Tommy Egan (Ethan Hawke) suffers from a new kind of culture shock. An F-16 military pilot with six Iraqi tours under his belt, he now finds himself inside a claustrophobic trailer that serves as a drone command center near Las Vegas. Major Egan, surrounded by newcomers recruited because they “were a bunch of gamers,” has also become an increasingly rate breed of specialist–one with actual combat experience. The triggerman for numerous drone strikes in Afghanistan and Yemen, he pines to get back in the cockpit of an jet airplane–a place where the fight is at least fair. In a plane he felt an oddly intoxicating fear. Here he feels revulsion and self-loathing.
Egan’s maintains a steely, reliable demeanor that exists in his work sphere only. Once he gets behind the wheel of his vintage Mustang and drives home to his wife (January Jones) and kids, his fragility begins to emerge in between the fissures of a complacent family life. Good Kill veers between revealing scenes of what drone warfare actually looks like close up and the effects such a dehumanized, vile activity has on a “good soldier.” It mostly succeeds, although its family scenes are less convincing.
Practical arguments defending the practice of “prosecuting” specific targets despite the very real constant danger of collateral damage, are advanced by Egan’s sidekicks, and especially by his commanding officer Colonel Jack Johns (a very good Bruce Greenwood). Taking the opposite position is new-girl-on-the-block Airman Vera Suarez (Zoe Kravitz) who is Egan’s assistant. Yet she’s not the only one who squawks when CIA (“Christians In Action,” jibes Colonel Johns) superiors seem to be going too far. Many in the team express regret that the CIA has changed the requirements for a kill from a specific target to a “pattern of behavior.” This expansion’s wider scope endangers even more innocent civilians.
It’s hard for a viewer to come out of Good Kill with an unenriched viewpoint on drones. Director Andrew Niccol introduces meaningful nuance on the subject. War is still hell, only hell has suddenly changed its dimensions. People required to work with drones are penting up an enormous amount of negative energy. In Good Kill, it’s just a matter of time before Egan unravels–the only question is how. Niccol has crafted a credible look at a moral quagmire. He gets a little greedy with the film’s ending where he rather ceremoniously tries to do too much but it’s a fairly minor complaint. Hawke, on a roll as an actor lately, takes possession of his character, offering a victim worthy of empathy and, however ironically, valor.