Good Kill

Technological advances might have kept the war on terror at a physical distance, but in Good Kill, human emotions still take their toll.

The latest thriller from director Andrew Niccol (The Host) probes how a new generation of pilots still manages to experience burnout, remorse, and even post-traumatic stress disorder while flying missions from a glorified video-game console.

Whereas he once flew fighter jets during several tours of duty in Afghanistan, Maj. Thomas Egan (Ethan Hawke) now reports to a Las Vegas warehouse to fly drones that spy on potential targets halfway around the world, and dispense explosives to wipe them out when necessary. Then he gets in his car and drives home for the evening.

During this move from front lines to cubicles, the military veteran is remarkably well-adjusted, suppressing emotions yet still able to play the role of family man by maintaining a strong bond with his patient wife (January Jones) and young children.

His supervisor (Bruce Greenwood) values Egan’s leadership. Still, he struggles to hide his frustration with his new assignment, which he considers a cheap and callous alternative to traditional warfare – “It’s like going from a Ferrari to a Ford Fiesta,” he explains to a colleague. The moral complications are heightened by bureaucratic meddling once the CIA takes over a mission, and his itch to get back into an actual plane leads to a somewhat predictable downward spiral.

While Niccol’s character-based screenplay includes some heavy-handed tendencies, its perspective is fresh and compelling, not to mention provocative.

Hawke, who has previously collaborated with Niccol on Gattaca and Lord of War, brings depth and complexity to his role as an experienced soldier being forced to make a transition. As he tells a convenience store clerk: “I killed six Taliban today, and now I’m going home to barbecue.”

Good Kill would make an interesting companion piece to American Sniper, examining some of the same ethical questions while taking a more critical anti-war stance. And while it’s exaggerated, the film’s assertion is chilling – that perhaps the best method of training for modern warfare is not several weeks of boot camp, but a binge session of “Call of Duty.”

Rated R, 103 minutes.