The Bourne Obscurity--focusing on the Fourth Movie

One of the nicest things my brother Bob did for me this last Christmas was to get me DVD's of the "Bourne Trilogy," consisting of the Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, and Bourne Ultimatum. This three-movie thriller series features hunky Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, a highly-trained CIA agent specializing in killing to "save American lives." The problem explored by the series relates to the fact that Bourne has failed to follow an assignment to the letter, thus drawing a series of CIA-hired assassins (called "assets" in the movies) to try to eliminate him. In the three movies, shot in 13 countries with 300 cars destroyed, many windows shattered, and the body count growing daily, Bourne escapes death at the hands of an increasingly-frustrated CIA bureaucracy. The frustration culminates when Noah Vosen, the CIA section head of this most covert operation, declares to his staff that there is a "National Security Emergency" and that all agents have "shoot on sight" authority to take down Bourne. We all know, however, that Bourne will escape his clutches through a combination of wiliness and sheer physical power.

In the final scene of the last movie, the Ultimatum, we saw two images that provide the "grist" for my mental "mill" for a possible 4th Bourne movie. First, we saw Bourne below the surface of the East River, apparently unconscious or dead, after plunging 10 stories from the roof of 415 E 71st to the chillly waters below. Then, he began to stir, and we know that he will get away from his pursuers. Second we saw Nikki Parsons, the "CIA assistant" to the assassin program, who had known Bourne and the other "assets" since the 1999 beginning of the program but who had, it seems, more than the beginning of a crush on Jason. She sat at an outdoor cafe, probably in NYC, sipping a brew and listening to the news. The story of the arrest of Noah Vosen and Dr. Albert Hirsch, the mastermind behind the covert program, is then followed by a sentence or two on Bourne. He was apparently shot as he fell from the 10th floor, but a three-day search of the East River didn't turn up the body. A wry smile forms on her lips. She knows he has escaped, and she knows further that she will meet up with him again.

Thinking About Bourne 4

As anyone knows, the key to a successful movie is character development. In my mind, the 4th Bourne movie has to focus on the development of Jason Bourne, Nikki Parsons and Pamela Landy--a highly-placed but disaffected CIA agent who had been in charge of the top-secret CIA program. In short, my "thesis" is that Bourne returns to Missouri to try to "discover himself," and becomes a gym teacher in a St. Louis suburb, Nikki becomes obsessed with trying to help Jason recover himself and pays him a visit in which they visit the Gateway Arch with unsettling ramifications and Pam Landy becomes a shrink in New Jersey where she is committed to helping patients discover their identities. As penance for her participation in the CIA scheme, she has to counsel her intra-agency enemy Noah Vosen, who is spending time in a federal prison outside of Washington, DC, with a damaged mind. All he seems to be able to do is utter "Bourne" and then drool. The "nurturing" side of Pam Landy, however, is born (bourne?) in this situation, and she commits herself to trying to save the shattered and battered hulk of destroyed humanity which is Noah Vosen.

Let's flesh things out a bit. There would be four or five major "scenes" in the movie.

Scene I: Bourne in Missouri. He learned from Pam Landy at the end of the Ultimatum that he was in fact David Webb, born in the early 1970s in MO. Though that mystery is cleared up, he still is tormented by questions: why he even committed himself to this CIA killing program? What exactly did he do in the program? How can he atone for some of the lives he has destroyed? How can he discover who he truly is? He thus has to embark on a quest of self-discovery, where guilt is the driving force (he has not only kicked massive amounts of butt but has killed many people, including some "innocent" bystanders). But he also needs to do this in a rather "igcognito" way, and so he secures a job as a PE teacher in a local middle school. The interview committee was impressed that he could climb a rope very quickly (we would see him "wowing" the committee). He is bored out of his mind, but he uses his free time to return to his hometown, learn about his childhood, meet a few people from his past, etc.

His cover is almost blown by two incidents. First, he becomes upset when a hippie-style teacher in the Middle School denounces the CIA for destroying video tapes in its interrogations. Something inside Bourne "snaps," even though he himself was at odds with the agency. So, he puts this beard-bearing, sandal-wearing, guitar-strumming, laid-back social studies teacher through a classroom wall, leaving the hippie mumbling incoherently about "lighting my fire" and Bourne worried about being discovered. Yet, things are patched up, literally and figuratively, and Bourne continues his work. In attempting to win over the teacher whose head he had nearly broken, Bourne takes him to lunch and has to listen to his stories of smoking pot at Grateful Dead concerts.

Bourne realizes he has to live a conventional existence, and so he seeks out the most conventional of bodies to join in MO society, and decides after researching the question for a long time that it is the Presbyterian Church. So, he diligently attends new member classes, trying to learn about Calvinism, the Bible, and certain doctrines that almost make him long to be back in Tangier kicking butt. But he perseveres, especially when the young female associate pastor, a recent graduate of one of the nameless Protestant seminaries in the Midwest, shows inordinate interest in him. But he has knows that she has no idea what she would be getting into, and he politely rebuffs her advances.

The second incident that almost blows his cover happens in Scene 2: The Visit from Nikki.

Scene 2: We have been increasingly intrigued by Nikki Parsons as we see her role develop in the trilogy. At first she was portrayed as nothing more than a functionary in a European office of the covert program, with special responsibility for the mental health and care of the highly-trained assassins. She says on one occasion that these men were highly susceptible to headaches, depression and other mental maladies, due not simply to the specialized training but because the CIA messed with their minds. The agency broke the will of the agents to make them "operational." She confessed to Bourne in Ultimatum that it was "hard" for her to watch this initiation process against him. He was the first subject of Dr. Hirsch's experimentation. Flashbacks to the dunking tank and the "hazing" of Bourne where he seemingly had to kill a hooded person in cold blood, show us the high psychological stakes of initiation.

Nikki is conflicted, but not in the obvious way that afflicts Bourne. Yet, her "gentle" inner conflict will resonate well with women viewers, since many of them are likewise conflicted between the inner desire to "save" a man and the intellectual argument that says they should just leave well enough alone. Nikki, however, can't quite leave well enough alone, and so she contacts Bourne while he is minding his own business in MO. He doesn't understand the growing feelings she has for him, because he cannot remember the training/initiation he received and her reactions to him at the time, and so he isn't particularly interested in pursuing anything. But she plays on his desire for self-knowledge and says that a weekend in St. Louis, where they can recover "memories" together would be just what he needs. Bourne accedes to her request, and they set up Nikki's vist to MO.

Scene 2, then, is her visit to Bourne (maybe he has reassumed his birth name by now) in St. Louis. I don't know how much film "background" will be given, but there will be some older pictures of St. Louis (e.g., the World's Fair of 1939, films of Mark McGwire taking steriods or human growth hormone before he sets the home run record in 1999, etc.) before we return to our focus on Nikki and Jason. They decide to take a trip to downtown St. Louis, to forget his cares. Knowing that the Arch is the most familiar landmark of that city, they take an elevator trip to the apex of the arch. But the confined situation brings back bad memories to Bourne, and he almost tears himself through the cage, but with great effort Nikki is able to calm him down. She wonders if the co-dependent life really is worth it, but since she has come this far she figures she can't back away now. They make it down from the Arch to the underground museum. Bourne, however, hasn't completely recovered from his harrowing elevator ride, and so has a decompensation episode in the quiet Archway museum. He sees a group of middle schoolers (not his, thank goodness), and the futility of his life then quickly washes over him. He defaces an exhibit. When two security guards try to restrain him, his instincts take over and the snaps them in half as quickly as he did the two Zurich policemen in Identity. Nikki takes this all in and realizes that she has a major problem on her hands. Before the stunned staff of the Arch museum can respond, Nikki and Jason are squealing away in their car, heading for the Illinois line. They stop at a coffee shop in East St. Louis, IL and decide to be inconspicuous, but because they are the only white people in the establishment, they figure that they can't do it here. So, they push on further in Southern IL, taking refuge finally in an abandoned farm house. Nikki looks at Jason with a mingled look of fornlornness and longing and decides he needs professional help. Which takes us to Scene 3, in the next essay.

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