The Bourne Ultimatum:




Spoiler Alert: I'll try not to spoil it, but if you've not yet seen the movie, you may want to skip this post.

Mina and I went to see the Bourne Ultimatum on Friday night. I've been a fan of Robert Ludlum's books since my dad leant me "The Chancellor Manuscript", probably some time between 8th and 10th grades. The Bourne novels are the first of his books to be adapted to films in quite a number of years ("The Rhinemann Exchange", "The Osterman Weekend", and "The Holcroft Covenant" were made into feature films in the late 1970s and early 1980s, while "The Bourne Identity was a TV mini-series starring none other than Richard Chamberlain, the King of the Mini-Series).



In any event, The Bourne Ultimatum. First, I really enjoyed the way that the movie opened, with the first stanza explaining the time, at the end of The Bourne Supremay, between Bourne's meeting with Neski's daughter and his phone conversation with Pamela Landy in New York. This, I thought, was a clever use of time and aided in the pacing of the movie. Bourne's continuing search for himself takes him from France, to England, to Spain, to Morocco, and finally to the United States as an unstoppable force.



I also liked the development of Julia Stiles' charachter, Nicky Parsons. Rather than introducing a new foil for Bourne, she hints to us that there is some history between them prior to his amnesia, but it is a history that remains buried; Nicky doesn't fill in the gaps and we never know whether Bourne remembers. The characters' final two scenes together are poignant. First, as Nicky cuts and colors her hair in preparation for a life hiding from the CIA's hunters, Bourne sees her and is obviously reminded of Marie having done the same thing 3 years before. Their good-bye and Nicky boards a bus in Tangiers was, I thought, painful for both of them, if for different reasons.



So, Bourne finds himself and another group of unprincipled CIA agents is brought down. The story of a man who has lost and refound his identity and parts, if not all, of his memory has been told. Will there be a 4th installment? While further novels exist, they are Eric van Lustbader stories that continue where Ludlum left off. For me, the story ends here.



As a final aside, IMDB states that a movie version of The Chancellor Manuscript, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, has been announced for release in 2008. Fantastic. The best Ludlum book, in my opinion, I will absolutely be in line to see it on opening night.

UPDATE: Last night, I caught the 2nd half of The Bourne Identity on TV and noticed a couple of interesting points. First point: In the closing stanza as Ward Abbott goes before a Congressional oversight committee and blows off Treadstone as a training program that didn't pan out, his next talking point is on Blackbriar. This turns out to be Treadstone 2.0 that is at the focus of The Bourne Ultimatum. Point 2: What are Clive Owen's assissin's last words to Jason Bourne? "Look at this. Look at what they make you give." What are Jason Bourne's last words in The Bourne Ultimatum? "Look at us. Look at what they make you give."

Excellent continuity across the gulf of 3 movies. I have to wonder what else is in there that I have missed.