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The Bourne Ultimatum (film)
Encyclopedia
The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American spy film
directed by Paul Greengrass
and loosely based on the Robert Ludlum
novel of the same title
. This film is the third in the Bourne film series
, being preceded by The Bourne Identity
(2002) and The Bourne Supremacy
(2004). The fourth movie, The Bourne Legacy
, is scheduled for release in July 2012.
Matt Damon
reprises his role as Ludlum's signature character, former CIA
assassin and psychogenic amnesia
c Jason Bourne
. The film picks up the storyline from the previous film, and continues Bourne's saga after he escapes from authorities in Moscow
. The script was written by Tony Gilroy
, Scott Z. Burns
, George Nolfi
and an uncredited Tom Stoppard
. The producers were Frank Marshall, Pat Crowley and Paul L. Sandberg.
The Bourne Ultimatum was produced by Universal Pictures
and was released on August 3, 2007, in North America, where it grossed $69.3 million in ticket sales in its first weekend of release, making it the highest August opening in the U.S. and Matt Damon's highest grossing film with him in the lead. Although all three films have been commercially successful and critically acclaimed, The Bourne Ultimatum is the only film in the trilogy
to have been nominated for any Academy Award, winning all three of its nominations for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing at the 80th Academy Awards
.
) eludes Moscow police and goes into hiding after being shot by Russian FSB agent Kirill (in The Bourne Supremacy). Six weeks later, The Guardian
Security Correspondent Simon Ross (Paddy Considine
) meets with a source to discuss Bourne and Operation Treadstone. The CIA begin tracking Ross when he mentions "Operation Blackbriar" on a mobile phone call to his editor. Bourne travels to Paris to inform Marie's brother, Martin (Daniel Brühl
), of her death and assures him he's hunting her killers. In London, Bourne meets with Ross at Waterloo Station
after learning of Ross' investigation of Treadstone. When Bourne realizes that the CIA is tracking Ross, he helps him evade capture, but Ross deviates from Bourne's instructions and is killed by Blackbriar "asset" (assassin) Paz (Édgar Ramírez
) on orders from Blackbriar's director Noah Vosen (David Strathairn
).
CIA Director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn
) sends Pamela Landy (Joan Allen
), who unsuccessfully hunted Bourne six weeks earlier, to help Vosen after he spots Bourne in a CCTV camera feed. After searching Ross' notes, they deduce that his source was Neal Daniels (Colin Stinton
), CIA Station Chief in Madrid
, who was formerly involved in Treadstone and is actively involved in Blackbriar. Bourne, having taken Ross' bag after he was killed, follows the notes in his notebook to Daniels' Madrid office but finds it empty. Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles
), a former Treadstone support technician, arrives shortly after Bourne incapacitates the CIA field team sent by Vosen and Landy to capture him. She decides to help Bourne escape another incoming CIA squad and tells him Daniels fled to Tangier
. It's implied that Parsons and Bourne had a deep, possibly romantic relationship before he lost his memory.
Upon arriving in Tangier, Parsons hacks into the CIA database to locate Daniels but fails, finding that Blackbriar asset Desh Bouksani (Joey Ansah
) has been tasked with killing him. Vosen learns of Parsons' log-in attempt and orders Desh to kill her as well as Bourne, a decision Landy disagrees with. Afterwards, Vosen calls Kramer and confirms their intentions to use Landy as the scapegoat if things go wrong. Bourne tails Desh to Daniels but fails to prevent Daniels' death by a roadside bomb. He does, however, protect Parsons by strangling Desh after an intense hand-to-hand fight and later sends her into hiding. Upon examining the contents of Daniels' charred briefcase, Bourne finds the address of the deep cover CIA bureau in New York City where Vosen directs Blackbriar.
Bourne travels to New York; Landy receives a phone call (in a repetition of the final scene of The Bourne Supremacy) which is revealed to be tapped by Vosen. Landy thanks Bourne for the tape he sent her which revealed the corrupt dealings of former Treadstone director Ward Abbott, and also provides him that his real name is David Webb and his birth date is "4/15/71". While speaking with Landy, Bourne notices Vosen storing highly classified materials in a safe in his office. Bourne tells Landy to "get some rest" because she "looks tired", which she and Vosen both understand to mean that he's currently surveilling her. Vosen then intercepts a text message sent to Landy from Bourne advising a location for a meet and leaves his office with a team to follow her. Bourne breaks into Vosen's office and steals classified Blackbriar documents and Vosen sends Paz after him, resulting in a car chase which ends with Paz forcing Bourne's stolen police car into a concrete divider. Bourne gets out and holds Paz at gunpoint before sparing his life and continuing on to 415 East 71st Street (reference to the "4/15/71" from Landy), memories of which were triggered by the false birthday he was given by Landy. Vosen also figures out Landy's code and warns Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney
), who ran Treadstone's behavior modification program, that Bourne is en route.
Landy meets Bourne outside the building and admits to her change of heart; that she's helping him because she hadn't signed up for programs like Treadstone and Blackbriar. Bourne gives her the Blackbriar files before going inside and Landy faxes them to a secondary witness with Vosen arriving just as the last page is successfully sent. Bourne meets with Hirsch in an upper level room and, with Hirsch's help, finally recollects that he was not forced into the program, but in fact volunteered. He proclaims to no longer be "Jason Bourne" and flees from Vosen's pursuing team to the roof. There, Paz confronts Bourne with why he didn't kill him when he had the chance. Bourne questions Paz as to his motives and repeats the dying words of "The Professor", a Treadstone assassin he killed years earlier (in The Bourne Identity): "Look at us... Look at what they make you give." Paz lowers his gun as Bourne runs to jump off the roof, but Vosen appears and shoots at Bourne as he leaps into the East River
below.
Some time later, Landy is shown testifying before the Senate regarding Blackbriar. Parsons watches a television news broadcast about the exposure of Operation Blackbriar, the arrests of Hirsch and Vosen, a criminal investigation against Kramer for authorizing the operation, and that David Webb, a.k.a. Jason Bourne, was reportedly shot and fell into the East River. Upon hearing that his body has not been found after a three-day search, Parsons smiles; Bourne is shown swimming away underwater after his fall.
The Bourne Ultimatum was filmed at Pinewood Studios
near London and in multiple locations around the world, including Tangier, London, Paris, Madrid (as itself and double for Turin), Berlin (as double for Moscow), New York City, and other locations in the U.S.
for the DVD
release of The Bourne Ultimatum, director
Paul Greengrass confirmed the following scenes were deliberate allusions to scenes from the previous installments of the Bourne film franchise. They include:
. A new version of Moby
's "Extreme Ways", entitled "Extreme Ways (Bourne's Ultimatum)", was recorded for the film's end credits.
The Bourne Ultimatum was released nationwide on August 30, 2007.
In addition to the stand alone DVD release, there is a limited edition 'The Jason Bourne Collection' gift set, featuring all three films on DVD and a bonus disc with a myriad of bonus features such as deleted scenes and featurettes. The gift set features Swiss Bank safe deposit box
packaging including foreign currency and a Jason Bourne passport
.
The film and special features on the HD DVD version are presented in 2:35:1 Widescreen high definition 1080i
and offer Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless
and Dolby Digital Plus
5.1 audio options.
, higher than either predecessor. The film had a rating of 85/100 on Metacritic
, again higher than the first two films. At the end of its theatrical release, the film grossed at total of $227,471,070 in the U.S., making it the highest grossing film in the series.
Like its predecessor, The Bourne Supremacy, the film was criticized for its overuse of "shaky camera" work, as Richard Corliss
of Time
magazine, in an otherwise positive review, wondered "why, in the chat scenes, the camera is afflicted with Parkinson's? The film frame trembles, obscures the speaker with the listener's shoulder, annoys viewers and distracts them from the content of the scene."
In the British press, the inclusion of a fictional journalist from the real British paper The Guardian
and scenes set in the United Kingdom (particularly Waterloo railway station) were commented upon. In particular, that newspaper's reviewer joked that "dodging bullets from a CIA sniper... is the sort of thing which happens to us Guardian journalists all the time."
(behind No Country for Old Men
):
that director Paul Greengrass joked that a fourth film could be titled "The Bourne Redundancy". Nonetheless, the financial and critical success of The Bourne Ultimatum has led to speculation in several magazines and Internet forums that another Bourne film might be produced. On February 22, 2008, Variety
reported that a fourth film was indeed in the works, with both Damon and Greengrass on board.
This was confirmed on June 25, 2008, by producers Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley in an interview with IESB.net. Marshall said "Hopefully they will finish the script in 2010 and that they will be shooting in the summer of 2011 for a release in 2012 and our favorite anti-hero is apparently headed to South America." On October 16, 2008, it was announced that George Nolfi would write the script, with Frank Marshall producing, and Jeffrey Weiner and Henry Morrison executive producing. Matt Damon, Julia Stiles
, Joan Allen, and Paul Greengrass were also attached to the film. On August 21, 2009, it was announced that Universal had hired Joshua Zetumer
to help write the script. Paul Greengrass has announced that he will not be directing.
On February 1, 2010, Damon, speaking at the UK premiere of Invictus
, revealed that a follow-up to The Bourne Ultimatum was "at least five years away". Greengrass, also at the premiere, re-stated that he would not be part of any further Bourne films "unless the right script came along". However, Damon revealed that in the meantime there may be a Bourne "prequel of some kind, with another actor and another director". Matt Damon
reconfirmed this on a March 10, 2010 appearance of Today and that he would only be involved if Greengrass was directing.
In June, 2010, it was announced that Tony Gilroy will be writing The Bourne Legacy and it will have a 2012 release date. In October, 2010, it was announced that Tony Gilroy will also be directing.
On October 11, 2010, Gilroy confirmed that Damon would not return, that there would be a whole new hero. Gilroy further explained,
On April 21, 2011, it was confirmed that the lead role would be played by Jeremy Renner
in the sequel, The Bourne Legacy. Filming is expected to start in September 2011, and a release date is set for August 2012.
Spy film
The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...
directed by Paul Greengrass
Paul Greengrass
Paul Greengrass is an English film director, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of real-life events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras.-Life and career:...
and loosely based on the Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum was an American author of 23 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.-Life and...
novel of the same title
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Ultimatum is the third Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum and a sequel to The Bourne Supremacy . First published in 1990, it was the last Bourne novel to be written by Ludlum himself. Eric Van Lustbader wrote a sequel titled The Bourne Legacy fourteen years later.A film titled...
. This film is the third in the Bourne film series
Bourne (film series)
The Bourne films are a series of dramatic films based on the character Jason Bourne, a former CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss, created by author Robert Ludlum. All three of Ludlum's novels were adapted for the screen, featuring Matt Damon as the titular character in each...
, being preceded by The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity (2002 film)
The Bourne Identity is a 2002 American spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency . The film also stars Franka...
(2002) and The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Supremacy (film)
The Bourne Supremacy is a 2004 American spy film very loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. The film was directed by Paul Greengrass, written by Tony Gilroy and Brian Helgeland, and produced by Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley. Universal Pictures released the film to theaters in...
(2004). The fourth movie, The Bourne Legacy
The Bourne Legacy (film)
The Bourne Legacy will be the fourth entry in the eponymous Jason Bourne film franchise, which is based on the books of the same name by Robert Ludlum and Eric Van Lustbader. Currently slated for a summer 2012 release, the movie will once again most likely be an adaptation of the novel in the...
, is scheduled for release in July 2012.
Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
reprises his role as Ludlum's signature character, former CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
assassin and psychogenic amnesia
Psychogenic amnesia
Psychogenic amnesia, also known as functional amnesia or dissociative amnesia, is a memory disorder characterized by extreme memory loss that is caused by extensive psychological stress and that cannot be attributed to a known neurobiological cause...
c Jason Bourne
Jason Bourne
Jason Charles Bourne is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the novels of Robert Ludlum and subsequent film adaptations. He first appeared in the novel The Bourne Identity...
. The film picks up the storyline from the previous film, and continues Bourne's saga after he escapes from authorities in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. The script was written by Tony Gilroy
Tony Gilroy
Anthony Joseph "Tony" Gilroy is an American screenwriter and filmmaker. He wrote the screenplays for the Bourne series starring Matt Damon, among other successful films. He has been nominated for Academy Awards for his direction and script for Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney...
, Scott Z. Burns
Scott Z. Burns
Scott Z. Burns is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. He has written screenplays for The Bourne Ultimatum , The Informant! , and Contagion , all of which feature Matt Damon. His latest two films were both directed by Steven Soderbergh...
, George Nolfi
George Nolfi
George Nolfi is an American screenwriter. He directed the 2011 film The Adjustment Bureau, which he also wrote .- Life and career :...
and an uncredited Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
. The producers were Frank Marshall, Pat Crowley and Paul L. Sandberg.
The Bourne Ultimatum was produced by Universal Pictures
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
and was released on August 3, 2007, in North America, where it grossed $69.3 million in ticket sales in its first weekend of release, making it the highest August opening in the U.S. and Matt Damon's highest grossing film with him in the lead. Although all three films have been commercially successful and critically acclaimed, The Bourne Ultimatum is the only film in the trilogy
Bourne (film series)
The Bourne films are a series of dramatic films based on the character Jason Bourne, a former CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss, created by author Robert Ludlum. All three of Ludlum's novels were adapted for the screen, featuring Matt Damon as the titular character in each...
to have been nominated for any Academy Award, winning all three of its nominations for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing at the 80th Academy Awards
80th Academy Awards
The 80th Academy Awards ceremony honored the best films in 2007 and was broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on ABC beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. EST, February 24, 2008 . During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24...
.
Plot
Former CIA covert operative Jason Bourne (Matt DamonMatt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
) eludes Moscow police and goes into hiding after being shot by Russian FSB agent Kirill (in The Bourne Supremacy). Six weeks later, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
Security Correspondent Simon Ross (Paddy Considine
Paddy Considine
Patrick George "Paddy" Considine is an English actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, musician and frequent collaborator with Shane Meadows. Best known to audiences for his portrayals of dark, troubled, morally or mentally ambiguous characters...
) meets with a source to discuss Bourne and Operation Treadstone. The CIA begin tracking Ross when he mentions "Operation Blackbriar" on a mobile phone call to his editor. Bourne travels to Paris to inform Marie's brother, Martin (Daniel Brühl
Daniel Brühl
Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo is a Spanish/German actor. He is best known as Daniel Brühl.-Personal life:Brühl was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. His father was the late German stage director Hanno Brühl and his mother was a Spanish professor. He also has a brother and a sister...
), of her death and assures him he's hunting her killers. In London, Bourne meets with Ross at Waterloo Station
Waterloo station
Waterloo station, also known as London Waterloo, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. The station is owned and operated by Network Rail and is close to the South Bank of the River Thames, and in Travelcard Zone 1....
after learning of Ross' investigation of Treadstone. When Bourne realizes that the CIA is tracking Ross, he helps him evade capture, but Ross deviates from Bourne's instructions and is killed by Blackbriar "asset" (assassin) Paz (Édgar Ramírez
Edgar Ramirez
Édgar Filiberto Ramírez Arellano is a Venezuelan actor. He played Carlos in the 2010 French-German biopic series Carlos, a role for which he won the César Award for Most Promising Actor at the César Awards 2011. He also played "Paz", a CIA assassin in the movie The Bourne Ultimatum.Ramírez...
) on orders from Blackbriar's director Noah Vosen (David Strathairn
David Strathairn
David Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
).
CIA Director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn
Scott Glenn
Theodore Scott Glenn is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy , astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff ,Emmett in Silverado , Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October , Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and The Wise Man in Sucker Punch -Early...
) sends Pamela Landy (Joan Allen
Joan Allen
Joan Allen is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.She has received three Academy Award nominations;...
), who unsuccessfully hunted Bourne six weeks earlier, to help Vosen after he spots Bourne in a CCTV camera feed. After searching Ross' notes, they deduce that his source was Neal Daniels (Colin Stinton
Colin Stinton
Colin Stinton is a Canadian-born actor who immigrated to the United States in 1952, and now lives in London. He often portrays fictional American politicians, lawyers and government agents. He recently played Neal Daniels in The Bourne Ultimatum...
), CIA Station Chief in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, who was formerly involved in Treadstone and is actively involved in Blackbriar. Bourne, having taken Ross' bag after he was killed, follows the notes in his notebook to Daniels' Madrid office but finds it empty. Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles
Julia Stiles
Julia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress.After beginning her career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and David Mamet...
), a former Treadstone support technician, arrives shortly after Bourne incapacitates the CIA field team sent by Vosen and Landy to capture him. She decides to help Bourne escape another incoming CIA squad and tells him Daniels fled to Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
. It's implied that Parsons and Bourne had a deep, possibly romantic relationship before he lost his memory.
Upon arriving in Tangier, Parsons hacks into the CIA database to locate Daniels but fails, finding that Blackbriar asset Desh Bouksani (Joey Ansah
Joey Ansah
Joey Ansah is a British actor and martial artist.-Early life:Joey Ansah was born in London, England of mixed ethnicity, the second son of celebrated Ghanaian fashion designer Kofi and his Devon-born wife Nicola. He lived in London for the first 10 years of his life before emigrating with his...
) has been tasked with killing him. Vosen learns of Parsons' log-in attempt and orders Desh to kill her as well as Bourne, a decision Landy disagrees with. Afterwards, Vosen calls Kramer and confirms their intentions to use Landy as the scapegoat if things go wrong. Bourne tails Desh to Daniels but fails to prevent Daniels' death by a roadside bomb. He does, however, protect Parsons by strangling Desh after an intense hand-to-hand fight and later sends her into hiding. Upon examining the contents of Daniels' charred briefcase, Bourne finds the address of the deep cover CIA bureau in New York City where Vosen directs Blackbriar.
Bourne travels to New York; Landy receives a phone call (in a repetition of the final scene of The Bourne Supremacy) which is revealed to be tapped by Vosen. Landy thanks Bourne for the tape he sent her which revealed the corrupt dealings of former Treadstone director Ward Abbott, and also provides him that his real name is David Webb and his birth date is "4/15/71". While speaking with Landy, Bourne notices Vosen storing highly classified materials in a safe in his office. Bourne tells Landy to "get some rest" because she "looks tired", which she and Vosen both understand to mean that he's currently surveilling her. Vosen then intercepts a text message sent to Landy from Bourne advising a location for a meet and leaves his office with a team to follow her. Bourne breaks into Vosen's office and steals classified Blackbriar documents and Vosen sends Paz after him, resulting in a car chase which ends with Paz forcing Bourne's stolen police car into a concrete divider. Bourne gets out and holds Paz at gunpoint before sparing his life and continuing on to 415 East 71st Street (reference to the "4/15/71" from Landy), memories of which were triggered by the false birthday he was given by Landy. Vosen also figures out Landy's code and warns Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney
Albert Finney
Albert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
), who ran Treadstone's behavior modification program, that Bourne is en route.
Landy meets Bourne outside the building and admits to her change of heart; that she's helping him because she hadn't signed up for programs like Treadstone and Blackbriar. Bourne gives her the Blackbriar files before going inside and Landy faxes them to a secondary witness with Vosen arriving just as the last page is successfully sent. Bourne meets with Hirsch in an upper level room and, with Hirsch's help, finally recollects that he was not forced into the program, but in fact volunteered. He proclaims to no longer be "Jason Bourne" and flees from Vosen's pursuing team to the roof. There, Paz confronts Bourne with why he didn't kill him when he had the chance. Bourne questions Paz as to his motives and repeats the dying words of "The Professor", a Treadstone assassin he killed years earlier (in The Bourne Identity): "Look at us... Look at what they make you give." Paz lowers his gun as Bourne runs to jump off the roof, but Vosen appears and shoots at Bourne as he leaps into the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
below.
Some time later, Landy is shown testifying before the Senate regarding Blackbriar. Parsons watches a television news broadcast about the exposure of Operation Blackbriar, the arrests of Hirsch and Vosen, a criminal investigation against Kramer for authorizing the operation, and that David Webb, a.k.a. Jason Bourne, was reportedly shot and fell into the East River. Upon hearing that his body has not been found after a three-day search, Parsons smiles; Bourne is shown swimming away underwater after his fall.
Cast
- Matt DamonMatt DamonMatthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
as Jason BourneJason BourneJason Charles Bourne is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the novels of Robert Ludlum and subsequent film adaptations. He first appeared in the novel The Bourne Identity...
/David Webb, former top operative for the black ops Operation Treadstone. Bourne takes on the task of finding out who made him what he was and why. - Julia StilesJulia StilesJulia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress.After beginning her career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and David Mamet...
as Nicky Parsons, Bourne's former Treadstone contact in Paris. She is the only character besides Bourne and Marie Kreutz (who only appears in flashbacks in The Bourne Ultimatum) to appear in all three films. - David StrathairnDavid StrathairnDavid Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
as Noah Vosen, CIA Deputy Director in charge of the new Treadstone black ops upgrade called Operation Blackbriar, and the principal antagonist of the film. He considers Bourne a threat to the operation and sets out to kill him. - Joan AllenJoan AllenJoan Allen is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.She has received three Academy Award nominations;...
as Pamela Landy, CIA Deputy Director and Task Force Chief, sent in to aid Vosen in tracking down Bourne. She later proves to be Bourne's key ally. - Albert FinneyAlbert FinneyAlbert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
as Dr. Albert Hirsch, a second principal antagonist of the film who is responsible for creating the Bourne persona as well as Treadstone's other "assets". - Scott GlennScott GlennTheodore Scott Glenn is an American actor. His roles have included Wes Hightower in Urban Cowboy , astronaut Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff ,Emmett in Silverado , Commander Bart Mancuso in The Hunt for Red October , Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and The Wise Man in Sucker Punch -Early...
as Ezra Kramer, director of the CIA. - Colin StintonColin StintonColin Stinton is a Canadian-born actor who immigrated to the United States in 1952, and now lives in London. He often portrays fictional American politicians, lawyers and government agents. He recently played Neal Daniels in The Bourne Ultimatum...
as Neal Daniels, CIA Station Chief in Madrid. - Joey AnsahJoey AnsahJoey Ansah is a British actor and martial artist.-Early life:Joey Ansah was born in London, England of mixed ethnicity, the second son of celebrated Ghanaian fashion designer Kofi and his Devon-born wife Nicola. He lived in London for the first 10 years of his life before emigrating with his...
as Desh Bouksani, an assassin. - Edgar RamirezEdgar RamirezÉdgar Filiberto Ramírez Arellano is a Venezuelan actor. He played Carlos in the 2010 French-German biopic series Carlos, a role for which he won the César Award for Most Promising Actor at the César Awards 2011. He also played "Paz", a CIA assassin in the movie The Bourne Ultimatum.Ramírez...
as Paz, an assassin. - Tom Gallop as Tom Cronin, Pamela Landy's assistant.
- Corey JohnsonCorey JohnsonCorey Johnson is an American actor largely active in the United Kingdom. Johnson was born John Johnson in New Orleans, Louisiana....
as Ray Wills, Vosen's deputy at Operation Blackbriar. - Daniel BrühlDaniel BrühlDaniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo is a Spanish/German actor. He is best known as Daniel Brühl.-Personal life:Brühl was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. His father was the late German stage director Hanno Brühl and his mother was a Spanish professor. He also has a brother and a sister...
as Martin Kreutz, Marie's half brother. - Scott AdkinsScott AdkinsScott Adkins is an English actor and martial artist who is perhaps best known for playing Yuri Boyka in Undisputed II: Last Man Standing and Undisputed III: Redemption and Bradley Hume in Holby City and Ed Russell in Mile High...
as Agent Kiley - Paddy ConsidinePaddy ConsidinePatrick George "Paddy" Considine is an English actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, musician and frequent collaborator with Shane Meadows. Best known to audiences for his portrayals of dark, troubled, morally or mentally ambiguous characters...
as Simon Ross, a reporter for The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
of London. - Franka PotenteFranka PotenteFranka Potente is a German film actress and singer. She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval and gained critical recognition in the action thriller Lola rennt . Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in Run Lola Run and...
as Marie Helena Kreutz, Bourne's murdered girlfriend.
Production
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios is a major British film studio situated in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, approximately west of central London. The studios have played host to many productions over the years from huge blockbuster films to television shows to commercials to pop promos.The purchase of Shepperton...
near London and in multiple locations around the world, including Tangier, London, Paris, Madrid (as itself and double for Turin), Berlin (as double for Moscow), New York City, and other locations in the U.S.
Within the series
In the audio commentaryAudio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
for the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release of The Bourne Ultimatum, director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Paul Greengrass confirmed the following scenes were deliberate allusions to scenes from the previous installments of the Bourne film franchise. They include:
- The opening chase sequence of The Bourne Ultimatum is a continuation of the Russian police attempts to capture Bourne in Moscow near the end of The Bourne Supremacy and takes place soon after Bourne's apology to Neski's daughter in the previous film.
- The scene where Bourne tells Marie's brother, Martin, of his sister's death is very similar to the ending of The Bourne Supremacy, when Bourne apologizes to the Neskis' daughter for killing her parents.
- The scene where Bourne crashes through a window to attack Desh is similar to the scene where Castel attacked Bourne in The Bourne Identity.
- After Bourne tells Nicky she will have to run, Nicky dyes and cuts her hair, similar to the scene in The Bourne Identity with Marie dyeing and cutting her hair. She even cuts and dyes her hair into an identical style.
- During the car chase with Paz, Bourne's car is destroyed in a similar fashion to Kirill's in the climax of The Bourne Supremacy. The sequence also includes similar staging, such as Bourne walking up to Paz with gun in hand but deciding not to shoot.
- In the rooftop climax, Bourne tells Paz, "Look at us. Look at what they make you give", reiterating the dying words of The Professor (Clive OwenClive OwenClive Owen is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991...
) in The Bourne Identity. - The scene at the end of The Bourne Supremacy in which Bourne tells Landy she looks tired is in The Bourne Ultimatum.
- The ending of The Bourne Ultimatum, with Bourne floating motionless in the East River, links the opening scene of The Bourne Identity, which utilizes a similar image. The music in both scenes is also repeated.
- Operation Blackbriar is referred to at the very end of The Bourne Identity by Conklin's superior, Ward Abbott.
- One of the "terminated" victims files taken from Vosen's safe by Bourne has a photo of Richard ChamberlainRichard ChamberlainGeorge Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
, who played the original Jason Bourne in the 1988 television movie The Bourne IdentityThe Bourne Identity (1988 film)The Bourne Identity is a 1988 television movie adaptation of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity.The film follows the storyline of the novel, with a run-time of 3 hours 5 min...
. He is identified here as "Robert Golding" and is labeled "US Citizen Classified." - Bourne says "This is real" on two occasions: in The Bourne Supremacy when Marie questions whether the man he spotted in Goa was actually an assassin; and in The Bourne Ultimatum when trying to convince the journalist Ross that he is in danger at Waterloo Station. The characters spoken to are both killed soon afterwards.
Outside of the series
- The scene featuring Bourne desperately trying to catch a glimpse of Paz in the London UndergroundLondon UndergroundThe London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
after Ross is gunned down is, according to Greengrass, an homage to the New York City SubwayNew York City SubwayThe New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
chase in one of his favorite films, The French ConnectionThe French Connection (film)This article is about the 1971 film. For the British fashion label, see French Connection .The French Connection is a 1971 American crime film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore...
.
Music
As with the previous films in the trilogy, the score was composed by John PowellJohn Powell
John Powell is a British composer, best known for his scores to motion pictures. He has been based in the United States since 1997 and has composed the scores to over fifty feature films. He rose to fame in the late 1990s and 2000s, scoring numerous animated films, and collaborating with...
. A new version of Moby
Moby
Richard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American musician, DJ, and photographer. He is known mainly for his sample-based electronic music and his outspoken liberal political views, including his support of veganism and animal rights.Moby gained attention in the early...
's "Extreme Ways", entitled "Extreme Ways (Bourne's Ultimatum)", was recorded for the film's end credits.
Release
- Benefit premiere — A premiere of The Bourne Ultimatum was held in downtown Oklahoma CityDowntown Oklahoma CityDowntown Oklahoma City is located at the geographic center of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and is the principal business district of the city. With 115 city blocks and around of office space, downtown Oklahoma City also is the economic, financial, and entertainment center of the city...
on July 31, 2007, at HarkinsHarkins TheatresHarkins Theatres is a movie theater chain with locations throughout the Southwestern United States. Harkins Theatres is privately owned and operated by its parent company, Harkins Enterprises, LLC...
BricktownBricktown (Oklahoma City)Bricktown is an entertainment district just east of downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma . It was formerly a major warehouse district. The major attractions of the district are the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark, the navigable Bricktown Canal, and the 16-screen Harkins movie theatre...
Theaters to benefit The Children's Center, located in suburban BethanyBethany, OklahomaBethany is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The population was 20,307 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Bethany is located at ....
. The film was shown simultaneously on three screens. Matt Damon was at the event to greet guests. - UK premiere — The film premiered at Leicester SquareLeicester SquareLeicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
in London on August 15, 2007, with Matt Damon, Julia Stiles and Joan Allen attending. The film was released the next day. - Australian premiere — The film premiered in SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
on August 8, 2007, at the State Theatre, with Matt Damon attending. - Boise Contemporary Theater Advanced Screening — An advanced screening of The Bourne Ultimatum was held at The Egyptian Theatre to benefit Boise Contemporary TheaterBoise Contemporary TheaterBoise Contemporary Theater is a small professional theater company located in Boise, Idaho. Since 1997, BCT has been the only professional theater company in Boise committed to performing a complete season of contemporary work, thereby filling a long vacant niche in the artistic landscape of Idaho...
on July 30, 2007. Producer Frank Marshall and actor Matt Damon were in attendance. The first two films, "The Bourne Identity" and "The Bourne Supremacy" also had advance charity screenings in Boise.
The Bourne Ultimatum was released nationwide on August 30, 2007.
- Home Video Release — The film was released on both DVD and HD DVDHD DVDHD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
Combo Format on December 11, 2007 in North America. The DVD was released in both Fullscreen and 2.35:1 WidescreenWidescreenWidescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
aspect ratios. The HD DVD and DVD special features includes several deleted scenes, featurettes, audio commentary, and exclusively on the HD DVD version, HDi Interactive Format features such as Picture-in-Picture Video Commentary.
In addition to the stand alone DVD release, there is a limited edition 'The Jason Bourne Collection' gift set, featuring all three films on DVD and a bonus disc with a myriad of bonus features such as deleted scenes and featurettes. The gift set features Swiss Bank safe deposit box
Safe deposit box
A safe deposit box or wrongly referred to as a safety deposit box is an individually-secured container, usually held within a larger safe or bank vault. Safe deposit boxes are generally located in banks, post offices or other institutions...
packaging including foreign currency and a Jason Bourne passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
.
The film and special features on the HD DVD version are presented in 2:35:1 Widescreen high definition 1080i
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...
and offer Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless
Meridian Lossless Packing
Meridian Lossless Packing, also known as Packed PCM , is a proprietary lossless compression technique for compressing PCM audio data developed by Meridian Audio, Ltd. MLP is the standard lossless compression method for DVD-Audio content and typically provides about 1.5:1 compression on most music...
and Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby Digital Plus is a digital audio compression scheme. It is an incompatible development of the technologies used in the earlier Dolby Digital system. E-AC-3 has a number of improvements aimed at increasing quality at a given bitrate compared with legacy Dolby Digital...
5.1 audio options.
Reception
The Bourne Ultimatum earned $69.3 million during its opening weekend at the box office, a record for a single opening in August and $442.8 million worldwide as of December 14, 2007. As of August 2009, the film garners a 94% "Certified Fresh" rating (208 positive out of 223 reviews total) at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, higher than either predecessor. The film had a rating of 85/100 on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, again higher than the first two films. At the end of its theatrical release, the film grossed at total of $227,471,070 in the U.S., making it the highest grossing film in the series.
Like its predecessor, The Bourne Supremacy, the film was criticized for its overuse of "shaky camera" work, as Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
Richard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine, in an otherwise positive review, wondered "why, in the chat scenes, the camera is afflicted with Parkinson's? The film frame trembles, obscures the speaker with the listener's shoulder, annoys viewers and distracts them from the content of the scene."
In the British press, the inclusion of a fictional journalist from the real British paper The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and scenes set in the United Kingdom (particularly Waterloo railway station) were commented upon. In particular, that newspaper's reviewer joked that "dodging bullets from a CIA sniper... is the sort of thing which happens to us Guardian journalists all the time."
Top ten lists
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.- 1st — EmpireEmpire (magazine)Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
- 1st — Best Action/Adventure, Rotten Tomatoes
- 2nd — Claudia Puig, USA TodayUSA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
- 2nd — Steven Rea, The Philadelphia InquirerThe Philadelphia InquirerThe Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
- 2nd — Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
- 9th — Rene Rodriguez, The Miami HeraldThe Miami HeraldThe Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...
- 10th — Christy Lemire, Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
Academy Awards
The film won in all three categories in which it was nominated, giving it the second highest number of awards at the 80th Academy Awards80th Academy Awards
The 80th Academy Awards ceremony honored the best films in 2007 and was broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on ABC beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. EST, February 24, 2008 . During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24...
(behind No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men (film)
No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American crime thriller directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. The film was adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name...
):
- Christopher RouseChristopher Rouse (editor)Christopher Russell Rouse is an American film and television editor who has about a dozen feature-film credits and numerous television credits. Rouse won the Academy Award for Film Editing, the BAFTA Award for Best Editing, and the ACE Eddie Award for the film The Bourne Ultimatum .Rouse was born...
for Best Film EditingAcademy Award for Film EditingThe Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing... - Scott Millan, David ParkerDavid Parker (sound engineer)David Parker is an American sound engineer. He won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and was nominated for another four in the same category...
and Kirk Francis for Best Sound Mixing - Karen M. Baker and Per HallbergPer HallbergPer Hallberg, born December 30, 1958 in Borgholm, is a Swedish film sound editor whose work has appeared in over 40 movies. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Sound Editingfor the films Braveheart and The Bourne Ultimatum...
for Best Sound EditingAcademy Award for Sound EditingThe Academy Award of Merit for Best Sound Editing is an Academy Award granted yearly to a film exhibiting the finest or most aesthetic sound editing or sound design...
Sequel
In May 2007, prior to the release of The Bourne Ultimatum, Matt Damon claimed that he would not be interested in returning for a fourth Bourne film, stating (of his participation in the Bourne franchise): "We have ridden that horse as far as we can." Damon even said in an interview on The Daily ShowThe Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
that director Paul Greengrass joked that a fourth film could be titled "The Bourne Redundancy". Nonetheless, the financial and critical success of The Bourne Ultimatum has led to speculation in several magazines and Internet forums that another Bourne film might be produced. On February 22, 2008, Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
reported that a fourth film was indeed in the works, with both Damon and Greengrass on board.
This was confirmed on June 25, 2008, by producers Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley in an interview with IESB.net. Marshall said "Hopefully they will finish the script in 2010 and that they will be shooting in the summer of 2011 for a release in 2012 and our favorite anti-hero is apparently headed to South America." On October 16, 2008, it was announced that George Nolfi would write the script, with Frank Marshall producing, and Jeffrey Weiner and Henry Morrison executive producing. Matt Damon, Julia Stiles
Julia Stiles
Julia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress.After beginning her career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and David Mamet...
, Joan Allen, and Paul Greengrass were also attached to the film. On August 21, 2009, it was announced that Universal had hired Joshua Zetumer
Joshua Zetumer
Joshua Zetumer is an American screenwriter. He has written numerous spec scripts, two of which, Villain and The Infiltrator, were put into production: the latter is being produced by David Benioff and is set to star Leonardo DiCaprio. He was enlisted to rewrite the Quantum of Solace script during...
to help write the script. Paul Greengrass has announced that he will not be directing.
On February 1, 2010, Damon, speaking at the UK premiere of Invictus
Invictus (film)
Invictus is a 2009 biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World...
, revealed that a follow-up to The Bourne Ultimatum was "at least five years away". Greengrass, also at the premiere, re-stated that he would not be part of any further Bourne films "unless the right script came along". However, Damon revealed that in the meantime there may be a Bourne "prequel of some kind, with another actor and another director". Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
reconfirmed this on a March 10, 2010 appearance of Today and that he would only be involved if Greengrass was directing.
In June, 2010, it was announced that Tony Gilroy will be writing The Bourne Legacy and it will have a 2012 release date. In October, 2010, it was announced that Tony Gilroy will also be directing.
On October 11, 2010, Gilroy confirmed that Damon would not return, that there would be a whole new hero. Gilroy further explained,
On April 21, 2011, it was confirmed that the lead role would be played by Jeremy Renner
Jeremy Renner
Jeremy Lee Renner is a two-time Academy-Award-nominated American actor and musician. Renner appeared in films throughout the 2000s, mostly in supporting roles. He came to prominence in films such as Dahmer , S.W.A.T. , Neo Ned , 28 Weeks Later and The Hurt Locker...
in the sequel, The Bourne Legacy. Filming is expected to start in September 2011, and a release date is set for August 2012.
External links
- The Bourne Ultimatum Red Carpet Video Interview
- The Bourne Portal on UGO.com
- The Bourne Ultimatum Script at IMSDB