The Hurt Locker/WMG

Every vote that The Hurt Locker got in the Oscars was directly related to the letters that that French financier producer sent out.
He sent letters urging everyone to vote for this film and against Avatar in every category. He wasn't caught until the voting was almost over, and he got a slap on the wrist for it.

It was a Batman Gambit; the film was Oscar Bait anyway, but it wouldn't have been voted for without him because almost no one in the Academy had seen it. Seriously, that film has the lowest gross for a Best Picture ever, and ticket prices used to be a lot lower than they are now. But when it was put in terms of smacking down the biggest blockbuster in the history of the Oscars (unadjusted for inflation, but that might be fixed next summer), the idea became appealing.

Someone from the future traveled back in time to create The Hurt Locker so that Avatar won't win.
The person came from a future where Sci-Fi films dominates award shows. Said person got sick of all those Sci-Fi movies so he came to the year 2008 to make sure Sci-Fi movies stays in its ghetto. With the Sci-Fi bias from the Academy Awards working against Avatar, The Hurt Locker won.
 * That was our French financier. In the future he originally came from, The Hurt Locker had a script written but was never made because, well, it was clear that very few people would want to see it. Instead, we get scifi films winning award shows. This hurt the art film industry. Our timetraveller was willing to finance an English-language film to make sure art films would continue to win Oscars for decades to come.
 * The continued ghettofication of science fiction led to an unintended slight delay of technological development. This is why YouTube and Gears of War were developed at a later date in our timeline than in the film.

James is actually a very eccentric millionaire.
He got into bomb disposal for the adrenaline rush, but his attitude prevented him from passing the test, so he bribed the instructors.

The kid we see in the end is not the same one as we saw in the beginning.
In other words,  instead of the other way around.

Hurt Locker takes place in an Alternate Universe in which the US Army is Mildly Military.
It's a dangerous place to fight. The rules of ordinance disposal are either much laxer or can be defied without repercussions. They don't even wait until the bullets stop flying to disarm the bombs. Adopt-A-Minefield would be in this 'verse what Greenpeace is in ours.

The military also seems highly undisciplined, and no one seems to be giving orders.

The Hurt Locker is a prequel to 28 Weeks Later
Sergeant William James (Hurt Locker) and Sergeant Doyle (28 Weeks Later) are the same person, and by coincidence, both portrated by Jeremy Renner. His full name is William James Doyle, but dropped the surname Doyle around, presumably because he is estranged with his father à la Angelina Jolie. So hence, he wishes to be called William James only. However, James would later add his surname Doyle because he would reconcile with his dad later on his life. His bomb disposal career would come to an end when his superior's orders him to head to a rage virus infected Britain (Britain is America's closest ally after all!) where he becomes a marksman (he acquires the skill after 3 mercenaries dies at the hands of Iraqi snipers).

As the virus has only hit the UK in 28 Weeks Later, it is safe to assume that his wife Connie and his son are still living in the US and therefore are alive (unless the virus has already reached the US while the American Government at the time keeps it under wraps).

The reason why William James/Doyle is a Sergeant in 28 Weeks Later but a Sergeant First Class (2 ranks higher than Sergeant) in The Hurt Locker is because Sergeant JT Sandborn and/or Specialist Owen Eldridge (he ) has snitched on James by telling the Generals about James's reckless actions in Iraq and therefore got demoted as a result. On top of that, James has been reassigned to the rage virus infested Britain and.

Come on! He pulls off stunts during the bomb defusing like doing it without protective armor, does plans that nearly gets him and his team killed thousands of times and when life at home's boring, he decides to head back.

The Hurt Locker is an accurate depiction of what took place in the Iraq War.

 * That's why most people who served in Iraq dislike the movie so much. All the soldiers in Iraq are out raping women, beating prisoners and burning down villages while a few EOD experts roam around the countryside and disarm the few IE Ds and other bombs throughout the country. That's why we only ever see James and his crew and a few other soldiers actually doing anything when there were over 100,000 troops in-country in the timeframe of the film.
 * ...What