Is ‘Land of Bad’ Based on a True Story? How the Real Jason Kinney Helped Make Liam Hemsworth’s Movie More Accurate

Liam Hemsworth’s Land of Bad movie has found new life on Netflix. The 2024 war movie flew under the radar when it first opened in theaters in February. But ever since Land of Bad was added to Netflix earlier this month, the film has been trending on the streamer’s Top 10 Movies in the U.S. list. That’s the power of streaming!

Land of Bad stars both Liam and Luke Hemsworth, alongside Russell Crowe, Ricky Whittle, and Milo Ventimiglia. Crowe stars as Captain Eddie “Reaper” Grimm, a U.S. Air Force drone pilot who is forced to talk Hemworth’s inexperienced character, Sergeant JJ “Playboy” Kinney, through a highly dangerous rescue mission in the Philippines. The story is fictional, but the role that Liam Hemsworth’s character has in the military—the Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC)—is a very real role in the United States Armed Forces. JTACs are responsible for directing the action of military aircrafts, sort of like the team leader. They are usually highly qualified, unlike Hemsworth’s character.

Director William Eubank, who also co-wrote the script with David Frigerio, shadowed real-life JTACs for two weeks in an effort to make Land of Bad as accurate as possible. Read on to learn more about the Land of Bad “true story.”

Is the Land of Bad movie on Netflix based on a true story?

Land of Bad is not based on a true story, in the sense that the characters and situations in the movie are entirely made-up. That said, Land of Bad is kind of, sort of based on a true story, in the sense that Liam Hemsworth’s character, AF Sgt. JJ Kinney, was partially influenced by a real-life JTAC instructor at Fort Irwin in California, named Jason Kinney, who served as a consultant on the movie.

Director William Eubank, who also co-wrote the script with David Frigerio, named his main character after the real Kinney. However, the idea for the movie came before Eubank ever met the real Kinney. The plot, character, and rescue mission that you see in the movie is entirely made-up. The real Kinney did not rescue a CIA agent from the Philippines, and he’s certainly not an inexperienced newbie. In fact, the real Kinney is now retired.

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Eubank explained, “Jason Kinney, we named Kinney after him. He called us 11 years ago when he heard we were making a JTAC movie. He had @davidfrigerio and I come out and train with them at Fort Irwin. He was a JTAC instructor at the time. He’s retired now but he came out and advised while we were shooting.”

Jason Kinney, we named Kinney after him. He called us 11 years ago when he heard we were making a JTAC movie. He had @davidfrigerio and I come out and train with them at Fort Irwin. He was a JTAC instructor at the time. He’s retired now but he came out and advised while we were… https://t.co/zaf0Qu1AIW pic.twitter.com/NSedDeg9a1

— William Eubank (@superswift) February 18, 2024

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Eubank explained that he and Frigerio scrapped an early, less-accurate version of the Land of Bad script after the real Kinney invited the writers to shadow real-life JATCs for two weeks. “[Jason] Kinney, who was a real JTAC instructor at Fort Irwin, called us and said, ‘Hey, you guys have got to come out and see what we actually do,’” Eubank said. “So we went out there and stayed for two weeks, calling in 9-lines to F-35s. So that changed how we looked at everything, including the script. We met real drone operators, and we just scrapped how we had written the initial film. We started over.”

So if you’re wondering why, even though Land of Bad is not based on a true story, the movie feels so true to life, it’s because the director and writer did their research. Research for the win!