The Hurt Locker is a 2008 American war film about a three-man Explosive Ordnance Disposal (bomb disposal) team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer. He was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with an U.S. Army EOD team in Iraq. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty.