The ethics of drone warfare are fully explored and debated in Andrew Niccol‘s GOOD KILL, a somber and unusual war movie unlike any we’ve seen. In the film, Ethan Hawke plays Air Force pilot Tom Egan who after years of being on the front lines now sits back in a trailer in Las Vegas, controlling drones hundreds of miles away from the action, killing suspected terrorists with intense precision. He’s fighting the good fight, yes, but as he’s in no danger himself; he feels detached from his activities, and from the war itself. Is he really still a soldier?
Tom Egan has two women in his life in GOOD KILL. One is his wife, Molly, played by January Jones. Molly is faced with a very frustrating – and unique – situation for an “army wife”: Her husband is home, and yet he’s so emotionally distant he might as well be 3,000 miles away. For Jones, who of course is just coming off AMC’s Mad Men, the role sees her play a different kind of struggling wife, one who is caught between struggling to make her marriage work and resenting her husband’s increasingly depressed state-of-mind. I spoke to Jones about playing those complex emotions, the relationship between herself and Hawke on set, and her thoughts on TV versus film.
The other woman of significance in Egan’s life is Vera Suarez, his new drone “co-pilot” played by Zoe Kravitz. Vera is an upbeat newcomer to the job, and sees the toll it has taken on her emotional co-worker… and soon begins to feel the weight of the job herself. I spoke to Kravitz about her character’s headspace, doing research with real drone pilots, being locked in a claustrophobic room for days at a time, and collaborating with director Andrew Niccol.
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