The objective: The configuration of trauma in the "war on terror," or the sublime object of the medium

Abstract

In 2008, Daniel Myrick directed the sci-fi film The Objective. It tells the story of a small group of Special Ops reservists on a mission in a hostile region of Afghanistan. Their mission, headed by a "scientific" agent from the CIA, is to investigate strange energy fluctuations in the Afghan desert, which are said to have been detected by American spy satellites. On the ground, the fluctuations can be felt but remain invisible to the naked eye. Their presence causes thermal variations that can be made visible only by the CIA agent’s infrared camera. The device translates the fluctuations into images of more or less anthropomorphic spectral shapes. The shapes appear on the camera’s screen, thus allowing us to get an idea of that which, apparently, threatens the group of reservists. We learn, moreover, that the meaning of these shapes can be explained by a mysterious and mystical character, but he has disappeared. Does he even exist? Regardless, the group hopes to find him in the desert and thus obtain precious information about the nature of these odd fluctuations. Aside from a passing reference made to a phenomenon that Alexander the Great witnessed in the same region in 329 B.C.-namely the appearance in the sky of large silver armors-little is said about the fluctuations, apart from the fact that they are a potential threat to U.S. security.