The document provides a comparison of the films Zero Dark Thirty and Lone Survivor. Both films depict real-life incidents involving U.S. Navy SEALs and terrorists. They are similar in showing the patriotism of Navy SEALs, the high casualty counts, and settings primarily in Afghanistan. However, they differ in the terrorists' motives - Osama bin Laden sought revenge on the U.S. in Zero Dark Thirty, while terrorists in Lone Survivor wanted to threaten the U.S. and show their power.

2. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: Tay Jia Jian
STUDENT ID NO: 0315508
FILMS SELECTED: Zero Dark Thirty and Lone Survivor
WORD COUNT: 834 words
ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 18th
APRIL 2014

3. Pre-Writing
Characteristic
-Navy Seals Patriotic
-Their family and patriotism
-Good military discipline
-Close brotherhood
Causalities
-Many innocent dead
-Navy soldiers dead
-Terrorists dead
Terrorist Purpose
-Revenge US
-Show off their power
-Threaten U.S.
Settings
-Afghanistan
-Place of main incidents occur
-Osama Bin Laden house
-Taliban militia in this particular place

4. Recently, there are many true stories that had been filmed into movies. The
screenings of these true stories are aimed to acknowledge people to know more about
what had really happened in our daily life. For example, the movie Zero Dark Thirty
and Lone Survivor are both related to real life incidents that happened between
terrorists and the U.S. The contrasts between these two movies are the Navy Seals
characteristic, casualties, terrorist purposes and the terrorist background.
First of all in both of the movies, the Navy Seals were involved into these
incidents. The Navy Seals are patriots because they were willing to risk their life for
their country in order to protect their homeland, and put their lives into the hazardous
and chaotic battlefield. They stayed outside for a long period. Their family and
patriotism to their own country are their spiritual support for persistence. From movie
we can see that Navy Seals had good military discipline because during the war, they
did not kill women, old man and kids in which this action is totally different from our
impression of cruel, ruthless and unfeeling soldiers. Among the Navy Seals, they had
close brotherhood. If their comrades died, they will want to revenge for them and
bring their corpses back to their country. This was to protect their comrades’ pride
and prevent the enemy from insulting them as a man and as Navy Seals.
Moreover, another similarity of both movies is casualties. The casualties caused
by both of the movies terrorist attacks were dreadful. The people died in terrorist
attacks were uncountable and they might be someone else’s parents, children or
partners. It was really saddening to lose their loved ones. Many Navy Seals were
killed in action during the execution of their missions to defeat the terrorists as for
example the 911 incident. But first, I would like to mention that in Zero Dark Thirty,
the intelligence agents stated that Bin Laden had killed many lives and blood shed on
his bare hands. The U.S. had provided Pakistan with about $1 billion each year to

5. fight terrorism and to track down Bin Laden. In fact in the movie Lone Survivor, Shah
had also killed many Marines and villagers as well as compared to Bin Laden in the
movie Zero Dark Thirty. Shah’s subordinates had also killed 3 out of 4 Navy Seals
that were assigned to assassinate him. Besides, his subordinates had also destroyed a
Black Hawk helicopter filled with Navy Seals including the commando who was in
charge of this operation.
Furthermore, these two movies the terrorists had the same purpose of going
against and challenging the power of the US because they think that the U.S. was too
cruel and potent when they armed force their homeland. The terrorists were also
resent about the U.S. soldiers who had killed many Muslims involved in the incident
911. They declared a fight for their religion and race. They used this idea to attract
people to join their action to against the U.S. So, they planned plenty of activities to
revenge the U.S. In Zero Dark Thirty, Bin Laden had already operated many activities
to conquer the U.S. The most famous incident is 911. In Lone Survivor movie, the
terrorists were killing the villagers and the U.S. Marines. In both movies, the terrorists
wanted to show off their power and ability to fight with the U.S. and threaten them to
assent their conditions such as forcing the U.S. to withdraw troops from Afghanistan
and to release their comrades.
Lastly, the settings in both movies were almost the same. Both of the two movie’s
setting took place in the Afghanistan. In the movie Lone Survivor, Taliban leader,
Ahmad Shah and his subordinate were killing the US Marines and the villagers in the
area of Afghanistan and Navy Seals started a gunfight with Taliban in the jungle near
the Chichal village which is also in Afghanistan. The four Navy Seals were in a
gunfight with the Taliban militia in this particular place. This place also was the place
where the main character survived and was saved by the villagers nearby. In the

6. movie Zero Dark Thirty, the Navy Seals also found Osama Bin Laden near
Afghanistan. The Navy Seals carried out the final mission setting the objective of
killing Osama Bin Laden. The location of Osama Bin Laden was pinpointed by the
CIA, Maya found out Osama Bin Laden’s hiding place. Both movies took place at
Afghanistan but in a different area.
In a nutshell, from what I have learned from the Navy Seals characteristic,
casualties, terrorist purposes and the terrorist background have taught me to be
positive thinking towards everything and be more cautious towards terrorist’s actions.
Besides, from both of the movies I have learned that by maintaining good discipline
of a man is vital, having an open mind set and being completely cautious about the
decisions made during vital moments is important because our actions may harm the
lives of other innocent.