Zero Dark Thirty: The final scene

Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film, Zero Dark Thirty, is the story of the courageous CIA agent Maya, played by Jessica Chastain, who is pushed to her limit over ten years attempting to find Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Throughout the movie, Maya drives herself into the ground interrogating terrorists, travelling through the Middle East, and finishing paper work while trying to stay out of the line of fire. She loses friends, colleagues, and almost her own life in her struggles to stop the man responsible for plotting the September 11 attacks.

While the climax of the movie is one of the final scenes where Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 enters Bin Laden’s compound, the final scene of the film shows true emotion of those that were part of the real event. In the final scene, Maya walks onto the empty plane, sits down in her seat, and as they close the door, she begins to cry. Throughout the entire movie, Maya is perceived as the tough, dedicated agent who does not care about anyone else’s opinion of her. In her eyes, her job is to find Bin Laden, which she dedicated her first twelve years in the CIA to doing. But, after finally catching him, she is so overcome with relief that she cannot help but to cry. Her experiences during her time in the Middle East could be contributing factors, but from my perspective, the pure relief of finding that one thing she was looking for takes over.

It is the last scene of the movie, but I think it was one of the most revealing scenes of the film. This is the first time we see the true emotion and damage that this impossible search put on her life. It is also the first time she lets down her tough façade and we see an emotion that is not anger or determination. It revealed what was building up inside of the mind of each person on the task force in Pakistan. While I believe the acting was phenomenal throughout the entire movie, this scene in particular stood out to me because it reflected the feeling of the actual agents in their position.  

This entire film was amazing, and I highly recommend it.