Civilian casualties of war seem to loom large over our collective consciousness this summer. The plot of Captain America: Civil War was set in motion because of the impact of those casualties. Now we have Eye in the Sky, a modern war thriller with a classic ethical dilemma at its core.
On a sunny day in Nairobi, Kenya, key members of the terrorist group Al-Shabab meet in a suburb. Members of the British and United States forces watch drone footage of the meeting and plan a drone strike.
As the Al-Shabab members suit themselves up in suicide bombing vests, a young girl sets up her bread stand outside of the terrorists’ house and well within range of an air strike.
What to do? Kill the girl and stop a possible suicide bombing, or allow the girl to live but allow many other deaths to potentially occur?
It is a simplified version of what is a far more complex political situation happening today. The use of an innocent female child is an obvious gendered grab for sympathy (what if it had been a young man selling that bread? Or an old woman?) and while the script fails to truly challenge the audience, it does get across the absurdity of warfare waged from the comfort of a desk.
I was initially drawn to this film because of Alan Rickman and Helen Mirren. In one of his final roles, Rickman plays Lieutenant General Frank Benson, and Mirren is Colonel Katherine Powell. Rickman’s general is determined to stop the suicide bombing. Mirren’s colonel is ruthless—her only objective is removing the targets. She strolls through the cavernous military control room, pressuring the men who work for her to bend at her will.
The performances from Rickman and Mirren anchor this film, as does the presence of Somalian actor Barkhed Abdi.
Abdi is best known as the Somali pirate in Captain Phillips. In this film he plays an agent in Nairobi working for the British and the Americans. The most sympathetic character other than Alia Mo’Allim herself, Abdi is a quick-witted and engaging onscreen presence—hopefully this means more meaningful roles for him in the future.
While Abdi’s agent struggles to survive in Nairobi, Rickman’s frustrated general finds himself in a well lit, comfortable boardroom full of indecisive politicians who don’t want to take on the blame for the death of a child. Every time a crucial decision must be made, they feel the need to contact other authorities. The British foreign affairs minister is on the toilet with a case of food poisoning when he answers the phone. The American minister is in the middle of a game of ping pong in China. One after another these men—they’re almost all men—briefly step out of mundane and lavish lives to callously throw in their two cents about the fate of a Kenyan child.
And what of that child? While I think putting a young girl in the line of fire was a bit too convenient on the part of the script, the girl at least breaks free from “poor African child” stereotypes. We see Alia complaining about her math homework and reading.
The American drone pilots, played by Aaron Paul and Phoebe Fox, catch sight of Alia playing early on in the mission and that makes their operation emotionally unbearable. The film does a good job of isolating them visually from all the other settings – it’s just Fox and Paul alone in a dark room together with the power to play God.
It makes sense that this film was initially called ‘The Kill Chain’. The chain itself is the point. Eye in the Sky isn’t telling us anything we didn’t already know about drone warfare. But it does dramatize the process in a gripping and haunting way, and for that it’s well worth seeing.
