You don't have to be a hero to do this job. But it helps.

During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
The Hurt Locker keeps every mind human — it fights its subject at zero distance. The story fights on E8/E10 of the E0–E14 reality ladder.
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.