Eye in the sky (2015)

Starring: Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman

Eye in the sky is a nerve-wrecking movie that shows us a war zone placed in Kenya, in a terrorist owned territory. The British government is working with the Kenyan and American governments to track high-risk terrorist they have been chasing for years and those terrorist ended up being in this place in Kenya.

To create empathy, the movie presents aside with the main story, a little girl different from the people in that area. She is intelligent and sweet, learning maths and languages. When not playing or studying, she helps her mom selling bread to others in the village.

The whole movie is about on major decision. The highly wanted terrorists are planning to strike with 2 bomb-men. They are placed in the house next door to that little girl.. The decision they need to make is either to strike, maybe kill the girl and prevent the attack, or not to strike and maybe let many other people die from the attack.

It seems easy to choose between one life versus many lives, but in my opinion the ethics behind that decision go much further. It brings us the thought of the care of the government towards its citizens. For example, I pay my taxes for the government to protect me, not shoot a bomb from a drone and as a collateral damage, kill me or the ones around me. However, many may think it was a necessary damage, because many other people would die from that bomb. But my point is to see this issue as bad guys (terrorists) killing versus good guys (government) killing its own citizens.

My favourite quote is when they talk about war propaganda: “If they kill 80 people, we win the propaganda war. If we kill one child, they do.”

Trailer: