Kit List: William James - The Hurt Locker

This month’s kit list focuses on Staff Sergeant William James, played by Jeremy Renner in the 2008 film The Hurt Locker. 

The critically acclaimed film focuses on William James, the new leader of an Iraq War Explosive Ordinance Disposal team who are being targeted with IEDs and ambushes by enemy insurgents.

Renner wears two primary load outs during the film, his bomb disposal outfit and hit assault kit, depending on the needs at the time. We’ll cover both.

Weapons

Primary – Colt M4A1 with an M68 Aimpoint, Knights Armament RAS and Vertical Foregrip.

Interestingly, throughout the film when weapons are handled but not fired, you can see actors using a Classic Army M15A4 AEG. They are most noticeable by the white fire mode lettering (rare in firearms) and the faint Classic Army logo where it has been painted over on the mag well.

Sidearm - Beretta 92FS
Occasionally, a Beretta 92 is used in the film (noticeable by the smoother trigger guard), as the 92FS was caught in customs for the beginning of the film’s production.
William uses the 92FS primarily when wearing the large and cumbersome bomb suit.

The Bomb Suit

The bomb suit is made by MED-ENG and is their EOD-9 Advanced Bomb Suit (although, now they’ve got an EOD10 suit). The suit consists of the helmet, jacket, groin protector, trousers and boot covers. The suit is designed to offer some protection against a nearby blast with impact, over pressure, heat and fragmentation protection, as well as an internal cooling system for comfort.

With all of the protection and gear on board these suits, they can weigh upwards of 40kg.

This suit alone will set you back £22,500

And then you need the helmet *cough*… £12,000.

Head

Circling around to the slightly more affordable loadout used by Renner in the film we have his assault kit; the kit that offers less protection from explosions, but has the added benefit of itching your nose easily and not requiring a second mortgage.

The character looks to be wearing a standard issue Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) or MICH TC-2000 with a woodland cover (not typical issue or for the terrain). A band around the helmet holds a carabineer on the right hand side and displays the name of the soldier on the other.

Somewhere between the head and the torso is a neck snood type covering.
Also notice on the shoulders is some eye protection, hooked under the look of the shoulder. (We’ll include this in the head section anyway). These goggles look to be Revision Desert Locust Goggles.

Torso and Legs

Primarily and perhaps controversially (in the context of the film’s location) Renner’s character wears a DPM vest. The vest is a mid-chest split style with no pouches used

James otherwise wears complete UCP BDUs from head to toe, with US flag patch and a “drop the bomb” fabric patch on the right hand side. His character also wears tan fingerless gloves (again, controversial).