Robert De Niro has devoted much of the past few years to criticising an American president – now he’s playing one. Having called an unofficial ceasefire against Donald Trump – whom he has described as a “clown” and “dictator” – in Zero Day (Netflix, from Thursday), he portrays a Jimmy Carter-ish retired commander-in-chief called back to frontline duty after a cyberattack threatens to derail civilisation.
It’s a fun techno-thriller, and while it won’t feature prominently in De Niro’s list of accomplishments, the mystery of who is orchestrating the “Zero Day” sabotage of the world’s IT infrastructure is spun out with pulpy good cheer. De Niro, moreover, is in his element as a crotchety gentleman of a certain age who, as the action begins, is deep into a cantankerous retirement.
His is the sort of elevated grumpiness to which we can all aspire. He spends most of his waking time grousing about the memoir he has not yet finished and wondering why his daughter (Lizzy Caplan) has distanced herself from him to focus on her own aspiring political career.
The idea of a cyberattack reducing civilisation to smoking ruins is fanciful – but not entirely beyond the bounds of plausibility (especially from the perspective of Netflix, whose subscriber numbers would presumably take a wobble in the event of Armageddon). In Zero Day, the consequences are disastrous. A brief shutdown of global infrastructure sends planes plunging from the skies and trains careening off tracks, like a real-life manifestation of the Y2K bug.
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Zero Day review: Robert De Niro in his element as grouchy US president in fun Netflix technothriller
This is followed by a threat to repeat the attack – only on a more permanent basis. Who is behind the ultimatum? And what do they want? That is the mystery that is spun out as De Niro’s president Mullen is recruited by the present occupant of the White Office (Angela Bassett) to lead a taskforce. Is he still up to the job? He thinks so – and his habit of keeping a minute-by-minute diary attests to his obsession with detail (another difference between the fictional Mullen and the all-too-real Trump).
De Niro is supported by a solid cast. Jesse Plemons plays his seemingly steadfast aid while Joan Allen is first lady, Sheila. There are also spicy parts for Dan Stevens as the rabble-raising host of a Fox-style TV show, Clark Gregg as a manipulative billionaire who covets power and Gaby Hoffmann as a Silicon Valley oligarch bent on global dominion (how far-fetched, etc).
Perhaps it’s in response to the horror-movie nature of global politics or the degree to which technology has us in a pincer grip, but we are living through the golden age of the techno-thriller. Prime Target on Apple is about a murderous conspiracy centred on a maths equation, and now the star of the Godfather Part II and Taxi Driver is playing a former president trying to save the world from demonic hackers.
Such hokum is obviously not to be taken seriously – but at a time when so much in the world is so very serious, isn’t that part of the fun?
