Gavin Hood’s war thriller Eye In The Sky is remarkably ambitious for a story about one self-contained military action. Using the war on terror and the drone system as a backdrop, the focus is passed around between the officers in command, their legal superiors as well as the bombardiers themselves.
And to the film’s credit, while it’s rather sober in its tone and refuses to offer its cast any easy answers, or at least not any that wouldn’t be regrettable, there is a strong sense of morality that resonates through the story. The sad fact they are authorizing a number of potential deaths from considerably safe distances isn’t lost on the characters, and they remain compelling as they wrestle over the best decision.
Said military action involves Susan Danford (Lex King), a British woman who married a terrorist from Somalia and was radicalized in the process. British intelligence gets word of their location in Nairobi, Kenya, and an operation led by Col. Katherine Powell (a no nonsense and badass Helen Mirren), who has been hunting Danford for close to a year, is launched to finally capture them.
When it’s revealed the couple plan to detonate a suicide bomb inside a shopping center, she immediately seeks authorization to potentially fire a missile in their direction, in a specific angle that would ideally result in the least possible harm. Unfortunately, that still means a high probability of innocent lives lost.
Things go from bad to worse when a little girl sets up her bread stand barely outside of the blast radius, and despite the best efforts of their agent on the ground (Barkhad Abdi), getting her out of harm’s way is easier said than done. The two Reaper drone pilots played by Phoebe Fox and Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul are very sympathetic as they weigh the orders sent from the command center.
Powell’s closest aid amongst the high officials is the war-weary Lt. Gen. Frank Benson, played by the late Alan Rickman as a mediator between those who want to go forward with the drone strike and others asking for more time. Early on he actually flashes some of Rickman’s trademark droll humor, but he quickly asserts himself as the film presses. I won’t spoil it for you, but his speech towards the end is all kinds of awesome.
While the clock runs down, the board members juggle the various political and legal implications. It’s hard to make red tape interesting, but the stakes involved will keep your heart racing. It’s obvious no one involved wants the blood of this girl on their hands, let along the potentially disastrous fallout if the targets were allowed to escape. Yet as the situation escalates, it’s also clear they may have no say in the matter.
In a worse film, scenes like this could feel like an exposition-laden slog. But the humanity of Eye In The Sky’s script and the way its drama builds make it feel more like an exciting play than a typical war movie. Much of its excitement revolves around a gradual buildup and sense of dread as opposed to constant gunplay, and its smart script with great performances led by Mirren and Rickman make this a strong recommendation from me. It’s a riveting modern war story that isn’t shamelessly gung-ho or dovish, instead it examines the drone controversy frankly and realistically.