MovieChat Forums > Zero Dark Thirty (2013) Discussion > Why Maya cries at the end :

Why Maya cries at the end :

posted 9 years ago by voight84
11 replies | jump to latest

As she stated before she was recruited directly from high School ,has no friends(except for the Lady that got killed during the bombing) , no loved one and spent the Major part of her life as an adult hunting for Bin laden....so catching bin laden was the only Goal she ever knew and after that was gone she did not know how to proceed her life....remember she starts softening right after the Pilot asks her where she wants to go....that Moment she realized that she does not really have another Goal in her life and does not even havce an answer to the question where she wants to go.....i always disliked the thought that she felt bad for being responsible of killing bin lkaden....so the reason she cries is that she just realized hopw empty her life is

Trolls dont have an opinion....just an urge to compensate their frustration about themselves!!!

[–] ChocolateButt 9 years ago

Yeah, I doubt that she felt guilt over UBL. She may have been uncomfortable and conflicted about the torture, which is understandable, but at the end of the day she was all about that greater good...

Maybe she cried because of the futility of it all, as well as the fact that she basically had nothing to live for anymore. Years of work end in a body bag at the back of a tent, but the 'war or terror' isn't done.

Stop! Manners time.

[–] kchilds59 9 years ago

I believe tears flowed because the object of her passion was no more. Maya, of course, had zero empathy for the mass murderer OBL was. But after he was eliminated, finality set in. She suddenly realized how empty her life had been during the pursuit and thus had no clue where to go next.

Sort of reminds me of the story told toward the end of WWII movie "Conspiracy" where Keven Branagh's character, General Heydrich, talked about a man who grieved at the loss of his abusive father.

Relax, I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you.

[–] voight84 9 years ago

the word FINALITY pretty much sums up what i wrote

Trolls dont have an opinion....just an urge to compensate their frustration about themselves!!!

[–] ollie911 9 years ago

I posted on another thread that I have often cried heavily after a period of great stress, anxiety, fear or an adrenaline rush (panic?). It is incredibly cleansing for both the mind and the body, in my opinion. Not sure if only women do this, as some have suggested..but I have indeed seen grown men cry over far less than a decades-long hunt for a mass murderer. Such as athletes crying win they win a big tournament or Super Bowl or a National Championship. I wish I could do it as often as I used to, but any more I prefer to go out with friends, hoist a cold one and use the line from "Risky Business"... "Sometimes you just gotta say...WTF."

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Loincloth 9 years ago

Sort of reminds me of the story told toward the end of WWII movie "Conspiracy" where Keven Branagh's character, General Heydrich, talked about a man who grieved at the loss of his abusive father

That's actually an excellent parallel (from another excellent film) that hadn't occurred to me. Well done.

[–] sanfelici 9 years ago

I think it's also because she's finally finding closure about the friends who'd died during all those years, specially her closest friend who died at the meeting sequence. Remember she didn't cry then and got right back to work, to "kill the ones who'd done it AND bin laden". She was from then on in a personal crusade and has all these mixed feelings at the end of the movie.

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 9 years ago

I thought that was obvious that she wasn't crying for Bin Laden 

Very good. But brick not hit back!

[–] Ithilfaen 8 years ago

so the reason she cries is that she just realized hopw empty her life is

It's always been very obvious to me. Not only because Chastain is an excellent actress who doesn't need hystrionics to convey emotions BUT also because they made a point of making her say that was all she'd done since High School basically, and that she had no friends, no boyfriend, nothing but her work, which was that one mission.
Also, she's pretty much numb from the moment they say they got the target but she only starts crying after that pilot asks where she wants to go. She has no purpose, nowhere to go to. That's what finally makes her break down.

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco

[–] bigsoundp 8 years ago

It reminds me of Brett Favre saying the night the Packers won the Super Bowl, he had a moment of sadness, cause after a lifetime of working his way to that goal, he had now achieved it.

...when Alexander the Great saw the breadth of his domain, he wept...for there were no more worlds to conquer...

[–] heisenberg12 8 years ago

Interesting and well said because what I got from it, among other things mentioned, was that becoming a hero is a great mountainous feat, but also one that is lonely in the end, where one must ultimately decide what to do next with their life since they gave all of themselves for a cause. That and tying into how she hadn't done anything else since high school. Awesome movie. 10/10. True masterpiece.