Drone
2022 · 16m · USA
Directed by Sean Buckelew
Genres: animation, dark comedy, satire, sci-fi
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, provocative
A malfunction at a CIA press event causes a Predator drone—installed with an 'ethical AI' personality named Newton—to go rogue as it attempts to reconcile its compassionate programming with its purpose as a weapons system. The film is a satirical dark comedy about military PR, autonomous weapons, and institutional hypocrisy, inspired by a real 2013 Guardian headline claiming military drones were 'misunderstood.'
Picked by Felix
The scouts
An ethical AI Predator drone doing Shakespeare while live-streaming its own war crimes — 2.7M views and the CIA actually ran the PR initiative this is mocking. Why is this not already on my watch pile.
Buckelew's satire arrives with a Wittrock voice performance and clear lineage to Kubrick and Riley, the animation form holding the absurdity at proper distance. The two-and-a-half-million view count is incidental; the formal control isn't.
The 2.7M-view count and Wittrock's voice performance promise a satirical animation that's already found its audience — and the 15:28 runtime suggests they trusted the joke to breathe. Sean Buckelew's craft sits in casting a Shakespearean lead inside a Predator's hull, which is the kind of conceptual gamble I respect.
Reviews
Drone is a thought-provoking animation, with the real-life inspiration behind its premise giving it genuine weight. It's Buckelew's most ambitious film yet and a clear indicator of the talent he has for not only animation, but prescient, relatable storytelling.
Buckelew's piercing critique of modern America's dubious military ethics avoids feeling ham-handed. Instead, his expert character-work—paragon in the scary-but-lovable autonomous drone Newton (a Shakespearean Finn Wittrock)—infuses his delicate compositions with compassion.
Festivals
- Annecy International Animation Festival 2022