Badlands Story Hour Ep. 186: Eagle Eye

Chris Paul and Burning Bright revisit this 2008 Shia LaBeouf thriller, and both agree the movie itself is far from great even as its central concept lands eerily well from 2026. Expect a genuine appreciation for the film's prediction of an all powerful centralized AI system that manipulates the world through digitized objects, some pointed complaints about the shaky cam action filmmaking era it came from, and a real conversation about algorithmic control, epistemology, and why people arguing about elections might be missing the bigger picture entirely. There's a memorable riff on manufactured threats designed to scare people into compliance, plus some fun listener shoutouts and a debate about which underrated Gene Hackman movie deserves a rewatch. Stick around for next week's pick, a surprisingly conspiratorial Batman film that digs into information warfare more than you'd expect from a comic book movie.