One of the few
spies to give James Bond a run for his money, Jason Bourne re-shaped Matt
Damon’s career and gave the world one of the best action franchises of the last
decade. Although more a hyperkinetic assassin than an actual spy, Bourne can
slip in and out of a place without getting noticed, disarm a roomful of armed
men and walk out of deadly car chases with no more than a slight limp. His
adventures have taken him from France to England, from India to Russia and to a
(presumably) last stop in New York. The more impressive trait is that he can do
all this while suffering from brain damage that has left him with amnesia.
If I recall
correctly, I saw the first Bourne adventure, “The Bourne Identity,” while
flying somewhere over the Andes. This first chapter, directed by Doug Liman,
first came out in 2002 and back then I was living in Santiago, Chile. Every
time my parents and I would fly home to Québec it would take approximately ten
hours by airplane, so that is a lot of films seen on a tiny screen. Between the
jet lag, the bad audio and the initially confusing storyline, it was a little
bit difficult to follow the plot. However I eventually got the entire trilogy
as a Christmas present, so now everything makes perfect sense.
At first nothing
made sense for Bourne when fishermen found his body floating off the coast of France.
The ship’s doctor finds no identification on him except for a tiny laser
projector surgically implanted in his body. When the man wakes up he has no
idea who he is or how he ended up in the water. However, the laser projector
gives him a clue: the number of a safe deposit box in Zürich, Germany. Once the
ship docks the man with no past sets off to find out his identity.
At the bank, he
opens his box to find a passport with the name Jason Bourne. Unfortunately
there are several other passports with the same picture, but different names.
There is also a large amount of money for different countries and a handgun. Before
he leaves the bank, an employee recognizes him and makes a phone call. Soon the
police are chasing Bourne to the American consulate and while evading his
pursuers, he displays the uncanny ability to both outthink and evade a dozen
armed pursuers. After his escape he pays a Swiss woman, Marie Kreutz (Franka
Potente), to drive him to Paris, the address on his passport.
Meanwhile, a
determined CIA big-shot named Conklin (Chris Cooper) is following Bourne’s
every move. Conklin knows everything about Bourne: who he is, what he can do
and where he could go. Fearing Bourne has become a threat, he makes it his
mission to track him down and kill him. This sets the template for the rest of
the movies. You have a person telling a room-full of CIA employees looking at
computer screens to track down Bourne while assassins are waiting for their
orders to terminate him. What ends up happening instead is Bourne sneaking up
behind them and demanding to be left alone so he can piece his mind back
together.
As far as
thrillers go, the Bourne movies are some of the best out there. They really hit
their peak with the second and third features directed by Paul Greengrass, but
Doug Liman deserves credit for kick-starting the series with a great car chase
in the streets of Paris. A shootout in the French countryside between Bourne
and an assassin played by Clive Owen is also particularly memorable.
During my first
year of university I found a worn out copy of the Robert Ludlum book on which
the movie is based. There are vast differences as the movie is set during the
Cold War and involves the terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Therefore the Damon
movies are far from faithful in terms of story, but they definitely capture the
spirit of the books. As for Matt Damon, he IS Jason Bourne just like the poster
says.
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