History Film / EyeInTheSky

* [[spoiler: DevelopingDoomedCharacters]]: [[spoiler: Alia and her family are given a lot of screentime, which showcase both her father's attempts to give his daughter a good life (such as by educating her) as well as having to hide such efforts from the terrorists. Of course, this is done so that the audience will care when bad things happen to them.]]

* InfantImmortality: [[spoiler: Averted. Alia is killed horrifically.]]

* DirtyCoward: Everyone who tries to offload the decision onto somebody else fits this to a certain extent, but the Prime Minister takes the cake; when asked directly to authorize or forbid the strike, he comes back telling them to "do everything they can to avoid civilian casualties". Everyone is disgusted by this, and even the one who's been arguing against the strike from the beginning calls him a "bloody coward".

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: While the people who try to pass the buck are seen as cowardly, their concerns are not exactly wrong. One example is when the foreign secretary worries about how the public will react if the news gets out, and Benson says they shouldn't be concerning themselves with what ends up on Youtube, the foreign secretary replies that revolutions can be started by what gets put on Youtube.

* DeathFromAbove: The entire point of the drone. Hell, the drone itself is called the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Reaper]], and the missiles are called [[MeaningfulName Hellfire]]. [[spoiler:HELicopter-Launched FIRE-and-forget Missile]]

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The film takes place over the course of about 12 really long and hectic hours.

* FromBadToWorse: The mission was originally going to have Kenyan forces arrest the terrorists, with the drone just giving recon support. But then it's discovered the terrorists are building bomb vests for a suicide attack, and so the mission is hastily changed from "capture" to "kill." And ''then'' it's discovered that a child is selling bread inside the blast radius...
* GoryDiscretionShot: {{Averted}} in the beginning with a photo of an informant executed by the terrorists [[spoiler: and at the end, after the strike, when the drone is used to identify the terrorist's bodies...or at least what's left of them.]]

* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler: Lt. Watts and A1C. Gershon after they execute the strike. All their commanding officer can do is tell them they did a good job and that they'll need to be back at their posts tomorrow.]]

* AMillionIsAStatistic: {{Discussed}}. The characters are debating whether it is right to endanger one child's life in order to potentially save hundreds of others.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The first thing they try to do once Alia shows up, is to buy her all her bread to get her out of the way. Jama goes down there, and even manages to get all of the bread into his bucket, [[spoiler: but he gets recognized and a chase ensues. In an attempt to slow them down, he tossed his bucket at his chasers. Alia simply picks up the bread, and tries to resell them.]]

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Susan Helen Danford is based strongly on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Lewthwaite Samantha Lewthwaite]], a white British woman who converted to Islam and became radicalised at a young age, and went on to become a terrorist leader.

** Discussed when Colonel Powell's legal adviser (who has repeatedly been telling her to get permission from someone higher up the chain of command,) specifically tells her the law is not there to get in her way, it is to protect everyone (her included,) from the fallout of difficult decisions.

** A slightly more positive example occurs earlier when Lt. Watts refuses to fire the missile, telling Col. Powell he will not fire until he receives a revised attack plan that would minimize the chance of the girl being killed as much as possible. [[spoiler: This leads to her ordering her subordinate to fudge the numbers.]]

* TokenTrio: The three American pilots. Lt. Steve Watts is a white man, Sgt. Mike Gleeson is a black man and A1C Carrie Gershon is a white woman.

* DeathFromAbove: The entire point of the drone. Hell, the drone itself is called the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Reaper]], and the missiles are called ''hellfires''.

''Eye in the Sky'' is a 2016 war drama/thriller film, directed by Gavin Hood and starring Creator/HelenMirren and Creator/AlanRickman.

**

** Facial identification of the missions targets is carried out from the USAF officers stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Hawaii.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Averted. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shabaab_(militant_group) Al-Shabaab]] is a real terrorist group operating in East Africa. While they declared allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2012, they've been mostly inactive in recent years due to taking heavy losses following [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Indian_Ocean Operation Indian Ocean]], a joint military operation between Somalia and the United States which ultimately resulted in their leader being killed by a drone strike.

** Facial identification of the missions targets is carried out from the USAF officers stationed at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

** [[spoiler: Furthermore, Alia's parents rush her to the hospital with the aid of militants, and if a look on her father's face is anything to go by, he may have been radicalized, a far cry from the open minded man he is shown to be.]]

* CerebusCallBack: Lt General Benson early on has a comical moment where he buys the wrong doll for his young daughter. [[spoiler: After Alia is killed in the missile attack]] and Benson is leaving the meeting, his captain reveals he exchanged the doll for the right one.

* DeathFromAbove: The entire point of the drone. Hell, the drone itself is called the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Reaper]] and the missiles are called ''hellfire.''
* [[spoiler: DevelopingDoomedCharacters]]: [[spoiler: Alia and her family are given a lot of screentime, which showcase both her father's attempts to give his girl a good life (such as by educating her) as well as having to hide such efforts from the terrorists. Of course, this is done so that the audience will care when bad things happen to them.]]
* DirtyCoward: Everyone who tries to offload the decision onto somebody else fits this to a certain extent, but the Prime Minister takes the cake; when asked directly to authorise or forbid the strike, he comes back telling them to "do everything they can to avoid civilian casualties". Everyone is disgusted by this, and even the one who's been arguing against the strike from the beginning calls him a "bloody coward".

* EveryoneHasStandards: Angela Northman is vehemently against striking the missile, and whole heartedly disagrees with her coworkers positions. However she is absolutely disgusted with the Prime Minister, when he refuses to approve or disapprove the strike.

* FromBadToWorse: The mission was originally going to have African forces arrest the terrorists, with the drone just giving recon support. But then it's discovered the terrorists are building bomb vests for a suicide attack, and so the mission is hastily changed from "capture" to "kill." And ''then'' it's discovered that a child is selling bread inside the blast radius...
* GoryDiscretionShot: Averted in the beginning with a photo of an informant executed by the terrorists [[spoiler: and at the end, after the strike, when the drone is used to identify the terrorist's bodies...or at least what's left of them.]]
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Not when it pits the good guys versus the terrorists, but the central conflict of the film itself is whether it is right to kill a group of terrorists about to embark on a suicide mission, when you know that collateral damage will kill a completely innocent person, and in this case a little girl. People debate and argue about the morality of it, and by the end it's clear that [[HopelessWar no matter what happens, the outcome will suck.]]

* TheMcCoy: The lone minister who flatly opposes the strike from the beginning, saying she would accept the risk of the bombers killing dozens over the high probability of killing a child. Though her own moral code is clearly at odds with the military's, it is made clear that her decision is not based on cowardice or politics; she sticks to her position right from the start, and she is disgusted by the constant attempts to avoid taking responsibility for it or prioritise the PR fallout over Alia's life.
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Discussed in here. The characters are debating whether it is right to endanger one child's life in order to potentially save hundreds of others.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Downplayed. After [[spoiler: the strike goes ahead and Alia is caught in it]], General Benson is accused of having an ArmchairMilitary attitude to it (see above for his response). He finishes by simply saying "''Never'' tell a soldier he doesn't know the cost of war" with a tone that suggests he's too sick and tired of the bloodshed to even get angry.
* {{Retirony}}: Inverted. Carrie is on her first flight out of school, and is suddenly called upon to take part in an emergency assassination.
* SadisticChoice: If they fire on the terrorists with the drone, an innocent child will probably die. If they don't, the terrorists could very well blow up a crowded area where ''dozens'' of people will probably die.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler: After hitting the terrorists' house with a Hellfire missile, it's revealed that one of the terrorists is still alive, albeit heavily wounded. They promptly shoot her with the Predator Drone's second Hellfire missile.]]

* TokenTrio: The three American pilots. Lt Steve Watts is a white man, Sgt Mike Gleeson is a black man and A1C Carrie Gershon is a white woman.

** Alia is merely selling her bread from the usual place she does so every day. She has no idea that she is prompting a massive dispute amongst two nations and giving a group of terrorists with suicide vests the chance to escape being blown up.
** Subverted with Jama Farah. He gives a young boy money to buy all of Alia's bread [[spoiler: just as the missile is preparing to be launched, putting ''him'' in the danger zone too. Although it's a huge OhCrap moment for everyone else, the boy gets away in time]].

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Col. Powell (and to an extent Gen. Benson) see the various government officials overseeing the mission as this.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Near the end, Colonel Powell [[spoiler: asks one of the soldiers to fudge the survival percentage estimate to be slightly below half, so that the higher ups will be more comfortable with launching the missile.]]

''Eye in the Sky'' is a 2016 war drama/thriller film. It is directed by Gavin Hood and stars Creator/HelenMirren and Creator/AlanRickman. The film depicts the [[MoralDilemma moral]] and [[SadisticChoice ethical struggle]] of a [[FourStarBadass lieutenant general]] (Rickman) and [[ColonelBadass colonel]] (Mirren) debating a [[AttackDrone drone strike]] to take out a group of terrorists in Nairobi, Kenya, and has been praised for its realistic and complex portrayal of the perils of modern warfare.

!! Tropes:

** Averted though with the US Secretary of State, who quickly gives his authorization to kill the terrorists (one of whom is a US citizen).

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: After hitting the terrorists' house with a Hellfire missile, it's revealed that one of the terrorists is still alive, albeit heavily wounded. They promptly shoot her with the Predator Drone's second Hellfire missile.

* BittersweetEnding / DownerEnding: [[spoiler: They issue the drone strike and Alia dies. Whether or not this was the right call is left up to the viewer, and it can be interpreted as either a painful yet necessary victory, that sadly cost a young girl's life, or a senseless act of violence that would only fuel more hatred and fear. However, it is clear that right or not, everyone is involved had a little bit of their soul die a little that day.]]

* HopelessWar: The general consensus of the film is that regardless of whatever outcome was taken in the film's central conflict, war against terror and war in general is as hopeless as it is perpetual.

* [[spoiler: KillTheCutie]]: [[spoiler: Poor Alia]].

* EnsignNewsbie: Carrie Gershon is given a significant role in a high-level mission despite being fresh out of training.