The Bourne Identity (film)

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For the 1980 novel by Robert Ludlum, see The Bourne Identity.

The Bourne Identity
Directed by	Doug Liman
Produced by	Robert Ludlum Doug Liman Frank Marshall
Written by	Novel: Robert Ludlum Screenplay: Tony Gilroy William Blake Herron
Starring	Matt Damon Franka Potente Chris Cooper Brian Cox Clive Owen Julia Stiles
Music by	John Powell
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	June 14, 2002
Running time	119 min.
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Followed by	The Bourne Supremacy
IMDb profile

The Bourne Identity is a 2002 movie based on the book of the same name by Robert Ludlum. The film is loosely based on the novel and adapted by Tony Gilroy. In 2004, The Bourne Identity was followed with a sequel titled The Bourne Supremacy.

[edit] Plot

For the plot of the novel see The Bourne Identity.

The film begins with the body of an unidentified man (Jason Bourne) floating in the Mediterranean Sea, near Marseilles. He is spotted by an Italian fishing boat and is hauled aboard. One of the Italians begins treating him by removing the Bourne's diving suit, discovering two bullet holes. After removing the bullets, the Italian removes an object embedded in the stranger's hip. The object has a red light which when directed onto a wall shows a message about a numbered Swiss bank account in Zürich. The stranger attacks the Italian from behind, demanding to know what he is doing to him. The Italian calms him down by saying that he is a friend and asks the stranger's name. The stranger says that he does not know.

Over the following weeks at sea, the amnesiac stranger slowly realizes that he has many skills. He learns that he is fluent in French, German and Dutch. He is able to tie knots well and soon realizes that he has a formidable physicality, though he has no idea how he learnt any of it. When the Italians arrive at their destination, the one who had been treating the stranger gives him enough money to travel to Switzerland, where the stranger will hopefully discover who he is.

Bourne is next seen on a TGV train traveling from France to Switzerland, with the device containing the information regarding the Swiss bank account in his hand. Spending the night on a park bench, he's disturbed by two Swiss policemen. After some conversation, one of the policemen prods Bourne with his stick. Bourne reacts almost automatically and easily defeats them both, leaving them unconscious. He then notices that during the 'fight' he acquired one of their guns. This scares Bourne and he rids himself of the gun, after taking it apart, before running away.

The scene cuts to a television showing Nykwana Wombosi, who is discussing his recent assassination attempt and saying that if the American government does not help him to be re-instated to his former office within six months, he will publish a book about the CIA and its history in Africa. He also blames them for the failed assassination. This is being watched by top CIA officials in Langley, Virginia. Abbott Ward, one of the officials in the meeting, is shown, after he has left the meeting walking purposefully somewhere. It is quickly revealed that he was going to a more private meeting with Alexander Conklin to discuss Operation Treadstone, saying that he remembers Wombosi's name being mentioned. Conklin at first tries to avoid giving direct information about the operation, at one point saying that he thought Ward was never going to ask him a direct question. He decides to disclose the information and says that he and his team lost communication with their man, i.e. Bourne. Ward then reveals that Conklin had kept this information from him for almost two weeks, who counters by saying that his team has been doing everything possible to locate Bourne and that the reason he didn't bother to inform Abbott was that he had never wanted to know anything before this incident. Abbot replies that Conklin had never made a mistake before. The scene ends with the two looking at each other with equal dislike.

The film moves to the Gemeinschaft Bank in Zurich, the home of the mysterious numbered account. Bourne passes a fingerprint test and is brought a safe deposit box. He opens it to find mainly trivial items, such as pens, colored contact lenses, a Swiss Army knife, a USB drive, an American Express card, a watch, an Air France card, a passport and a piece of paper that has his address in Paris. Beneath this shelf he finds large amounts of varying currencies and six passports, each with a different name but each picture being of Bourne - two of particular interest titled: "Jason Charles Bourne" and "John Michael Kane" - and a gun. Bourne takes everything but the gun and returns the box, learning his last visit was three weeks previous. As he leaves, a man scrutinizes his every movement and then dials a number on his phone. Bourne leaves the bank and from a phone booth he calls "Jason Bourne" in Paris only to hear his own voice on the answering machine.

At this point he discovers that the Swiss police are following him. Bourne dodges into the nearby American embassy for some time. Whilst waiting he sees a woman (Marie Helena Kreutz) yelling about a green card. Noticing the security cameras and many armed guards, Bourne gets out of the queue and heads for the exit. However he's ordered to stop and to put his hands up. When accosted, Bourne quickly disables two guards before fleeing the room into a stairwell where he defeats another guard, stealing his radio. By using the radio and a fire exit plan, Bourne dodges the facility's guards and escapes the building by climbing down the facade.

Conklin is met by one of his team, Danny Zorn, in one of the CIA'S parking lots. He immediately begins questions Zorn about Bourne and whether or not he is still in Zurich, to which Zorn replies yes, informing Conklin of Bourne' visit to the bank. They enter an elevator and Conklin is shown frantically pressing 6 answering Zorn's first question with a non-committal response and his second with a slight outburst of anger, expressing his wish that Bourne was dead.

The film returns to Zurich, just outside the embassy, as Kreutz is walking towards her car, a red and black Mini Cooper, muttering to herself in German. Many sirens can be heard in the background. Bourne approaches her and tells her that he knows her situation, as he was listening to her heated debate inside the embassy, and says that they can help each other, as he needs a ride and she needs money. He then offers her ten thousand dollars if she will drive him to Paris. At first she thinks that he is trying to con her and says in German, expecting that he will not understand, that he must think that she is a fool. Bourne replies, also in German, that she would be a fool not to take the offer. Marie is still skeptical but is now more prepared to listen to what Bourne has to say. He then throws a wad of cash at her, presumably the ten thousand dollars, and says that he will give her the same amount again when they arrive in Paris. Kreutz counts the money and utters an exclamation. At this point a police car with its sirens on drives past and to avoid it Bourne, attempting to be nonchalant, turns around, and brings his hand to his mouth as if to cough. Kreutz picks up on this and questions whether or not the police are looking or Bourne. He dodges the question and re-iterates the proposal. Kreutz says that she has enough problems at the moment, suggesting that she is refusing. Bourne accepts this and asks for his money to be returned to him. The scene cuts to Bourne being driven away by Kreutz.

The film then returns to Conklin who is now with his team, watching as one of them scans through camera footage of the area. He reminds them that they have been extremely lucky to receive this second chance at locating Bourne. Another one of his team members is then shown pulling up information on airlines, train, hotels and hospitals. The member who had been looking through the camera footage then asks for the name of the street to which Zorn replies Gemensheidt. Then one of the technicians finds footage of Bourne crossing a road, presumably before entering the embassy. It is timed at thirty-eight minutes ago. Zorn then relates that Zurich police are searching for an American man carrying a red bank bag who had in the prior minutes caused havoc in the embassy and put two policemen in hospital the night before. Conklin considers this information for a second and then says that he wants them all activated, all referring to the other members of Treadstone, saying that he wants Bourne in a body bag by sundown. Zorn is initially startled at the prospect of raising all members but complies soon afterwards. Three members are then shown reacting to their initialization. The first is the 'Professor' (portrayed by Clive Owen), who is stationed in Barcelona and at the time is giving a piano lesson to a child. The second is not given a code name but is shown to be positioned in an industrial part of Germany and is in a meeting when he is hailed. The third is 'Castel' who is stationed in Rome, who goes underground to retrieve the message fully and also, like Bourne, goes to a box, still underground, where he has large amounts of cash and several passports, which he looks through. It is not clear which one he chooses for his mission, however it is most likely to be either Portuguese or French as the Portuguese passport is the last one that he is seen looking at and just after this on the page opposite the page that has the main information in a passport, the word 'Paris' can be seen, indicating France.

Kreutz is driving Bourne in her Mini along a mountain road and Kreutz is recounting stories of her past travels with her friends. Kreutz is doing all the talking and Bourne is looking out of the window with a vague expression on his face but all the time he has been paying careful attention to what she had been saying. Kreutz realizes that she has been the only one in the conversation and decides that she will stop talking. Bourne tells her not to, as her talking relaxes him. He also mentions for the first time a headache which he has had and because of Kreutz constantly talking, it has finally begun to move to the back of his head. Kreutz seems more at ease once Bourne has said all of this and she asks him what kind of music he likes, as she turns on the radio, surfing through the radio stations. Bourne answers that he doesn't know but in a way that suggests he just doesn't want to talk about himself. Kreutz persists, finally provoking Bourne to produce an angered response that he doesn't know. This upsets her and Bourne begins squeezing the bridge of his nose as if to alleviate pain or in this case a way of showing that he realizes that he has made the journey uncomfortable. They continue in silence for a few seconds until Kreutz demands to know why Bourne is so eager to reach Paris. After a few more seconds contemplation Bourne tells Kreutz the whole truth about his amnesia since the previous fortnight. At first Kreutz in disbelieving, sarcastically telling Bourne that he is lucky. Bourne re-iterates himself and this time Kreutz, laughing slightly, asks if he means something similar to amnesia, to which Bourne replies yes. She settles for this answer, though looks as if the only reason that she has stopped enquiring about him is because she assumes that he is lying to her.

Conklin is still with his team, desperately looking through footage from the area surrounding the embassy to try and find Bourne. He then begins wondering out loud about Bourne's actions and whether or not Bourne is trying to tell them something. The team member he was just working with then calls for him, showing him a camera angle that had caught Bourne's discussion with Kreutz prior to leaving Zurich. They zoom in on Kreutz's Mini. A short time later another member of the team is giving everyone a presentation on Kreutz, revealing that she is twenty six, born outside Hanover and that her father was a welder, though they have no information on her mother. Kreutz still has a grandmother in Hanover, who is referred to as the 'anchor for this little domestic disaster'. Kreutz also has a step brother. The team member says that she is a gypsy and that she has no permanent place of residence and just appears on the grid every so often. Conklin says that he wants further information and says that the phones of the grandmother and, as he calls him, the half brother must be tapped and he also tells his team to find out every place that Kreutz has slept in the previous six years.

Bourne and Kreutz are in a motorway cafe, having a break from their journey. Bourne is still trying to convince her that his amnesia is real and to that effect he hands her all six of his passports, telling her that they are real. She looks at them from a distance as if afraid to touch them. She then affirms that she believes him. He then begins question her about what type of person would have a safe deposit box containing all the items that his did and a bank account number in their hip. He tells her that when he walks into a place, such as that cafe, the first thing he does is look for exits. Kreutz tells him that there is nothing to worry about and that people do weird things when they are scared, especially after being shot. He then tries to convince her that there is something odd about himself, as he know the license plate numbers of all of the six cars outside, that their waitress is left-handed and that the man at the bar weighs two hundred and fifteen pounds and know how to handle himself. More sinister though, is that he knows that the best place to look for a gun is the grey truck outside and that at their current altitude he can run flat out for half a mile before his hand start shaking. He concludes by asking her, rhetorically, how he can know that but not know who he is.

Bourne convinces Marie to join him on his journey of discovery because she is "the only person [he] know[s]." In Paris, it turns out a Building superintendent knows Bourne and shows him to his luxurious apartment. In the apartment Marie uses Bourne's sink to wash herself, as Bourne examines his possessions and thinks that he is in the shipping business. He notices a phone on his desk and presses the redial button. He then learns that his alter ego, John Michael Kane, last stayed at the Hotel Regina, and that he is now supposedly dead from a car accident, with his body now in a morgue in Paris. While Jason continues looking for clues about his past, another Treadstone agent suddenly bursts through a window with a submachine gun and attempts to kill Bourne. Bourne and the assassin (who uses the same fighting technique as Bourne) engage in a hand-to-hand fight, ending with Bourne knocking out the assassin, breaking his leg and arm, and stabbing him with a pen. Before Bourne can extract any information from him, the assassin jumps out the window and falls several stories to his death. Photos of Bourne and Kreutz are then handed to some one else on the team, with Conklin saying that he wants them sent to a CIA agent in Paris, to be distributed in the field. In the Treadstone Safe house in Paris, Nicolette 'Nicky' Parson is shown receiving the photos and arranging them on a wanted poster.

Up to this point a CIA group has tracked Bourne from the bank in Zürich to the American consulate to Marie's car to John Michael Kane's home. Their goal is to kill Bourne, apparently because they feel he has gone rogue. The CIA group is unaware of Bourne's amnesia.

Bourne and Marie travel to the Hotel Regina where John Michael Kane stayed, and Marie obtains copies of his phone bill. Bourne also visits the yacht manufacturer that constructs the yacht John Michael Kane was researching. They also visit the morgue where the body of John Michael Kane is missing. Bourne steals the visitor register and leaves.

It turns out that Bourne was an assassin working for the CIA. He attempted to assassinate Nykwana Wombosi, former dictator of Nigeria (see trivia), on his yacht but failed. Afterwards the CIA tried to cover the assassination up by placing a false body in the morgue but as the body had not been shot, Wombosi wasn't fooled. Note that although Bourne knows he was shot, the CIA hasn't been in direct contact with him and therefore did not know Bourne had been shot on Wombosi's yacht.

When the police discover Marie's car (with her and Bourne in it), Bourne leads them on a car chase through the streets of Paris. They are forced to abandon the car and hide out in a hotel. Marie's hair is also cut to change her appearance. That night the beginning of their romance is marked: Marie kisses him tenderly in the bathroom after she has had her hair cut. Their kissing evolves from shy to passionate and wildly, as they move their hands across each others bodies. Marie takes off Bourne's tank top, which makes them both half-naked. The camera pulls out from the bathroom. You can see Bourne's bare back with the two bullet wounds, as Marie moves her hands over it during their making out. It's not clear whether their passionate kissing evolved into a real intercourse, but it probably did.

Returning by taxi from a fact-finding trip one evening, Bourne and Marie see a large police contingent approaching their hotel. They flee the taxi, and when Marie wonders why they are also after her still, Bourne breaks the window of a parked police car and shows her a dossier showing photos of him and Marie together.

Bourne and Marie flee to the home of Marie's stepbrother just southeast of Limoges where they stay for the night. The next morning, the stepbrother's dog is missing and the phone line is dead. Bourne immediately discerns someone coming after them has arrived, and takes the homeowner's breech-loading shotgun and fires at his detached natural gas tank, using the explosion and smoke as cover as he moves into the woods. He and another Treadstone operative end up hunting each other in a field, where eventually Bourne outwits and shoots the operative, asking him of his identity. The agent gives Bourne more cryptic information, this time indicating there is a different agent in every major European city and that they all get the same headaches.

Bourne splits up with Marie for her safety and tells her to "get as low as you can and stay low." He promises to "end this." Using the dead Treadstone operative's cell phone, he calls into the CIA group monitoring him and forces a meeting at Pont Neuf crossing half of the Seine at Île de la Cité. The meeting is a bust, but Bourne places a detector on a CIA undercover van and uses it to follow Treadstone's head man, Alexander Conklin, to Treadstone's Paris safe house.

At the safe house, Bourne disables the security system and sneaks in, forcing a confrontation with Conklin. Bourne easily disarms the man who says Bourne is a "malfunctioning thirty million dollar weapon". Conklin says Bourne is used because he is a specialist at not being seen, due to his non-existent identity.

A flashback then informs viewers that Bourne failed to murder Wombosi because his children surrounded him when Bourne came to kill him. As Bourne had already discovered, he'd manufactured the existence of John Michael Kane, picked Wombosi's yacht as the strike point, and set the date himself. Ending the confrontation before a shootout with other agents, Bourne knocks out Conklin and subsequently kills three guards before escaping into Paris.

Conklin himself then leaves the Paris safe house, and we see alternating camera shots of him and Bourne each with a pistol walking down a dark Paris street...as another Treadstone operative prepares to deal out death. As Conklin continues down the street, the Treadstone assassin exits his car and shoots the director twice in the chest with a .22 Ruger MK2 pistol. He moves in closer and, with cold eyes that appear in the next film, shoots Conklin in the head and walks away into the gathering Paris darkness.

Finally, we are transported to Mykonos, where Marie is cleaning up a beachfront store. Bourne walks in and inquires somewhat anonymously if the store is hers. She then turns around and he asks if he can rent a scooter. Marie asks him if he has identification, and Bourne replies, "Not really".

They hug and the film ends...with Moby's "Extreme Ways" providing the intro to the end credits.

[edit] Jason Bourne

The Bourne Identity is a very tight film that may require multiple viewings or the reading of the original book to fully comprehend. There are several aspects of the Bourne character that are not fully explored but that point to the whole past and identity of Jason Bourne (the following points contain plot spoilers for the sequel film 'The Bourne Supremacy"):

• Along with John Michael Kane, Bourne is shown to have numerous other passports in his Zurich safe deposit box. Among the nations shown include Brazil, Poland, Russia, Canada, and the United States. Since the John Michael Kane persona was generated for a specific assassination it is quite possible that Bourne has made assassinations in the other 8 nations he has passports for. One of these assassinations is explored in The Bourne Supremacy.
• Bourne's apparently compulsive cleaning is further explored in The Bourne Supremacy where we are informed the other Treadstone operatives have the same compulsion. This compulsion undoubtedly derives from their duty to remain unidentified by cleaning all fingerprints and leaving no biological evidence of their presence. However, whether Bourne was taught this compulsion or perhaps selected for this quality is unknown.
• Bourne's uncharacteristically strong care for children was evidenced both by his failure to kill Nykwana Wombosi when his children were present and again when he almost cries in the presence of Marie's stepbrother's children. Whether Bourne has children, had them and lost them or some other source for this characteristic is not fully explored (actually, in the novel series he had two children who have been killed by a bomb).
• As a trained assassin we may see that Bourne has humane feelings also during the second film, The Bourne Supremacy. Unlike the novel, Bourne showed his emotional side when he kept at least one photo of Marie after she was killed in India by a Russian secret service agent. Later in the film Bourne refuses to kill an unarmed CIA traitor, saying "She wouldn't want me to".
• In this film we are informed Bourne is not the only Treadstone operative to have headaches. Bourne's headaches are strongly associated with lights in darkness such as while passing traffic at night. It is possible that the Treadstone operatives were brainwashed or hypnotized and the application method was some form of flashing lights which are known to have pervasive effects on the mind.
• The film's title may refer to the part of Jason Bourne that is a well-trained assassin as an independent persona from his genuine self. Bourne's actions during the movie demonstrates the character may have multiple personalities. This is shown multiple times, but perhaps most substantially when Bourne disarms two Swiss police officers early in the movie but when he realizes he is holding a gun and standing over two unconscious policemen seems almost surprised.
• In the underlying book Bourne clearly suffered traumatic amnesia as he was shot in the head. In the film Bourne was not shot in the head and demonstrates the ability, at times, to recover lost memories. Examples include remembering the children on Wombosi's yacht and, in The Bourne Supremacy, remembering yet another assassination. There is therefore some question as to what form of amnesia Bourne may have. Bourne may have traumatic or global amnesia due to the traumatic events on Wombosi's yacht. He may have fugue state resulting from the stressful situation combined with his possible multiple personalities. Or he may have some exotic and unique form of Posthypnotic amnesia derived out of Bourne's former psychological conditioning and his first failure.
• Whether Jason Bourne remains the character's true and final identity is unknown. Although the very end of The Bourne Supremacy indicates Bourne once went by the name David Webb we must wait for The Bourne Ultimatum to learn more.

[edit] Cast

• Jason Bourne - Matt Damon
• Marie Helena Kreutz - Franka Potente
• Alexander Conklin - Chris Cooper
• Ward Abbott - Brian Cox
• Nicolette 'Nicky' Parsons - Julia Stiles
• The Professor - Clive Owen
• Nykwana Wombosi - Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
• Danny Zorn - Gabriel Mann

[edit] Crew

• Directed by: Doug Liman
• Written by: Robert Ludlum
• Screenplay by: Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron
• Produced by: Robert Ludlum and Frank Marshall
• Composed by: John Powell
  • Additional music by: Paul Oakenfold and Moby

[edit] Trivia

• The film features a Filipino martial arts technique known as Kali, according to Matt Damon during DVD featurettes.
• Filming took place in Prague, Czech Republic; Paris, France; Imperia, Italy; Rome, Italy; Mykonos, Greece; and Zurich, Switzerland. However, some scenes that were set in Zurich were actually filmed in Prague, including the ones with the streetcars which were supposedly in Switzerland.[1]
• The Bourne Identity was the first film to be released under the 12A film certificate in the United Kingdom.
• Filmmakers were concerned the movie would be poorly accepted following the September 11, 2001 attacks. An alternate beginning and ending were made but test audiences preferred the original so filmmakers went with it.
• While Bourne leaves the fishing boat in a small town in the French Riviera, he disappears when two men walk in front of him.

• Approximately thirty minutes into the film Ronin, a firefight breaks out in Paris. Robert De Niro's character looks across the Seine River to see two police vehicles activate their sirens. If you look closely, you will see this is the same spot Jason Bourne spun Marie's Mini and drove against traffic to elude police.

Newspaper article reporting on Wombosi's death

• Although Wombosi's nationality is not explicitly stated in the movie, the newspaper Bourne reads outside Wombosi's home states he's Nigerian. It reads:
  • In French: "L'ex-dictateur Nykwanna Wombosi assassine dans residence parisienne. L'ancien homme fort du nigeria avait pris le pouvoir en 1997. Apres une grave crise pétrole en november 1998, Il devait quitter le pays a la suite de manefestations populaires."
  • English translation: "The ex-dictator Nykwanna Wombosi assassinated in Parisian residence. The former strong man of Nigeria had seized power in 1997. After a serious oil crisis in november 1998, he was forced to leave the country following popular demonstrations."
• Brad Pitt was set to star as the title character but opted for Tony Scott's Spy Game instead.
• The Talented Mr. Ripley ends with Matt Damon adrift in the Mediterranean Sea. The Bourne Identity begins with Matt Damon adrift in the Mediterranean.
• In the American embassy, after being told to stop and put his hands in the air, Bourne attacks a guard and a Marine security guard. He quickly knocks the Marine to the ground and then turns around to finish the guard. As he does so he knocks the Marine's distinctive white hat off. But immediately afterwards in the next camera angle the Marine still has his hat on.

[edit] Stunts

Matt Damon performs almost all of his own stunts in this movie including:

• Driving a Mini through the streets of Paris (this is the only Bourne stunt work not done completely by Damon)
• Taking on guards in the U.S. Consulate in Switzerland
• Climbing down the consulate wall using minimal handholds (Damon says this was the most difficult stunt according to DVD material) although eagle-eyed viewers will notice the stunt double (a professional mountain climber) doing parts of the initial scene by his curly bushy hair
• Fighting the assassin in Jason Bourne's Paris apartment
• Fighting Alexander Conklin and his two guards in the Paris Treadstone Safehouse
• Climbing the aforementioned building's wall
• A hard fall of over ten feet to the floor of the same building

[edit] Passports

A full accounting of Bourne's passports:

• Jason Charles Bourne (United States)
• John Michael Kane (United States)
• Nicholas Lemanissier (France)
• Paul Kay (Canada)
• Foma Kiniaev (Russian Federation) - Those familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet will notice that the Russian representation of this name on the passport is little more than a collection of random consonants.
• Unknown Name could be Joao Do Carmo per green card (signed Gilberto do Piento Consul General) (Brazil)
• Joad Do Carmo (Green as per the Brazilian passport but of an unknown nationality)
• Unknown name with Polish Nationality
• Unknown name and nationality but, presumably, German as per The Bourne Supremacy where Bourne is shown to have assassinated a Russian Politician in a hotel in Berlin. However, as that film indicates this assassination is not in Bourne's official CIA file and therefore may not have been incorporated into Bourne's safe deposit box.

[edit] Music

The (vocal) music for the movie is composed by John Powell. The OST for the movie is 'Extreme Ways' by Moby

[edit] External links

• Official Movie Web site
• The Bourne Identity at the Internet Movie Database
• The Bourne Identity at Rotten Tomatoes