The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is a 2008 war film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, following a United States Army bomb disposal team during the Iraq War. The story centers on Staff Sergeant William James, a reckless and skilled technician who joins the unit after its previous leader is killed, and traces the strain his methods and the daily threat of improvised explosive devices place on his fellow soldiers Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge. The cast included Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty, with supporting appearances from Ralph Fiennes, David Morse and Guy Pearce. It won six Academy Awards at the 2010 ceremony, including Best Picture and Best Director, the latter making Bigelow the first woman to win that award, despite the film grossing only about seventeen million dollars domestically, the lowest domestic gross of any Best Picture winner up to that time.