The Bourne Ultimatum ***** (2007, Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Joan Allen, Scott Glenn) – Classic Movie Review 257

Back in 2007, we held our breath. Could they do it a third time? Or were they going to fall at the final hurdle? That’s a resounding yes and no.

In the 2007 film The Bourne Ultimatum, Matt Damon is again directed by Paul Greengrass, his director on The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and they once more prove a perfect team for this admirable threequel, the sizzling conclusion of Robert Ludlum’s spy saga trilogy.

This time Jason Bourne is in the CIA sights when he contacts London Guardian newspaper reporter Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) who’s blowing the whistle on Operation Blackbriar, the successor to Operation Treadstone. The duo quickly find themselves under surveillance and in mortal danger at London’s Waterloo Station, in one of the movie’s brio sequence highlights. Bourne is immensely resourceful but the enemy is throwing everything at him.

Odd by the way to see Bourne in London. Or Matt Damon either. And at Waterloo Station too. And it was odd to see him again in London for Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter in 2010. Damon and Bourne are so American, they seem like exotic fish out of water in mundane London settings.

Ross’s info gets Bourne’s fuzzy memories coming back as he tries to find out the truth about himself finally, provided he can dodge the CIA bullets. Eventually, he has the opportunity to blow the whistle on the whole caboodle. But will he survive long enough to be able to? This produces a nai-lbiting scenario that grips tight till the final, perfect image.

It helps enormously that a classy acting team is assembled once more – Julia Stiles’s Nicky Parsons, David Strathairn’s Noah Vosen, Scott Glenn’s Ezra Kramer, Édgar Ramirez’s Paz, Daniel Bruhl’s Martin Kreutz, Albert Finney’s Dr Albert Hirsch and, especially, Joan Allen’s Pamela Landy.

Everything is so very stylish, confident and fully achieved here: Tony Gilroy’s screen story and screenplay, Oliver Wood’s cinematography, John Powell’s score, Peter Wenham’s production designs, the stunts (the zillion stunt men all shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Stunt Ensemble) and the visual effects.

Damon’s fight with Joey Ansah’s Desh is a knockout. At the MTV awards, they actually have awards for this, and it was nominated as Best Fight. The film won three Oscars, all technical, for Best Film Editing (Christopher Rouse), Best Sound Editing (Per Hallberg, Karen Landers) and Best Sound Mixing (Scott Millan, David Parker, Kirk Francis), plus Baftas for Film Editing and Sound. It won the People’s Choice Award as Favourite Action Movie.

The main credit, though, goes to Damon, Greengrass and Ludlum. Thank you, guys. This whole series is an unqualified triumph, with the quality maintained at the same highest level throughout. Job brilliantly done.

Tony Gilroy’s writing work is expert, though it would have been even better sticking nearer the Ludlum original, but then you can read the books for that. And you should. They are the little things without pictures, moving or still, and with paper and print. Actually not little things with Ludlum. Big, fat chunky, satisfying things. Perfect airport or bedside reading.

Gilroy wrote the initial draft of The Bourne Ultimatum, but did not participate further. Tom Stoppard wrote a draft of the screenplay, later saying: ‘I don’t think there’s a single word of mine in the film’, and George Nolfi and Scott Z Burns are the credited co-writers.

I thought we’d have a Bourne 4, but when it came in 2012, it wasn’t the real thing at all. Not a bad thing but a pale copy. In The Bourne Legacy, Jeremy Renner inherited Damon’s mantle, but not his character, as the grimly resourceful hero-on-the-run. He played Aaron Cross, a physically and mentally enhanced special agent, one of six participating in a devilish US military programme called Outcome.

The film showed that Bourne is still around, even if we only see him in photos and hear him and his mysterious fate is spoken of. So the door is still open for him to return, along with Damon and Greengrass. I eagerly look forward to it. There are no more actual Ludlum books, but plenty of titles by his successors to chose from. So let’s go, guys!

When The Bourne Identity was previewed back in 2002, Variety predicted it would flop and Damon as the exposed sole star would crash and burn. It’s easy to be wise and smug after the event. But why not?

Perhaps eventually, Bourne could return to TV where it started in 1988 with Richard Chamberlain in a much-admired three hour and five minute miniseries, The Bourne Identity, written by Carol Sobieski and directed by Roger Young for Warner Bros Television. It would make a great TV show.

Damon teamed up with Greengrass for Green Zone in 2010.

It was announced on 16 September 2014 that Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass are making a return to the Bourne franchise in a new movie due for the July 1 2016 release date slotted by Universal for the sequel to Jeremy Renner’s moderately successful 2012 spinoff The Bourne Legacy as special agent Aaron Cross.

It is the 2016 sequel Jason Bourne.

So it did return to TV. The 2019 American action drama TV series Treadstone is connected to and based on the Bourne film series. It explores the origin story and present-day actions of the fictional CIA black-ops programme Operation Treadstone. It involves John Randolph Bentley (Jeremy Irvine), one of the programme’s agents. A preview of the pilot aired on USA Network on 24 September 2019 before its premiere on 15 October 2019. But the series was cancelled after just 10 episodes and one season in May 2020.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 257

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