Eagle Eye was released in the United States on September 26, 2008. Despite receiving mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, the film grossed $178.8 million worldwide against an $80 million production budget.
Plot
Stanford University dropout Jerry Shaw learns that his identical twin brother Ethan, an officer in the U.S. Air Force, has been killed. Following the funeral, he is surprised to find a large sum of money in his bank account and his apartment filled with firearms and bomb-making materials.
Jerry receives a phone call from a woman who warns that the FBI is about to arrest him and he needs to run. Disbelieving the voice, he is caught by the FBI and interrogated by Supervising Agent Tom Morgan.
While Morgan confers with Air Force OSI Special Agent Zoe Pérez, the woman on the phone arranges for Jerry's escape and directs him to Rachel Holloman, a single mother. The woman on the phone is coercing Rachel by threatening her son Sam, who is aboard the Capitol Limited en route to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with his school band.
Meanwhile, the caller redirects a crystalline explosive to a gemcutter, who cuts it and fixes it into a necklace. Another man steals Sam's trumpet in Chicago and fits the crystal's sonic trigger into the tubing before forwarding it to Sam in Washington.
Callister leaves Perez with Major William Bowman and ARIIA to investigate Ethan Shaw's death. Simultaneously, Rachel and Jerry learn that the woman on the phone is actually ARIIA, and that she has "activated" them according to the Constitution's authorization to recruit civilians for the national defense.
Perez and Bowman find evidence that Ethan Shaw hid in ARIIA's chamber and left to brief Callister. Afterwards, ARIIA smuggles Jerry and Rachel into her observation theater under the Pentagon. Both groups learn that after ARIIA's recommendation was ignored, a botched operation in Balochistanresulted in the deaths of U.S. citizens.
Therefore, ARIIA concluded that the current executive branch must be removed to prevent more bloodshed, acting on behalf of "We the People". It cites the Declaration of Independence ("whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it").
Belatedly, Jerry learns he has been brought to circumvent biometric locks placed by his twin that prevent ARIIA from activating Operation Guillotine, a military simulation of maintaining government after the loss of all presidential successors. As Secretary Callister agreed with ARIIA's abort recommendation regarding Balochistan, he is to be the designated survivor and new president after the crystal detonates at the State of the Union (SOTU).
Another of ARIIA's agents extracts Rachel from the Pentagon and gives her a dress and the explosive necklace to wear to the SOTU. Sam's school band has also been redirected to the United States Capitol to play for the president, bringing the trigger in Sam's trumpet and the explosive together.
Jerry is recaptured by Agent Morgan, who has become convinced of Jerry's innocence. Before sacrificing himself to stop an armed MQ-9 Reaper sent by ARIIA, Morgan gives Jerry his weapon and ID with which to gain entrance to the Capitol. Arriving in the House Chamber, Jerry fires the handgun in the air to disrupt the concert before being shot and wounded by the Secret Service.
Sometime later, Callister reports that ARIIA has been decommissioned and recommends against building another; the Shaw twins and Agents Perez and Morgan receive awards for their actions; and Jerry attends Sam's birthday party, earning Rachel's gratitude and a kiss.
Cast
Shia LaBeouf as Jerry Shaw, Ethan's twin brother, a Stanford University dropout and an intelligent but rebellious young man struggling with financial responsibility, working at a copy store.
Rosario Dawson receiving a safety briefing from Special Agent Patrick McGee while researching her role as an AFOSI agent.
Screenwriter Dan McDermott wrote the original script for Eagle Eye based on an idea by Steven Spielberg, who had been inspired by Isaac Asimov's short story "All the Troubles of the World."[3] The studio DreamWorks then bought McDermott's script and set up the project to potentially be directed by Spielberg. When the director became busy with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he dropped out of the project. Director D. J. Caruso, who directed the 1996 TV series High Incident under Spielberg's executive production, replaced the director in helming Eagle Eye, with Spielberg remaining as executive producer. In June 2007, actor LaBeouf, who was involved in Spielberg's and Caruso's 2007 film Disturbia and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, re-joined the director and executive producer to star as the lead in Eagle Eye. McDermott's script was rewritten by screenwriters John Glenn, Travis Wright, and Hillary Seitz in preparation for production.[4] Filming began on November 6, 2007[5] and wrapped in February 2008.[6] The film's visual effects were created by Sony Pictures Imageworks.[7]
Caruso said by the time the film came to fruition twelve years later, "the technology had finally caught up to the storytelling... Everybody has a BlackBerry on their belt, and we think we're constantly being tracked. It's less science fiction than when Steven Spielberg conceived it."[8] Caruso wanted to bring a gritty, 1970s-era sensibility to the film. Accordingly, a key chase scene in a high-tech package-processing hub on conveyor belts was shot without the use of computer-generated imagery. "It was like Chutes and Ladders for adults. It was pretty dangerous, and a lot of fun." While filming the scene, Monaghan suffered a welt after a cable brushed her neck and Caruso hit his head on a protruding bolt, and a cameraman suffered a puncture wound requiring stitches.[9]
The music to Eagle Eye was composed by Brian Tyler, who recorded the score with an 88-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage. The session was interrupted by the Chino Hills earthquake on July 29, 2008—and a recording of the quake hitting the scoring stage is online.[10]
Promotion
The official website features an ARG type of gameplay system to promote the film. The voice previewed behind the phone in multiple trailers contacts the player, placing them in unique experiences. This has been called the "Eagle Eye Freefall Experience". While official cast listings do not list the name of the actress behind the mysterious voice featured in the film and trailers, Rosario Dawson confirmed at the Hollywood premiere that it belongs to Julianne Moore.[11]
Reception
Box office
Entertainment Weekly predicted the opening weekend could be as high as $31 million.[12] The film grossed $29.1 million from 3,510 theaters in the United States and Canada, taking the number one position at the box office.[13] The film went on to gross $101.4 million in the United States and Canada and $76.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $178 million, against a production budget of $80 million.[2]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 26% based on 182 reviews, with an average rating of 4.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Eagle Eye is a preposterously plotted thriller that borrows heavily from other superior films."[14]Metacritic gave the film an average score of 43 out of 100, based on reviews from 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[15] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[16]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars, saying: "The word 'preposterous' is too moderate to describe Eagle Eye. This film contains not a single plausible moment after the opening sequence, and that's borderline. It's not an assault on intelligence. It's an assault on consciousness."[17]James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying: "This movie tests the viewing public's tolerance for enduring crass stupidity when the payoff is a series of repetitive, ADD-infected chase scenes. Director D.J. Caruso does a moderately good job of hiding how incredibly dumb this screenplay is by keeping things moving at such a whirlwind pace that a lot more seems to be happening than actually is. In reality, the chase scenes don't mean anything because they don't advance the plot—it's mice on a treadmill, running and running and not getting anywhere."[18]The Hollywood Reporter called it a "slick, silly techno-thriller" and "Even those who surrender all disbelief at the door will be hard pressed not to smirk at some of the wildly improbable plotting."[19]
Josh Rosenblatt of The Austin Chronicle enjoyed the film, calling it "good, manic fun plus a heavy dose of political intrigue adding up to two hours of clamorous, mind-numbing nonsense" while drawing favorable comparisons to Enemy of the State and The Terminator series.[20] William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer also gave Eagle Eye a positive review, remarking that it's "engrossing as an intellectual puzzle" and "a solid thriller."[21] Mark Bell of Film Threat said: "the film isn't a complete waste of your time [...] but don't expect anything brilliant."[22] Neely Tucker of The Washington Post said that Eagle Eye is "sometimes entertaining" but "doesn't have much to say."[23] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly called it "A brain-squandering thriller."[24] Robert Koehler of Variety felt that the film's "first 35 minutes sizzle" but "the story [becomes] near-parody in the final act."[25]
Eagle Eye was released on DVD and Blu-ray only in select stores on December 26, 2008, three months after its theatrical release, September 26, 2008. In the first week on the DVD sales chart, Eagle Eye sold 182,592 units which translated to US$3,300,000 (equivalent to about $4,670,000 in 2023) in revenue.[28] In the second week 1,044,682 DVD units were sold, taking the No. 1 sales rank and earning US$18,862,151 (equivalent to $26,787,941 in 2023) for that week. As per the figures from April 5, 2009, 2,181,959 units had been sold in total, bringing in $36,574,940 in total revenue from DVD home media sales.[28] This does not include Blu-ray sales or DVD rentals.[28]
The next day, it was released nationwide. iTunes released it a month later as a rental and buy.[29]
^Goldwasser, Dan (September 11, 2008). "Brian Tyler scores Eagle Eye". ScoringSessions.com. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
^Arnold, William (September 25, 2008). "Eagle Eye review". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Archived from the original on September 3, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
^Bell, Mark (September 26, 2008). "Eagle Eye review". Film Threat. Archived from the original on September 30, 2008. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
