Eye in the Sky

Eye in the sky is a 2015 fictional movie that looks at real world issues. The movie confronts the ethical stance of war and as Aeschylus, the ancient Greek tragedian rightly says, “In war, truth is the only casualty”.

Just as it is critical to make effective decisions across nations, firms and personal affairs, the movie also poses a scenario where a critical decision was to be made to either strike a targeted building that housed five terrorists at the cost of an innocent life or hold striking the missile and risk loosing the lives of 80 others or more.

The movies examines the critical role that morality and legal ethics plays in war. Displayed in the movie were a set of antagonists generally referred to as the Al-Shabaab group – an Islamic military and political organisation based in the East African region. The major targets were however five (5) individuals, three of whom were on the Britain’s list of the most wanted terrorists and two (2) other new recruits from Britain and America who were being armed to launch some suicide terrorist attacks.

Key characters in the movie include Colonel Powell, a woman who was behind the screen giving commands to strike terrorists. Alia, a sweet little girl whose life is being considered to be at stake in the case of a missile strike. Mr. Watts the officer in charge of the drone, responsible for firing the missile and a central room of State men and a military general.

While the protagonist was a woman named Colonel Powell who was working to capture all five terrorists, the main decision could only be made from a central room filled with State men and a military general. The movie further portrays the hierarchical systems through which decisions are made across many organisations and countries.

A hierarchical form of government and/or leadership is sometimes exposed to loops and errors in top management. The condition upon which the strike was launched was upon a 45% clearance premise that the innocent girl, whose live was under consideration in the occasion of a strike, would only be affected to a minimal 45% injury level.

The clearance analysis was obviously wrong and as it were, falsified, as the protagonist, Colonel Powell only wanted to get rid of the terrorists and have a successful mission in Kenya. The missile strike was launched and clearly the targets as well as the innocent sweet girl all died. But then, would anyone risk the lives of 80 other innocent people to save that of an innocent girl? The question remains, was the decision made the most optimal one?

Overall the movie examines ethical and legal issues in war, the place of military strength and political opposition but more clearly how decisions are made critically. If all decisions were easy to make, there would be then no need to evaluate several factors in arriving at any decision. But again, there would always be the need to make decisions and so the art of effective decision making must be learnt.