Movie preview: Echelon Conspiracy

I saw a great film trailer recently. The movie is called Echelon Conspiracy. This could be a very good film, or it will be a miserable rip-off of several successful films. So far it's hard to tell.



Essentially the movie revolves around a concept we have seen before. The world is filled with technology, and someone or something is always monitoring all that information floating around. It's Big Brother to the Nth level.

But there are some that can manipulate all this knowledge. And a lowly joe average is lucky to be the one in possession of the device with all the answers. Or unlucky, as all previous owners are dead.

In a bit of a take on the movie Magic, a cell phone talks to the latest owner. It will help the owner out of trouble with police, other people, financial debt and plane crashes (possibly caused by the phone to make a point). Anything. But you can never turn it off, nor not listen to what it tells you to do. In fact there was an episode of the Twilight Zone that went like that too - in a diner and a machine that can predict the future.

But unlike the device in the television show, this one will actively set about killing you if you don't listen to it. Still you get to travel the world, have tons of money, and intense fun. If you call every agency in the world hunting you, all willing to kill you for the device, fun.

In particular is some shadowy U.S. Government agency that is very interested in this device. It seems to be connected to other shadowy things our government is not supposed to do. That is run by Martin Sheen. Who is on a power trip bigger than when he was on the West Wing.

The other problem for our hapless owner of the cell phone? It wants him to do things for it. Seemingly random things. But that's just chaos theory. And at this point we touch on Eagle Eye. Especially why the person in control can't do all this themselves.

But if the writer ever read Mona Lisa Overdrive (a really good book by William Gibson) then there may not be a person involved at all. Like in the book, and in Ghost in the Shell, the cell phone is just one spot that an AI program is hiding. It was created in secret to break any code barrier and spy on everyone for its creators. But it became self-aware (like Skynet) and ran.

The random actions of the owners of the cell phone, directed by the cell phone, are meant to hide the set of dominoes needed to permanently get the government off the back of the AI. Killing them (cell owners) is just part of the process of ensuring they can't reveal anything that might tip everyone off to what is happening.

Now that story can be entertaining. It's been done before many times, as noted above. But when it's done right it's highly entertaining. Of course when its done wrong, you sit back and wonder which is hurting you worse, the stimulus plan or the movie. In the case of films like Eagle Eye, it was the movie.

So am I interested in this film? Sure am. It has action, technology, maybe a twist or 2, and great actors like Martin Sheen, Ving Rhames, and Ed Burns. Given that I think there will be plot hole large enough to drive a semi through, but there should be enough explosions and crashes to keep the mind from paying attention, we can hope. But there is the off chance that the writer, or the execs in Hollywood, actually bet above the common demoninator, which the cast seems to imply. So we may find that it makes sense and is invigorating to watch.

We have some time before the film comes out. That's another plus. It means that Hollywood thinks it has a chance to make money, so some level of quality should be involved. But ultimately only time will tell. I'll be watching.