Daryl Zero is a private investigator. Along with his assistant, Steve Arlo he solves impossible crimes and puzzles. Though a master investigator, when he is not working, Zero doesn't know what to do with himself. He has no social skills, writes bad music, and drives Arlo crazy. In his latest case, Zero must find out who is blackmailing a rich executive, and when his client won't tell him, why. The only problem with this case is Zero has done something he's never done before: got emotionally involved. Summary written by MartianWax Daryl Zero is a private detective. His latest assignment is a blackmail case involving businessman Gregory Stark. Zero's assistant, Steve Arlo is told little of the case by the client, but Zero sets up a sting operation to trap the blackmailer that leads him to Gloria Sullivan. Summary written by Anonymous Daryl Zero is a psuedonym taken by a paranoid genius. His ability to make observations and then relate them into facts is remarkable. He has curried this ability into a small fortune solving seemingly unsolvable detective cases in inhumanly short periods of time. He is no less than a private investigator savant. While his paranoia requires him to use a front man for all contact with his clientelle, he performs all the actual sleuth work himself, albeit undercover. His tortured relationship with his front man and his first romantic involvement, met while performing his investigations, both serve to distract him from solving a blackmail case. In a nice twist, he falls in love with a woman every bit the genius that Daryl is. Summary written by Dave Philbin {dphilbin@mindspring.com} Shifty timber tycoon Gregory Stark (Ryan O'Neal) is being systematically blackmailed and the use of regular private detectives have proved ineffective. Stark decides to call upon the services of the renowned, reclusive Daryl Zero ('Bill Pullman (qv)), supposedly the world's greatest detective. Stark is very surprised to find himself discussing the intimate details of the case with Zero's amiable associate Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller) who explains Zero's propensity for never meeting with clients. Zero, using his two 'obs' of objectivity and observation, quickly discovers the identity of the blackmailer but continues the case in order to discover exactly why the seemingly ordinary Gloria Sullivan (Kim Dickens) is attacking Stark in this fashion. As Zero becomes more engrossed in the case and, even worse for him, becomes personally involved with Gloria he is forced to decide between the blackmailer and his client!

release year: 1998

star(s): Ben Stiller