Watch Alan Rickman’s Final Appearance in ‘Eye in the Sky’

Eye in the Sky was released on March 11th, and reviews have been coming in as positive so far, with 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 7.7 out of 10 on IMDB (see below). The war drama stars Alan Rickman as Frank Benson, the superior who gives the go-ahead for a missile assault by a U.S. military drone on Al-Shabaab terrorist allies, and an English women who decided to join them. The film follows the doubts and complications surrounding this decision, and also stars Aaron Paul and Helen Mirren.

According to Variety in their review from the preview of Eye in the Sky at the Toronto Film Festival back in September, the film has great potential if reviews positively capture the bouts of humour within the war story:

“Director Gavin Hood (“Tsotsi”) and scripter Guy Hibbert (“Five Minutes of Heaven”) resist giving their material the extra push that might have transformed the movie into a flat-out black comedy. But much like “Dr. Strangelove,” the Stanley Kubrick classic it often recalls, this teasingly hard-to-label war story has more than a fair share of scenes that generate explosive laughter — until the laughter catches in your throat. Appreciative reviews and enthusiastic word of mouth, along with op-ed analyses and cable-news punditry, could significantly boost box office prospects and ancillary-platform potential.”

“… Here and there throughout “Eye in the Sky,” Hood and Hibbert sprinkle humanizing character quirks — Benson worries about buying the right doll for his child; the U.K. foreign secretary (a fine seriocomic turn by Iain Glen) is impeded by a bout of food poisoning — to counterbalance the ever-increasing suspense with comic relief. But the humor is far subtler, and much darker, during stretches when the movie is deadly serious”

“…Purely on the level of a crackerjack political thriller, “Eye on the Sky” is hugely entertaining, with razor-sharp editing by Megan Gill suitably amping the tension, and sharp lensing by Haris Zambarloukos effectively contrasting the chilly confines of the interiors and the menace in broad daylight of the exteriors. Production designer Johnny Breedt and special effects supervisor Mickey Kirsten further enhance the overall air credibility of the movie’s depiction of high-tech searching and destroying.”

The film sadly marks Alan Rickman’s final on-screen performance after his passing in mid-January (not counting his voice-over of the Blue Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland: Through The Looking Glass), so it’ll definitely be worth watching. See the trailer below, and read the full review here!

Alan’s co-stars payed tribute to him at the premiere of the film. Reported by People.com:

“Obviously, I knew Alan very, very well,” Helen Mirren, who plays hard-baked Colonel Katherine Powell, told PEOPLE. “I did a play with him, Anthony and Cleopatra, and we went through all the unbelievable difficulties and the passion of that.” 

 “The man you see on the screen – and that’s what I love about it really – is Alan: the wit, the urbanity, the sophistication, the intelligence, the humanity.”

“It came as a horrible shock to everyone,” Aaron Paul, who plays drone pilot Steve Watts, said Wednesday. “We lost one of the most brilliant people in this profession.” 
“I didn’t know if he was ill, and I don’t know if he knew,” offered director Gavin Hood of Rickman, who played Lieutenant General Frank Benson in the high stakes drama, which is dedicated to the late star. 

“I was so looking forward to seeing him in Toronto [during the film festival],” Hood continued. “And he wrote me a sweet note: ‘Gav, I’m so sorry, I’m just not feeling so good and I’m not going to be there. I just need to put my feet up for a few days.’  When I think of that now, it absolutely breaks my heart.”

According to Hood, Rickman later came to Los Angeles with A Little Chaos, a film that he directed. “We hung out afterward, had a chat, drinks. He was on his feet, gave no hint that he was ill. He was dignified and warm and kind to the very end. And not long after that he passed away. 

“It hit me hard, because I read it in the paper,” he said while choking up. “It was horrible. It was so sudden … He was a good man; he really was.”