| Jason Bourne | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Novel: The Bourne Identity Film: The Bourne Identity |
| Last appearance | Novel: The Bourne Dominion Film: The Bourne Ultimatum |
| Created by | Robert Ludlum |
| Portrayed by | Matt Damon Richard Chamberlain Jeff Pierce (Video Game only) |
| Information | |
| Aliases | Jean-Pierre (Identity) [1] Delta One Cain John Michael Kane Charles Briggs George P. Washburn Foma Kiniaev Mr. Cruet (Supremacy) Gilberto de Piento Paul Kay Adam Stone |
| Gender | Male |
| Spouse(s) | Dao Webb (Novels only, deceased) Marie St. Jacques (beginning with Supremacy) (novels only) |
| Children | Jamie Webb, Alison Webb, Joshua Webb (Known as Khan in The Bourne Legacy) (novels only), Alyssa Webb (novels only, deceased) |
Jason Charles Bourne (born David Webb) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the novels by Robert Ludlum and subsequent film adaptations. He first appeared in the novel The Bourne Identity (1980). This novel was first adapted for television in 1988, and then adapted to the film, which is very loosely based on the novels, in 2002 under a title of the same name.
The character has been in eight sequel novels (the last six of which are written by Eric Van Lustbader) with another novel due to be released in 2012. Along with the first feature film, The Bourne Identity (2002), Jason Bourne also appears in two sequel movies The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Actor Matt Damon stated in November 2009 that no script had been approved for a fourth film, but that he hoped that a film would begin shooting in mid-2011.[2] The next month however, he said that he would not do another Bourne film without Paul Greengrass, who announced in late November that he had decided not to return as director.[3]
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Jason Bourne has a tormented past, which continues to influence him throughout his lifetime. Jason Bourne is but one of many aliases used by David Webb. Webb is a career foreign service officer and a specialist in Far Eastern affairs. Before the events in The Bourne Identity, Webb had a Thai wife named Dao and two children named Joshua and Alyssa in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Webb's wife and two children were inadvertently killed during the Vietnam War when a fighter plane strayed into Cambodia, dropped two bombs and strafed a spot near the Mekong River. Due to Cambodia's neutrality in the war, every nation disclaimed the plane, and therefore no one took responsibility for the incident. Since he had nothing left, Webb went to Saigon and elected to train for an elite Top Secret Special Forces unit called Medusa, which would remain a Top Secret unit for many years. In Medusa, Webb was known only as Delta One, his code name within the unit.
David Webb's life was slowly consumed by his membership in Medusa. Webb was recruited into Medusa during Vietnam by friend and CIA officer Alexander Conklin after the death of Webb's wife and children. Webb was furious with the tragedy of his loss, and sought revenge by joining Medusa. Initially Medusa was designed to infiltrate parts of Northern Vietnam, and kill suspected members of the Viet Cong and its collaborators. Medusa was considered an assassination team or death squad. Each member of Medusa was paid for their work performing assassinations for the United States Government.
The members of Medusa were all criminals who were led by Delta. Delta ran Medusa with an iron fist, and became well known for his ruthlessness, his disregard for orders, and his disturbing success rate on his missions, resulting in the kidnapping of his brother, U.S. Army Lieutenant Gordon Webb, during his tour of duty in Saigon.
During the mission to save David Webb's brother an original "Medusa" team member, named Jason Charles Bourne, was discovered to be a double agent who alerted a large amount of North Vietnamese soldiers to their whereabouts. When Delta found Bourne after killing his way through the North Vietnamese he simply executed Bourne in the jungles of Tam Quan. Bourne had compromised the secret rescue of Gordon Webb. Bourne's murder by Delta was never exposed due to the Top Secret status of Medusa.
Years later, a black ops arm of the CIA was formed to eliminate the notorious Carlos the Jackal and called Treadstone Seventy-One, named after a building on New York's Seventy-First Street, and Webb was called up by the creator of Treadstone and Medusa, David Abbott, who was nicknamed The Monk, (short for The Silent Monk of Covert Operations.) to be its principal agent. At this point, Webb (Delta) takes the identity of Jason Bourne due to the actual Bourne's status as MIA in the war as well as the fact that Bourne was in reality a ruthless killer with a long criminal record. The point of all this was to turn Jason Bourne into something more than he really was, a contract assassin who would be known all over the world for terminating the lives of just about anyone. The assassin's alias was Cain. The reasoning for creating such a myth was to create competition for a well known assassin named Carlos, or Carlos the Jackal (real name Ilich Ramírez Sánchez) who at that time was considered the world's best and most famous assassin. The name Cain was chosen because it had some significance for what he was doing. During Vietnam, Cain was used instead of Charlie in the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot...) because Charlie became synonymous with Viet Cong. So Delta dropped back one letter to Cain, which stood for Charlie. In Spanish, Charlie is Carlos; Carlos was Venezuelan. The myth of Cain was created by having Cain take credit for any well publicized killings that took place in Asia, and later Europe, regardless of the circumstances. By creating this myth, Cain was to drive the reclusive Carlos out in the open " long enough to put a bullet in his head". To add insult to Carlos's name, Cain stole the credit for Carlos's kills, even if Cain had no part.
The Series has included nine novels which have been written by two authors, Robert Ludlum and Eric Van Lustbader. Ludlum's series include the first three books, better known as the Bourne Trilogy. After Ludlum's death in 2001, Lustbader took over the character in his own series of novels, which span six current books plus a seventh novel that is slated for release in 2012.
Jason Bourne is initially found floating in the Mediterranean sea, suffering from serious injuries. He is picked up randomly by a fishing vessel. A head wound causes him to suffer from amnesia, preventing him from remembering anything that has happened previously in his life. As he tries to reclaim his memory, he attracts the attention of hostile people for reasons unknown to him. At a hotel, while cornered, Bourne takes a young woman hostage to escape. This woman, named Marie St. Jacques, is an employee of the Canadian government. Bourne and Marie start discovering the identity of Jason Bourne, the contract assassin. It is later discovered that both the CIA and a contract killer known as Carlos the Jackal have an interest in him. Marie is convinced that the man she knows as Jason Bourne cannot be the ruthless killer that all the discoveries they make seem to imply. It is due to Marie that Jason continues to search for his true identity and in the end finds the truth. Through this time, Bourne continually has the phrase "Cain is for Charlie, and Delta is for Cain" flash through his mind, propelling him in the direction of his mission.
When Supremacy starts, Marie is taken captive by the United States government in an attempt to turn David Webb back into his former self, the mythical Jason Bourne. While in reality it was the U.S. government who took Marie captive, it has pinned the blame on a fictitious powerful Chinese drug lord. This scheme was conducted to send Bourne after a phony Jason Bourne who had been credited with a Far East political assassination that could, in a worst-case scenario, cause a civil war in China over the ownership of Hong Kong.
As Carlos the Jackal enters old age and his infamy fades, he decides that he will do two things before he dies: kill Jason Bourne and destroy the KGB facility of Novgorod, where the Jackal was trained and later turned away. Webb's family is forced to hide in the Caribbean while Webb himself works with old friend and CIA agent Alex Conklin to hunt down and kill the Jackal first. Webb poses as an important member of Medusa, now a nearly omnipotent economic force that controls the commander of NATO, leading figures in the Defense Department, and large NYSE firms. The plan is to use Medusa's resources to contact the Jackal. Webb just misses the Jackal several times before Webb stages his own death and convinces the Jackal that he has succeeded. Following this, the Jackal turns to his second goal. Webb tracks the Jackal down with the help of Conklin and a KGB agent as the Jackal begins destroying the KGB compound. In a final confrontation, the Jackal is led into a dam lock in which he drowns and Webb returns to his family.
With the climactic events of The Bourne Ultimatum behind him, Jason Bourne is able to once again become David Webb, now professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. However, this serenity does not last for long. When a silenced gunshot narrowly misses Webb's head, the Bourne persona reawakens in him yet again. His first objective is to get to his long-time friend and handler at the CIA, Alex Conklin. However, unknown to Bourne, a Hungarian by the name of Stepan Spalko has now drawn Jason into a web—one which he cannot escape as easily as his professional facade. And the man who nearly killed him in Georgetown continues his deadly, intensely personal pursuit...
Jason Bourne takes a mission to rescue his only friend in the CIA, Martin Lindros, who disappeared in Africa while tracking shipments of yellowcake uranium. Once safely back in America, Lindros persuades Bourne to help track the money trail of terrorists buying the nuclear material in Odessa. But once there, Bourne is hampered by confusing flashbacks of unfamiliar places and events and he wonders: Is someone brainwashing him in order to throw him off the trail? Or worse, is the man he saved in Africa really Martin Lindros? Now, Bourne must gather evidence while trying to stay one step ahead of the terrorists who won't let anyone stand in their way.
Jason Bourne returns to Georgetown University and the mild world of his alter ego, David Webb, hoping for normality. But, after so many adrenaline soaked years of risking his life, Bourne finds himself chafing under the quiet life of a linguistics professor. Aware of his frustrations, his academic mentor, Professor Spector, asks for help investigating the murder of a former student. The young man died carrying information about a group's terrorist activities, including an immediate plan to attack the United States. The organization, the Black Legion and its plot have also popped up on the radar of the Central Intelligence Agency, whose new director Veronica Hart is struggling to assert her authority. Sensing an opportunity to take control of the CIA by showing Hart's incompetence, National Security Agency operatives attempt to accomplish what the CIA never could do, hunt down and kill Jason Bourne. In Europe Bourne's investigation into the Black Legion turns into one of the deadliest and tangled operations of his double life - while an assassin is getting closer by the minute.
Jason Bourne's nemesis, Arkadin, is still hot on his trail and the two continue their struggle, reversing roles of hunter and hunted. When Bourne is ambushed and badly wounded, he fakes his death and goes into hiding. In safety, he takes on a new identity, and begins a mission to find out who tried to assassinate him. Jason begins to question who he really is, how much of him is tied up in the Bourne identity, and what he would become if that was suddenly taken away from him. Meanwhile, an American passenger airliner is shot down over Egypt by what seems to be an Iranian missile. A massive global investigative team is assembled to get at the truth of the situation before it can escalate into an international scandal. Jason Bourne's search for the man who shot him intersects with the search for the people that brought down the airliner, leading Bourne into one of the most deadly and challenging situations he has ever encountered. With the threat of a new world war brewing, Bourne finds himself in a race against time to uncover the truth and find the person behind his assault, all the while being stalked by his unknown nemesis.
The Bourne Objective is the eighth novel in the Bourne series, and the fifth written by Eric Van Lustbader. The book was released in 2010, sequel to The Bourne Deception. The killing of an art dealer dredges up snatches of Jason Bourne's impaired memory, in particular the murder of a young woman who entrusted him with a strangely engraved ring. Now he's determined to find its owner and purpose. But Bourne neer know what terrible acts he'll discover he committed when he digs into the past. The trail will lead him to a vicious Russian mercenary, Leonid Arkadin, also a graduate of the Central Intelligence training program Treadstone. The covert course was shuttered by Congress for corruption, but not before it produced Bourne and Arkadin, giving them equal skills, equal force, and equal cunning. As Bourne's destiny circles closer to Arkadin's, it becomes clear that someone else has been watching and manipulating them. Someone wants to know, Who is the more deadly agent?
Jason Bourne's enemies are gathering force. Severus Domna, a secret and ancient cabal, has called forth its members from around the globe, with one objective: to vanquish the last person capable of destroying their bid to de-stabilize the world economy – Jason Bourne. But how can they possibly succeed where so many others have failed? By turning Bourne's most trusted friend into his greatest – and most deadly – enemy. Boris Karpov has reached the pinnacle of his career. He has taken over one of the most powerful security organizations in the world – but at a price. Karpov agreed to a devil's pact with the former head, and now he has to deliver. But it's far worse than anything Karpov could have imagined – he must kill his oldest friend, Jason Bourne. Now Bourne finds himself in a world where friend and foe go hand-in-hand. Bourne's journey will lead him down a path of brutal murder and destruction – one from which there is no escape...[4]
The tenth book in the series, The Bourne Imperative, is anticipated to be published in 2012.
In 1988 a two-part made-for-television movie of The Bourne Identity aired on ABC. It starred Richard Chamberlain in the role of Jason Bourne and Jaclyn Smith as Marie St. Jacques. The TV movie was largely faithful to Robert Ludlum's novel, both in plot as well as in the portrayal of the character of Jason Bourne.
In the films, the character of Jason Bourne, portrayed by Matt Damon, varies from the character described in the novels. The films omit the Vietnam War and the character of Carlos the Jackal. They also focus significantly more on the female roles of Nicky (Julia Stiles) and Marie (Franka Potente).
In the films, David Webb was born in Nixa, Missouri. He is a Captain in the United States Army, a Roman Catholic, and his Social Security Number is 829-63-1204. Other details vary in different parts of the trilogy: his blood type is O- on his dog tags but A+ in his induction report, and numerous birth dates are given, including August 21st, 1969 on his file in Supremacy and September 13, 1970, as indicated by his various files in Ultimatum.
Bourne volunteered for Operation Treadstone, a top-secret CIA project under which he endured behavioral modification, shaping him into a malleable asset. His first test was to kill a man, after which he was informed that his transformation into Jason Bourne was complete. He initially refused to shoot the unknown man under the pretense that he wasn't given a reason why he was to do so, but after persuasion he capitulated and killed the subject.
Bourne was highly trained in the CIA's protocols and tradecraft. His skills include expertise in hand-to-hand combat, firearms, knives, explosives, handling numerous vehicles, and speaking fluent English, French, Dutch, Russian, German, Spanish, Czech, Polish and Italian. Although he has never shown speaking Portuguese, he holds a Brazilian passport as Gilberto de Piento in The Bourne Ultimatum, although in The Bourne Identity he holds a Brazilian passport as Joao do Carmo, and Gilberto de Piento is the Consul General who signed the passport.
Once his training was complete, Bourne was deployed as a highly-trained covert assassin for a variety of missions all involving lethal action. He completed his missions mechanically, without knowledge of his subjects' identity or the crimes they had allegedly committed.
It is implied that he had some type of relationship with fellow Treadstone operative Nicky Parsons- essentially the agents' psychiatrist, assigned to monitor potential behavioural problems they might develop due to their stressful careers-, but this is never confirmed, although Nicky's interaction with him is suggestive of some form of affection.
On a job in France, he had a sudden attack of conscience when he saw his target in the company of his children. Bourne aborted his mission, and was shot in the back twice while attempting to escape. He awakens with his memory gone.
The character of Bourne in the films is a very quick-thinking, linear type of person who moves quickly and brutally towards his goal. He gives the impression of someone who has been severely traumatized. He is tormented by fragment memories of his past. He is highly adept at hand-to-hand combat, and appears to retain his knowledge of how to remain 'off-the-grid' even if he cannot recall how he learned such skills. He also shows an immediate ability to utilize lateral thinking to solve problems. He often uses improvised weapons, for example using a pen to stab an assassin in The Bourne Identity, utilising a wrapped up magazine as a blunt object in The Bourne Supremacy and using a book and a towel to kill an opponent in The Bourne Ultimatum. He is shown using tactical improvisation such as using a fan, torch light and tape to fake his location (The Bourne Ultimatum) and gas, a toaster and a magazine to cause an explosion (The Bourne Supremacy). He is also proficient with firearms, explosives, electronics and evasive protocols — for moving, driving, and the like.
The overarching story of Jason Bourne through the film trilogy is his attempt to regain knowledge of who and what he is.
In The Bourne Identity, after aborting an assassination on an exiled African leader named Nykwana Wombosi, Bourne is shot by one of Wombosi's bodyguards and left for dead in the Mediterranean Sea south of Marseilles. Bourne is rescued by the crew of an Italian fishing boat, where he discovers he's suffering from amnesia. While Bourne is on board, the captain discovers a microchip implanted in Bourne's body that contains the number of a safety deposit box. Bourne eventually lands and makes his way to Zurich where he obtains access to a safety deposit box at Gemeinschaft Bank containing multiple passports, assorted personal items, cash in various currencies, and a Sig Pro handgun. Bourne later takes refuge in the American embassy, but is forced to strike out on his own after nearly being captured at the embassy. He then enlists the aid of Marie Kreutz, a nomadic German-born woman, to take him to Paris where he has discovered he once resided. After Bourne offers her $20,000, Marie agrees and the two embark on their journey, arriving at Bourne's apartment on Rue Du Jardin. In the apartment, while Bourne is trying to sift through his things to find clues to his identity, he is attacked by another Treadstone assassin known as Castel. After brutal hand-to-hand combat, Bourne emerges the victor but is unable to interrogate Castel before he commits suicide by leaping out a window. Bourne and Marie flee the apartment and are involved in a high-speed pursuit by Parisian police before evading them and ditching their vehicle. The two stay in a small hotel in Paris while they investigate Bourne's whereabouts during the weeks leading up to the assassination attempt on Wombosi. Bourne eventually learns his connection to Wombosi and that he was the man Wombosi claimed had sneaked onto his yacht in the middle of the night and tried to kill him. After this revelation, Bourne and Marie reluctantly remain together to again evade the Paris police after the location of their hotel is discovered. They venture into the French countryside, planning on staying with Marie's friend Eamonn. It is there that Bourne encounters another Treadstone assassin known as The Professor. Bourne succeeds in eliminating The Professor, then sends Marie on her way in order to keep her safe. He returns to Paris where he arranges a meeting with Treadstone's director, Alexander Conklin, on the Pont Neuf. Bourne uses the meeting to tag Conklin's vehicle and track him to the Treadstone safehouse. There, Bourne confronts Conklin and informs Conklin he's finished with Treadstone. After killing several CIA guards, Bourne escapes the safehouse and disappears into the night. Bourne eventually tracks Marie to the Greek island of Mykonos where she is running a small scooter rental shop and restaurant; the two reunite.
In The Bourne Supremacy Bourne and Marie are now residing in Goa, India when their quiet life is disturbed by the arrival of a man named Kirill whom Bourne immediately concludes is a threat. He and Marie attempt to flee Goa and in the process Kirill kills Marie (intending to kill Bourne). Bourne is presumed dead however and uses the advantage to once again wage war on Treadstone (which Bourne believes is still active). Bourne arrives in Naples, Italy by ferry and intentionally has his passport run by immigrations. A European CIA substation in London is alerted to Bourne surfacing on the grid and measures are taken to bring Bourne into custody. An arrogant embassy agent sent to interrogate Bourne ends up being subdued along with an Italian security officer standing guard in the interrogation room. Bourne learns of a new name in the company, Pamela Landy, who suspects Bourne of being behind the assassination of two CIA agents involved in an operation in Berlin a few days prior (the agents were in actuality assassinated by Kirill). Bourne arrives in Berlin by way of Munich (where he encounters Jarda, a supposedly inactive Treadstone agent). It is there that he shadows and later makes contact with Landy. After some investigation and indirect aid from Bourne, Landy discovers the assassination of her agents was part of a larger conspiracy perpetuated by former Treadstone director Ward Abbott and his co-conspirator, oil mogul Yuri Gretkov. Upon his discovery, Abbott commits suicide and Gretkov is arrested by Russian police. Bourne travels to Russia having learned that the flashes of his first mission involving a Russian politician had been the work of Abbott to cover up his theft of CIA funds. While in Moscow Bourne engages Kirill in a high-speed pursuit that results in the supposed death of Kirill in a tunnel. In The Bourne Supremacy we last see Bourne an indeterminate amount of time later spying on Landy as he speaks to her over the phone.
In The Bourne Ultimatum Bourne travels to London in an attempt to contact an investigative reporter named Simon Ross who has been writing articles speculating on who Bourne is. Bourne learns that Ross may have been in contact with someone involved deep within Treadstone and desires to learn the information. His plans are thwarted when Ross is assassinated by Paz, one of a new breed of assassins generated by a Treadstone upgrade program called "Blackbriar". From London Bourne travels to Madrid, where he locates a CIA safehouse where Neil Daniels had been residing, the same man Ross had interviewed. Bourne finds the safehouse empty, and is forced to engage two CIA operatives sent to eliminate him. Nicky Parsons arrives on site and teams up with Bourne and helps him track Daniels to Tangiers, Morocco. Before they can get to Daniels, he is assassinated by another Blackbriar asset known as Desh Bouksani. Noah Vosen, director of Blackbriar, authorizes Desh to eliminate Bourne and Parsons as secondary objectives. After a long pursuit through Tangier on moped and on foot, Bourne manages to intervene just before Desh closes in on Nicky's location. Bourne eliminates Desh and fools Blackbriar into believing he and Parsons had been successfully eliminated by Desh, giving them enough time to close in on Blackbriar. Bourne travels to America alone and the truth about his identity is finally brought to light as Landy goes rogue and attempts to reach out and help Bourne in his pursuit. Bourne learns his real name is David Webb and is given the address to the Treadstone training facility on 71st St. in New York City. It is there that Bourne's past is revealed in full, and after a pursuit through the building he is presumably shot by Vosen as he leaps off of the 10th story roof into the East River. It is reported that Bourne's body was never recovered and he is still at large—Bourne is seen swimming away after regaining consciousness, somewhat reminiscent of the opening scene of The Bourne Identity. The first part of this movie corresponds chronologically to the events portrayed in the previous film; Bourne's telephone conversation with Landy upon arriving in New York is the same scene as at the end of the last movie, meaning that there was a longer gap between the crash that killed Kirill and Bourne's phone call than it originally appeared.
A video game titled The Bourne Conspiracy was released in 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The Ludlum estate obtained the rights to the video game franchise and sold it to Electronic Arts in 2009. EA plans to make several Bourne games. The first Bourne game will be developed by Starbreeze Studios.[5] However, the new game has been shelved by Starbreeze Studios.
The Bourne franchise consists of several novels, movies, and a video game, all featuring one of the several versions of the Jason Bourne character.
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