Continuity mistake: During the sniping scenes, a fresh magazine is handed from the spotter to the firer. The magazine is filled with empty cases at first. The next scene showing a close up of the mag shows it now with live rounds.
Continuity mistake: James is searching for an IED planted in a street when a taxicab suddenly speeds through the road block, which stops in front of James. James approaches the front of the taxi with his pistol aimed at the driver, then walks around to the driver's side of the car. When the shot switches to behind James, he is back standing in front of the taxi.
Other mistake: In the opening scene when Thompson is walking down to retrieve the C4 to place on the IED there are several errors, first he is walking down the tracks then he starts looking around the area and you get his point of view at T:06:09 and he is off the tracks then back on at T:06:11. At T:07:19 as Thompson is about to pick up the trailer with the C4 you can see some tanks in the foreground which is inside the blast radius, as he gets to the IED T:08:00 there are no vehicles within 25 meters of him.
Audio problem: In the scene where James "forgot [his] gloves down there", the sound from the detonation just before that is incorrectly in sync with the explosion. Given that they are a distance away from the blast itself, what should happen is you see the blast first, then hear it say about a second or more later (based on the estimated distance). (00:48:50)
Revealing mistake: Whenever James, Sanborn, and Eldridge are riding in the Humvee, you can see panels of wood in between the doors and windows of the Humvee. If you look closely, the grain in the wood is visible.
Visible crew/equipment: When James is walking in his EOD suit, a crew member and camera can be seen in the reflection of the top of his helmet. (02:05:30)
Continuity mistake: When James is opening his jacket he has his hand on the bottom of the jacket. Camera changes and his hand is in the air. (01:31:50)
Continuity mistake: When Sgt. James opens his jacket, he unzips it, camera cuts and he unzips it again. (01:31:40)
Continuity mistake: The circle that is drawn on Sgt. James' chest changes between shots. (01:09:50)
Continuity mistake: During the sniper scene, the amount of dust on James' face keeps changing. (01:04:10)
Visible crew/equipment: When radioing for confirmation, a crew member is reflected in the black guy's glasses. (00:13:50)
Visible crew/equipment: When the Humvee stops and the guys get out, there is no-one around on the street. The one guy then says "where are the guys who called it in?" when he does, there is a reflection of 2 pairs of legs in his glasses. But no-one was there before or after. (00:13:20)
Visible crew/equipment: When the Humvee is stuck in traffic we see a bottle of water thrown at the car. We then get a look in the car and reflected in the window is a boom mic. (00:12:35)
Continuity mistake: At the start, the guy is putting the bomb suit on and the collar is down. Camera cuts and the collar is up. (00:04:45)
Revealing mistake: In the explosion of the opening scene it is apparent that cut scenes have been shot with several hours time difference because the sun has moved. This is best visible in the reflection of sun in the helmet and shadows of the vehicles in the background.
Factual error: Sgt. James (Renner) is with a 5th Generation iPod Classic in his room at Camp Victory. This iPod model wasn't released until 2005 while the film is set in 2004. In addition, he is wearing 2007-era Apple headphones, which weren't available in 2004 either.
Other mistake: In this opening scene when the robot is heading down to the IED the camera picks up the robots tracks as if it had already been there yet this is supposed to be the first time the team has investigated the area.
Answer: It's a term similar to "a world of hurt". It's both outside of you and within you. The outside definition is that a hurt locker is anywhere you go to find pain. In the film's case, war-torn Iraq is the hurt locker. Inside, your hurt locker is the place you bury your anguish.
johnrosa