Elevator Pitch.
After the death of one of their spies on the ground in Kenya the British military are prepared to use the American technology manifest in a drone piloted from the USA and the local secret service who have deployed an ornithopter, to follow the activities of a terrorist group, with the intent of sending out the local security services to capture those in the house under surveillance, but when the group are seen to be preparing a suicide bombing attack the mission is changed from one of “capture” to “kill”, using the drone’s missiles. But within range of the target is a small girl selling bread. What to do?
Content.
We get a couple of views of the drone, which is said to being flying in a circle at 20,000 ft, and many views of the terrorist building from the air, from the outside by means of the ornithopter, and from the inside by means of the insectothopter. The colonel in charge bends the rules, in a COBRA meeting British politicians argue, in Singapore the Foreign Secretary pontificates, and in the underground bunker from which the drone is controlled the pilot and co-pilot sweat it out. We feel for the Kenyan agents out in the streets controlled by Kalashnikov toting terrorists, and for the girl who is unknowingly in the target area.
| A View | Rotten Tomatoes gave this outing 95% which is pretty unusual, although the general public did not like it quite as much. The tension when we are with the agents on the ground is breathtaking, but the time in the COBRA meeting, while morally essential to the plot is a bit boring, maybe purposefully. I am a sucker for technology, so I really liked to drone stuff, and the SF beetlecam, so a definite watch for me. | ||
| Duration | 1h 42m | Rating (UK) | 15 |
| Source of story | An original screenplay, with references to events in Africa and a female British born terrorist. | ||
| Director | Gavin Hood | ||
| Writers/Script | Guy Hibbert | ||
| Starring | Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, Phoebe Fox, Gavin Hood, Jeremy Northam, Barkhad Abdi, Ian Glenn | ||
| Additional Info | Apparently the streets of Nairobi are not controlled by gun toting terrorists and, disappointingly, the beetlecam is a flight of fancy. | ||
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