Written by Mark Boal and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker features an elite squad of U.S. army soldiers, dismantling bombs in the most dangerous areas of Baghdad. The film's anything but your typical big-budget war flick—avoiding sensationalism and without political agenda, it realistically portrays one of the most fascinating and underrepresented facets of the war in Iraq, in the process capturing the psychological complexity of soldiers who voluntarily deal with borderline-psychotic danger on a daily basis. Rising star Jeremy Renner taps into Sergeant William James, a member of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), who’s taken apart 873 bombs in the heat of combat. James and his subordinates Sanborn and Eldridge (Notorious star Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty, respectively) are specially trained to handle homemade bombs and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which are responsible for more than half of America's Iraq War casualties and the deaths of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Already winning awards at the Venice Film Festival and earning Renner and Mackie Independent Spirit Award nominations, this not-to-be-missed war flick hits theaters on Friday (don't forget to check out the review from this month's issue of BlackBook before you see it). In a car ride on his way to the airport, Renner gave us a ring to wax on recklessness and courage, and the bombs that he’s disarmed both in front of the camera and in his own life.