Staring Ben Kingsley, Aaron Eckhart, Carrie-Anne Moss (2004)
‘A killer is on the loose, and FBI agent Thomas Mackelway is on the case, sifting through clues to uncover the criminal's identity. But there's one unusual twist: The bloodthirsty felon's victims of choice are other serial killers.’
All very suspenseful and dramatic, Suspect Zero shows a Hollywood version of remote viewing used by Ben Kingsley's character, ex-FBI agent Ben O'Ryan, to track down serial killers across the country.
O'Ryan is one of five agents once tasked with using the remote viewing skill to track killers, however the affects have taken their toll, and the others are now dead or institutionalized.
Now O'Ryan has ‘seen things no man should see’ and he is now disturbed (not enough AI breaks?).
A brave move of director Elias Merhige to construct a thriller around what is still considered by many as something to be ridiculed, and brushed off as bad science. Is part of that problem maybe the fact that for the uninformed RV is still strange, weird, and ‘proved not to be real’? If part of this film’s objective was to soften these criticisms I don’t know if it helped; instead RV is shown as the tool of the crazed. An identification that needs dispelling not strengthening.
Although thrillers and dark suspense are not my thing I did enjoy this. It moves along and is gripping. Though more enjoyable for me were the ‘special features’; a short documentary on remote viewing featuring Russell Targ and Paul Smith, amongst others, giving a well-rounded introduction to the 20 year research program, military RV operations, and the nature of consciousness.
There is also a remote viewing demonstration by the film's director, Elias Merhige, which is just as gripping as the film!