The Bourne Ultimatum Information

The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American-German action and spy film directed by Paul Greengrass loosely based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same title. The screenplay was written by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi. The Bourne Ultimatum 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, was released in August 2012.

Matt Damon reprises his role as Ludlum's signature character, former CIA assassin and psychogenic amnesiac Jason Bourne. In the film, he continues his search for information about his past before he was part of Operation Treadstone and becomes a target of a similar assassin program.

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 Damon's highest-grossing film with him in the lead. The three films have been commercially successful and critically acclaimed and The Bourne Ultimatum won all three of its nominations for Academy Awards, winning the Best Film Editing, the Best Sound Mixing and the Best Sound Editing at the 80th Academy Awards.

Plot

Having been wounded by a gunshot from the Russian assassin Kirill, Jason Bourne evades Moscow police and goes into hiding. Six weeks later, he goes to Paris to inform Martin Kreutz of the death of his sister Marie, who had been Bourne's girlfriend. The Guardian correspondent Simon Ross meets with someone to discuss Bourne and Operation Treadstone. The CIA begin tracking Ross after he mentions "Operation Blackbriar" over a cell phone call. Bourne learns of Ross's investigation of Treadstone and they secretly meet at Waterloo Station. Bourne realizes that the CIA is tracking Ross and helps him evade capture, but Ross deviates from Bourne's instructions and is killed by Blackbriar assassin Paz, on orders from Blackbriar's director Noah Vosen.

Pamela Landy, who had unsuccessfully hunted Bourne six weeks earlier, is brought in to help Vosen. They search Ross's notes and find that Ross's source was Neal Daniels, the CIA station chief in Madrid, who was formerly involved in Treadstone and is involved in Blackbriar. Bourne makes his way to Daniels' Madrid office, but finds it empty. After Bourne incapacitates a CIA team sent by Vosen and Landy, Nicky Parsons, a former Treadstone support technician arrives. She decides to help Bourne and tells him that Daniels has fled to Tangier.

Upon arriving in Tangier, Parsons tries to track Daniels' location but is unable to, finding that Blackbriar "asset" Desh Bouksani has been tasked with killing Daniels. Vosen learns that Parsons logged in to access information about Daniels and sends Desh after Parsons and Bourne, a decision Landy disagrees with. Bourne follows Desh to Daniels, but fails to prevent Daniels' death by a planted bomb. Bourne manages to kill Desh before he can kill Parsons, and subsequently sends Parsons into hiding. Bourne examines the contents of Daniels' charred briefcase and finds the address of the deep cover CIA bureau in New York City where Vosen directs Blackbriar.

Bourne travels to New York City. Landy receives a phone call from Bourne (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; she also tells him that his real name is David Webb and his birthdate is "4-15-71." Bourne tells Landy to "get some rest" because she "looks tired", which she and Vosen both understand to mean that Bourne is watching her. Vosen intercepts a text to Landy from Bourne of a location to meet up and leaves his office with a team to follow Landy and capture Bourne. Bourne breaks into Vosen's office and steals classified Blackbriar documents. Vosen sends Paz after Bourne, the two finally encountering each other in a car chase which ends with Paz forcing Bourne's car to crash into a concrete barrier. Bourne gets out and holds Paz at gunpoint before sparing his life and continuing on to 415 East 71st Street, 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, who ran Treadstone's behavior modification program, that Bourne is coming.

Landy meets Bourne at the building, where Bourne gives her the Blackbriar files before going inside. Landy starts faxing the files to an unknown receiver, but is found by Vosen as the last page is sent. Bourne encounters Hirsch in an upper level and, with Hirsch's help, remembers that he volunteered for Treadstone. He then states that he is no longer Jason Bourne and flees to the roof from Vosen's pursuing CIA team. Bourne is confronted on the roof by Paz, who asks Bourne why he did not kill him. Bourne asks Paz if he even knows why he is supposed to kill him and repeats the dying words of The Professora Treadstone assassin Bourne had killed years earlier"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, Parsons watches a television news broadcast about the exposure of Operation Blackbriar, the arrests of Hirsch and Vosen, a criminal investigation of CIA director Ezra Kramer, and David Webb, a.k.a. Jason Bourne, who 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 Damon as Jason Bourne, a former operative for the black ops Operation Treadstone.
• Julia Stiles as Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons, Bourne's former Treadstone contact in Paris.
• David Strathairn as Noah Vosen, CIA Deputy Director in charge of the new Treadstone black ops upgrade called Operation Blackbriar.
• Scott Glenn as Ezra Kramer, Director of the CIA.
• Paddy Considine as Simon Ross, a reporter for The Guardian who has been investigating Treadstone.
• Edgar Ramirez as Paz, a Blackbriar assassin.
• Albert Finney as Dr. Albert Hirsch, the psychologist who oversaw Treadstone's behavioral modification program.
• Joan Allen as Pamela "Pam" Landy, CIA Deputy Director and Task Force Chief, sent in to aid Vosen in tracking down Bourne.

Tom Gallop reprises his role as Special Agent Tom Cronin, Pamela Landy's assistant. Corey Johnson plays Special Agent Ray Wills, Vosen's deputy at Operation Blackbriar. Daniel Brühl plays Martin Kreutz, Marie's brother. Joey Ansah plays Desh Bouksani, a Blackbriar asset tasked to kill Bourne in Tangier. Colin Stinton plays Neal Daniels, CIA Station Chief in Madrid and a former member of Treadstone, who observed David Webb's initiation into the project and his transition to Jason Bourne. Lucy Liemann plays Lucy, a Blackbriar technician. Franka Potente has an uncredited appearance in a flashback as Marie Helena Kreutz, Bourne's murdered girlfriend.

Production

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 including the Springs Mills Building (as the deep cover CIA offices), and other locations in the U.S.

Tony Gilroy, who had co-written the screenplays of the first two Bourne films, had intended The Bourne Supremacy to emphasise Bourne's repentance and atonement for his murders, but felt that the released film omitted this focus. Gilroy was persuaded to write an initial draft of The Bourne Ultimatum, but did not participate further, and as of 2009 had not watched the finished film. Gilroy's screenplay draft was subsequently criticized by Matt Damon.

Tom Stoppard wrote a draft of the screenplay, later saying "I don't think there's a single word of mine in the film."

Paul Greengrass spoke about the characterization of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Ultimatum shortly before its release: </ref>}}

References to previous films

Within the series

In the audio commentary 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:

• 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 Owen) 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 Chamberlain, who played the original Jason Bourne in the 1988 television movie The Bourne Identity. 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 the series

• The scene featuring Bourne desperately trying to catch a glimpse of Paz in the London Underground after Ross is gunned down is, according to Greengrass, an homage to the New York City Subway chase in one of his favorite films, The French Connection.

Music

As with the previous films in the trilogy, the score was composed by John Powell. A new version of Moby'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 City on July 31, 2007, at Harkins Bricktown Theaters to benefit The Children's Center, located in suburban Bethany. The film was shown simultaneously on three screens. Matt Damon was at the event to greet guests.
• UK premiere "? The film premiered at Leicester Square 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 Sydney on August 8, 2007, at the State Theatre, with Matt Damon attending.
• Boise Contemporary Theater Advance Screening "? An advance screening of The Bourne Ultimatum was held at The Egyptian Theatre to benefit Boise Contemporary Theater 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 DVD Combo Format on December 11, 2007 in North America. The DVD was released in both Fullscreen and 2.35:1 Widescreen 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 myriad 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.

Reception

The Bourne Ultimatum earned $69,283,690 during its opening weekend at the box office, breaking a record previously held by Rush Hour 2 (2001) for the highest grossing August opening.

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an overall approval rating of 94% based on 234 reviews and an average score of 8/10, higher than either predecessor. The site's consensus describes the film as "The Bourne Ultimatum is an intelligent, finely tuned non-stop thrill ride. Another strong performance from Matt Damon and sharp camerawork from Paul Greengrass make this the finest installment of the Bourne trilogy," At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 85 based on 38 reviews, 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. and $215,353,068 in foreign markets for a worldwide total of $442,824,138, making it the highest grossing film in the series.

Like its predecessor, The Bourne Supremacy, the film was criticized for its use 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."

The film was also well received in the hacker subculture, as it showed actual real-world applications such as the Bourne-again shell and Nmap, unlike many other films featuring hacking scenes (such as Hackers).

Top ten lists

The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.

• 1st "? Empire
• 1st "? Best Action/Adventure, Rotten Tomatoes
• 2nd "? Claudia Puig, USA Today
• 2nd "? Steven Rea, The Philadelphia Inquirer
• 2nd "? Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
• 9th "? Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald
• 10th "? Christy Lemire, Associated Press

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 Awards (behind No Country for Old Men):

• Christopher Rouse for Best Film Editing
• Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis for Best Sound Mixing
• Karen M. Baker and Per Hallberg for Best Sound Editing

Other awards

• ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Film of the Year, 2008

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 said in August 2007: </ref> }} However, on February 22, 2008, Variety reported that a fourth film was indeed in the works, with both Damon and Greengrass on board.

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. Joshua Zetumer had been hired to write a parallel script—a draft which could be combined with another (Nolfi's, in this instance)—by August 2009 since Nolfi would be directing The Adjustment Bureau that September. That December, Greengrass announced that he had decided not to direct the fourth Bourne film, saying that "[his] decision to not return a third time as director is simply about feeling the call for a different challenge."

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 would be writing The Bourne Legacy and it would have a 2012 release date. That October, Gilroy was announced as the director of The Bourne Legacy; he confirmed that Damon would not return for this film and that there would be "a whole new hero": </ref>}}

The Bourne Legacy was released in the U.S. on August 10, 2012.