Eye in the Sky
If you could kill a terrorist by drone strike, would you? If a child was in the kill zone, could you still launch the missile?
Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren: Woman in Gold) has been obsessively tracking a terrorist. With his location finally pinpointed, she plans an elaborate capture, coordinating her British action with Kenyan and American forces.
Complications force the capture mission to be abandoned. Powell wants to go for the kill with a drone strike. But it’s not her call.
First, she must check with her general (Alan Rickman: A Little Chaos). He, in turn, must check with British ministers. They must check with the Americans. No one wants to be responsible for the strike, especially when a small girl enters the target area.
As Powell argues for the strike, the British ministers, American drone pilots and Kenyan forces debate its morality.
Is the possibility of saving many lives worth taking the life of an innocent? Can this group come to a consensus before the terrorists escape?
An interesting morality puzzle holds together this suspenseful but hackneyed thriller. Director Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) builds tension as politicians bandy about responsibility for the strike. You feel how infuriating the authorizing process can be. Every time an answer is seemingly arrived upon, someone else brings up another issue — and the debate resumes.
For Powell and her cohorts, the frustration is agonizing. For the politicians, escaping responsibility is agonizing.
Hood makes a powerful statement on the priorities of government, seemingly more concerned with appearance than reality. It is not a unique statement. Weathered military officers are cold, American politicians are cavalier and young officers are emotional. None of these types breaks a mold, though they work fairly well here to move the story along.
With a plot offering nothing new, the acting raises the movie above hackneyed territory. Mirren is masterful as Powell, a dogged soldier who’s bitterly frustrated. In one of the last roles before his death, Rickman is entertaining as a world-weary general who must hold the hands of dithering politicians.
Credit for the most suspenseful performance belongs to Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), who plays a Kenyan operative sneaking into the terrorist compound. Far behind enemy lines, he’s operating a tiny drone in the midst of men with machine guns who would cut him down if they knew. Abdi’s struggle to survive an assignment tantamount to suicide is nerve-wracking.
A fairly predictable film with some well-constructed tension, Eye in the Sky poses some interesting questions to viewers. What is the acceptable loss of life for a drone strike? Who has the right to choose who lives and who dies? If you’re looking for a film that challenges you to think and discuss, this movie is well worth the ticket.