An intelligent and timely thriller
error and one misplaced explosion can be exploited as propaganda to intensify the cycle of violence.
“Revolutions are fuelled by postings on YouTube,” observes one nervous politician in Eye In The Sky, an intelligent and timely thriller that asks if there is such a thing as acceptable collateral damage in the pursuit of global freedom. Gavin Hood’s nerveracking film, tightly scripted by Guy Hibbert, doesn’t have the answer to that complex moral conundrum. Instead, events on screen put the characters – and us – through the emotional wringer as a joint American and British taskforce decides if the slaughter of one innocent child is a tolerableconsequenceofneutralising a jihadist cell.
Operation Cobra has been tracking radicalised British men and women linked to the Somali group al-Shabaab.
One high-profile target, Susan Danford (Lex King), is under surveillance at a house in Kenya, monitored by agents including Jama Farah (Barkhad Abdi).
Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman) takes control of the operation from London, while Foreign Secretary James Willett (Iain Glen), who is at an arms fair in Singapore, watches a live video feed fromaUSdronepilotedbySteve Watts (Aaron Paul) in Nevada.
At a command base in Sussex, Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) has a direct link to Watts and explains that the objective is “to capture not kill”. When covert footage reveals targets in the house are wearing suicide vests primed for an imminent attack, priorities change.