The Hurt Locker

The intro scene for The Hurt Locker is indeed very intense. We start off seeing patchy, static-filled images of a rubble-strewn dirt landscape. Shouting Arabic voices are heard in the background. The point of view is from that of a mobile robotic unit designed to examine bombs. As we see the robot revealed from a different camera angle, the camera zooms out to take in the surrounding city of Baghdad in an establishing shot. Iraqi people flee the streets, escorted by U.S. soldiers. The camera movements are jerky, filmed using a handheld camera. The camera occasionally zooms in amid the mass of running people and hectic action to point out where the robot is among the clutter. Camera shots switch between close-ups of the robot, what the robot is recording, and wider shots taking in the people running around, seemingly oblivious to its actions. The camera pulls up to a cloth-covered pile, and we finally see the three soldiers watching the monitor. The robot’s operator Sanborn takes direction for its movement from the captain Thompson. Thompson warily looks up at the natives watching from the surrounding buildings, looking for signs of trouble. The soldiers joke and laugh while they attempt to uncover the pile with the robot, making the situation less tense. The captain describes how the charges will safely detonate the bomb under the cloth, planning out the scenario ahead of time with his other two men. The whole situation seems commonplace to the team as the casually go through the motions. Suddenly the wagon containing the charges loses a wheel, and Thompson must carry the charges the rest of the way. As the team suits Thompson up, they still maintain their relaxed attitude, joking to each other. Suddenly a strange Iraqi man approaches Sanborn, asking meaningless questions. Sanborn’s relaxed attitude immediately disappears as he angrily yells at the man to back away, telling him it’s not a game. After the minor distraction, the team continues as usual. Thompson carries the wagon the rest of the way to the bomb and lays the charges on top of it. As he begins walking back, the two other teammates began joking about growing grass as a commodity. Suddenly Eldridge notices an Iraqi man with a cell phone in a nearby butcher shop. Sanborn and Eldridge run towards the man, frantically yelling at him to drop the phone. As the intensity of the moment grows, the camera switches shots with increasing frequency. Thompson hears their shouts over the radio and starts to run instead of walk, sensing the urgency of the situation. The Iraqi man dials in a series of numbers, and the bomb can be seen exploding behind the running Thompson. Time slows down, and the explosion goes off in slow motion. Close-ups are shown of the dirt literally flying into the air and a nearby burned car being compacted by the force of the explosion. Time begins flowing normally again, and Thompson is thrown forward by the blast. A close-up shows his helmet is filled with blood. After the blast, he lies motionless on the ground, presumed dead. A cloud of smoke overtakes the scene as it ends.

                Later in the movie, we see Sanborn and Eldridge with their new captain, James. While driving in their Humvee across the desert, the team comes across another military team stranded by a flat tire. They converse casually while the tire is replaced, when suddenly one of the men is shot and killed by a sniper rifle. After a brief second of silence, the captain of the second team shouts out for everyone to take cover. The ground around the men begins to explode with incoming fire. The camera shots quickly flit from one to the next, never filming the same shot for more than one or two seconds. The opening scene had longer durations of shots to capture the more relaxed attitude. In this scene, the men have been caught completely off-guard, unaware of where their attackers are located. This frantic atmosphere is conveyed through the use of cutaways, with the camera shot abruptly changing every few seconds. The audience is similarly thrust into a sense of confusion. The feeling is highlighted when Eldridge calls out, “What are we shooting at?” and Sanborn replies, “I don’t know.” The quick use of cutaways continues until the unit finds something to hide behind and establishes where the shooting is coming from. In both scenes as well as throughout the movie, the editor switches shots at a pace which mirrors the emotional intensity of the action portrayed, helping the audience emphasize with the characters’ situation.