Matt Damon and the Bourne Ultimatum

The reason that Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in a complex three or four-way conflict (between Bourne and the CIA, Bourne and CIA-hired assassins who are out to get him, two CIA power brokers between themselves), is that it combines action, danger and significant butt-kicking by the star with a psychological dimension that gradually allows us to "look into" the soul of Jason Bourne, killing machine. In the latter regard, the Bourne trilogy (Bourne Identity in 2002 and Bourne Supremacy in 2004) is far superior to the re-issued James Bond thriller, Casino Royale (2006). In that move Bond is simply up to his old tricks, with fantastic technological gizmos (like a defibrillator that just happens to be built into his car) and a 1960s view of women, a view that still finds resonance in our day but strikes the intelligent film buff as unsophisticated and out-of-date. But James Bond has no "depth" to him; he simply is a cagey, understated, rich life-living agent who enjoys sun, women, gambling, and fast cars. He carries no scars from previous encounters; he searches for no answers to life; he simply exists in a sort of Wonderland of espionage.

But not Jason Bourne. He is a tortured soul, a man who is searching as much, or even more, for an understanding of himself as he is for certain killers who are stalking him or his friend (in this case, the CIA agent Nicky Parsons, played by Julia Stiles). He searches for his own identity because he is as much a victim as a victor in life. The reason he is victim is that he cannot remember his past. When inducted into the top-secret program he was somehow (not explained) purged of his memories of his previous existence, with only dim memories of the brutal induction "ceremony" and "hazing" that he endured. In any case, he finds himself as an agent in a top-secret CIA program which "protects America" by killing international enemies of America, as determined by Noah Vosen (played by David Strathairn) who heads this "Blackbriar" program. Yet, in the previous Bourne movies he wanted "out" of the program, and thus he became a target of the CIA-agents themselves. Now, in a comical turn-the-tables story, the upper CIA brass is spending tons of time and energy (and your taxpayer dollars) to track down and kill Bourne so that he won't blow the cover of Blackbriar to someone who could do something about the eerie underworld or separate universe created by the CIA. Some of the most comical elements in the movie are when a deadly serious and humorless Noah Vosen barks out orders to seal off various blocks around places where Bourne has been discovered and send in teams of hired assassins. They are comical because we know that the skilled assassins will end up either unconscious or dead, and Bourne will be off to the next fight or attempt to discover the secret of his past.

Uncovering the Mystery of Identity

Another executive in the CIA, Pamela Landy (played by Joan Allen), recommends a different approach to Bourne. Rather than trying to "blast him out" by smothering Bourne with firepower, a strategy that never really works, Landy's plan is to "draw him out" by providing information on his past. She surmises, correctly, that he is a trained assassin and not a monster, a person whom the CIA has trained, and that by "getting in touch" with his past, they might be able to, if not capture and kill, then at least neutralize Bourne. Indeed, as the closing scene of the movie demonstrates, where Bourne is told about his initiation process into Blackbriar by a calculating and ruthless Dr. Hirsch, played by Albert Finney, Bourne is fascinated with the discovery that he is David Webb from Nixa, MO. This discovery almost leads him to want to sit down and have a seminar on personal identity, which is cut short by a bevy of new assassins that show up to kill him.

But this is the key to the success of the movie--it is a thriller, to be sure, and a thriller which will keep action-minded guys and the girls that love them riveted to their seats, but it is the story of a psychological search for personal identity. We are in such an age today. We don't know who we are. We don't know why we have chosen the routes we have selected. Even in the movie it is unclear at the end whether Bourne really "chose" to enter the CIA's secret program or whether he was coerced or brainwashed in some way. We don't really see his "human" side, even though there is at least one woman per Bourne movie who tries to bring it out of him, because he is evading bullets and delivering bone-crunching blows to people most of the time. Yet, we think that once the "noise" has stopped in his mind, and that he understands in fact that he is David Webb, then a woman could help him understand what that means.

The Future

Indeed, if there is a sequel, I see it as part action, where a suitable number of assassins are sent to their violent deaths, but even more a psychological unfolding of life. Maybe we will learn some things about Bourne's past that given an explanation not simply for his entry into Blackbriar but for things we can't even imagine at this point. Perhaps he and Pamela Landy will eventually sit down and have coffee where the psychological wreckage of both of their lives will be played out on the big screen. As long as there is sufficient death in the process, America will lap this up, too. But, for now, we are happy with the Bourne Ultimatum; Matt Damon is the action hero par excellence for our times.

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