Beams of more than 5 milliwatts start to become more and more dangerous to the eyes, and will soon reach a blinking reflection speed that is not enough to protect your eyes from exposure to light. Above 500 milliwatts, the focused beam may start to scorch a piece of paper. At this power level, the beam has enough juice, even if you only look at the reflection, it will cause serious damage to your eyes. At about 1 watt, the narrow unfocused beam can easily burn paper.
I know that it is illegal to irradiate a laser pointer on a plane, but I didn’t find any information on google about irradiating a laser pointer in the sky but there is no plane nearby. It is stipulated that a laser must be fired at a vehicle (or air traffic control building/service) without effective defense in order to commit a crime. Therefore, I interpreted the law as saying that unless you are negligent or malicious, launching a laser at the vehicle, you can legally shoot the laser pen into the sky.
A slight rebuttal to this explanation: how did he pick them up from the ground without showing to it? My best guess is the combination of the trigger in his glove and the lighting device above him, and smoothly switching between them to simulate that they are a light source. This is drama magic: if it irritates people trying to figure it out, then it works.
However, these "safe" definitions are most useful for stationary observers on the ground. If you accidentally let the laser beam hit your eyes, you can look away. If the flash has temporarily blurred your vision (especially in the dark), you can sit down and wait for 15 minutes or an hour before your vision can return to normal.
However, a pilot flying at night needs to have functional eyes and adapt to the darkness in order to correctly see the airport and runway where he is trying to land. If he is flashed by the green laser pointer, even if it is only a fraction of a second, he will definitely be distracted and may leave an afterimage that affects his vision for several minutes. If the laser comes from near the airport, the pilot cannot even look away from that direction. This increases the chance of permanent eye damage.