diff --git a/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/ReindexRequest.java b/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/ReindexRequest.java
index 618db3dfa48..2f684fe96ea 100644
--- a/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/ReindexRequest.java
+++ b/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/ReindexRequest.java
@@ -71,6 +71,9 @@ public class ReindexRequest extends AbstractBulkIndexByScrollRequest<ReindexRequ
         if (getSearchRequest().indices() == null || getSearchRequest().indices().length == 0) {
             e = addValidationError("use _all if you really want to copy from all existing indexes", e);
         }
+        if (getSearchRequest().source().fetchSource() != null && getSearchRequest().source().fetchSource().fetchSource() == false) {
+            e = addValidationError("_source:false is not supported in this context", e);
+        }
         /*
          * Note that we don't call index's validator - it won't work because
          * we'll be filling in portions of it as we receive the docs. But we can
diff --git a/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteRequestBuilders.java b/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteRequestBuilders.java
index 8828878563c..2905f5b39cf 100644
--- a/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteRequestBuilders.java
+++ b/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteRequestBuilders.java
@@ -102,27 +102,30 @@ final class RemoteRequestBuilders {
             String storedFieldsParamName = remoteVersion.before(Version.V_5_0_0_alpha4) ? "fields" : "stored_fields";
             params.put(storedFieldsParamName, fields.toString());
         }
-        // We always want the _source document and this will force it to be returned.
-        params.put("_source", "true");
         return params;
     }
 
-    static HttpEntity initialSearchEntity(BytesReference query) {
+    static HttpEntity initialSearchEntity(SearchRequest searchRequest, BytesReference query) {
         // EMPTY is safe here because we're not calling namedObject
         try (XContentBuilder entity = JsonXContent.contentBuilder();
                 XContentParser queryParser = XContentHelper.createParser(NamedXContentRegistry.EMPTY, query)) {
             entity.startObject();
-            entity.field("query");
-            /*
-             * We're intentionally a bit paranoid here - copying the query as xcontent rather than writing a raw field. We don't want poorly
-             * written queries to escape. Ever.
-             */
-            entity.copyCurrentStructure(queryParser);
-            XContentParser.Token shouldBeEof = queryParser.nextToken();
-            if (shouldBeEof != null) {
-                throw new ElasticsearchException(
-                        "query was more than a single object. This first token after the object is [" + shouldBeEof + "]");
+
+            entity.field("query"); {
+                /* We're intentionally a bit paranoid here - copying the query as xcontent rather than writing a raw field. We don't want
+                 * poorly written queries to escape. Ever. */
+                entity.copyCurrentStructure(queryParser);
+                XContentParser.Token shouldBeEof = queryParser.nextToken();
+                if (shouldBeEof != null) {
+                    throw new ElasticsearchException(
+                            "query was more than a single object. This first token after the object is [" + shouldBeEof + "]");
+                }
             }
+
+            if (searchRequest.source().fetchSource() != null) {
+                entity.field("_source", searchRequest.source().fetchSource());
+            }
+
             entity.endObject();
             BytesRef bytes = entity.bytes().toBytesRef();
             return new ByteArrayEntity(bytes.bytes, bytes.offset, bytes.length, ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON);
diff --git a/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteScrollableHitSource.java b/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteScrollableHitSource.java
index 3fc3dc555e6..cb8f543756b 100644
--- a/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteScrollableHitSource.java
+++ b/modules/reindex/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteScrollableHitSource.java
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ public class RemoteScrollableHitSource extends ScrollableHitSource {
         lookupRemoteVersion(version -> {
             remoteVersion = version;
             execute("POST", initialSearchPath(searchRequest), initialSearchParams(searchRequest, version),
-                    initialSearchEntity(query), RESPONSE_PARSER, r -> onStartResponse(onResponse, r));
+                    initialSearchEntity(searchRequest, query), RESPONSE_PARSER, r -> onStartResponse(onResponse, r));
         });
     }
 
diff --git a/modules/reindex/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteRequestBuildersTests.java b/modules/reindex/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteRequestBuildersTests.java
index dec5263352a..3de7e09debe 100644
--- a/modules/reindex/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteRequestBuildersTests.java
+++ b/modules/reindex/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/reindex/remote/RemoteRequestBuildersTests.java
@@ -152,20 +152,29 @@ public class RemoteRequestBuildersTests extends ESTestCase {
         assertThat(params, scroll == null ? not(hasKey("scroll")) : hasEntry("scroll", scroll.toString()));
         assertThat(params, hasEntry("size", Integer.toString(size)));
         assertThat(params, fetchVersion == null || fetchVersion == true ? hasEntry("version", null) : not(hasEntry("version", null)));
-        assertThat(params, hasEntry("_source", "true"));
     }
 
     public void testInitialSearchEntity() throws IOException {
+        SearchRequest searchRequest = new SearchRequest();
+        searchRequest.source(new SearchSourceBuilder());
         String query = "{\"match_all\":{}}";
-        HttpEntity entity = initialSearchEntity(new BytesArray(query));
+        HttpEntity entity = initialSearchEntity(searchRequest, new BytesArray(query));
         assertEquals(ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON.toString(), entity.getContentType().getValue());
         assertEquals("{\"query\":" + query + "}",
                 Streams.copyToString(new InputStreamReader(entity.getContent(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8)));
 
+        // Source filtering is included if set up
+        searchRequest.source().fetchSource(new String[] {"in1", "in2"}, new String[] {"out"});
+        entity = initialSearchEntity(searchRequest, new BytesArray(query));
+        assertEquals(ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON.toString(), entity.getContentType().getValue());
+        assertEquals("{\"query\":" + query + ",\"_source\":{\"includes\":[\"in1\",\"in2\"],\"excludes\":[\"out\"]}}",
+                Streams.copyToString(new InputStreamReader(entity.getContent(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8)));
+
         // Invalid XContent fails
-        RuntimeException e = expectThrows(RuntimeException.class, () -> initialSearchEntity(new BytesArray("{}, \"trailing\": {}")));
+        RuntimeException e = expectThrows(RuntimeException.class,
+                () -> initialSearchEntity(searchRequest, new BytesArray("{}, \"trailing\": {}")));
         assertThat(e.getCause().getMessage(), containsString("Unexpected character (',' (code 44))"));
-        e = expectThrows(RuntimeException.class, () -> initialSearchEntity(new BytesArray("{")));
+        e = expectThrows(RuntimeException.class, () -> initialSearchEntity(searchRequest, new BytesArray("{")));
         assertThat(e.getCause().getMessage(), containsString("Unexpected end-of-input"));
     }
 
diff --git a/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/10_basic.yaml b/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/10_basic.yaml
index a567ca67bfa..403382622f1 100644
--- a/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/10_basic.yaml
+++ b/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/10_basic.yaml
@@ -416,3 +416,42 @@
         type:    foo
         id:      1
   - match: { _source: {} }
+
+---
+"Reindex with source filtering":
+  - do:
+      index:
+        index:   source
+        type:    foo
+        id:      1
+        body:    { "text": "test", "filtered": "removed" }
+        refresh: true
+
+  - do:
+      reindex:
+        refresh: true
+        body:
+          source:
+            index: source
+            _source:
+              excludes:
+                - filtered
+          dest:
+            index: dest
+  - match: {created: 1}
+  - match: {updated: 0}
+  - match: {version_conflicts: 0}
+  - match: {batches: 1}
+  - match: {failures: []}
+  - match: {throttled_millis: 0}
+  - gte: { took: 0 }
+  - is_false: task
+  - is_false: deleted
+
+  - do:
+      get:
+        index: dest
+        type: foo
+        id: 1
+  - match: { _source.text: "test" }
+  - is_false: _source.filtered
diff --git a/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/20_validation.yaml b/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/20_validation.yaml
index 50f12192960..c9f441c9cd3 100644
--- a/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/20_validation.yaml
+++ b/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/20_validation.yaml
@@ -295,3 +295,21 @@
             index: test
           dest:
             index: dest
+
+---
+"_source:false is rejected":
+  - do:
+      index:
+        index:   source
+        type:    foo
+        id:      1
+        body:    { "text": "test" }
+  - do:
+      catch: /_source:false is not supported in this context/
+      reindex:
+        body:
+          source:
+            index: source
+            _source: false
+          dest:
+            index: dest
diff --git a/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/90_remote.yaml b/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/90_remote.yaml
index ab47a306f57..7b10a4612e6 100644
--- a/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/90_remote.yaml
+++ b/modules/reindex/src/test/resources/rest-api-spec/test/reindex/90_remote.yaml
@@ -311,3 +311,53 @@
             index: source
           dest:
             index: dest
+
+---
+"Reindex from remote with source filtering":
+  - do:
+      index:
+        index:   source
+        type:    foo
+        id:      1
+        body:    { "text": "test", "filtered": "removed" }
+        refresh: true
+
+  # Fetch the http host. We use the host of the master because we know there will always be a master.
+  - do:
+      cluster.state: {}
+  - set: { master_node: master }
+  - do:
+      nodes.info:
+        metric: [ http ]
+  - is_true: nodes.$master.http.publish_address
+  - set: {nodes.$master.http.publish_address: host}
+  - do:
+      reindex:
+        refresh: true
+        body:
+          source:
+            remote:
+              host: http://${host}
+            index: source
+            _source:
+              excludes:
+                - filtered
+          dest:
+            index: dest
+  - match: {created: 1}
+  - match: {updated: 0}
+  - match: {version_conflicts: 0}
+  - match: {batches: 1}
+  - match: {failures: []}
+  - match: {throttled_millis: 0}
+  - gte: { took: 0 }
+  - is_false: task
+  - is_false: deleted
+
+  - do:
+      get:
+        index: dest
+        type: foo
+        id: 1
+  - match: { _source.text: "test" }
+  - is_false: _source.filtered