Zero Dark Thirty is the 2012 drama that focuses on one CIA analyst's involvement in the decade-long American manhunt to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden. The film was also one of the first to dramatize the raid on the Bin Laden's compound by US Navy SEALs in 2011. The film encountered controversy in regards to whether the filmmakers were given classified information about details of the Bin Laden operation and the film's original release date (October 2012) occurring so close to the American presidential elections. The U.S. release date was pushed back to a limited release on December 19, 2012 (with a wide release on January 13, 2013), only a month after thepremiere of the similarly-themed television film SEAL Team Six: The Raid On Osama Bin Laden. Zero Dark Thirty was directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, The Hurt Locker), from a screenplay written by Mark Boal (Triple Frontier) and the cast includes Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Jason Clarke, James Gandolfini, and Chris Pratt. Several portions of Zero Dark Thirty were shot in India (standing in for Pakistan) as well as in Jordan.
CIA SAD Ground Branch operative Larry (Edgar Ramirez) carries a Glock 17 as his sidearm. The security contractor John (Scott Adkins) draws his Glock while in Camp Chapman. A man on a motorbike pulls a two-tone Glock 17 after blocking the van Larry is driving.
Heckler & Koch MR556A1 (Mocked Up to Resemble the HK416D)
Members of SEAL Team Six including Navy SEAL Patrick (Joel Edgerton) and Navy SEAL Justin (Chris Pratt) are armed with Heckler & Koch MR556A1 carbines modified to resemble the Heckler & Koch HK416D with 10.4" barrels and a variety of accessories, including Advanced Armament Corp. suppressors, EOTech XPS2 sights and AN/PEQ-15 ATPIALs.
While the configuration of the weapons seen in the film closely matches those of the real-life operators’ weapons, there are some inaccuracies: (1.) in real life, the EOTech 551 was the EOTech model used at the time by DEVGRU, (2.) some of them had Remington RAHG handguards, and (3.) most of the real-life weapons were painted in digital AOR1 desert camouflage pattern to match the rest of the team’s gear.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingScreen-Used Heckler & Koch MR556A1 (modified to resemble the HK416D) - 5.56x45mmError creating thumbnail: File missingProduction image shows SEALs armed with suppressed mocked up MR556A1s. Note that they appear to be wearing GPNVG-18's (L-3 Ground Panoramic Night Vision Goggles).Error creating thumbnail: File missingA SEAL checks out his mocked up MR556A1 on the day of the raid.Error creating thumbnail: File missingSaber (Callan Mulvey) attaches a suppressor to his mocked up MR556A1, which has a Magpul CTR buttstock.Error creating thumbnail: File missingA SEAL disembarks from a specially-modified MH-60 Blackhawk while holding a mocked up MR556A1.Error creating thumbnail: File missingA SEAL opens fire with his suppressed mocked up MR556A1 during the raid.Error creating thumbnail: File missingA SEAL takes aim with his mocked up MR556A1 with the AN/PEQ-15 ATPIAL activated. The IR laser is somehow emitting from under the suppressor instead of at the actual laser emitter on the PEQ-15.Error creating thumbnail: File missingNight Vision view of the SEAL with his mocked up MR556A1 just before taking the fateful shot.Error creating thumbnail: File missingThe SEAL in the back has the mocked up MR556A1 slung. Note that the mag is missing and the rather concerning misalignment of the monocular pods on Justin's GPNVGs. The SEALs here are seen inaccurately wearing Crye Precision AC (Army Custom) combat shirts, instead of the Navy Custom combat shirt which was actually worn by the SEALs in real life.
An operative at Camp Chapman can be seen with an M4A1 Carbine fitted with an M68 Aimpoint red dot scope. Another CIA officer is seen armed with a basic M4A1 Carbine while tracking Bin Laden's courier in Pakistan. Hakim (Fares Fares), a CIA SAD Officer who accompanies the SEALs as their translator during the Bin Laden raid, is armed with an Aimpoint-equipped M4A1.
U.S. Marines guarding the American embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan are armed with M16A2 rifles. The scene they appear in takes place in 2003, but they are wearing MARPAT LWH helmets and scalable plate carrier vests, the latter of which was not issued until 2008-2009. The LWH helmet did exist in 2003, but was in testing phases. MARPAT was only just being issued in 2002-2003, so the embassy Marines would've been more accurate wearing 3-color DCUs and IBA or PASGT vests.
Pakistani police officers and a guard at the CIA Black Site in Poland carry AKMS rifles. Navy SEAL Patrick (Joel Edgerton) is also seen taking an AKMS that was mounted on a wall in Osama's bedroom after raiding the Bin Laden compound in Abbottabad. This is true to real life, as the weapon retrieved from Osama’s room in the Abbottabad compound was a Russian-made AKMS with counterfeit Chinese markings, rather than the AKS-74U that he routinely carried in propaganda videos over the years.
Pakistani agents clad in burqas wield "AK-47" rifles while apprehending a terrorist suspect. In reality, the rifles are actually blank-firing replicas used because of strict firearms regulations that make it difficult to bring genuine firearms to India (where many of the Pakistan-based scenes were shot).
