HURT LOCKER, THE 165
Army Ranger, arrives to replace Sgt. Thompson as the team leader of a U.S. Army
EOD unit. James’ team includes Sergeant J. T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Spe-
cialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). James’ unorthodox bomb disposal meth-
ods are judged reckless by Sanborn and Eldridge, and tensions mount. Meanwhile,
James takes a liking to an Iraqi youth nicknamed “Beckham” (Christopher Sayegh),
who tries to sell him DVDs. When they are assigned a detonation job, Sanborn
thinks about murdering James by “accidentally” causing an explosion before the
team is ready, and upon hearing this thought pro cess, Eldridge is put on edge. En
route to their camp, the soldiers come face to face with five gun- toting men wear-
ing traditional Arab clothing who have gotten a flat tire. James’ squad has an
anxiety- ridden conversation with their leader (Ralph Fiennes), who then admits
that he and his men are private contractors and British mercenaries. They also boast
about having captured men pictured on the most sought- after Iraqi baseball cards.
All involved in the encounter are suddenly fired upon, and while the prisoners try
to escape, the mercenary leader recalls that the bounty on their heads reads “dead
or alive,” leading him to shoot the captives. Sanborn and James procure a borrowed
Barrett M82 .50- caliber rifle and shoot down three attackers, leaving Eldridge to
shoot a fourth. Later that week, during a routine ware house sweep, James discovers
the body of a young boy— whom James identifies as Beckham—in which a live
bomb has been surgically implanted. During evacuation, Lt. Col. John Cambridge
(Christian Camargo), the camp’s kindly psychiatrist and a friend of Eldridge’s, dies
Anthony Mackie (left) and Jeremy Renner play U.S. Army bomb disposal specialists
during the Iraq War in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2008). (Summit
Entertainment/ Photofest)