The Hurt Locker



"The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug."

- Chris Hedges

A 2009 film directed by Kathryn Bigelow that chronicles the lives of three U.S. soldiers in Iraq: Sergeant First Class James William (Jeremy Renner), Sergeant Sanborn and Specialist Eldridge. They make up an explosives ordnance disposal team (essentially a bomb squad).

The film is done in the same vein as Generation Kill and has a minor amount of Jittercam for flavor. It does not address the ever-controversial politics of the war, instead focusing on the day-to-day lives of the characters. Critically acclaimed to the point of apoplexy, it still suffered theatrically due the trend of audiences steering clear of war movies during wartime. The Hurt Locker outperformed nearly the entire War On Terror film genre, notably drawing in a larger audience than other acclaimed films such as such as Stop-Loss and The Valley of Elah. Veterans who have seen the movie tend to complain about the liberties taken with EOD policy, but tend to agree that it captures the emotional and psychological effect of War in general (and the Iraq War in particular) like no other film.

Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay (by Mark Boal), Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow), and Best Picture. Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director--and she beat out her former husband and director extraordinaire James Cameron, to boot.

It holds the dubious distinction of being the least-attended best picture Oscar winner on record.


 * Acclaimed Flop: It barely made money, but was among the best reviewed movies of 2009 and won several awards.
 * The Ace: Deconstructed with James. He's good at everything...
 * Action Film Quiet Drama Scene - The sniper stand-off. Fantastic not just for the scene itself, but because it's a quiet drama scene that still involves armed combat.
 * Sanborn's Heroic BSOD scene is the more traditional variety.
 * Anti-Hero: Sergeant James is a Type IV.
 * Anyone Can Die:
 * Armor Is Useless - You're in close proximity to a bomb. If it goes off, regardless of range, you're going to be maimed. This is why James' predecessor died, despite being a ways away from the bomb. James actually invokes it at one point, ditching his suit to more easily work on a bomb that is the size of the car trunk it's placed in; there's no point to wearing it in the situation.
 * However, the armor proves NOT to be useless when
 * Badass: Many of the characters, but James most of all.
 * Badass Crew: They gather around stuff that can blow up you, me, and everyone. Bravo EOD team is badass, without question.
 * Black Dude Dies First: Massively, surprisingly, and pleasantly subverted. Sgt. Sanborn actually survives to the end of Bravo company's rotation, in spite of his new Cowboy Cop boss.
 * Cold Sniper - Sanborn, or at least he tries to be. Given that his MOS doesn't involve sniping human targets and the extra environmental and stress factors involved therein, he improvises pretty well.
 * also Boom! Headshot! during this sequence
 * The Collector of the Strange - The collection of detonation fuses of the various bombs James has disarmed over his career, which he keeps in his locker. It's the movie's eponymous Hurt Locker, though there isn't an actual Title Drop.
 * Colonel Kilgore - James.
 * Death by Cameo: and.
 * Decoy Protagonist -
 * Desk Jockey: Colonel Cambridge. A Justified Trope, in that he's a counselor.
 * Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Notably averted. A majority of the action scenes consist solely of bomb disposal, while even the more action-packed incidents eschew the usual adrenaline-pumping music and fierce firefights for near-silent scenes spent aiming weapons at enemies that may or may not be there. The only time insurgents are fully visible is during the opening - everywhere else, they're either blended in with the crowd or shrouded in darkness.
 * Dueling Movies - With Avatar, of all things. The media talk of the movies dueling was fueled, in part, by the fact that Kathryn Bigelow is James Cameron's ex-wife. There seemed to be a bit of behind-the-scenes drama going on in the fight to declare one of them Best Picture of 2009. (The Hurt Locker won.) Mostly over who'd grab the most Oscars. All that drama was just speculation, though, and Cameron is on record as praising The Hurt Locker, calling it "this generation's Platoon."
 * Foreshadowing - Eldridge saying.
 * Glory Hound - James, to an extent. Sanborn contemplates killing him for it.
 * Good Looking Privates
 * Harmful to Minors - Poor ...
 * Heroic BSOD - Experienced by all three characters to varying degrees. Obviously, it's a war film.
 * James is obviously on the edge and suffering from one when he is placed in Bravo.
 * Sanborn holds it together longer, but he finally breaks down when watching James' carefree recklessness reminds him of his own mortality, and that no one but his parents would miss him or care he was gone since he doesn't have a son to remember him like James does.
 * Eldridge could be the poster-boy for this trope; he suffers a minor but long-lasting BSOD when he  prompting Cambridge to come see him regularly. He finds Cambridge to be a nice guy and genuinely helpful, but comments that Cambridge suffers from a case of good intentions, and that he can only help to a point as long as he's behind a desk and unable to relate to actual combat experience.   His reaction to the final event involves much more outright anger than the other problems, but the extent to which he's broken is no less obvious for the lack of tears.
 * Ironic Echo - When Sanborn and Eldridge consider
 * Jittercam: Not only does it shake, but it keeps zooming in and out at whipping velocities.
 * Kick the Dog: 's character only seems concerned with collecting the bounties on the heads of his captured insurgents, which is apparently so the audience doesn't feel so bad when he dies.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: James, after the nighttime market bombing. Sanborn and Eldridge call him on it, but as he outranks them there's nothing they can do.
 * Let's Split Up, Gang: Ends up with
 * Married to the Job: James.
 * Meaningful Name: Colonel Cambridge, a highly educated but out-of-touch psychiatrist who spends most of his time doing desk work. Also, William James, for whom bomb disarmament seems to be a variety of religious experience.
 * Mildly Military: James wouldn't get away with the crap he pulls, but seeing as his "Company" is woefully understaffed and he's the one in charge, he does.
 * Military Maverick: This film works as a deconstruction of this trope. James' unorthodox and reckless tactics nearly get everyone killed multiple times (especially early on in the movie), and seem shocking rather than cool and badass. The toll it takes on his sanity seems to be quite high.
 * Mood Whiplash: There's a scene where Eldridge, in the midst of being med-evaced, cusses James out with great bitterness and then immediately has a big smile and brotherly words for Sanborn. With no pause in between.
 * Morality Pet: Beckham, for James.
 * No Ending -  Open to interpretation;
 * Obligatory War Crime Scene: An officer insists that an Iraqi prisoner of war is "not going to make it." When the scene cuts away, a gunshot is audible.
 * Only Sane Man: Sanborn.
 * Outrun the Fireball:
 * Overt Operative: Deconstructed for the terrible idea trying to act like 007 in reality is; when James attempts this to find information on  he doesn't just fail, he fails spectacularly, with punctuation.
 * Private Military Contractors: Ralph Fiennes and his team of bounty hunters.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: James and Sanborn
 * Riding Into the Sunset: Evoked by the cinematography, but cruelly subverted.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Subverted. James tries to go on one after
 * Room Full of Crazy: His fellow soldiers react to James' collection of bomb fuses this way. More like a "box full of crazy", but the principle's the same. They're all drunk, however.
 * Sacrificial Lamb - is in the film only to set the mood early and to explain why James has transferred into the squad.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran - All three protagonists: James already is one when he appears, Eldridge is one from the second scene and onwards, and while Sanborn holds out until later in the film, he falls into this too.
 * Shower of Angst: James takes one with his full uniform and equipment on
 * Spiritual Successor: James Cameron called it "this generation's Platoon"
 * Star-Making Role: For Jeremy Renner.
 * Street Urchin: Beckham.
 * Tastes Like Friendship: After co-operating to kill the sniper, James passes a container of juice to Sanborn before drinking from it himself. The team finally starts to bond together after this.
 * Unfriendly Fire/The Uriah Gambit -
 * The War on Terror - The film's setting.
 * War Is Hell - Though James would disagree.
 * Wire Dilemma: Averted, every bomb has a single wire running from the explosive to the detonator, the hard part is finding the detonator.
 * Subverted, in the scene where James drags a whole nest of artillery shells out of the road by pulling on the wires. a 155mm shell weighs about 45kg. A short while before, he is shown removing the same detonators using his finger and thumb.
 * Also lampshaded in a poster.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: