Skip to main content

This action war movie is popular on Netflix. Here’s why you should watch it

The Afghanistan War drama The Kill Team arrived in theaters with little fanfare in 2019. Only a handful of people actually saw it during its initial run. Now, The Kill Team has appeared among the most popular movies on Netflix, which may finally give it the wider audience that it deserves.

The Kill Team was directed and written by Dan Krauss, who based it on his 2013 documentary of the same name. The story loosely adapts the Maywand District murders, a series of disturbing incidents in which U.S. soldiers murdered innocent Afghan civilians seemingly for sport. Nat Wolff stars in the film as Andrew Briggman, with Alexander Skarsgård as Sergeant Deeks, Adam Long as Rayburn, Jonathan Whitesell as Coombs, Brian “Sene” Marc as Marquez, Rob Morrow as William Briggman, Osy Ikhile as Weppler, Anna Francolini as Laura Briggman, Oliver Ritchie as Cappy, Tunji Kasim as Sergeant Wallace, and Taz Skylar as Sergeant Dawes.

Now, it’s time to share three reasons why you should watch The Kill Team on Netflix.

Alexander Skarsgård gives one of his best performances

Alexander Skarsgård in The Kill Team.
A24

HBO fans won’t be surprised to hear that Alexander Skarsgård gives a great performance in The Kill Team after watching his starring turns in True Blood and Succession. But even when he played the vampire Eric Northman, Skarsgård wasn’t as intimidating as he is here as Deeks.

Deeks isn’t the kind of guy who needs to puff his chest and yell to make his men fall in line. It takes surprisingly little for Deeks to convince most of his team that killing random citizens is not only an acceptable thing to do, but it’s also the right thing to do. Human lives have no value to Deeks, and even the mission in Afghanistan doesn’t matter much to him. All he wants or needs is an excuse to kill the people that he has deemed his enemies.

It’s a morality tale

The cast of The Kill Team.
A24

Only one member of the squad, Andrew Briggman, actively refuses to go along with Deeks’ murderous plans, and he’s openly appalled by the entire thing. From Briggman’s perspective, it’s a completely terrifying experience because he knows that if he reports the team’s murderous habits, then the next body lying in the desert may be his own.

This isn’t a story that offers easy answers, or even an appealing solution for Briggman. All he wants to do is serve his country, but Briggman learns too late that he’s stepped into a metaphorical minefield, and he may not be able to escape without betraying the men he served alongside before Deeks joined the team.

A battle of the wills

Nat Wolff in The Kill Team.
A24

Perhaps the most insidious thing about Deeks is that he’s not satisfied until everyone in the unit is on board with his endless slaughter, including Briggman. Deeks tries all sorts of psychological manipulation, and even threatens Briggman’s parents, William (Rob Morrow) and Laura Briggman (Anna Francolini).

Briggman’s will is pushed to its breaking point as he faces peer pressure from his unit and Deeks to give in. You’ll have to wait until late in the movie to see how that plays out, but the tension between the two leads is electric.

Watch The Kill Team on Netflix.

Editors' Recommendations

Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
The 10 most popular movies on Netflix right now
A family of four stand next to each other and make awkward faces.

Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, with nearly 250 million subscribers. And just what do those people tend to watch? In particular, what is the most popular movie on Netflix?

Each week, the streaming service releases a list of its 10 most-watched movies over the preceding seven days. Below, we've listed the top 10 movies in the U.S. from November 27 to December 3, along with general information about each film, such as genre, rating, cast, and synopsis.

Read more
5 underrated movies on Netflix you need to watch in December
A bloody police officer is held by an investigator.

With only one month remaining in 2023, Netflix is releasing a series of high-profile movies that will likely join the list of the most popular movies on the service. Todd Haynes' May December and Bradley Cooper's Maestro will be major players this awards season, especially at the Oscars. On the blockbuster side, Zack Snyder returns with the space opera Rebel Moon, his first film in two years.

There are thousands of movies to watch on Netflix besides the new releases. Many of these movies are quite good, but they can be underseen because of their placement on the homepage. For December, we curated a list of five underrated movies on Netflix you need to watch. Our selections include a 1990s-style action movie, a war thriller, and a gritty cop drama.
Hunter Killer (2018)

Read more
25 best Christmas movies to stream right now
Andrew Lincoln as Mark holding a card that says "Merry Christmas" in Love Actually.

Cue up the Mariah Carey and whip out your credit card -- it's Christmastime! With season's greetings comes an abundance of food, unwanted relatives, tinsel everywhere, shopping bills that won't get paid until 2024, and more holiday movies than you can shake a candy cane at.

Since the sheer volume of Christmas movies can be overwhelming, it helps to have a handy list to check twice and make sure each Christmas movie they are watching is, well, nice. (Sorry, you had to expect at least one Christmas pun.) From classics like It's A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story to newer films like 8-Bit Christmas and Violent Night, these 25 movies represent the best Christmas offerings in 2023 that Netflix, Max, Hulu, and other streamers have to offer.

Read more