Eye in the Sky
14/03/17 Filed in: Amazon Prime
I didn't get to see this film when it was at the cinema but caught up with it the other evening on Amazon Prime. It's a tense film that explores the modern day fight against terrorists by the use of armed drones and other technology. Some of the equipment shown is either pushing the envelope quite hard or purely fanciful. The high resolution cameras on the drone I can just about believe, as I can the camera mounted in an imitation humming bird on a wall outside the property under surveillance, but the flying bug was perhaps pushing things a bit too far. Even if I accept that such a thing exists, which it may well do, manoeuvring it as precisely as was shown in the film using just a smartphone sized controller seemed highly questionable. But let's forget the tech and consider the plot.
Helen Mirren plays Colonel Katherine Powell based at the Northwood control centre in Middlesex, UK. She is part of an international team monitoring Al-Shabaab militants in Nairobi, Kenya. In Nevada a USAF team is controlling an armed drone while at Pearl Harbour the intelligence centre is responsible for identifying targets using incredibly fast, and accurate, facial recognition technology. Kenyan troops are also on standby and they have field operatives monitoring the target property. The weak point in the chain turns out to be a COBRA meeting attended by British Government ministers, the Attorney General and the long-suffering and very frustrated Lieutenant General Frank Benson, played brilliantly by the late Alan Rickman.
Helen Mirren plays Colonel Katherine Powell based at the Northwood control centre in Middlesex, UK. She is part of an international team monitoring Al-Shabaab militants in Nairobi, Kenya. In Nevada a USAF team is controlling an armed drone while at Pearl Harbour the intelligence centre is responsible for identifying targets using incredibly fast, and accurate, facial recognition technology. Kenyan troops are also on standby and they have field operatives monitoring the target property. The weak point in the chain turns out to be a COBRA meeting attended by British Government ministers, the Attorney General and the long-suffering and very frustrated Lieutenant General Frank Benson, played brilliantly by the late Alan Rickman.
After six years of trying to track down these militants, who include a British couple, the team now have them positively located in this property. What is more, they are seen to be preparing for an imminent suicide mission. For Colonel Powell the course of action is clear, send in a Hellfire missile and kill the terrorists before they can inflict carnage elsewhere. Unfortunately things aren't so clear for the British Government ministers, who prevaricate, fearing collateral damage, the target property being in a populated area with people moving around in the bordering streets. The minister insists on referring the decision up to the Foreign Secretary, who in turn seeks agreement from the Americans, while all the time the risk of the terrorists leaving becomes greater. The Americans' no-nonsense attitude to sanctioning the action contrasts sharply with the British indecision. Just when it seems that agreement for the strike has been given, a young girl walks into the target area and sets up a bread stall within the collateral damage zone. At this point the USAF pilot controlling the drone and the weapons asks for a reassessment of the collateral damage, while his female co-operator is clearly disturbed by the thought of launching the missile while the young girl is there.
The frustration builds and builds as time passes and an attempt on the ground to get the girl to leave is unsuccessful. It becomes a nail-biting will they or won't they strike, will the girl move away in time, will the terrorists leave before the strike can be initiated. I'm not going to answer any of those questions but will say that the ending wasn't exactly what I was expecting.
This is a well acted film that does a superb job of displaying the emotions of all the players involved and the moral issues associated with remote drone warfare.
The frustration builds and builds as time passes and an attempt on the ground to get the girl to leave is unsuccessful. It becomes a nail-biting will they or won't they strike, will the girl move away in time, will the terrorists leave before the strike can be initiated. I'm not going to answer any of those questions but will say that the ending wasn't exactly what I was expecting.
This is a well acted film that does a superb job of displaying the emotions of all the players involved and the moral issues associated with remote drone warfare.