action, Annabelle Lengronne, Auguste Bruno Derneville, Cam McHarg, Cameron McHarg, Hus Miller, Jean Luc Herbulot, Moran Rosenblatt, movies, reviews, Roger Sallah, Samba Mbodj, Senegal, Willem Dafoe, Zero
April 27, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Jean Luc Herbulot
Some language in French with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Dakar, Sengal, the action film “Zero” features a predominantly African group of people (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Two men, who have opposite personalities and who are strangers to each other, wake up to find out that they have bombs strapped to their chests, and they are forced to complete certain tasks in less than 10 hours, or else the bombs will be detonated.
Culture Audience: “Zero” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching nonsensical action films with irritating characters.
“Zero” is the title of this incoherent action film, but the word “zero” could also describe the entertainment value of this dreadful dud. This “race against time” movie (about two men with bombs strapped to their chests) has idiotic scenes and bad acting. A movie with this concept can work well if at least one of the victims in peril is someone who is easy to root for, but almost everyone in “Zero” is unlikable and obnoxious.
Directed by Jean Luc Herbulot (who co-wrote the “Zero” screenplay with “Zero” co-star Hus Miller), “Zero” takes place during a 24-hour period in Dakar, Senegal, where “Zero” was filmed on location. “Zero” had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of Beyond Fest. Although the pacing of the film is frenetic, what’s actually shown in the movie soon becomes tedious in this one-note flop.
“Zero” begins by showing an unnamed American businessman (played by Miller, who is one of the producers of “Zero”) waking up in a sweat on a small bus in Dakar. (There are only about 10 people on the bus.) In the movie’s end credits, this character is identified as One because he is the first person in the movie to be shown with a bombed strapped to his chest.
When he wakes up, he asks, “Where am I? I was supposed to be taken to the Radisson Blu from the airport.” He doesn’t know how he got on the bus. All he remembers is getting on a a plane. A young woman (played by Moran Rosenblatt), whose name is later revealed to be India, suddenly appears next to him and hands him a cell phone. She says that an unidentified man gave her $300 to give the phone to One.
Soon after One gets this phone, he finds the bomb strapped to his chest. It looks like an utterly ridiculous scenario because something as heavy as a bomb strapped to a chest should be felt and noticed right away. Needless to say, when One sees the bomb strapped to his chest, it causes him and the people around him to panic.
The movie’s mastermind villain (whose name is never revealed in the movie but is voiced in a menacing tone by Willem Dafoe) then calls One and tells him to run. In the movie’s end credits, this villain is identfied only as the Voice on the Phone. The character known only as One frantically runs outside. And when it becomes known he has a bomb strapped to himself, police are quickly notified, and he is chased by police through the streets. He manages to escape and hide.
But the nightmare isn’t over for One. The Voice on the Phone tells One that the bomb has a ticking time clock that is counting down to when the bomb will detonate. One has less than 10 hours to complete a series of tasks before the time clock reaches zero. The tasks involve stealing certain things from various criminals in a convoluted cat-and-mouse game. If he tries to get help or ignores the villain’s orders, the villain threatens to set off the bomb. The Voice on the Phone says that the phone can only receive calls.
And how does the Voice on the Phone know what One is doing this entire time? The Voice on the Phone says that he is using drones to watch One’s every move when he ges outside. There are also hidden cameras on the bomb. It’s an utterly stupid concept, but the movie depends entirely on this concept in order for the strapped-to-bomb victims to do what the Voice on the Phone wants.
About an hour after he goes on this race against time, One finds out that another unnamed American man is experiencing the exact same thing: waking up to a ticking time bomb tied to his chest and being ordered to complete a series of tasks before the bomb clock goes to zero. In the movie’s end credits, this second man is called Two (played by Cam McHarg, also known as Cameron McHarg), who is an even more mysterious (in other words, underdeveloped) character than One.
The Voice on the Phone forces One and Two to work together. And it should come as no surprise that One and Two have opposite personalities and clash with each other. One is hyper and neurotic. Two is stoic and inscrutable. The entire time that they work with each other, One and Two don’t even tell each other their names.
One only reveals small tidbits of information about himself during the entire movie. He mentions that he’s a rich businessman whose specialty is hiding funds for clients. He also had a love affair with a Senegalese woman 18 years ago when he was in Senegal on a business trip.
The only background information revealed about Two is that he is a military veteran of the Afghanistan War. One (who is the more talkative person in this unlikely duo) tries to be friendly to Two, but Two rudely brushes off any attempts by One to have an amicable connection to him. Even though One is a chatterbox, most of what he says is meaningless and annoying.
And why were One and Two chosen for this bizarre and deadly crime? The Voice on the Phone says it’s because One represents the wealth of the United States, while Two represents the violence of the United States. By the end of this convluted and silly movie, this motive has no real relevance.
During this race against time, the two bomb-burdened men encounter some uninteresting and one-dimensional criminals. Onaye (played by Roger Sallah) is the main crime boss who causes problems for them. There are nefarious characters with names like Missile (played by Samba Mbodj), Cherif (played by Auguste Bruno Derneville), Daniel (played by Gary Dourdan, who is one of the producers of “Zero”), and Nzana (played by Annabelle Lengronne), who is nicknamed the Bomb Queen.
Chase scenes, fights, shoot-outs and explosions happen, but they are filmed with very little style and just look as messy as the plot. “Zero” might have worked better if some of the movie was amusing. But most of the attempted comedy is limp and mindless. A few surprise “reveals” at the end of the movie are underwhelming. By the end of “Zero,” the only bomb that you might think about for the movie is how “Zero” such a turnoff, it’s a surefire cinematic bomb with audiences.
Well Go USA released “Zero” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on April 11, 2025.