Zero Days (2016)
Cast: George W. Bush & others
Director: Alex Gibney
Studio: Magnolia Home Ent. 1115 (1/17/17)
Video: for 16:9 screens, color
Audio: English, DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Extras: Interview with director, Theatrical trailer
Length: 114 min.
Rating: ****
This documentary/thriller is about Stuxnet – a self-replicating computer malware that the U.S. and Israel unleashed to destroy the centrifuges of the Iran nuclear facility. The U.S. researchers on it had no idea it had come out of the U.S. but they figured it was a nation-state that did it. It ultimately spread way beyond its intended target, and while it delayed Iran’s development for a nuclear weapons capability, it brought us to a worldwide situation of continuous cyber warfare – where even the smallest country can now threaten to turn off all the electricity in the U.S. or specific places.
The origin, background, development, implementation, discovery and investigation of, and fallout from Stuxnet are clearly laid out in this informative documentary. It ends with the general subject of state-sponsored cyber warfare. The less knowledge one has of Stuxnet and consequences of cyber warfare, the more important the documentary will probably be to the viewer.
There are some problems with the film. A balloon bursting is fine to show that the malware could create terrible consequences that would blow up things, but there was no reason so show it over and over. I got the main point from this documentary was similar to that of the Iraq invasion etc. – we started messing thing up with the supposed attack on Iran’s facility (dangerous as it is) and now any small country can fight a cyber war and is currently doing so, and is capable of turning off all the electric power anywhere in the U.S. and all over if it wants.
—John Sunier
