The Hurt Locker met some resistance. In discussion, Bigelow found that her cast and crew shared stereotypes of the region from American culture. "Sadly people in America and Los Angeles have these perceptions", she said. "But once you get off the plane you realise it's like Manhattan without the trees", she continued. As Iraq dominated discourse in America and across the world, Bigelow believed that filmmakers would continue to explore the conflict, making Jordan the natural place to film. According to producer Tony Mark, the blood, sweat and heat captured on-camera in the production was mirrored behind the scenes. "It's a tough, tough
The Hurt Locker be opened, X-rayed, or damaged. Accordingly, film was hand-carried on a flight by a production assistant from Amman to London. After the Super 16mm film was transferred to DVcam at a lab in London, the video dailies were transported by plane back to the Middle East to be imported into the editing system. The whole journey would take anywhere from three days to a week and was described by Innis as the "modern-day equivalent of shipping via donkey cart". The low production budget and the lack of a developed film infrastructure in the area hampered the process, according to Innis.