It's a lean, Lumet-like thriller that puts the moral calculus of drone warfare in its crosshairs.
Eye in the Sky
Welcome to the new front line
2016 · 1h 42m · R
Drama, Thriller, War
Directed by
Gavin Hood
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Eye in the Sky
Overview
A UK-based military officer in command of a top secret drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya discovers the targets are planning a suicide bombing and the mission escalates from “capture” to “kill.” As American pilot Steve Watts is about to engage, a nine-year old girl enters the kill zone, triggering an international dispute reaching the highest levels of US and British government over the moral, political, and personal implications of modern warfare.
Director and cast
- Gavin Hood Director
- Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherine Powell
- Aaron Paul as Steve Watts
- Alan Rickman as Lieutenant General Frank Benson
- Barkhad Abdi as Jama Farah
- Jeremy Northam as Brian Woodale
- Phoebe Fox as Carrie Gershon
- Armaan Haggio as Musa Mo'Allim
- Aisha Takow as Alia Mo'Allim
- Monica Dolan as Angela Northman
- Richard McCabe as George Matherson
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Eye in the Sky is disturbing, but it's also balanced and ambivalent about what is right.
Eye in the Sky is compelling, offering the best elements of a drama and a thriller.
The military and covert war-wagers are getting better and better at killing from farther and farther away, and filmmakers seem to be getting better and better in the drone-warfare genre.
Hood keeps the action tense throughout this nail-biter, which unfolds like a taut stage play. It offers no easy answers, only difficult questions about following orders and the cost of war.
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