History Film / ZeroDarkThirty

* BoomHeadshot: How the SEALs take out Bin Laden.

->''"I'm going to smoke everyone involved in this op, and then I'm going to kill bin Laden."''

->''"I'm going to smoke everyone involved in this op and then I'm going to kill bin Laden."''

-->--'''Maya'''

''Zero Dark Thirty'' is a military thriller directed by Creator/KathrynBigelow [[BasedOnATrueStory based on the true story]] of the 10-year hunt for UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden. It follows Maya (Creator/JessicaChastain), a CIA operative whose single-minded dedication to and confidence in her mission to find Bin Laden helped propel the hunt forward, even when people started to give up. The film also stars Creator/JasonClarke, Creator/JoelEdgerton, Creator/MarkStrong, Jennifer Ehle, Creator/KyleChandler, Creator/EdgarRamirez, Creator/HaroldPerrineau, Creator/ChrisPratt, Creator/StephenDillane, Creator/JohnBarrowman and Creator/JamesGandolfini.

* TheGhost: Bin Laden is this throughout the film, with some people pointing out that for all they know, he might already be dead.

* ActionGirl: Averted with Maya, who is an analyst instead of an officer who works in the field.

** Once the mission to kill Bin Laden is authorized (the length of time it takes to get authorized may also be an example), Maya doesn't go on it. She may be the protagonist, but she is an analyst not a soldier nor an assassin.

* AffablyEvil: Dan's primary tactic seems to be to appear this way to detainees, switching between being friendly and casual with them and being implicitly threatening (threats he doesn't have a problem fulfilling)

* AllThereInTheScript: Due to the procedural nature of the screenplay, many of the characters' names are only mentioned in passing (or not at all) while others are only known by their nickname (The Wolf) or title (CIA Director, National Security Advisor).
* Area51: Where they see the secret stealth Blackhawk helicopters used in the raid. Notable in being one of the very, very few visits to Area 51 in a film where aliens aren't involved at all - even as an in-joke or an aside.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: Maya uses massive amounts of US government satellite photos, surveillance footage and so on in the hunt for bin Laden. It is, however, eventually played with: when they zero in on Osama's compound, they attempt to gain as much information as they can. A briefing states that any overt approach - bugs, RC drones, observers - are both easily defeated by the compound's thick walls. Trees and bushes provide cover from satellites. Bin Laden's courier only returns occasionally, and even then, it took extraordinary luck to track him.
* BittersweetEnding: Bin Laden is successfully located and killed. Maya, who refused to drop the hunt even after the rest of the CIA had turned its attention elsewhere, is vindicated, but at the cost of questionable ethics, casualties, bad intel, and the fact she had spent her entire adult life thus far pursuing one man.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: A relatively dark shade of grey at that, depending on how you interpret the film. One of the film's main themes are the lengths America will go to prevent terror attacks - including torture, and the film does not take a concrete position on the practice.
* BoomHeadshot: How Bin Laden bites it.

** The [=SEALs=] go about the raid with strict professionalism, and don't even seem to realize the importance of what they have done until after it is all over. [[spoiler:The leader even asks the (unnamed) SEAL who killed Bin Laden if he even realizes what he just did]].

* CasualDangerDialogue: {{Played with}}, in that he's not the one in danger, but part of Dan's technique as an interrogator is to maintain a conversational tone or word choice even as the brutality of the interrogation escalates.
* CloudCuckooLander: Dan; he's an absolutely ruthless interrogator while he's on the job, but off it, he does things like feed ice cream to his pet monkeys and later [[spoiler:quits being an interrogator with the joking excuse that 'he's seen too many naked guys'.]]

* DarkenedBuildingShootout: The climax of the film is a real-time depiction of the raid on Bin Laden's safe house, with scenes either shot in darkness or from the perspective of the [=SEALs=], who are wearing NightVisionGoggles. (The CIA cut the power to the compound before the team went in.)

* DoubleTap: During the raid on Bin Laden's compound, the [=SEALs=] shoot targets again once they're down, though the heart.

* FamilyValuesVillain: Bin Laden, and Abu Ahmed, who live in the compound with their wives and children.

* FriendlessBackground: After Jessica establishes that Maya does not have a boyfriend (see MarriedToTheJob, below), she asks Maya if she has ''any'' friends. Maya says nothing.

* HeroicBSOD: Maya curls up in the fetal position and does her best to drink herself into oblivion after [[spoiler:Jessica is killed in a suicide bombing]]. This is compounded shortly afterwards by the news that her best lead on Bin Laden is apparently dead.

** Maya finally tracked down Bin Laden when she realized that the CIA's assumption that he was hiding in some cave in a remote mountain region, surrounded by an army of bodyguards, is wrong. In reality, he was hiding in a large house in a semi-urban area with practically only his relatives as his staff. And with the Pakistani equivalent of West Point less than a mile away. [[note]]About 8/10ths.[[/note]]
** Part of the reason why Bin Laden's courier took so long to track was that CIA didn't take into account the fact that Abu belonged to a big family, and that three of the eldest sons looked very similar, especially with the beard, ''and'' that his generic name was only part of his real name. All of this information came from overlooked files.

* MarriedToTheJob: It's established that Maya has no boyfriend (or any other kind of [[LesYay "friend"]]). [[{{Foil}} In contrast,]] in that same scene we can see Jessica's wedding ring. She also encourages Maya to date (or at least have a one night stand) with Jack. [[spoiler:After her death, it's revealed she's the mother of three children.]]

* NothingIsScarier: The raid on the compound is a long, extended, very uncomfortable sequence of the [=SEALs=] breaching and engaging four militants, with periods of nothing but quiet advancing in-between.

** The head of security at the Afghanistan base, when he realizes Jessica's informant won't take his hand out of his pocket...

* PetTheDog: Dan, a ruthless interrogator who won't hesitate to use waterboarding or lock a man in a box, feeds ice cream to monkeys and is visibly upset when they have to be killed because of security concerns.

* PummelingTheCorpse: An unnamed SEAL kills Osama bin Laden with a single shot in the climax. Afterwards, two other [=SEALs=] fire into his corpse a few more times.

** During the climactic raid, Pakistani civilians neighboring the compound start to approach in curiosity. The SEAL team's translator tries to warn them off in ([[RealityHasNoSubtitles untranslated]]) Arabic, but to no avail. It's not until he cries out "Get away! They will kill you!" in English that the civilians stop. While recognized by Pakistan, Arabic is not widely spoken in the country, but English is one of its official languages. It's quite reasonable that those civilians would have been able to understand English warnings.

* RedHerring: The doctor Al-Qaeda is trying to recruit who offers Jessica information on Bin Laden's whereabouts. [[spoiler:He's actually a suicide bomber, killing Jessica and the team with her.]]

* RomanAClef: As nearly every character in this film is based on active personnel in the CIA, Navy [=SEALs=], etc., their names, appearances and personalities were all fictionalized to some extent.

** [[spoiler:There's no epic throw-down with the SEAL Team leader and Bin Laden, no dialogue on conflicting philosophies and justifications. Bin Laden is an elderly man against a team of elite soldiers on a mission. He dies as easily as his {{Mook}}s, to an unnamed SEAL even. The only thing he gets is to be the last one to die]].

** Jessica tells the security at Camp Chapman to stand down and let her al-Queda contact come in unsearched, so that he doesn't get intimidated and run off.

* TrailersAlwaysLie: The first teaser trailer makes it sound like the "ghost" they track is Bin Laden - in reality, it's a courier who is suspected to be a direct go-to for Osama.

Administrivia/RepairDontRespond

* RuleOfPerception: During the climactic raid, Pakistani civilians neighboring the compound start to approach in curiosity. The SEAL team's translator tries to warn them off in ([[RealityHasNoSubtitles untranslated]]) Arabic, but to no avail. It's not until he cries out "Get away! They will kill you!" in English that the civilians stop, because this is an English-speaking movie.
** Less unrealistic than you may think: Pakistan, as part of India, was a British colony and thus English is common there to the degree that English is an official language of Pakistan.

** Similarly, the anti-surveillance measures at the compound; absolutely everyone agrees that the house ''screams'' Bad Guy. They're just skeptical about whether the Bad Guy is actually Usama bin Laden - it could be a deposed despot on the run, a paranoid arms dealer, or a low-ranking terrorist with a lot of funding.

* RealityEnsues:
** Once the mission to kill Bin Laden is authorized (the length of time it takes to get authorized may also be an example), Maya doesn't go on it. She may be the protagonist, but she is an analyst not a soldier nor an assassin.
** [[spoiler:There's no epic throw-down with the SEAL Team leader and Bin Laden, no dialogue on conflicting philosophies and justifications. Bin Laden is an elderly man against a team of elite soldiers on a mission. He dies as easily as his {{Mook}}s, to an unnamed SEAL even. The only thing he gets is to be the last one to die]].