Good Kill

R

Released May 15, 2015

1h 42m

War

Drama

List

75%

127 Reviews

Tomatometer

49%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

An Air Force drone pilot (Ethan Hawke) begins to question the ethics of dropping bombs on Afghanistan from the safety of his post in Las Vegas.

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Critics Consensus

Thought-provoking, timely, and anchored by a strong performance from Ethan Hawke, Good Kill is a modern war movie with a troubled conscience.

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Steve Davis

Austin Chronicle

The film clumsily debates the ethical pros and cons of this dispassionate form of warfare.

Rated: 2.5/5

Jun 11, 2015

Full Review

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Good Kill excels as a character study with Niccol's screenplay making Egan a fascinatingly conflicted and flawed individual and Ethan Hawke giving one of his best recent performances bringing the man to life.

Rated: 3/4

May 23, 2015

Full Review

Richard Roeper

Chicago Sun-Times

But the visuals pack a visceral punch. Every time Tom zeroes in on a target, every time he pushes that button, what we see on those monitors is brutally authentic.

Rated: 3.0

May 22, 2015

Full Review

Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

The material is intelligent and complex, and the themes, along with excellent performances from Hawke and Greenwood, more than compensate for Niccol's frequent heavy-handedness in his drama.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 21, 2022

Full Review

Jason Adams

The Film Experience

Repetition and weariness are our subject now; the sunlight itself is diffused by death and destruction, the only thing raining down.

Jul 2, 2021

Full Review

David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

This is the first major US feature film that has attempted to represent this criminal policy and its consequences both for the targeted populations and for the American people.

Feb 12, 2021

Full Review

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John A

'Good Kill' is Andrew Niccol's fascinating vision on a fairly relevant issue stemming from modern warfare. Be prepared for a growingly intense character study.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

05/06/23

Full Review

ronald h

This film does a realistic, heart-stopping job of illustrating the horrors of drone warfare (I use the word "warfare" advisedly because the drones are 10,000 feet in the air and are unseen by the victims). The story is about one Air Force drone operator (Ethan Hawke) who targets suspected terrorists' homes and compounds in Afghanistan and elsewhere on a computer screen from an air conditioned room outside of Las Vegas. Due to the unavoidable collateral damage of women, children, and other innocents, his conscience is eating away at him. He drinks a lot and struggles to maintain his relationship with his wife and kids. Critics are quibbling about the polemical aspect of the film. I had no problem with it. The movie isn't anti-American; it's anti-war. The best line in the film comes from a disillusioned female drone operator in a meeting with her commander. She simply says, "It never ends." That line carries a ton of weight. War will never end. The human desire to dominate and kill will never end. Films like this are important because we should never forget that harsh reality.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A pretty good film which highlights modern warfare and how it affects those involved. Kept me interested throughout, Ethan does a great job as his stability decreases as hard and harder requests are ask of him.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Major Thomas Egan is a fighter pilot who has been regulated to drone pilot on a secret military base somewher near Vegas. He is desperate to leave and get back to the skies but new protocol means he is left grounded and faced with new recruits who belong more in video game arcades than on the field of battle. Good Kill covers very similar ground to Eye in the Sky but whereas Eye in the Sky was very much focused on the moral implications of killing people with limited intelligence from thousands of miles away, this story also looks at the psychological trauma caused to the pilots who have the lives of strangers, many of whom are innocents and counted as collateral damage. Ethan Hawke was a good lead, playing a character who is struggling to justify the deaths on his conscious, especially when his orders start to come from the CIA rather than his immediate generals. Overall I think Eye in the Sky is the better film regarding tension and moral questions but this was a better character study.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Manny P

I know people who can put jigsaws together with force that make more sense than this ? Greenwood so overplays the gung-ho profanity, it's embarrassing. What is it with Hawke sucking his cheeks in for the duration of the movie ? He got so close with Training Day, but he's Z List and then some.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

05/19/20

Full Review

Audience Member

Good Kill is a thought-provoking movie, it plays to all sides of positive and negative of Drone warfare. It is less an entertainer more a chilling and dark take on the reality of modern warfare, it is at times boring with some pacing issues, at times bleak with how threat assessments are made and at times very dark with the way deal with such threats, some of the tactics used leaves you wondering who is the terrorist. The casting is superb so is the performances, Ethan Hawk shines in his portrayal.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

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Andrew Niccol

Director

Ethan Hawke

Tom Egan

January Jones

Molly Egan

Bruce Greenwood

Jack Johns

Zoë Kravitz

Vera Suarez

Jake Abel

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Synopsis

An Air Force drone pilot (Ethan Hawke) begins to question the ethics of dropping bombs on Afghanistan from the safety of his post in Las Vegas.

Director: Andrew Niccol
Producer: Patrick Newall, Ted Gidlow, Cami Winikoff
Screenwriter: Andrew Niccol
Distributor: IFC Films
Production Co: Voltage Pictures, Sobini Films
Rating: R (Some Sexuality|Language|Violent Content Including Rape)
Genre: War, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 15, 2015, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $17.8K
Runtime: 1h 42m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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