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Good Kill

Play trailer Poster for Good Kill R Released May 15, 2015 1h 42m War Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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75% Tomatometer 129 Reviews 49% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
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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Good Kill

Good Kill

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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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Critics Reviews

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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 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 Tom Long Detroit News "Good Kill" is darkly enlightening, but it's not really all that good. Rated: C+ May 22, 2015 Full Review Don Shanahan Every Movie Has a Lesson Reunited with his "Gattaca" muse Ethan Hawke, Niccol delivers a very timely and provocative slow boiler with a great deal to say about the current modern state of warfare. Rated: 4/5 Oct 14, 2024 Full Review Michael Clark Epoch Times Recalling Stanley Kubrick with his clinical stillness and business-like air, Niccol is making an observation: war from a distance and without the sounds of bombs and screams is still war, and can still have adverse effects on the soldiers carrying it out. Rated: 4.5/5 Jun 6, 2024 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 Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (229) audience reviews
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 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 Audience Member Movie sucked, unless you like watching Ethan Hawke do poor Bruce Willis facial imitations. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Good Kill

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Movie Info

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
Nicolas Chartier, Zev Foreman, Mark Amin, Andrew Niccol
Screenwriter
Andrew Niccol
Distributor
IFC Films
Production Co
Voltage Pictures, Dune Films, 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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