read this report you find out the US Coast Guard is central in the fight against cybercrime in their domain (protection of the USA by protecting the oceans, ports and harbors, rivers and lakes) and that the objective is not only defensive. It is worded in such a way that the expert hackers they recruit or hire are supposed to "defend Cyberspace, enable operations and protect infrastructure." Cyberspace is in no way a national reality; It is a global reality that evades control and protection within the borders of any particular country. . .

Come take a peak behind the iron curtain of the United States Government and understand a little more about the tumultuous relationship between the United States, Iran, and Israel "Zero Days," is an American film written and produced by Alex Gibney. Film was released July 8, 2016. Esquire magazine stated, "Gibney is becoming the most important Documentarian of our time."

The film takes a comprehensive look at the United States' involvement in development of a malware program, or worm, commonly known as, "Suxnet." The malware was developed at a time when the government was just beginning to: understand the looming need for a branch of the government to investigate and prevent hackers from infiltrating our country's infrastructure, economy, and government; and, to discover ways to be proactive learn how to implement a worm into an adversary's government to complete any objective. The film describes the appeal of developing hidden ways to infiltrate other governments without leaving a trace of any penetration.

Early stages of Cybercom and the NSA during the ending years of the Busch Administration were just really beginning to understand the effectiveness of cyberwarfare. In the case of, "Suxnet," the purpose of the worm was to infiltrate Iran's nuclear infrastructure to disrupt Iranian enrichment centrifuges. Interviews and media clips in the film provide an understanding of how cyberwarfare became a new department within our government. Additionally, Gibney President Obama's Executive Order to define a president's role to act as the ultimate power for approval for any acts of cyberwarfare.

For President Obama, Gibney illustrates Bush's end to the program was no real termination. The film implies Bush had to legally end the, "Suxnet," program before the end of his term. Problem arose with the Israel government, which essentially did not end their involvement. The worm inflected Iran's infrastructure, and then metastasized and grew across the globe. To prevent further issues, President Obama issued an executive order which would provide the sitting president to approve all acts of cyberwarfare.

The document touches upon Edward Snowden's roll and gives the audience a better understand of how our government arrived at the current Iran Nuclear Deal, and perhaps the reason behind the billion dollar payoff to the Iranian government this year (2016). I also found the document to be bipartisan and open information for all people in the United States and abroad to understand the workings of what happened and where we seem to be at today with the continual tension between Iran, Israel, and the United States.

By the end of this film, you will begin to draw conclusions as to why President Barack Obama lead us into the Iran Nuclear Deal. At this point in time, the entire world became aware of the United States involvement in the, "Suxnet." It is possible we provided a cash payout to the Iranians for a $1.3 million dollars to avoid the ongoing blow-back and retaliation of foreign governments.

ZERO DAYS is another documentary from prolific film-maker Alex Gibney. This time the topic of debate is the computer virus Stuxnet, manufactured by American and Israeli intelligence and launched in Iran to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities. Of course, such a mammoth undertaking had unexpected results, and ZERO DAYS explores those results.

It's a highly politicised documentary with the expected criticism of the USA and Israel; it seems that most if not all documentary makers in recent years are left wingers who always have their sights set on the USA. However, the subject matter is interesting enough to make this worthwhile, and the technical details are by far the best part. The nature of the incident is such that most of the information was and is still being hushed up, so don't expect much 'on the record' stuff here, just computer geeks explaining what they know.