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Eagle Eye

2008 · 118 min · movie
⭐ 6.6 (202,114 votes)

Stanford University dropout Jerry Shaw learns that his identical twin brother Ethan, an officer in the U.S. Air Force, has been killed in a car crash. 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 Perez, 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.

The woman on the phone helps the two avoid law enforcement by controlling networked devices including traffic lights, mobile phones, automated cranes, and even power lines. 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. Agent Perez is summoned by Secretary of Defense George Callister to be read into Ethan's job at the Pentagon. Ethan monitored the Department of Defense 's top-secret intelligence-gathering supercomputer, the Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst (ARIIA; / ɑːr iː ə /).

Callister leaves Pérez 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 a microchip 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 Balochistan resulted 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. ARIIA had caused Ethan's accident in order to get rid of him. 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. At the same time, Perez and Bowman destroy ARIIA.

Sometime later, Callister reports that ARIIA has been decommissioned and recommends against building another; the Shaw twins, Perez, and Morgan receive awards for their actions; and Jerry attends Sam's birthday party, earning Rachel's gratitude and a kiss.

Directed by

D. J. Caruso

Starring

Michelle Monaghan
Anthony Mackie
Rosario Dawson
Shia LaBeouf
Michael Chiklis
Ethan Embry
Billy Bob Thornton
Cameron Boyce
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