''Eye in the Sky'' is a 2015 British

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

starring

Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (; born Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov; 26 July 1945) is an English actor. With a career spanning over six decades of Helen Mirren on screen and stage, screen and stage, List of awards and nominations received by Helen Mirre ...

, Aaron Paul,

Alan Rickman Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor and director. Known for his distinctive deep, wikt:languid#Etymology 1, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and b ...

, and Barkhad Abdi. Directed by

Gavin Hood Gavin Hood (born 12 May 1963) is a South African filmmaker, and actor, best known for writing and directing '' Tsotsi'' (2005), which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. He also directed the films '' X-Men Origins: Wolver ...

and written by

Guy Hibbert Guy Hibbert is a British screenwriter and playwright. He has won four BAFTA TV awards, including Best Writer for the 2009 film '' Five Minutes of Heaven''. This film was premiered at the 25th Sundance Film Festival, where Hibbert won the World C ...

, the film explores the ethical challenges of

drone warfare Drone warfare is a form of warfare using military drones or military robots. The robots may be remote controlled or have varying levels of autonomy during their mission. Types of robots include unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weapon ...

. Filming began in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in September 2014. The film premiered at the

2015 Toronto International Film Festival The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's ''Demolition'' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and N ...

on 11 September 2015.

Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightlife, nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood popular today for music venues and comedy as well as a ...

distributed the film in cinemas in the United States with a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on 2016 and then a wide release on 1 April. It is the last live-action film to feature

, who died on 14 January 2016 (his last film overall, '' Alice Through the Looking Glass'', features his voice acting only). The film was dedicated to his memory.

Plot

The film opens in

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, where Alia Mo'Allim, a young girl, twirls a hula-hoop in her backyard.

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

Colonel Katherine Powell wakes up and hears that an undercover British/Kenyan agent has been murdered by the Al-Shabaab group. From

Northwood Headquarters Northwood Headquarters is a military headquarters facility of the British Armed Forces in Eastbury, Hertfordshire, England, adjacent to the London suburb of Northwood. It is home to the following military command and control functions: #Headq ...

, she takes command of a mission to capture three of the ten highest-level Al-Shabaab leaders meeting in a safe house in Nairobi. A multinational team works on the capture mission, linked by video and voice systems.

Aerial surveillance Surveillance aircraft are aircraft used for surveillance. They are primarily operated by military forces and government agencies in roles including intelligence gathering, maritime patrol, battlefield and airspace surveillance, observation (e.g ...

is provided by a

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, one component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS)) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomi ...

drone controlled from

Creech Air Force Base Creech Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) command and control facility in Clark County, Nevada used "to engage in daily Overseas Contingency Operations …of remotely piloted aircraft systems which fly missions across the globe. ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

by Second Lieutenant Steve Watts. Undercover Kenyan field agents, including Jama Farah, use short-range

ornithopter An ornithopter (from Greek language, Greek ''ornis, ornith-'' 'bird' and ''pteron'' 'wing') is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers sought to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may dif ...

and insectothopter cameras to link in ground intelligence. Kenyan

special forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

are positioned nearby to make the arrest. Facial recognition to identify human targets is done at Joint Intelligence Center Pacific at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

in Hawaii. The mission is supervised in the United Kingdom by a

COBRA COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

meeting that includes British Lieutenant General Frank Benson, two full government ministers and a ministerial under-secretary. Farah discovers that the three high-level targets are now arming two suicide bombers for what is presumed to be an attack on a civilian target. Powell decides that the imminent bombing changes the mission objective from "capture" to "kill". She requests Watts to prepare a precision Hellfire missile attack on the building and solicits the opinion of her British Army legal counsel. To her frustration, her counsel advises her to seek approval from superiors. Benson asks permission from the COBRA members, who fail to reach a decision and refer the question up to the UK Foreign Secretary, presently on a trade mission to

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. He does not offer a definite answer and defers to the

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The secretary of state serves as the principal advisor to the ...

, who immediately declares the American suicide bomber an enemy of the state. The Foreign Secretary then insists that COBRA take

due diligence Due diligence is the investigation or exercise of care that a reasonable business or person is normally expected to take before entering into an agreement or contract with another party or an act with a certain standard of care. Due diligence ...

to minimise

collateral damage "Collateral damage" is a term for any incidental and undesired death, injury or other damage inflicted, especially on civilians, as the result of an activity. Originally coined to describe military operations, it is now also used in non-milit ...

. Alia, who lives next door, is now near the target building selling her mother's bread. The senior military personnel stress the risk of letting would-be suicide bombers leave the house. The lawyers and politicians involved in the

chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. Military chain of command In a military context, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders ...

argue the personal, political, and legal merits of and justification for launching a Hellfire missile attack in a friendly country not at war with the US or UK, with the significant risk of collateral damage. Watts can see the more direct risk of little Alia selling bread outside the targeted building, and they seek to delay firing the missile until she moves. Farah is directed to try and buy all of Alia's bread, so she will leave, but after paying her, his cover is blown, and he is forced to flee without collecting it. Seeking authorisation to execute the strike, Powell orders her risk-assessment officer to find parameters that will let him quote a lower 45% risk of civilian deaths. He re-evaluates the strike point and assesses the probability of Alia's death at 45–65%. She makes him confirm only the lower figure and then reports this up the chain of command. The strike is authorised, and Watts fires a missile. The explosion destroys the building and injures Alia, but one conspirator survives. Watts is ordered to fire a second missile, which strikes the site just as Alia's parents reach her. They rush Alia to a hospital, where she is pronounced dead. In the London situation room, the under-secretary berates Benson for killing from the safety of his chair. Benson counters that he has been on the ground in the aftermath of five suicide bombings and adds as he is leaving, provoking her to tears: "Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war."

Cast

United Kingdom *

Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

Katherine Powell,

, a UK military intelligence officer *

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

Frank Benson,

Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff Deputy or depute may refer to: * Steward (office) * Khalifa, an Arabic title that can signify "deputy" * Deputy (legislator), a legislator in many countries and regions, including: ** A member of a Chamber of Deputies, for example in Italy, Spain, ...

* John Heffernan as

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

Howard Webb,

Army Legal Services Branch The Army Legal Services Branch (ALS) is a branch of the Adjutant-General's Corps (AGC) in the British Army. Before 1992, the branch existed as the independent Army Legal Corps (ALC). History Many of the functions of the ALS were once carried ou ...

* Babou Ceesay as

Sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a Military rank, rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage f ...

Mushtaq Saddiq,

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. Risk Assessment Officer *

Carl Beukes Carl Beukes (born 3 October 1976) is a South African actor best known for his roles as Paul McPherson in ''Isidingo'' and as the archangel Gabriel in ''Dominion''. Beukes is a graduate of The National School of the Arts, where he studied Speech ...

Mike Gleeson *

Jeremy Northam Jeremy Philip Northam (born 1 December 1961) is an English actor. His film credits include '' The Net'' (1995), '' Emma'' (1996), '' An Ideal Husband'' (1999), '' Amistad'' (1997), ''The Winslow Boy'' (1999), ''Gosford Park'' (2001) and '' Eni ...

as Brian Woodale MP, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs *

Iain Glen Iain Alan Sutherland Glen (born 24 June 1961) is a Scottish actor. He has appeared as Dr. Alexander Isaacs/Tyrant in three films of the Resident Evil (film series), ''Resident Evil'' film series (2004–2016) and as Ser Jorah Mormont, Jorah Morm ...

as James Willett MP, the Foreign Secretary * Monica Dolan as Angela Northman MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa * Richard McCabe as

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

George Matherson United States * Aaron Paul as 2nd Lieutenant Steve Watts, USAF, a USAF MQ-9 pilot * Phoebe Fox as A1C Carrie Gershon, USAF, a USAF MQ-9 systems operator * Lemogang Tsipa as SrA Matt Levery, USAF * Kim Engelbrecht as A1C Lucy Galvez, USAF *

as Lieutenant Colonel Ed Walsh, USAF *

Michael O'Keefe Michael O'Keefe (born Raymond Peter O'Keefe Jr.; April 24, 1955) is an American actor known for his roles as Danny Noonan in '' Caddyshack''; Ben Meechum in '' The Great Santini,'' for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Bes ...

US Secretary of State The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The secretary of state serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Ken Stanitzke *

Laila Robins Laila Robins (born March 14, 1959) is an American stage, film and television actress. She has appeared in films including '' Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' (1987), '' An Innocent Man'' (1989), '' Live Nude Girls'' (1995), ''True Crime'' (1999), ...

as Jillian Goldman,

US National Security Council The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the national security council used by the president of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House, it is part ...

Senior Legal Advisor Kenya * Vusi Kunene as

Moses Owiti, leader of the Kenyan Army Special Forces * Barkhad Abdi as Jama Farah, an undercover Kenyan NIS agent * Lex King as Susan Danford * Warren Masemola as Atieno, a Kenyan NIS agent * Ebby Weyime as Damisi, a Kenyan NIS surveillance agent * Armaan Haggio as Musa Mo'Allim * Aisha Takow as Alia Mo'Allim * Vusi Kunene, South African * Warren Masimula, South African

Crew

– director * Ged Doherty – producer *

Colin Firth Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor and producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Colin Firth, several accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Aw ...

– producer * David Lancaster – producer *

– writer * Megan Gill – editor * Johnny Breedt – production designer * Nico Louw – sound recordist * Paul Hepker – composer * Mark Kilian – composer

Production

''Eye in the Sky'' is directed by

based on a screenplay by

. The screenplay was a project initially being developed at

BBC Films BBC Film (formerly BBC Films) is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It was founded on 18 June 1990, and has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including ''Truly, Madly, Deeply (film), Truly, ...

, and FilmNation Entertainment acquired Hibbert's screenplay from BBC in September 2011 for

Oliver Hirschbiegel Oliver Hirschbiegel (born 29 December 1957) is a German film director. His works include and the Oscar-nominated film about Adolf Hitler, '' Downfall''. Early life and education Oliver Hirschbiegel was born in Hamburg, West Germany on 29 Dece ...

to direct. Production did not happen as anticipated, and Hood sent the screenplay to Xavier Marchand, president of

Entertainment One Lionsgate Canada is a Canadian entertainment company and a subsidiary of Lionsgate Studios. Based in Toronto, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition and production of films and television series. The company began on June 1, 1973 ...

. Marchand decided to develop it to produce a film with Hood directing. Entertainment One partnered with Raindog Films in April 2014 to produce ''Eye in the Sky'' with

as one of the producers. Actors

and Aaron Paul joined the cast the following month. Hood, born in

, chose to film ''Eye in the Sky'' in his home country. Filming began in South Africa in September 2014. Since the South African Civil Aviation Authority did not grant filmmakers permission to fly real drones in the country's airspace for the production, they used visual effects to display the drones. Hood found practical locations throughout South Africa that substituted for settings in the film: an area that looked like

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

for Mirren's character, clubs that had the appearance of

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

establishments, and Beaufort West which was a backdrop for the state of

in the United States. The bombed town square was built as a movie set at Cape Town Film Studios. Filming concluded on 4 November 2014. None of the four lead actors—Mirren, Rickman, Paul, and Abdi—met one another during production, instead filming alone with Hood due to their characters' separate locations in the film. For example, despite the two costarring in a pair of films (''Eye in the Sky'' and the animated feature '' Help! I'm a Fish''), Aaron Paul and Alan Rickman had never met each other in person, according to Paul. Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker, who scored Hood's films '' Tsotsi'' (2005) and '' Rendition'' (2007), reteamed to score ''Eye in the Sky'' as did editor Megan Gill.

Release

''Eye in the Sky'' premiered at the

on 11 September 2015. The film had its United States premiere on 7 January 2016 at the

Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival (sometimes stylized shortly as PSIFF) is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. Originally promoted by Mayor Sonny Bono and then sponsored by Nortel,here for Table of Contents it started in 19 ...

distributed the film in the United States, releasing it in New York City and Los Angeles on 2016 and gradually expanding to additional markets on the following two weekends. On 2016, the film received a

wide release In the motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across a country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical release in ...

. '' Deadline'' said this release was positioned to take place after the 2015–2016 awards season.

distributed the film in the United Kingdom on 2016 and Malta in May 2016. It also distributed the film in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand.

Reception

Box office

''Eye in the Sky'' grossed $6.6 million in the UK, $18.7 million in the US and Canada, and $32.8 million worldwide. The film grossed $113,803 in the US on its opening weekend of 11–13 March 2016 from five screens, an average of $22,761 per screen. In its wide release, the film grossed $4 million, finishing ninth at the box office.

Critical response

''Eye in the Sky'' received positive reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a rating of 95%, based on 175 critics, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 7.5/10. The site's consensus reads, "As taut as it is timely, ''Eye in the Sky'' offers a powerfully acted – and unusually cerebral – spin on the modern wartime political thriller." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a

score of 73 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Rickman's performance was well received by critics, with

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the '' Chicago Sun-Times'', where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television s ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' saying, "Mr Rickman was never nominated for an Academy Award and it's probably a long shot for a posthumous Supporting Actor for this film - but his work here is a reminder of what a special talent he possessed." Peter Asaro on ''Science & Film'' reviewed the accuracy of the advanced military technology depicted in the film, concluding, "Keep in mind that while some of the advanced technologies depicted are not yet out in the field, many are only a few years away from being a reality".

References

External links

* * * *
Official screenplay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eye In The Sky (2015 Film) 2015 films 2015 thriller films 2010s war films British thriller films British war films Films about drones Films about security and surveillance Films about terrorism Films about terrorism in Africa Films directed by Gavin Hood Films set in 2015 Films set in Beijing Films set in Hawaii Films set in London Films set in Nairobi Films set in Nevada Films set in Singapore Films shot in the Western Cape Techno-thriller films Films about the United States Air Force Films about the British Armed Forces Lionsgate Canada films Bleecker Street films Scanbox Entertainment films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2010s British films Films scored by Paul Hepker English-language war films English-language thriller films