Eagle Eye is a 2008 American thriller film directed by D. J. Caruso and starring Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan. The two portray a young man and a single mother who are brought together and coerced by an anonymous caller (Julianne Moore) into carrying out a plan by a possible terrorist organization. The film was released in regular 35mm theaters and IMAX theaters.

Plot[link]

The United States armed forces have a lead on a suspected terrorist in Baluchistan but getting a positive identification, before using a drone aircraft to kill him without harming innocent civilians, proves difficult. The Department of Defense's computer system recommends that the mission be aborted. The Secretary of Defense (Michael Chiklis) agrees with the abort recommendation, but the President orders the mission be carried out anyway. When all of the victims turn out to be civilians, the event blows up on them and terrorists carry out retaliatory suicide bombings targeting U.S. citizens.

Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) is a Stanford University dropout who lacks direction and faces financial difficulty. He finds out that his more ambitious twin brother Ethan, an Air Force lieutenant with expertise in parallel algorithms and quantum electronics, was killed. Following the funeral in January 2009, he goes to withdraw some money from an ATM and is surprised to see that he has $751,000 in his account. When he returns home, he finds his apartment filled with a large number of weapons, explosives, and forged documents. He receives a phone call from an unknown woman who explains that the FBI will apprehend him in thirty seconds and that he must escape.

Not believing her, he is caught by the FBI and sent to an interrogation room where he meets Special Agent Tom Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton). When Morgan leaves the room to meet with Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Zoe Pérez (Rosario Dawson), the unknown woman arranges Jerry's escape over a phone by a crane which hits the building. Jerry escapes and the unknown woman has him join up with single mother Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan). The unknown woman is coercing Rachel into assisting Jerry by threatening to kill her son, Sam, a trumpet player on his way to Washington, D.C. by train from Chicago for a band recital.

The woman helps the pair to avoid the Chicago Police and FBI units, demonstrating the ability to remotely control virtually any networked device, such as traffic lights, cell phones, automated cranes, and even electrical wires. While Jerry and Rachel follow her instructions, the woman has other 'agents' (other people whom she has blackmailed) create a polymer crystal explosive made into a necklace and its sound-based trigger placed inside Sam's trumpet. Jerry and Rachel are led from Chicago to Washington, D.C., via Kendall County, Indianapolis and Dayton, Ohio through various means. At one point when Jerry refuses to continue, they are directed to a Circuit City electronics store by the woman. Over several television screens she introduces herself to them: she is a top secret supercomputer, the same one seen in the beginning of the film, called "Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst" (ARIIA) (voiced by Julianne Moore) and tasked with gathering intelligence from all over the world.

In light of the mistake made by the President which has put more American citizens in danger, ARIIA has decided that the executive branch is a threat to the public good and must be eliminated. ARIIA plans to destroy the President and his cabinet, and calls this Operation Guillotine. She has decided to leave the Secretary of Defense—who had agreed with her recommendation to abort the mission—as the successor to the presidency. ARIIA does not reveal this to Jerry or Rachel, merely explaining that she is trying to help the people of the United States.

At the Pentagon, Agent Pérez, with the help of Major Bowman (Anthony Mackie) who works with ARIIA there, discovers that Jerry's late brother, Ethan, worked as a technician for the computer and locked it down to prevent ARIIA from carrying out her plan. Pérez and Major Bowman warn the Secretary of Defense, and they discuss the situation in a sealed room to prevent ARIIA from hearing their conversation. Jerry and Rachel arrive at the Pentagon and are led to the supercomputer, where ARIIA forces Jerry to impersonate Ethan and use his matching biometrics to override the lockdown, allowing her to go ahead with the plan.

ARIIA shows Jerry a closed-circuit television footage displaying Ethan's fatal car crash, explaining that she orchestrated his death because he was a threat to her plans. ARIIA then instructs Rachel to eliminate Jerry to prevent the lock from being reinstated, but Rachel cannot bring herself to do it. Rachel is led out of the building by another of ARIIA's coerced agents, while Jerry is allowed to be caught by Agent Morgan. Having been warned by Agent Pérez, Morgan believes Jerry's story and takes him to the United States Capitol. ARIIA sends a MQ-9 Reaper UCAV after them. They barely escape the drone's first pass, and Agent Morgan (who's fatally wounded) sacrifices himself to destroy the drone and save Jerry. Meanwhile, Agent Pérez and Major Bowman return to the supercomputer and attempt to destroy it by draining the liquid nitrogen which cools ARIIA's main processor. ARIIA begins an upload to an off-site auxiliary processor, and Pérez, in desperation, takes a crowbar to the machine, destroying her once and for all.

Rachel is unknowingly given the necklace with the crystal explosive, as well as a pass to the Capitol to hear the President's State of the Union Address, by the man who helped her escape. During the speech, Sam's class, whose recital has been moved from the Kennedy Center to the Capitol, begins to play. The trigger that will set off the explosive necklace is set to activate when Sam plays a high F on his trumpet, corresponding to the word "free" in the last stanza of the U.S. national anthem. Jerry successfully gains entry dressed as a Capitol policeman and fires his pistol into the air, stopping the performance just before the deadly note. Jerry is then shot several times by Secret Service agents, who are unaware of the reasons of Jerry's actions.

In a hearing after the chaos ARIIA caused, the Secretary of Defense urges that another ARIIA supercomputer not be built. "Sometimes the very measures we put into place to safeguard our liberty become threats to liberty itself," he cautions them. Ethan posthumously receives the Medal of Honor and Agent Morgan posthumously receives the Commendation Medal, while Jerry, injured but alive and well, receives the Congressional Gold Medal for his actions. The film ends with Jerry attending Sam's birthday party. Rachel thanks him for attending, which her ex-husband had never done, and kisses him on the cheek. She tells Jerry that she's glad he's there. He then responds, "Me, too".

Cast[link]

• Shia LaBeouf as Jerry Shaw, and his deceased twin brother Ethan Shaw.
• Michelle Monaghan as Rachel Holloman, a woman who helps Jerry stop ARIIA.
• Julianne Moore as the voice of the super computer ARIIA aka the "unknown woman".
• Rosario Dawson as Zoë Perez, Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) Agent.
• Michael Chiklis as George Callister, the US Secretary of Defense.
• Anthony Mackie as Major William Bowman
• Ethan Embry as Toby Grant, FBI.
• Billy Bob Thornton as Tom Morgan, FBI.
• Anthony Azizi as Ranim Khalid
• Cameron Boyce as Sam Holloman, Rachel's son.

Production[link]

Rosario Dawson receiving a safety briefing from Special Agent Patrick McGee while researching her role as a AFOSI agent.

Screenwriter Dan McDermott wrote the original script for Eagle Eye based on an idea by Steven Spielberg who had been inspired by Isaac Asimov's short story "All the Troubles of the World."^[2] The studio DreamWorks then bought McDermott's script and set up the project to potentially be directed by Spielberg. When the director became busy with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he dropped out of the project. Director D. J. Caruso, who directed the 1996 TV series High Incident under Spielberg's executive production, replaced the director in helming Eagle Eye, with Spielberg remaining as executive producer.^[3] In June 2007, actor LaBeouf who was involved in Spielberg's and Caruso's 2007 film Disturbia and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, re-joined the director and executive producer to star as the lead in Eagle Eye. McDermott's script was rewritten by screenwriters John Glenn, Travis Wright, and Hillary Seitz in preparation for production.^[4] Filming began on November 6, 2007^[5] and wrapped in February 2008.^[6] The film's visual effects were created by Sony Pictures Imageworks.^[7]

Caruso said by the time the film came to fruition twelve years later, "the technology had finally caught up to the storytelling... Everybody has a BlackBerry on their belt, and we think we're constantly being tracked. It's less science fiction than when Steven (Spielberg) conceived it."^[8] Caruso wanted to bring a gritty, 1970s-era sensibility to the film. Accordingly, a key chase scene in a high-tech package-processing hub on conveyor belts was shot without the use of computer-generated imagery. "It was like Chutes and Ladders for adults. It was pretty dangerous, and a lot of fun."^[8] While filming the scene, Monaghan suffered a welt after a cable brushed her neck and Caruso hit his head on a protruding bolt, requiring stitches.^[8]

Music[link]

The music to Eagle Eye was written by composer Brian Tyler, who recorded the score with an 88-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage. The session was interrupted by the Chino Hills earthquake on July 29, 2008—and a recording of the quake hitting the scoring stage is online.^[9]

Promotion[link]

The official movie website features an ARG type of gameplay system to promote the film. The voice previewed behind the phone in multiple trailers contacts the player, placing them in unique experiences. This has been called the "Eagle Eye Freefall Experience". While official cast listings do not list the name of the actress behind the mysterious voice featured in the film and trailers, Rosario Dawson confirmed at the Hollywood premiere that it belongs to Julianne Moore.^[10]

Critical reception[link]

Eagle Eye received negative reviews from critics (with some being overwhelmingly so), primarily for its implausible storyline. As of 2 May, 2012, the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes reported that 26% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 178 reviews, with the consensus that the film is "a preposterously-plotted thriller that borrows heavily from other superior films."^[11] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 43 out of 100, based on 28 reviews—indicating mixed or average reviews.^[12]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Eagle Eye a score of two stars out of four, saying: "The word 'preposterous' is too moderate to describe Eagle Eye. This film contains not a single plausible moment after the opening sequence, and that's borderline. It's not an assault on intelligence. It's an assault on consciousness."^[13] James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying: "This movie tests the viewing public's tolerance for enduring crass stupidity when the payoff is a series of repetitive, ADD-infected chase scenes. Director D.J. Caruso does a moderately good job of hiding how incredibly dumb this screenplay is by keeping things moving at such a whirlwind pace that a lot more seems to be happening than actually is. In reality, the chase scenes don't mean anything because they don't advance the plot—it's mice on a treadmill, running and running and not getting anywhere."^[14] The Hollywood Reporter called it a "slick, silly techno thriller" and "Even those who surrender all disbelief at the door will be hard pressed not to smirk at some of wildly improbable plotting."^[15]

Josh Rosenblatt of The Austin Chronicle enjoyed the film, calling it "good, manic fun plus a heavy dose of political intrigue adding up to two hours of clamorous, mind-numbing nonsense." Calling it "The Transporter 2 on crack."^[16] William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer also gave Eagle Eye a positive review, remarking that it's "engrossing as an intellectual puzzle" and "a solid thriller."^[17] Mark Bell of Film Threat said: "the film isn't a complete waste of your time [...] but don't expect anything brilliant."^[18] Neely Tucker of The Washington Post said that Eagle Eye is "sometimes entertaining" but "doesn't have much to say."^[19] Robert Koehler of Variety felt that the film's "first 35 minutes sizzle" but "the story [becomes] near-parody in the final act."^[20]

Box office[link]

In its opening weekend, Eagle Eye grossed $29.1 million in 3,510 theaters in the United States and Canada, reaching the first place position at the box office.^[21] As of February 15, 2009, it has grossed $178 million worldwide—$101.4 million in the United States and Canada and $76.6 million in other territories.^[1] The budget of the film was $80 million.

Home media[link]

Eagle Eye was released on DVD and Blu-ray only in select stores on December 26, 2008, exactly three months after its theatrical release, September 26, 2008. In the first week on the DVD sales chart, Eagle Eye sold 182,592 units which translated to $3.3m in revenue.^[22] In the second week, however, sales rose tremendously to 1,044,682 for that week, opening at #1 and acquiring revenue of $18,862,151 for that week. As per the latest figures^[when?], 2,181,959 units have been sold, bringing in $38,008,436 in revenue. This does not include Blu-ray sales/DVD rentals.^[22]

The next day, it was released nationwide. iTunes released it a month later as a rental and buy.^[23]

Mobile game[link]

A mobile game based on the film was developed and published by Magmic Games. It was released for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, BREW, and Java ME devices prior to the film's launch in early September. There are also two games on the film's web site.^[24][25]

See also[link]

• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • Combat Zones That See

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Eagle Eye at the Internet Movie Database
• Eagle Eye at AllRovi
• Eagle Eye at Box Office Mojo
• Eagle Eye at Rotten Tomatoes
• Eagle Eye at Metacritic
• Freefall Experience
• Scoring Session Photo Gallery at ScoringSessions.com