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Zero Dark Thirty

  • 2012
  • R
  • 2h 37m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
309K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
929
231
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Watch the final theatrical trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's chronicle of the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Play trailer2:34
9 Videos
99+ Photos
DramaHistoryThriller

A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.

  • Director
    • Kathryn Bigelow
  • Writer
    • Mark Boal
  • Stars
    • Jessica Chastain
    • Joel Edgerton
    • Chris Pratt
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.4/10
    309K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    929
    231
    • Director
      • Kathryn Bigelow
    • Writer
      • Mark Boal
    • Stars
      • Jessica Chastain
      • Joel Edgerton
      • Chris Pratt
    • 784User reviews
    • 579Critic reviews
    • 95Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 85 wins & 174 nominations total

    Videos9

    Best Picture Nominee
    Trailer 2:34
    Watch Best Picture Nominee
    U.S. Version #2
    Trailer 2:16
    Watch U.S. Version #2
    U.S. Version -- #1
    Trailer 1:15
    Watch U.S. Version -- #1
    Zero Dark Thirty
    Trailer 2:03
    Watch Zero Dark Thirty
    Zero Dark Thirty: The Meaning Of Zero Dark Thirty (Featurette)
    Featurette 1:20
    Watch Zero Dark Thirty: The Meaning Of Zero Dark Thirty (Featurette)
    Zero Dark Thirty: Compound (Featurette)
    Featurette 2:56
    Watch Zero Dark Thirty: Compound (Featurette)
    Zero Dark Thirty: SEAL Gear and Helicopters
    Featurette 2:42
    Watch Zero Dark Thirty: SEAL Gear and Helicopters
    Zero Dark Thirty: Real SEALs (Featurette)
    Featurette 2:35
    Watch Zero Dark Thirty: Real SEALs (Featurette)
    Zero Dark Thirty: Cia (Featurette)
    Featurette 1:45
    Watch Zero Dark Thirty: Cia (Featurette)

    Photos184

    Edgar Ramírez in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Joel Edgerton in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Jason Clarke in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Jennifer Ehle in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Kyle Chandler and Jason Clarke in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
    Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Jessica Chastain
    Jessica Chastain
    • Maya
    Joel Edgerton
    Joel Edgerton
    • Patrick - Squadron Team Leader
    Chris Pratt
    Chris Pratt
    • Justin - DEVGRU
    Mark Strong
    Mark Strong
    • George
    Jason Clarke
    Jason Clarke
    • Dan
    Reda Kateb
    Reda Kateb
    • Ammar
    Kyle Chandler
    Kyle Chandler
    • Joseph Bradley
    Jennifer Ehle
    Jennifer Ehle
    • Jessica
    Harold Perrineau
    Harold Perrineau
    • Jack
    Jeremy Strong
    Jeremy Strong
    • Thomas
    J.J. Kandel
    J.J. Kandel
    • J.J.
    Wahab Sheikh
    • Detainee on Monitor
    Alexander Karim
    Alexander Karim
    • Detainee on Monitor
    Nabil Elouahabi
    Nabil Elouahabi
    • Detainee on Monitor
    Aymen Hamdouchi
    Aymen Hamdouchi
    • Detainee on Monitor
    Simon Abkarian
    Simon Abkarian
    • Detainee on Monitor
    Ali Marhyar
    • Interrogator on Monitor
    Parker Sawyers
    Parker Sawyers
    • Interrogator on Monitor
    • Director
      • Kathryn Bigelow
    • Writer
      • Mark Boal
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    Jessica Chastain Through the Years

    Jessica Chastain Through the Years

    Take a look back at Jessica Chastain's movie career in photos.
    See the full gallery
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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The movie was originally about the unsuccessful decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden. The screenplay was completely re-written after bin Laden was killed.
    • Goofs
      During the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, some neighboring houses are shown with lights going on in different rooms as the neighbors become aware of the activity in the compound. In Mark Owen's book, "No Easy Day" and also in the reports on the raid from the New York Times, all the electricity in the neighborhood had been cut a short time before the start of the raid.
    • Quotes

      Maya: [to Navy SEALs] Quite frankly, I didn't even want to use you guys, with your dip and velcro and all your gear bullshit. I wanted to drop a bomb. But people didn't believe in this lead enough to drop a bomb. So they're using you guys as canaries. And, in theory, if bin Laden isn't there, you can sneak away and no one will be the wiser. But bin Laden is there. And you're going to kill him for me.

    • Crazy credits
      The filmmakers wish to especially acknowledge the sacrifice of those men, women, and families who were most impacted by the events depicted in this film: the victims and the families of the 9/11 attacks; as well as the attacks in the United Kingdom; the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan; in Khobar, Saudi Arabia; and at the Camp Chapman Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan. We also wish to acknowledge and honor the many extraordinary military and intelligence professionals and first responders who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
    • Connections
      Featured in Chelsea Lately: Episode #6.187 (2012)
    • Soundtracks
      Pavlov's Dogs
      Written by Charles Maggio, Keith Huckins, Andrew Gormley, Nick Forte III and Chris Laucella

      Performed by Rorschach

      Courtesy of Gern Blandsten Records

    User reviews784

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    Technically Impressive but Surprisingly Hollow
    "Zero Dark Thirty" is a grim, clinical depiction of the CIA search for Osama bin Laden. Its strongest feature is its dramatization of the Navy Seal Team 6 operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed bin Laden. That sequence is so professionally shot it could be actual documentary footage.

    "Zero" has no real plot. Episodic scenes occur in a choppy manner, one after the other. Scenes consist of depictions of beating and water boarding of detainees in order to gather information, agents stalking a suspect in Pakistan's crowded, chaotic bazaars, terrorist bombings, assassinations and assassination attempts. There are also scenes in offices where characters stare intently at computer screens or interrogation videos, and characters yell at each other and use obscenities, as their frustrating hunt for Osama bin Laden wears them down.

    "Zero" makes no attempt to draw the viewer in with any human sentiment. Characters are given no backstory and no character arch. CIA agent Maya, played by Jessica Chastain, is the closest the film has to a main character. She reveals no affect. Her face is blank. She isn't so much robotic as inert. We know nothing about her, except that she was recruited to the CIA while in high school – we are never told what would draw the CIA to a high school student. I didn't care about this character at all. All I kept thinking was, "Jessica Chastain is being praised for *this* performance? Why?" The dullness of her performance, and the underwritten character, made it almost impossible for me to lose myself in the story, such as it was.

    Jason Clarke is very strong and charismatic as Dan, a CIA interrogator. Dan humiliates, beats, and water boards suspects, and then feeds them delicious meals of hummus and olives when they deliver. His depiction of his work as just another job – he could be playing a bus driver with the same amount and degree of expressiveness – is provocative. I wish I had gone to see a film built around his character and his performance.

    Overall, I was disappointed in the film. Feature films are an art form. I want them to do to me what drama can do. I want to be made to identify with a character and I want, through that identification, to learn more about life, or I want to be entertained. "Zero" did neither for me. I wasn't entertained, and my understanding and worldview were not expanded. I think the same material could have been better treated in a documentary with selective re-enactments.

    "Zero Dark Thirty" sidesteps key questions. Maya sacrificed years of her life to the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Dan risks his humanity by making his living beating and humiliating other men. Men, women and children throughout the Muslim world, and, as the film makes clear, in America's and Europe's cities, are eager to blow themselves up, as long as they can take some infidels with them. Why? The film doesn't even acknowledge that there are people out there asking the question, never mind attempting to suggest an answer.

    The film opens with audio from the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, suggesting that the war between Islam and the non-Muslim world dates from that attack. Not so. Islam increased its territory through jihad from its invention in the seventh century until September 11, 1683, at the Battle of Vienna. After that defeat, Islam stopped its spread. The significance of the date of September 11 goes back over four centuries.

    America's founding fathers had to deal with jihad; see Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Pirates. Some argue terrorism, including the 9-11 attack, is caused by Western imperialism. The solution to these thinkers is for the Western world to be nicer to non-Western nations, to practice multiculturalism and to share the wealth. Others argue that jihad is inextricable from Islam, and that one necessary step is for the West to recognize and cherish its own unique virtues – to cherish that for which its spies, soldiers, and citizens fight, sacrifice, kill and die.

    "Zero Dark Thirty" never so much as brushes up against these questions. At its key moment, the film is hollow. We all know how the hunt ends – we all know Osama bin Laden is dead. "Zero" might have addressed why Maya gave the time of her life to that hunt, why Dan risked his humanity, why Seal Team 6 trained for years and risked their lives. "Zero" never does consider why these, who might have been the film's heroes, did what they did, and I walked out of the theater oddly unmoved by all the high tension and graphic violence I'd just sat through.
    helpful•539
    333
    • Danusha_Goska
    • Jan 11, 2013

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    FAQ15

    • Is there a tune copied from the Telugu film Leader?
    • What does Maya write (or draw?) with red marker on the office window? (about 1:50:15)
    • What is 'Zero Dark Thirty' about?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 11, 2013 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • English
      • Arabic
      • Urdu
      • Pashtu
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Kill Bin Laden
    • Filming locations
      • Manimajra Fort, Chandigarh, Punjab, India(Abottabad, Pakistan)
    • Production companies
      • Columbia Pictures
      • Annapurna Pictures
      • First Light Production
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $40,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $95,720,716
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $417,150
      • Dec 23, 2012
    • Gross worldwide
      • $132,820,716
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 37 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • Datasat
      • SDDS
      • Dolby Atmos
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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