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Eyes in the Sky is a movie about how to get rid of terrorists. But really the story is about a struggle for justice and price. Both sides of the struggle are trying to figure out a question: to pay the price for justice, or to sacrifice more lives to protect the lives in front of them. This is a war movie dominated by literary drama.
The film is named after the drone "The Eye of the Sky", but this drone appears no more than 5 times in the film, and it is of little use for the advancement of the story except to increase the force of the film. In terms of force, the Eye of the Sky might as well fly around, witnessing the Beetle cameras that terrorists are preparing for suicide attacks.
The temperament of "Eye in the Sky" is unique, which is the success of the screenwriter. In the face of several terrorists who are about to carry out suicide attacks, the righteous Anglo-American-Kenya coalition forces are bound to do something. Make a plan, find a goal, take action, mission accomplished. The story line seems so clear, so routine. What else can a writer do on this basis?
We can't remember when we first heard about terrorism in real life. Maybe a 911 from 2001. The War on Terrorism used to be a big new IP back then, but very few screenwriters were able to write stories that no one had ever seen or heard of. No matter how new and shocking themes were, they became popular after one or two films. Packaging big-ticket items into hits is a daunting task.
The audience is obedient enough, the details are given, the logic is correct, the direction of the story is in line with the audience's expectations, the process is unexpected, and the audience can give their thumbs up.
A good story builds on many puzzles lined up, one after the other. It seems that the ultimate conundrum for "Eye in the Sky" should be whether the Justice Division finally gets rid of the terrorists -- at least that's the question that most viewers should start watching the film with. However, the story of the film will last for nearly 2 hours, and the terrorists can only be killed when the film is about to end, or escape justice. How does the film keep audiences interested, rather than lethargic, until the mystery is revealed?
Wise writers opted for an action-packed approach: set up a few small puzzles as a refreshing foreplay before the ultimate puzzle. Solve a puzzle every once in a while and throw a new one, so that the audience can never really feel at ease, maintain suspense, and produce emotional fluctuations.
The first problem: At the first secret meeting place, the terrorists seem to be leaving before they arrive. Where are the tracked terrorists? Where are they going?
It looks like they're going to continue tracking the terrorists. Okay, the terrorists got to the second secret meeting place. But no one actually knows whether that person is a terrorist who is officially hunted down. Here comes the second conundrum: how can they take the risk of confirming the person's identity?
Then, the CTA decided to do something about it. At this time, an innocent little girl appeared near the target strike area. Some people in the Justice League were obviously infected by this lovely life, and they were unwilling to drop this justice bomb at the cost of the little girl's life. The third and ultimate conundrum is here: do these dignified characters want to let their missiles hurt this innocent little girl now, or let the terrorists' bombs hurt more innocent civilians later.
Seeing this, we found that the real ultimate problem of "Eye in the Sky" does not occur between justice and evil, but comes from the inside of the righteous side. At its heart is the struggle: whether we should pay the price of a just war.
Although the film arranges many dynamic scenes on the Kenyan frontline, such as tracking, micro-camera detection, the undercover agent who secretly sneaked into the terrorist-controlled area was discovered and chased by terrorists all the way. By the end, however, much of the film's tension comes from the interior scenes, from the arguments of men in suits and military uniforms sitting in offices and command posts.
The little girl can leave the danger zone and return home only after she has sold out her naan. The audience wanted to know the fate of the little girl. As a result, the naan in the story was sold 2 every once in a while. I don't know when it will be sold. If it is not sold out, the terrorists will leave soon. It's as if the screenwriter suddenly jumped to the screen at this time, grinning and saying, "Hey, don't you want to know what happened next? I'm going to slow down here and let you feel the tension of this problem for a while. ." Full of wit and skill.
The price of justice is a big topic. Big topics involve too much content, and it's tiring to talk about. A lot of films do everything they can to put all the relevant content they can think of into their scripts in order to appear capable of handling big topics. The invaluable part of "Eye in the Sky" is that the screenwriter understands the principle of "less is more", and does not talk about big topics, but only allows the characters in the play to choose whether to bear the cost of the death of Kenyan civilians. The more you focus the story on a single issue, the more the audience can feel the frame of the film's atmosphere.
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