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'Good Kill' Takes A Searching Look At Drone Warfare

In the new film “Good Kill,” Ethan Hawke plays Tom Egan, a former Air Force pilot who’s now a drone operator in Las Vegas. Egan longs to go back into combat, but instead is relegated to firing at suspected terrorist targets from thousands of miles away.

Writer-director Andrew Niccol told Here & Now’s Meghna Chakrabarti that he was drawn to make the film because he found drone operators to be an entirely new kind of solider.

“These guys have a very schizophrenic life: they fight the Taliban by remote control for 12 hours a day, and then go home to their wife and kids,” Nicchol said. “I always thought, ‘what does that do to the psyche of a soldier and what toll does that take?'”

[Youtube]

More Stills From The Film

Guest

  • Andrew Niccol, writer, director and producer of “Good Kill.”

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Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Zoe Kravitz (Vera Suarez) and Ethan Hawke (Tom Egan) in Andrew Niccol’s "Good Kill." (Courtesy of Lorey Sebastian. Copyright © 2014 Clear Skies Nevada LLC. An IFC Films release.)
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Zoe Kravitz (Vera Suarez) and Ethan Hawke (Tom Egan) in Andrew Niccol’s "Good Kill." (Courtesy of Lorey Sebastian. Copyright © 2014 Clear Skies Nevada LLC. An IFC Films release.)
Ethan Hawke (Tom Egan) and January Jones (Molly Egan) in Andrew Niccol’s "Good Kill." (Courtesy of Lorey Sebastian. Copyright © 2014 Clear Skies Nevada LLC. An IFC Films release.)
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Ethan Hawke (Tom Egan) and January Jones (Molly Egan) in Andrew Niccol’s "Good Kill." (Courtesy of Lorey Sebastian. Copyright © 2014 Clear Skies Nevada LLC. An IFC Films release.)
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Ethan Hawke (Tom Egan) and Bruce Greenwood (Jack Johns) in Andrew Niccol’s "Good Kill." (Courtesy of Lorey Sebastian. Copyright © 2014 Clear Skies Nevada LLC. An IFC Films release.)
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Ethan Hawke (Tom Egan) and Bruce Greenwood (Jack Johns) in Andrew Niccol’s "Good Kill." (Courtesy of Lorey Sebastian. Copyright © 2014 Clear Skies Nevada LLC. An IFC Films release.)

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Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.