This film study will define the unethical misuse of satellite surveillance technology by the government in Enemy of the State (1998), which is a form of governmental abuse of the privacy and legal rights of the citizen. The use of satellite technology in this film defines the power of the National Security Agency (NSA) to observe and monitor the general public as a form of intrusion into the privacy and legal rights of the American citizen. Thomas Brian Reynolds (Jon Voight) is a corrupt NSA official that wants control by legally implementing a super high tech satellite surveillance system that will be observe and/or …show more content…
For instance, the film shows the NSA utilizing the Kent Island Intercept Station as a beacon for orbital satellite relays to observe and track Zavits as a witness to the murder of Hammersley (“Enemy of the State” 17:47-17:55). In this instance, an official named Fielder (Jack Black) asks for “authorization” for the surveillance, and he is given an impromptu response that has no legal basis. In this manner, the Reynolds is already getting clearance to illegally monitor a personal threat to a murder that he committed with NSA surveillance technology. Of course, everything that is being observed by Reynolds and his NSA collaborators is primarily being accomplished through an orbital satellite that utilizes many facets of …show more content…
Certainly, Brill and Dean are the “heroes” of the film, but the larger problem of the unethical use of surveillance technology looms over the massive power of the NSA and other governmental agencies to override legal standards that are meant to protect that privacy of the people. In this way, Dean and brill are eventually victorious in overthrowing the tyranny of Reynolds’ leadership at the NSA, yet the technology the fictional “super technology” of the film has become a very dark reality in the launching of the Advanced Orion. In this manner, the use of a super-technology in Enemy of the State defines the unlimited source of power that the NSA wields over the general public, which has increasingly become a more powerful due to the legalization process of the current American government to improve these aspects of orbital satellite technology. This is a major problem for the ethical use of satellite technology as a form of oppression and violation of privacy and legal rights for the American