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There is a body of films featuring unmanned aerial vehicles colloquially known as drones. The Hollywood Reporter wrote in February 2016, "There has been no shortage of films dealing with drones over the last few years... audiences have recently had the occasion to explore a form of modern warfare whose true repercussions are yet to be fully understood, let alone divulged to the general public."[1] The Wall Street Journal's Caryn James said of drone technology, "Movies and television shows increasingly grapple with those unprecedented aspects of war," highlighting Good Kill's release in 2015. James said, "These new films and shows have to keep the action going in situation rooms full of computers, rather than in trenches and on battlefields. And they address moral and strategic questions that old-fashioned World War II movies never had to."[2]
Henry Barnes wrote in The Guardian in April 2016, "In real life, drone warfare has prompted protests, legal action and revolt. Until now, films about drones haven't properly engaged in the debate. They either forget there's someone at the controls, emphasising the alien nature of a remote, robotic death, or, like London Has Fallen, use drones as just another weapon in the arsenal; a cool tool to make bigger, badder bangs." Barnes highlighted Eye in the Sky (2015) as an example of "one of the first drone movies to work in the grey areas" of drone warfare.[3] Jason Bourque wrote in The New York Times of Good Kill and Eye in the Sky, "Those films examined the moral struggles of military personnel as they conduct missions with clinical precision while far removed from danger."[4]
| Film | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|
| American Ultra | 2015 | The stoner comedy film features an exaggerated Central Intelligence Agency that carries out drone strikes on American shopping malls.[5] |
| Angel Has Fallen | 2019 | The action film features drones attacking the President of the United States in an opening scene.[6] |
| Babylon A.D. | 2008 | In the science fiction film, the protagonists are attacked by aerial drones, patrolling the Alaskan-Canadian border.[7] |
| Back to the Future Part II | 1989 | In the science fiction film, a future timeline depicts a news outlet drone videotaping the arrest of a criminal.[8] |
| Blade Runner 2049 | 2017 | In the science fiction film, LAPD officer K has a flying car equipped with a detachable drone that he can control via voice command. The drone is able to survey areas, including what is underground.[9] |
| Blair Witch | 2016 | In the horror film, the main characters bring a drone-mounted camera into the woods with them.[10] |
| Body of Lies | 2008 | The spy film features extensive use of drone surveillance.[11] |
| The Bourne Legacy | 2012 | Aaron Cross, an agent of a Central Intelligence Agency program living in the woods, is targeted in a U.S. drone strike.[12][13] |
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier | 2014 | In the superhero film, a government program called Project Insight creates three Helicarriers that have the capability of killing autonomously.[13][14][15] |
| Captain Phillips | 2013 | In the thriller film based on a true story, a Boeing Insitu ScanEagle is used by the United States Navy to monitor the situation involving a hijacked ship.[16] |
| The Chamber | 2016 | In the survival film, a four-person submersible crew attempts to find and destroy a crashed RQ-170 surveillance drone lost in the Yellow Sea before North Korea can recover it.[17] |
| Chappie | 2015 | In the science fiction film, a villain deploys drones to track down and attack the protagonist.[18] |
| Dirty Wars | 2013 | The documentary investigates targeted killings carried out by the United States government, including those executed by drones.[19] |
| The Divergent Series: Allegiant | 2016 | The dystopian film features miniature drones that obey finger commands.[20][21] |
| Drone | 2014 | The documentary explores the use of drones in warfare.[22][23] |
| Drone | 2017 | In the thriller film, an American drone pilot is confronted by a Pakistani businessman seeking revenge.[24] |
| The Drone | 2019 | The horror film features a serial killer whose consciousness is uploaded to a consumer drone, and the killer terrorizes a pair of newlyweds as the drone.[25] |
| Drones | 2013 | Two United States Air Force personnel wrestle with executing a drone strike on an apparent terrorist at the cost of civilian lives.[26] |
| Eagle Eye | 2008 | In the thriller film, a Predator drone is flown into a Washington, DC tunnel to kill the film's protagonist.[27] |
| Elysium | 2013 | In the science fiction film, a sleeper agent deploys drones to track down and attack the protagonist.[28] |
| Eye in the Sky | 2015 | The film features drones operated by the U.S. and British governments that fire Hellfire missiles and insect-/bird-sized drones that infiltrate terrorist compounds.[15][23][29] |
| Force Majeure | 2014 | In the Swedish film, a family of four on a ski trip bring with them a toy drone. In a dramatic scene, the drone's appearance invokes a comical feeling to break the heavy social pressure of the scene.[30] |
| Four Lions | 2010 | In the black comedy film, a terrorist at a suicide bomber training camp attempts to shoot down a drone with a rocket launcher but has it backwards and instead kills his fellow terrorists.[31] |
| From the Sky | 2014 | In the short film, an Arab father and son travel through a region frequently targeted in drone strikes.[32] |
| Full Contact | 2015 | A French drone pilot flies drones in the Middle East from Nevada in the United States. He carries out a drone strike on a building to kill a terrorist inside, but he discovers afterward that the building was a school for boys.[23][33] |
| Furious 7 | 2015 | In the film's climax, the protagonists drive through the streets of Los Angeles to evade a weaponized drone.[34] |
| The Giver | 2014 | In the dystopian film, drones monitor citizens and inform them of rule-breaking.[35] |
| Good Kill | 2014 | A United States Air Force pilot, participating in the Central Intelligence Agency's drone program in the war in Afghanistan, struggles with the ethics of attacking targets from afar.[15][23][29] |
| Hummingbird | 2013 | A former Special Forces officer, struggling for redemption, is paranoid about having been watched by drones ("hummingbirds") in his Afghanistan operations as well as his life on the streets in London.[36] |
| Inferno | 2016 | In a scene from the thriller film, a symbology professor and his sidekick evade a drone hunting them in Florence's Boboli Gardens.[37] |
| Leave the World Behind | 2023 | In the post-apocalyptic thriller film, one of the characters encounters on the road a drone dropping leaflets with Arabic writing, thematically tied to one of the film's notions of "sowing 'synchronized chaos' with misinformation".[38] |
| London Fields | 2015 | The drama film, with a nonlinear narrative, features a military drone as part of intercut scenes.[39] |
| London Has Fallen | 2016 | The action film begins with a drone strike targeting a terrorist but only killing his family, leading him to seek revenge.[3] |
| Interstellar | 2014 | At the beginning of the science fiction film, the protagonist tracks down and commandeers a renegade drone formerly belonging to the Indian Air Force.[40] |
| Iron Man 2 | 2010 | During the superhero film, the villain Justin Hammer builds weaponized humanoid drones based on Iron Man's suit technology.[41] |
| The Interview | 2014 | In the comedy film, a drone delivers a replacement strip of poison to Kim Jong-un's fortress for the protagonists to use to kill him.[42] |
| Kill Command | 2016 | The science fiction film features artificial intelligence-controlled drones who attack a team of soldiers on a military training island.[43] |
| Mission: Impossible III | 2006 | In the spy film, a convoy traveling across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is targeted by a drone.[44] |
| Mobile Suit Gundam F91 | 1991 | In the sci-fi mecha anime film, the Crossbone Empire uses drones known as Bugs, equipped with whirling blades along their edges, which are designed to saw through whatever they encounter. They can also split open to deploy "Child" Bugs, smaller Action Bombs with a small beam gun that can go into smaller places(like houses). |
| Mohajer | 1990 | A man who controls RC airplanes to detect Iraq's front line, is put in danger of not being able to return.[45] |
| National Bird | 2016 | In the documentary film, three whistleblowers warn about the consequences of military drone strikes.[46] |
| Oblivion | 2013 | In the science fiction film, drones monitor a ruined Earth in 2077.[47] |
| Olympus Has Fallen | 2013 | In the action thriller film, North Korean terrorists launched a small drone to be on a lookout for any military incursion teams. |
| The Other Side | 2012 | The short film depicts a child who experiences drone attacks in Pakistan by the United States government and consequently joins a terrorist group.[48] |
| Poltergeist | 2015 | In the horror film, a toy drone plays a key role in the climax.[49] |
| The Purge: Election Year | 2016 | The horror film features drone warfare.[50] |
| RoboCop | 2014 | In the science fiction film, the beginning depicts drones used as part of a U.S. military operation to subjugate a Middle Eastern country.[13] |
| Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling | 2019 | In this animated film, characters travel on drone-propelled chairs.[51] |
| Rotor DR1 | 2015 | In the science fiction film, a young man in a post-apocalyptic world attempts to track down his father, traveling under a sky populated with autonomous drones.[52] |
| Sentinel | 2017 | In the science fiction short film, a man wakes up in an empty field and is chased by a flying drone.[53] |
| Skyline | 2010 | In the science fiction film, Predator drones are deployed with stealth bombers to fight an aerial battle with enemy aliens.[54] |
| Slaughterbots | 2017 | The short film, a collaboration between professor Stuart J. Russell and the Future of Life Institute, depicts a dystopian future in which palm-sized drones are able to carry out massacres with facial-recognition technology and on-board explosives. The film was produced to encourage a global ban on autonomous weapons systems.[55] |
| The Spymasters | 2015 | In the documentary film, Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency are interviewed about the agency's approach to terrorism, including the use of drone strikes.[56] |
| Stealth | 2005 | In the action film, an unmanned air combat vehicle developed by the United States military is taken over by a built-in artificial intelligence, and three Navy pilots work together to stop the vehicle.[57] |
| Sleep Dealer | 2008 | In the science fiction film, the setting is a near-future dystopia where the water supply is privately controlled by corporations and warfare is waged with drones. The inclusion of drones was inspired by the 1997 science fiction novel Forever Peace.[58] |
| Spider-Man: Far From Home | 2019 | In the superhero film, Mysterio uses drones masked by holographic images to create cataclysmic threats that he thwarts in order to prop himself up as a superhero to the public.[59] |
| Spider-Man: Homecoming | 2017 | In the superhero film, Spider-Man utilizes a bug-sized drone provided to him by Iron Man.[60] |
| Spies in Disguise | 2019 | In this animated film, agents from H.T.U.V. battle a terrorist who employs hundreds of drones in battle.[61] |
| Star Trek: Insurrection | 1998 | In the science fiction film, unmanned remote controlled drones controlled by the Sona would locate and target persons on a planet surface and transport them onto a starship above.[62] |
| Syriana | 2005 | In the geopolitical thriller, a Predator drone is used by the Central Intelligence Agency to assassinate an emirate's foreign minister.[29] |
| This Means War | 2012 | In the romantic comedy film, two Central Intelligence Agency men compete over a woman, and one agent shoots down a surveillance drone the other agent deployed to spy on him.[63] |
| Transformers: Age of Extinction | 2014 | In the action film based on the robot toy line, miniature drones are featured as part of the group of villains.[64] |
| Unmanned: America's Drone Wars | 2013 | The documentary film investigates the impact of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere.[65] |
| Venom | 2018 | There is a scene in which several unmanned quadcopters chase down the protagonist |
| X-Men: Days of Future Past | 2014 | In the superhero film, the future timeline features airborne killer robots called Sentinels that hunt down and kill mutants.[13] |
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