Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty chronicles the hunt for Osama Bin Laden from 9/11 until his death in May 2011. With the upcoming Golden Globe and Oscar awards coming up, I decided I’d like to see at least one of the films that was up for best picture.
The story focuses on Maya, the CIA analyst who’s goal is to find Bin Laden. She watches and participates in various torture sessions of terrorist detainees. From these interrogations, she becomes convinced that Abu Ahmed is important to Bin Laden and begins pursuing who and where he is.
Throughout the movie, there are scenes of terrorist attacks: a London bus explosion, gun attacks on civilians in Saudi Arabia, bomb explosion outside the Marriott where Maya and colleague were dining. Whenever there was a lull and you were wondering where the story was going, there would be an explosion. The anxiety level kept rising.
Based on gathered intelligence, Maya becomes convinced that Bin Laden was living in a compound outside of Pakistan. She has a hard time selling her belief to her boss and coworkers. Eventually the Seal Team 6 was called in to find and kill Bin Laden.
The final half hour was a step-by-step account of flying in, landing, entering the house, killing various people, and taking hard drives and files. When someone was killed, their children would cry. The soldiers would say “it’s ok, it’s ok.” How NOT ok it was for those children!
Now that Maya’s goal had been reached, the movie ends with her looking lost and bewildered.
I was glad I knew the end of this movie while I was watching it.