[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Eye in the Sky (2015)

Set in several locations around the world, this follows events in Kenya where several high profile terrorist leaders congregate in one location, perfect for a planned 'raid and capture' move. However, they move and are followed to a different location where a UK national, radicalised as a teenager, is confirmed amongst their number and is one of the most wanted members of Al-Shabaab, an African terrorist organisation.

With the house in a different area of the city, and now with two men being fitted with explosive vests for suicide detonation, the only option now becomes a strike from a Reaper Drone, which is operated by two young pilots in Nevada, but events are complicated when a young girl sets up stall selling bread outside the house perimeter walls. While the military and political personnel try and come to a decision, the clock is ticking.

The film introduces all sorts of moral, ethical and philosophical questions, with Helen Mirren's character, a colonel who has been tracking the radicalised Brit for six years, desperate to launch the Hellfire missile but, along with the Lieutenant-General (brilliantly played by Alan Rickman in his final screen role) in the COBRA meeting, finds herself frustrated by the politicians who are increasingly concerned by collateral damage and the propaganda war they are waging with Al-Shabaab and the wider Muslim world.

Events basically take place in real time, switching between the British Northwood headquarters, an office somewhere in Whitehall, the cabin in Nevada where the pilots sit at the controls and then on the ground in Nairobi. Also, various other people, from the US attorney general, US Secretary of State (on a visit in Shanghai) and a very ill British Foreign Secretary in his hotel room after hastily leaving an arms fair in Britain are all involved in the decision over whether or not to launch a missile that would potentially save 80 lives, but kill or injure those in the vicinity of the house.

Eye in the Sky is as tense as films come, extremely cerebral, thought-provoking, and timely. It makes you realise the level of decision-making that goes into each drone strike, almost asking 'what would you do?', whilst not giving any easy answers. The entire cast are superb, with Mirren in a role originally written for a man, Aaron Paul brilliant as the young drone pilot, and Somali actor Barkhad Abdi, who came to prominence in Captain Phillips, again superb as part of a terrific ensemble cast. Very highly recommended.