“It’s cool that you’re strong. I respect it, I do. But in the end everybody break bro… It’s biology.”
With these words, the story begins in a detention camp two years post the 9/11 Attacks. Zero Dark Thirty shares a tiny glimpse of the ten long years that culminated with USA’s triumph. It portrays the journey of a young officer’s efforts, conviction, and determination that brought down the head of a terrorist syndicate, Osama Bin Laden.
The film is predominantly set in the rustic localities of Pakistan with small bits of it in Washington. Maya, a young woman recruited for this mission is new to the gruesome ways of the detention camp. But she has a flair for the work and learns the tricks of the trade with ease.
Maya drives the mission and takes us through the process. It is extensive, it is exhaustive and emotionally taxing. We see her pursue several potential links but they all turn to be a dead end. Meanwhile the Al-Qaeda continue their attacks in several parts of the world leaving the CIA helpless and desperate for a promising lead. Maya goes through trauma of her own when she is caught in a bomb blast but survives, loses her friend in an act suicide bombing and is even fired upon by gunmen on different instances. Angst, desperation, and utter hopelessness overtake her senses during these times. Yet each time she gets back up on her feet more determined than ever to complete what she was supposed to. And herein lies the key to the success of this mission.
A chance encounter of a clue by Maya’s junior officer gets the mission a promising path. Like the domino effect one link leads to another as the CIA closes in on its target and it finally comes down to the night we as the viewers and the CIA had been awaiting. The plan is strategized down to the tiniest detail and is executed tactfully. Two choppers carrying the canaries get into Pakistan, into Osama’s house and kill him within 9 minutes, thus avenging the massacre of 3000 US Citizens.
As the movie ends we see Maya boarding an empty plane. The pilot asks her where she wants to go and at this moment she looks at him hesitantly as tears trickle down her cheeks. We are left wondering what those tears mean. Were they tears of fulfillment that she had finally done it? Were they tears of relief that she was finally going home? Or perhaps it was something else. In her journey of ten years she had worked on nothing but this mission. Through this time there is no mention of her friends, family and home. Perhaps the idea of a home is a long lost memory which comes back to her and hits her hard. Perhaps.
As the screen goes dark, with a baggage of emotions and these unanswered questions, we bid adieu to Maya, the woman who found Osama Bin Laden.