The filmmakers said the intent was to show a broad set of spy techniques.

"How did we find this very, very sharp needle in a very large haystack? I think that's what's revelatory about the lead-up to that, you know. I mean, nobody knows. And that's what the film does," director Kathryn Bigelow told CNN.

The movie "puts you in the audience on the ground with those people, with the targeters and the ground branch operators, looking for this man; and finally finding a courier, and going through marketplaces in Pakistan; and you know, like, various: using electronic surveillance and tracking phone calls to track this man to the Potohar (area of Pakistan), and the Potohar to the compound."