In the shadowy world of drone warfare, combat unfolds like a video game — only with real lives at stake. After six tours of duty, Air Force pilot Tom Egan (Academy Award-nominee Ethan Hawke) yearns to get back into the cockpit of a real plane, but he now fights the Taliban from an air-conditioned box in the Las Vegas desert.
When he and his crew start taking orders directly from the CIA, and the stakes are raised, Egan's nerves — and his relationship with his wife (January Jones) — begin to unravel. Revealing the psychological toll drone pilots endure as they are forced to witness the aftermath of their fight against insurgents, Andrew Niccol directs this riveting insider’s view of 21st-century warfare, in which operatives target enemies from half a world away.
Set during the greatest escalation of drone strikes, “Good Kill” is about the moral conflicts and dilemmas of using this new technology. But it’s very much a personal story. Tommy is becoming a casualty of a war he’s fighting from half a world away, all while in absolutely no danger.
“He is a pilot suffering from shell shock and grieving the death of those actually flying, while also feeling guilty that he’s so far away from the shells,” said director Niccol. “He is becoming disconnected from real life, relating more to the targets he’s watching, and their families, than his own family.”