Over ten years after the film’s release, Zero Dark Thirty has still managed to stay in discussion within film circles. One detail being talked about recently, however, is the accuracy of the events that the film portrays. Zero Dark Thirty closely follows the real life events of the United States government as they search for Osama bin Laden, and their attempts to kill him before he can do any more harm. Jessica Chastain led the cast, alongside Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Joel Edgerton, and Chris Pratt.
Point Break and Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow took up directing the project and served as a producer as well.
Screenrant notes that Mark Boal, who is credited as writer, wrote the basis for the film. The events aren’t exactly as it happened in real life, but are based off of Boal’s own findings as a journalist.
Given that the film is based closely on real-world events, the accuracy of it is bound to be discussed at length, as is the case with so many others of this nature. ScreenRant also noted that a former member of the CIA spoke with Insider and went in-depth with just how accurate the film is.
Reportedly, the former member, John Kiriakou, spoke to the film’s climax initially, stating that the way it’s presented is accurate. Kiriakou was once the officer of counterterrorism for the CIA. The climax itself is the raid that would end with bin Laden’s death, and Kiriakou specifically mentioned the intent was to kill bin Laden from the very beginning.
He also mentioned that, like all other raids of that type, was actually done late at night. “In Pakistan, we only did our raids after 2am. At or after 2am. Because you want people to be asleep. You want them to be caught unawares. That’s what they did in this case,” he said.
But he did mention, however, that the way they found bin Laden was quite different. While it was shown to be simpler in the film, Kiriakou explained it was a far more arduous process, with countless data factors to pour over to find him.
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