The Thousands

Sergeant Will James (Jeremy Renner) is the kind of maverick that war movies so often ask us to admire: fearless, resourceful, wisecracking and soft-hearted with kids. But screenwriter Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow slowly reveal the devastating truth: James is totally fucked in the head… and he likes it that way.

After the leader (Guy Pearce) of an elite US Army bomb disposal squad is blown up by an improvised explosive device in Iraq, James arrives to replace him and quickly pisses off the other team members, Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). As they disarm a diabolical variety of insurgent weaponry and count down the days until their tour ends, they’re astounded that James seems so careless with his own life – and theirs.

Kinetic, atmospheric and taut with tension, The Hurt Locker is a provocative meditation on the psychology of war. Even the minor characters are archetypes of modern soldiering: the cynical defence contractor (Ralph Fiennes); the blue-blooded army shrink (Christian Camargo); the good-ole-boy colonel (David Morse). But it’s James who really haunted me: a guy who only really comes to life with the adrenalin-charged imminence of death.