Day Twenty-Two: The Bourne Ultimatum

THE BOURNE ULTIMATIUM

Starring:
-Matt Damon as Jason Bourne
-Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons
-David Strathairn as Noah Vosen
-Joan Allen as Pamela Landy
-Albert Finney as Dr. Albert Hirsch

Directed by: Paul Greengrass

Screenplay Credits: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, & George Nolfi

MPAA Rating: PG-13 – violence and intense sequences of action


British reporter Simon Ross is doing a series of articles on the mysterious Jason Bourne and he’s just gotten the scoop on Operation Blackbriar from a source who refuses to go on record. Ross calls his editor and makes a single mention of Operation BlackBriar and the CIA instantly begins tracking him.

Jason meets up with Ross at the Waterloo Station, where Ross tells him that Blackbriar is a Treadstone upgrade, and that his source knows everything about Bourne, including who he was.

Noah Vosen, the (extremely attractive) CIA honcho in charge of running BlackBriar recognizes Jason helping Ross and assumes that he is the source. Vosen spots Bourne and gives the asset the green light to take both of them out. But Ross is stupid and thinks he knows how to take care of himself, so he makes a run for it and the CIA asset shoots him square in the head. Idiot. ALWAYS LISTEN TO JASON BOURNE, PEOPLE!

Bourne gets away, but not before emptying Ross’ pockets.

CIA director Ezra Kramer sends Landy in to Vosen’s operation, as she was the agent who was tracking Bourne six weeks earlier. It takes Landy all of five minutes to figure out that Ross’ contact is Neal Daniels, formerly involved in Treadstone and currently heading up the Blackbriar Operations in North Africa and Southern Europe.

Bourne also figures the source is Daniels after going through the information Ross was carrying when he was gunned down. He hurries to Daniels’ office in Madrid where he spots a photograph of two men, both of whom he recognizes as being present at his induction to the Treadstone program. He then takes out two of Vosen’s operatives and runs smack dab into Nicky Parsons. He got a gun on her when Vosen calls the office. Nicky answers and assures him that his men are alive. She lies and tells him she is not under duress, which gives Bourne the chance to hear a little insider information. Vosen urges Nicky to stay put, telling her that backup will arrive in one hour. He terminates the call and Nicky warns Bourne that backup will be there in three minutes. She tells him that she knows where Daniels is, and that her car is out back. As they exit the building, Nicky tells him that Daniels wired $100,000 to an account in Tangier earlier in the day.

They end up at a diner where Nicky tells Jason what she knows about Daniels. She then hints around that they once had a relationship, which doesn’t surprise me, as she seems better suited for him than Marie.

The CIA has tracked Daniels’ passport to a hotel in Tangier, rightly assuming that’s where Bourne is also headed.

Nicky learns that the asset sent for Daniels is Desh. Jason has her message him with instructions to pick up a new phone. He does, which allows Jason the opportunity to follow him to Daniels. The CIA folks are on to him, and Vosen orders the asset to take out Jason and Nicky once he’s finished with Daniels. Desh manages to kill Daniels with a well-placed bomb, and although the blast knocks Jason down, he pops right back up and heads out after Desh like James Bond shaking off a heart attack. Bourne eventually catches up with Desh, who has been chasing Nicky. They wrestle around a while, occasionally hitting each other with books and candlesticks before Bourne finally takes him out. Bourne then swipes his phone and tosses it to Nicky.

“Code it in. We need to be dead.” – Jason

Vosen calls Ezra to tell him that Nicky and Jason are dead. We learn that the only reason Ezra sent Landy to work with the team was so she could be the scapegoat if anything went wrong with the mission.

Jason tells Nicky a little about Marie before telling her she has to run. Later he comes up on her dying her hair in the sink and chopping it off. He looks at her a moment, obviously thinking about Marie. With a wistful look and her new, unflattering haircut, she goes into hiding.

Jason pays a guy off to get a look at Daniels’ charred briefcase and finds the address of the secret CIA hidey-hole in New York City, where Vosen heads Blackbriar. Vosen discovers that Desh is dead. Separately, Landy discovers that Jason is alive and is using one of his early Treadstone identities. Landy thinks he’s trying to communicate with her, so she communicates back.

The next scene is exactly like the final one in the second movie. Jason is camped out in a building across the street from Vosen’s office. He calls Landy’s cell phone and Vosen hears the call. Landy does her apology thing, then thanks him for the incriminating tape against Abbott. She then tells him his real name – David Webb- and his birth date, 4-15-71. He tells her, once again, to get some rest because she looks tired.

Landy exits the building and goes to meet Bourne. Vosen and his men are on her. Jason uses this opportunity to break into Vosen’s office and steal the classified Blackbriar documents from his safe. Vosen sends an asset after Bourne, who is headed to meet Landy at 415 East 71st street (recognize Webb’s “birth date”?). This is the address of the training facility where Dr. Albert Hirsch was in charge of breaking and preparing the Treadstone operatives. Vosen calls Hirsch to warn him that Bourne is coming.

There’s another huge car chase and too many crunches to count, but when the asset crashes – alive but immobilized- Bourne walks away without killing him. Bourne meets Landy at the address she gave him and hands her a bag with all the documents he swiped inside. She warns him that Vosen is already on the way, then quickly goes to fax all the documents. Luckily, she gets them all done before Vosen finds her.

Jason finds Hirsch, who fills in the details. Bourne was Captain David Webb and he volunteered to be the first person in the program, believing that he would be saving American lives.

“You chose right here to become Jason Bourne.” – Hirsch

Bourne remembers being forced to kill a man in the training room before finally being admitted into the Treadstone program.

“I remember everything. I’m no longer Jason Bourne.” – Jason

Vosen’s agents arrive and Jason evades them by racing to the roof. He hears a gun click and looks up to see the asset whose life he spared earlier.

“Do you even know why you’re supposed to kill me? Look at us. Look at what they make you give.” – Jason

See what he did there? He quoted the asset from the first movie’s dying words. Agents, including Vosen, burst onto the roof, guns drawn. Jason jumps off into the East River and Vosen’s gun goes off. It’s difficult to tell whether or not Bourne has been hit, but we do see him floating lifelessly in the water, which is reminiscent of how we first found him in THE BOURNE INDENTITY.

Time passes.

We learn that Ezra Kramer is under investigation, and that Vosen and Hirsch have already been arrested. Nicky is watching this news story on TV, and she really perks up when they mention David Webb. According to the news program, Webb was shot and fell ten stories into the river, but wasn’t found after a ten-day search. Nicky grins really creepily and we see David Jason Bourne Webb or
whoever he is now swimming away. Hooray!


I knew in the first ten minutes of the movie that I was going to like this one better than the second film. This one is awesome straight out of the gate. Now after finishing the entire series, I’m fairly certain that this one is my favorite. The camerawork has been criticized before as being too shaky, or distracting to the viewer, but I didn’t find this to be the case. If anything, the camerawork really draws your attention to what you need to be seeing at any given moment. The landscape shots are incredible, but my favorites are those really interesting ones, like when a character is filmed from afar and framed by something unusual in the scene.

There is speculation that a fourth Bourne movie will be filmed this summer for a 2011 release, but I will be a little sad if that is the case. I think the trilogy has worked itself to a natural conclusion. Why mess with a good thing? Jason Bourne or David Webb or whoever he is, is free now. That’s what’s really fun about the end of this movie; it came full circle. He started out floating around in the water with no identity, and that’s how he ended it. Personally, I’d rather not know anything more about Bourne’s whereabouts. I want to be surprised if I come home to my apartment one day and find him sitting in my living room. He seems to do that to every person he comes in contact with. Why not me? And while he’s here, I’ll get him to beat up on my rude upstairs neighbors and play spy games with me. I don’t want to be involved in the actual spy games, mind you. But we could pretend. What’s that called? Role playing?

Ohhh, yeah.


FINAL GRADE: A


Off in search of fuzzy handcuffs,

M.


P.S. Thanks to MSJ -the phantom wood worker- for supplying the last several movies. If anybody deserves a Catherine, it's you. Now get back to work!