This is one of the most important movies I have seen in a while. I had been waiting for it to come out, and I was not disappointed. It is not a fun movie to watch, and not a date movie unless your date is a left-leaning policy wonk.

The “hero” is Tom Egan, an experienced pilot who is now flying drones and killing the enemy from the comfort of an air-conditioned container on the ground at an air force base outside Las Vegas.

Some people would be happy to be safe. They would be pleased to be able to go home for a barbecue and a beer in a suburban back yard after a day of killing. His beautiful wife and his kids are certainly pleased to have him at home.

Unfortunately, Major Egan misses the thrill of real flying. He feels like a coward, striking targets from the safety of his office. The situation worsens as the mission creeps and the CIA take control. Fire one “Hellfire” missile, then fire again to get the first responders. “Isn’t that what the terrorists do?” asks his trainee. Kill a bunch of people, then come back at sunset to kill everyone attending the funeral, and blow up the dead bodies a second time. “Did we just commit a war crime?”.

No-one is having a good time. No one is sure that what they are doing is right, except  except for the disembodied voices from the CIA who seem certain the farmer who has a shed full of fertilizer must be a terrorist and deserves to die.

Egan’s boss knows he would love to go back to flying, but manned combat missions over enemy territory is the way of the past. His wife tries to support him, but she cannot grasp what he is doing. The bottle seems the only way out, vodka his one true friend.

Eventually Egan cracks. He kills the one person he really feels deserves to die, and drives off. In the final scene we see that Egan, too is being constantly watched from above.

There are no answers in this movie. But this drone war is still going on, and we should think about what is being done in our name.