Synopsis
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
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Cast
- Jeremy RennerStaff Sergeant William James
- Anthony MackieSergeant JT Sanborn
- Brian GeraghtySpecialist Owen Eldridge
- David MorseColonel Reed
- Guy PearceSergeant Matt Thompson
- Evangeline LillyConnie James
- Ralph FiennesContractor Team Leader
- Christian CamargoColonel John Cambridge
- Christopher SayeghBeckham
- Suhail AldabbachBlack Suit Man
Recommendations
- 100
Entertainment Weekly
The result is an intense, action-driven war pic, a muscular, efficient standout that simultaneously conveys the feeling of combat from within as well as what it looks like on the ground. - 100
Time
A near-perfect movie about men in war, men at work. Through sturdy imagery and violent action, it says that even Hell needs heroes. - 100
The New Yorker
A small classic of tension, bravery, and fear, which will be studied twenty years from now when people want to understand something of what happened to American soldiers in Iraq. If there are moviegoers who are exhausted by the current fashion for relentless fantasy violence, this is the convincingly blunt and forceful movie for them. - 100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
There's something about this story, and this war, that brings out the stripped-down conceptual artist in her (Bigelow): Against blank canvases of desert sand and rubble, explosive wires are linked to nerve ends, and everything that matters depends on the twitch of a muscle or a finger on a button. - 100
Village Voice
A full-throttle body shock of a movie. It gets inside you like a virus, puts your nerves in a blender, and twists your guts into a Gordian knot. - 90
New York Magazine (Vulture)
The Hurt Locker might be the first Iraq-set film to break through to a mass audience because it doesn't lead with the paralysis of the guilt-ridden Yank. The horror is there, but under the rush. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
Tensely action-packed and muscularly directed by Kathryn Bigelow, this tale of an elite U.S. army bomb disposal unit in Baghdad is a familiar story in new clothes, targeted at the young male demographic. - 88
ReelViews
This is a tense, well-crafted motion picture that keeps viewers on edge. It's an exhausting 130 minutes; many viewers will leave the theater feeling drained.
