What Do The Critics Say?

"This is just good, old-fashioned filmmaking with two likable protagonists up against a monolithic antagonist. The action starts immediately and increases geometrically until the end. While this is a thinly veiled attack on The Patriot Act, it is still a high-tension thriller." Tony Medley TOLUCAN TIMES "Eagle Eye wants to be a modern day North by Northwest. Instead it has to settle for being a slightly higher tech Die Hard with a Vengeance." Fred Topel CAN MAGAZINE "The real fun in "Eagle Eye" is the setup, which features some crunchy car chases and introduces Billy Bob Thornton as a dogged FBI agent. Check your credulity at the door, and you’ll at least enjoy some high-impact action scenes." Rafer Guzman NEWSDAY "LaBeouf and Monaghan make you believe that these people are thrown into these unbelievable situations. Even when something outlandish occurs, you're still so involved with the characters that you want to see how they'll get out of each hair-raising predicament. Manages to be both ominous and fun, making this a popcorn thriller with an edge." Randy Cordova ARIZONA REPUBLIC "Director Caruso] has done a masterful job of maintaining suspense, keeping the stunts mind-blowing and dressing the visuals in the bleak hues and gritty style of a '70s paranoid thriller. As a folksy FBI agent on his trail, old pro Billy Bob Thornton steals so many scenes he's the movie's most memorable character." William Arnold SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

"Director D.J. Caruso takes the next step forward towards being Hollywood’s newest blockbuster thriller director in Eagle Eye. Billy Bob Thornton is a scene stealer as a no-nonsense FBI agent. It’s a big, loud, explosive thriller. It sets out to be fun, empty escapism and succeeds at it. Eagle Eye has its flaws, but you're not going to care or notice them." Joshua Tyler CINEMABLEND "Fresh from the Michael Bay school of crash-bang cinema comes this ripping, dizzying slice of action overload in which post-9/11 liberal politics and sober warnings about the excesses of homeland security policy blend seamlessly with frenzied scenes of people shooting, people shouting and people running away from exploding cars as they flip over multiple times." Jim Schembri THE AGE "Eagle Eye is part political thriller, part action flick and a movie which requires a substantial stretch of the imagination." Kilmeny Adie ILLAWARRA MERCURY "So fast paced and exciting that you don't care whether or not it makes any sense." Jackie K Cooper JACKIEKCOOPER.COM "The lack of decent cyber-riffic cinema helps Eagle Eye, which uploads an active, rollicking race against time by combining the increasingly tech-dominated planet with popcorn paranoia and a fairly scary plot about citizens' freedom being blackmailed by counter-terrorism tactics. Rapidly becoming a mainstream movie-maker, Caruso stages rip-roaring car chases and fiddly meta-data moments with a consummate smile." Ben McEachen THE SUNDAY MAIL

The Inside Story The idea for "Eagle Eye" was hatched several years ago from the mind of executive producer Steven Spielberg. "Steven's initial concept focused on the idea that technology is everywhere," says co-producer Pete Chiarelli ("The Other End of the Line"). "It’s all around us. What would happen if it turned against you? What if the technology that surrounds us, that we love and depend on, suddenly was used on us in ways that could cause harm and was completely out of our control?" "Steven always wanted people to walk out of the theater and turn off their cell phones and BlackBerrys, because they were so scared," writer/producer Alex Kurtzman ("Transformers") recalls, "much in the way audiences feared swimming in the ocean after they saw Spielberg’s summer blockbuster "Jaws" in 1975." The story was in development for several years, because at the time Spielberg first conceived the idea, "he thought that it would seem too much like science fiction," Kurtzman added. "It would have stretched credibility because the technology wasn’t yet as integrated into our society as it is today." In early 2006, 1994 and 1999 Oscar winner Steven Spielberg ("Schindler's List" & "Saving Private Ryan") brought the project to Kurtzman and his writing partner, Robert Orci, the creative team behind "Mission: Impossible III", "Transformers" and the upcoming films "Star Trek" (2009) and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". "The trick now was figuring out a way into the story," says Kurtzman, "making a film that would be more than simply an action picture with chase scenes and explosions. Ultimately, it was about bringing a human perspective to the whole story." The story is about two strangers who are thrown together, framed for crimes they didn’t commit, who are fighting for their lives while trying to prove their innocence. Its non-stop suspense is driven like a speeding locomotive as Jerry and Rachel become the pawns of a faceless enemy who seems to have limitless power to manipulate everything they do. Such an approach, Kurtzman says, "makes the film timeless, because the characters could be in any time period, and the audience can relate to them no matter when or where they’re from. They’re just ordinary people thrown into a totally extraordinary circumstance way beyond their control, forced to do things they don’t understand and have to find out why they have been chosen as the movie goes along: which the audience does along with them." Eagle Eye marks Kurtzman’s and Orci’s producing debut. "It’s been amazing to see this story evolve from an idea Steven brought to us two years ago. Watching the expanding scope of this movie has been tremendous," says Kurtzman who was born in Mexico City, Mexico and at the age of ten moved to Los Angeles with his parents. While Spielberg originally intended to direct the film himself, he eventually changed course to focus on other projects, especially the large-scale action adventure "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Meanwhile, director D.J. Caruso was shooting his 2007 hit, "Disturbia", for Spielberg’s DreamWorks SKG. "I showed him the rough cut of "Disturbia", and he said, 'You know, we have something for you.' I read the script, and I could see why, when he initially thought of the idea, it was way ahead of its time. I loved it immediately," Caruso said. With a story as complex as "Eagle Eye", it was important to have a director who could bring balance to a film that featured not only intense edge of your seat action, but rich characters. "D.J. brings an incredible sense of history to a project like this," executive producer Edward L McDonnell ("Insomnia" & "Racing Stripes") notes. "He’s worked in a variety of genres already. This is more than just a character piece, or just an action piece, it has complexity in the storytelling. His ability to streamline a story for us, to make it understandable and accessible, comes from his previous experience." "D.J. has shot so much over his life as a director as he came up through the ranks," adds co-producer Chiarelli. "It’s great for us, because we got to take advantage of somebody who had so much experience who knew what he was doing and made the movie look great, made the action huge, but still managed to pull amazing performances out of the actors." The production team now turned its attention to casting the film. 2008 BAFTA Orange Rising Star winner Shia LaBeouf, was cast as slacker Jerry Shaw. "When we first meet him, he’s in the thick of what his life has become," LaBeouf ("I, Robot" & "Bobby") explained. "He’s an underachiever in a family of seeming overachievers. His twin brother was this overachieving perfectionist, who had a real easy way with life and was extremely bright, efficient, and dependable and secure; everything Jerry is not." Jerry had, much to the chagrin of his demanding father, left Stanford to travel and is, at present, working at a low-end copy store. "He’s the sort of guy who exercises his freedom and doesn’t necessarily believe that you need to go to college and do what everyone in society says you need to do," notes Caruso. The role is LaBeouf’s first truly adult portrayal. "It’s been great to see his progression," Caruso notes. "He was nineteen when we started "Disturbia", and now he’s twentyone. I look at that film, then I look at "Transformers", and now "Eagle Eye", and I realize they were all only a year or so apart in his life, but he looks five or six years older." "I think this is a defining role for Shia," says producer Patrick Crowley. "It marks his emergence as a leading man." LaBeouf also won over his co-star. "I love Shia," says Michelle Monaghan (Gone Baby Gone" & "Made of Honour"). "He’s just a dynamite actor and so passionate about his work; I respect him deeply and we had a lot of fun together." Of course, having an actor and director who had already worked together was an added benefit. "They have a shorthand," says Chiarelli. "They’re like an old married couple." Michelle Monaghan was cast as single mum Rachel Holloman. "She’s just trying to get through her day to day life with her son while working hard," Monaghan explained. Rachel finally gets a night out with the girls at a bar, but the day off turns into the worst day off ever. "She steps out of the bar to take a phone call she thinks is from her son but the voice on the other end is a woman, who asks 'What would you do to save your son’s life?' I obviously have no idea what she’s talking about, and am completely bewildered." The producers were looking for an actress who could be both sweet and tough, as needed, and Monaghan fit the bill. "We had worked with her on "Mission: Impossible III", and we just found that she had all the qualities that we needed Rachel to be," says Kurtzman. "It’s a very helpless situation for her," Caruso notes, adding, "I wouldn’t mess with a mother who has been separated from her kid." When Jerry and Rachel meet for the first time, they immediately think the other is the source of their troubles and begin battling for their freedom. "It’s a story about people who bring certain assumptions into a situation," says Kurtzman. "But they’re not necessarily right about what they perceive." They quickly realize they are both victims in a larger scenario over which they have no control, and that if they are to survive, must learn to trust one another. "It becomes apparent that the only people they can rely on to get them out of the trouble they’re in is each other," says Crowley. "And there’s this kind of dance as they figure out how much to trust the other." "There is a degree of gameplay," adds Kurtzman. "Whoever the person is behind this mystery, she is controlling them without telling them anything other than exactly what they need to know at any given moment." One thing they do know is that they are being pursued, doggedly, by an FBI agent named Thomas Morgan. 1997 Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton ("Sling Blade") plays Morgan, a character had to walk a fine line. "I’m a good guy, yet the audience is going to view me as a bad guy initially because I’m pursuing Jerry and Rachel," says three time Chlotrudis Audience Award winner Thornton (1997, '99 & 2002). "You really have to tow the line as an actor. You have to be a guy who’s just doing his job." "Billy Bob is one of the most dynamic, unusual, cool guys I’ve ever met in my life," says Caruso. "He comes to work in the morning, still a little bit groggy ( he’s a night guy, a musician) and literally, by the time the makeup gets on, he comes out ready to roll. He’s also one of the funniest men I’ve ever met." Thornton brings a Texan sensibility to Morgan, something which fit the agent perfectly. The writers, in fact, took full advantage of Thornton’s Southern sensibilities, spending time with the actor to get a full gauge of the character. Thornton’s enjoyable knack for ad libs was used to full advantage. "He’s so inventive, it’s never the same. It’s always a different take," says LaBeouf. "He’s very aware and very spontaneous." 2004 American Black Film Festival Rising Star Award winner Rosario Dawson (outstanding in "Clerks II") was cast as Air Force Office of Special Investigation (OSI) Special Agent, Zoe Perez. "She’s a younger agent who nobody quite takes seriously," says Chiarelli. "She has to really fight for respect from everybody, from the FBI, from people in the Air Force, in the Pentagon. So we needed somebody who is a fighter. And Rosario really nails it." "Rosario is a terrific actor," says Thornton. "She’s a New Yorker, but she lived in Austin. So she’s a Texas girl, too." Secretary of Defense Geoff Callister is played by Michael Chiklis, best known to audiences as rogue cop Vic Mackey on "The Shield". "Callister is described as a man with a look of permanent burden on his face," Chiklis says. "Chiklis is just wonderful," says Kurtzman. "He’s this incredible tough guy, but even with his character on "The Shield", you can see that he has such soul." Rounding out the cast are Ethan Embry ("Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle") as FBI Agent Grant and, Anthony Mackie (TV'S "Commander in Chief" & "Lost") as Major Bowman. Director Caruso set out to fill the film with spectacular 'set pieces'. "I wanted the action to be real, because I’m a connoisseur of the old '70s car chases, with just plain real action. When cars crash and things blow up, I like it when it really happens and you can photograph it. I wanted to stay away from digital technology as much as I could." Synopsis

At the National Military Command Centre at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Geoff Callister is at the center of a critical decision: whether or not to bomb an important target, a wanted Afghan terrorist. He orders the bombing to go ahead. Single mum Rachel Holloman is having a night out. She receives an call from a strange woman telling her to follow her instructions or her son Sam will die. 23 year old Jerry Shaw arrives home to find his once empty bank account now contains $750,000, and his sparsely furnished apartment is crammed with do it yourself terrorist supplies. He, too, receives a call from the same woman, warning him to run or he’ll be arrested. Jerry and Rachel are two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and their family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of increasingly dangerous situations using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move. As the situation escalates, these two ordinary people will become the country's most wanted fugitives. Fighting for their lives, they will become the pawns of a powerful, faceless enemy.

The Verdict "D.J. Caruso and Shia LaBeouf (pronounced SHY-uh luh-BUHF) re-team after the success of "Disturbia" for the Steven Spielberg inspired, action packed, edge of your seat, explosive thriller, "Eagle Eye", a film that demands you suspend belief and dare not question the improbabilities that are pushed aside in the name of entertainment. While LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan both produce credible performances as the manipulated fugitives Jerry and Rachel, the standout for "Eagle Eye", cast-wise, is 2001 NBR Award ("Monsters Ball") and 2002 Russian Guild of Film Critics Golden Aries Award ("The Man Who Wasn't There") winner Billy Bob Thornton as FBI Agent Thomas Morgan. His character is not only interesting but also understandable. Despite being very talented and highly likeable, LaBeouf needs to work on his diction. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and now "Eagle Eye" both show how he needs to free up his speech, making himself easier to be understood. In a frenetic film such as "Eagle Eye", there's so much going on audiences will need to remain pretty focussed. And, don't let anyone reveal the twist in the film and stay away from reviews that feature 'spoilers'. Popcorn fun. Recommended. 4 STARS." Crew Bytes "EAGLE EYE" was .......
directed by D.J. Caruso ["Two for the Money"]; story by Dan McDermott ["Eagle Eye"]; set decoration by Cindy Carr ["The Sum of All Fears", "The Holiday" and "The Heartbreak Kid"]; costume design by Marie-Sylvie Deveau ["Pushing Tin", "Cold Creek Manor" and "When a Stranger Calls"]; production design by Tom Sanders ["Saving Private Ryan", "We Were Soldiers" and "Apocalypto"]; edited by Jim Page ["The Majestic", "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and "Firewall"]; director of photography Dariusz Wolski ["Crimson Tide", "POTC: 1,2 & 3" and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"]; original music by 2006 ASCAP Award winner Brian Tyler ["Constantine", "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" and "AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem"]. Who's Who

Shia LaBeouf Michelle Monaghan Billy Bob Thornton Michael Maize Madison Mason Joseph Mazurk Albert Miranda Brad Newman Jeff Albertson Anthony Azizi Steve Barrons Tommy Bartlett Cameron Boyce G Larry Butler Charles Carroll Michael Daniel Cassady Dean Cudworth Jay Disney Lorenzo Eduardo Jarod Einsohn Ethan Embry Fahim Fazli Tony Flores Brenda Goodbread David Hill Gary Houston James Huang Neil Ironfield Peter James Lu Johnson Dariush Kashani Sean Kinney Don Kress Angelina Lyubomirova

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Jerry Shaw Rachel Holloman Morgan Master Sergeant The President Lawyer at ATM Senator FBI Agent Chicago Police Officer Turan JTAC Team Member Train Commuter Sam Senator Stanton Mr Miller White House Staffer #1 Capitol PoliceMan #2 Mercedes Owner Kwame Tech #1 Grant Al Kohei Swat Team Leader Speaker Of The House President's Administration Forensics Tech #2 Army Intel Officer #2 Child Party Guest Officer Gaither Senator Sgt. Rourke JTAC Team leader Businessman on EL ATM Client

Run Time 117 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - Paramount Pictures - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.