Where to watch The Hurt Locker (2008)

Trivia & production notes

• Screenwriter Mark Boal spent two weeks embedded with an American bomb squad in Iraq in 2004, accompanying members 10 to 15 times daily to research the film.
• Director Kathryn Bigelow and Boal deliberately avoided making a political statement about the Iraq War, instead focusing on suspense and the psychology of soldiers who volunteer for bomb disarmament.
• Most major studios rejected the screenplay because Bigelow's previous film K-19: The Widowmaker had been a box-office failure and Iraq War films were considered unprofitable.
• Bigelow cast relatively unknown actors like Jeremy Renner intentionally because their unfamiliarity would heighten the tension and sense of unpredictability on screen.
• The cast trained for a week at Fort Irwin in California, where they learned to use C4 explosives and how to render safe improvised explosive devices.
• The film was shot in Jordan near the Iraqi border rather than Iraq itself because the production security team could not guarantee safety from Iraqi insurgents.
• The Jordanian government helped fund the film when its bond was nearly withdrawn and offered discounted shipping rates, ultimately reducing the budget from $30 million to $15 million.
• Jeremy Renner lost 15 pounds in three days to food poisoning during filming and wore a bomb suit weighing 80-100 pounds in temperatures averaging 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The special effects artist had to use Chinese fireworks as a substitute for gunpowder due to military prop import restrictions in Jordan, and the heat caused the fireworks to detonate in his face during assembly.
• The production shot for 44 days with four or more camera crews operating simultaneously, generating nearly 200 hours of footage.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article The Hurt Locker, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.