Eagle Eye

Year: 2008
Director: D.J. Caruso
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Bob Thornton, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis


After watching a string of films rating between bad and average the past month, I was looking forward to this movie. I've been totally psyched up for it ever since catching the adrenaline-pumping trailer two months ago.

Eagle Eye begins with the U.S. Secretary Of Defense (Michael Chiklis) reluctantly authorising a missile attack on a suspected terrorist in the Middle East without having 100% confirmation on the target. We then cut to a young man named Jerry Shaw (Shia Labeouf), an underachiever who works at a copy shop, struggles to pay the rent and doesn't get along with his dad. One day, he gets word that his twin brother Ethan, who is a member of the USAF, had died in a car accident.

Soon after, he discovers an extra US$750,000 in his bank account and a whole lot of stuff in his apartment that would make him look like a terrorist. Jerry then gets a call from a mysterious woman telling him that he has to do as she says or he dies. The FBI bust through his door and arrest him right there and then.....

Jerry tries to tell FBI agent Tom Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton) that he's being set up, but Morgan refuses to believe him. And before you know it, the mysterious woman calls Jerry again and helps him escape police custody! How? Well, that's pretty amazing when you see it. Meanwhile, another unlucky individual, Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) is also called up by the woman. Rachel happens to be a divorced mother who has just sent her son off on a school trip, and now she is being threatened to follow orders or her son dies. Jerry and Rachel end up together and are forced to do everything the voice tells them. Morgan teams up with USAF investigator Perez (Rosario Dawson) to find out what's going on. Perez suspects that all this is connected to Ethan's death, and her investigation leads back to the Secretary Of Defense.

Eagle Eye is based on an idea by Steven Spielberg who is also executive producer of the film. D.J. Caruso, who directed Shia in Disturbia, takes the helm. Caruso does well in keeping the audience on the edge of their seats by throwing one action sequence after another at them. There's nary a dull moment as we watch Jerry and Rachel outrun the Feds in a car chase, rob an armored truck and slide down airport conveyor belts, and more. It's quite interesting to see how this mysterious voice control everything around the protagonists, thereby enabling it to genuinely threaten their lives. The voice is able to follow their movements, track their whereabouts, listen in on their conversations, use electronic signboards to pass instructions, change traffic lights, control machinery...you name it. It's the unseeable villain with the electronic hand of God. Whoa.

LaBeouf and Monaghan do well in their respective roles, not only by having good chemistry together, but also successfully making their characters believable. Thornton lends great support as the FBI agent trying his best to make sense of what's happening, and has the best lines in the film.

This film in essence, was meant to show the viewers how technology can be turned against us, especially now since we're all so reliant on it. And Caruso manages to get that point across, but there are some moments in the movie where I felt that it was too implausible to believe. But still, Eagle Eye certainly succeeds in thrilling and scaring us from start to finish. Recommended. (4/5)