EAGLE EYE
US, 2008, 118 minutes, Colour.
Shia La Beouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Anthony Mackie, Ethan Embry, Billy Bob Thornton, Cameron Boyce.
Directed by D.J. Caruso.
Decades ago, there was a frightening science fiction film called Colossus, the Forbin Project. Someone had the imagination to create a computer that controlled everything and everyone. It was also the period of HAL, the malevolent computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Well, we have got used to those ideas and are so aware that the amount of surveillance we experience from too many authorities that very little seems private any more.
How do you make a contemporary film about these themes? The way director D.J. Caruso answers this question is Eagle Eye, a non-stop (or very few stops) action thriller that does not give audiences much time at all to work out the details of the plot and whether there is a logic to what is happening on the screen. And, having decided that this was the answer, he makes it a chases, explosions and conspiracies galore whambanger.
Shia Laboeuf has had busy and breathless screen time in recent years with Disturbia, Transformers and Indiana Jones (and more Transformers to come). Here he is a college dropout who suddenly finds money in his bank account, armaments delivered to his apartment, his perfectionist twin brother dead and a mysterious woman's voice on his mobile ordering him to escape the FBI. And that's only the beginning. Michelle Monaghan as a single mother seems to be having a quieter life, seeing her little son off to music camp. Then she gets mobile and mobilisation orders and the flight is on, with agents Billy Boy Thornton and Rosario Dawson in pursuit. (Chase action and car crashes galore.)
We have been prepared for something strange in the film's prologue where US government authorities make a decision to obliterate what might be a funeral group in Afghanistan which contains a top terrorist. Wrong – and the consequences for attacks on the US are dire.
With nods to Hitchcock (after all Caruso and Laboeuf made the updated version of Rear Window, Disturbia) in North by Northwest pursuits and The Man Who Knew Too Much concert finales, the film takes us deeper and deeper into secret agencies and computer control that would make both Colossus and HAL envious.
After we experience all that adrenalin, the ending lets the audience walk out of the cinema calmly with a sweetly twee final moment.
1.High-powered entertainment? Conspiracy theories? Farfetched? The US, technology, surveillance? Terrorism and loyalty?
2.The qualities of the film as an action thriller: the use of surveillance, phones, public signs, chases, crashes, the background at the airport? The technology for Eagle Eye itself?
3.The Hitchcock touches, North by Northwest, the climax in The Man Who Knew Too Much?
4.The introduction to the United States: the surveillance equipment, gliders, cameras? The terrorists in Afghanistan, the vehicles, the information, in Washington? The people at the funeral? The secretary of defence and his wanting to abort the mission? The Pentagon and its hawkish attitudes? The fifty-one percent chance of success? The president’s decision? The bombing, the destroying of the funeral and the people? The consequences? Terrorism rising in the United States?
5.Eagle Eye as a machine programmed for information, control, watching people, creating scenarios, destroying the government?
6.Jerry and his work, playing cards, winning money, paying the rent, the background of his travels, his brother’s funeral, his grief, the twin, his father’s sternness, dropping out of university? The armaments arriving in his room? The message on the phone? The FBI raid, the interrogations by Thomas Morgan? His trying to make a phone call, the crash of the crane, his escape, further orders, on and off the train, getting in the car with Rachel, the drive, the crashes, Morgan and Perez in pursuit, the arguments?
7.Rachel, her love for Sam, his music, at the station, his father’s turning up but forgetting his birthdays? Going for the drink with the girls, the phone call, the orders, in the lights across the street, the photos of Sam in McDonald’s? Getting into the car? Jerry getting in, their clashes? Her having to drive? Eluding the traffic, going through lights, the computer controlling everything?
8.Thomas Morgan and his assistant, his investigations, interrogating Jerry, the continued pursuit, the collaboration with Perez? Her background? Travelling to Indianapolis, involved in the chases? In the airport chase, in the baggage section?
9.The drive to Indianapolis, stopping and the clash between the two, Jerry and his feelings about his brother? The possibility of his brother being a spy? In the city, commanded to do the holdup, the guns, getting the case? Morgan and his later seeing the reflections in the van and pursuing Jerry and Rachel? Going to the airport, getting the tickets, getting through security and the screen changing? Morgan’s pursuit, in the luggage area, the diversion of the packages? Inside the plane, injecting themselves and hiding in the container?
10.The pursuit in the tunnel, the aircraft? Morgan and his sacrificing himself to save Jerry?
11.Washington, Jerry and his getting into the Capitol, the guard, the uniform? His going in to Eagle Eye, it wanting the imprint to supplement his brother’s? Rachel and whether she should shoot him or not, her not being able to do so? Rachel and her changing, going with the messenger, his fears, her going to the concert?
12.Perez, her background, investigations, working with Morgan, the pursuit and the wrecks, going to Washington, with the secretary of defence, going into the computer, the programmer and the discussions and explanation about Eagle Eye? Her voice? Programmed to destroy the government? Ethan and his warnings? The reaction of the computer? The minute man and his destroying it, emptying the fluid, closing it down?
13.The president and his cabinet as targets, their being too bellicose and working on the fifty-one percent success rate? The secretary of defence and his life being spared, his being chosen by the computer to be the next president?
14.The crystal, the sonic reactor, the singing of the national anthem, Rachel and her stopping it, Jerry and his shooting? His being wounded?
15.Sam, the children in the band, their leader, diverted to the Capitol? Their playing?
16.Jerry and his recovery, his decoration, his being present with his father? Going to visit Rachel – the twee ending for such an action-packed show?
