Good kill

[Dobber]

In the shadowy world of drone warfare, combat unfolds like a video gameonly with real lives at stake. After six tours of duty, Air Force pilot Tom Egan (Ethan Hawke) now fights the Taliban from an air-conditioned bunker in the Nevada desert. But as he yearns to get back in the cockpit of a real plane and becomes increasingly troubled by the collateral damage he causes each time he pushes a button, Egans nervesand his relationship with his wife (Mad Men's January Jones)begin to unravel. Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord of War) directs this riveting insiders view of 21st-century warfare, in which operatives fight unseen enemies from half a world away.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pcDB6OZgqzo

Chris

[troyness]

I saw that online the other day , looks good. Will check it out.

[Mr March]

Niccol's films have always been interesting even when they haven't been entirely successful. The guy has a knack for choosing very interesting subjects, always managing to grab me with the premise of whatever story he's building into his film. I'm interested in this one and will definitely be checking it out.

[electric indigo]

Those walking drones are getting even creepier than the flying ones:

[electric indigo]

So I saw this yesterday and found it pretty intense, but

what do you think about the ending? I thought Egan finally snapped when he took the role of judge, jury & executioner all for himself, but the movie puts it as his return to humanity, as he drives to his wife's place in the final scene. IMO here the movie somewhat contradicts itself, seeing the direction of the plot before these scenes.

[Valkyrie Driver]

I realize that what drone operators do is important, and that they contribute a lot. This definitely looks interesting, and is a largely ignored topic. From the guys I've spoken to that have become drone operators (especially the guys that flew, A10's, F15's, and F16's mostly) they hate it. I heard a lot of those sentiments echoed in this trailer, which is pretty cool. Most pilots don't like that they've been relegated to the "RC Plane Club". Psychologically it's gotta be tough to deal with the reality that your bird is half a world away, dropping bombs. In many ways it's easier to be deployed flying manned air support missions, than to be able to just pull the trigger from half a world away, then go home and see the family. I'm curious to see how they execute this, without it becoming an over dramatized joke.

[Dobber]

Making War so impersonal is a dangerous thing too. War is a terrible thing, and to be able to wage it from safety can....I don't know....desensitize us to it, which IMO, would really be bad. I can understand the pilots problem with it. I think Star Trek had an episode about something similar to this. War was being fought through simulations so ther was no destruction, but when a simulated attack happened X number of the population had to export to euthanization centers. Not the same, I know, but the concept of taking out the horror of war was there.

Chris

[Valkyrie Driver]

Making War so impersonal is a dangerous thing too. War is a terrible thing, and to be able to wage it from safety can....I don't know....desensitize us to it, which IMO, would really be bad. I can understand the pilots problem with it. I think Star Trek had an episode about something similar to this. War was being fought through simulations so ther was no destruction, but when a simulated attack happened X number of the population had to export to euthanization centers. Not the same, I know, but the concept of taking out the horror of war was there.

Chris

I agree completely, drones are a good tool, for missions that are dull, dangerous, or dirty. Dull missions are things like running recon over a certain area or observing a target's comings and goings, and the like. Dangerous missions are obviously ones where you wouldn't want to send a manned aircraft, denied airspace, or even something dull like high altitude recon, where you have to worry about irradiating a pilot. Dirty missions are the ones where you have to go into a radiological zone or like the aforementioned high altitude recon. You put drones places you can't or wouldn't send a person. Having armed drones is acceptable when it falls into the 3d's categories, like when you need a ship that can loiter for 12 to 18 hours before you need to pull the trigger, or if you need to continuously paint targets for 12 hours for manned air strikes while a JTAC is racking and stacking said air strikes, because he's trying to keep his platoon alive. Things like that are what you use drones for, not replacing manned fighters, and you certainly cannot build a viable or even acceptable Air Force around a ton of Drones and a handful of stealth fighters.

By the way, the episode you are thinking of is called "A Taste of Armageddon" from the original series. The best lines ever,

"What have you done!?"

Kirk- "I have given you back the horror of war..."

Unfortunately, I think this movie will come off as making drone operators look like pussies, especially when compared to movies like BlackHawk Down, Act of Valor, Lone Survivor, and American Sniper, which all show remarkable acts of courage and heroism. I don't want to trivialize the problems drone operators face, because the fact is they're just as real as the PTSD that returning service members face. If you kill a kid, it doesn't mater if you were 10 feet or a half a world away, it still hurts. This movie is likely going to be trivialized and seen as a joke.

[spanner]

This movie looks quite interesting actually! Would certainly like to watch it!