Arrow Films has debuted a new UK trailer for military drama, Good Kill. Starring Ethan Hawke as a former Las Vegas fighter pilot, the film charts his emotional journey as he winds up becoming a drone pilot for the US military. Splitting his days between his sky high employment, which sees him at the controls of a lethal machine aimed at the Taliban and a quaint, suburban existence, his inquisitive mind soon gets the better of him.
Directed by Andrew Niccols – who previously worked with Hawke on Gattaca – Good Kill looks to be venturing into similar thematic territory explored by Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper. Whereas Eastwood’s flick dug beneath the facade of a sniper returning from conflict, Good Kill finds Hawke’s protagonist hooked into a steady day job that troubles him by night.
We’ve previously seen footage in the first trailer released earlier this month, and now the UK version provides a new snapshot of the central issues plaguing the pilot. Thus far, the film has received positive critical notices, suggesting that this could achieve what many hoped American Sniper would.
Good Kill opens in UK cinemas on April 10th, with a US release date expected sometime later this year.
The film tells the story of a Las Vegas fighter-pilot turned drone-pilot (Ethan Hawke), who fights the Taliban via remote control for half of his day, then goes home to his wife (January Jones) and kids in the suburbs for the other half. But the pilot is starting to question the mission. Is he creating more terrorists than he’s killing? Is he fighting a war without end? One soldier’s tale with epic implications.
GOOD KILL is a visually stunning exploration of how a man’s psychological, emotional and moral boundaries are challenged by the realities of 21st century warfare. The film initiates an important dialogue about the current techniques used in modern war, and in the same vein as THE HURT LOCKER and FULL METAL JACKET, illustrates how war is constantly being redefined according to the technologies and methods in play.
