The Bourne Supremacy



Perhaps what I liked best about The Bourne Supremacy is that, despite being a sequel to The Borne Identity (2002) with presumably a much larger budget than, this movie doesn’t go overboard with explosions and gunfights and car crashes. Instead The Bourne Supremacy is an efficient espionage thriller that with many well crafted scenes.


"Um... It's my first day?"

Two years after Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) did whatever he did in The Bourne Identity (I must admit, I only barely remember anything that happened in the original film, though I do remember enjoying it), Bourne is using all his sooper-secret spy training to live the Jimmy Buffet lifestyle with Marie (Franka Potente) in Goa, India. Jason and Marie’s cover is blown, maybe because THEY’RE THE ONLY TWO WHITE PEOPLE IN THE CITY, and in their rush to get out of the city ahead of an assassin Marie is killed.

"This week on The Amazing Race 13, Jason Bourne (amnesiac assassin) must fly to Naples, Italy, and arrange to be detained by the local CIA office. Once in custody he must tap an agent’s phone, then escape and listen in on a conversation where he will learn his next destination."


"I think we just stepped on Ben Affleck!"

What Jason learns is that he’s been framed for the killing of two CIA agents in Berlin, and those agents superior, Landy (Joan Allen), has taken it upon herself to find Bourne and determine if someone has reactivated Treadstone, the program Bourne was part of before he got amnesia. She’s forced to work with Ward Abbot (Brian Cox), an agency veteran who oversaw Treadstone until the events of the last movie. There are of course many twists and turns, and Bourne’s current troubles turn out to be connected to his first mission for Treadstone, a mission that was apparently never documented in any official files.

There is nothing at all original about The Bourne Supremacy, but at least the movie knows that’s the case. When it presents us with a plot twist we’ve seen a million times before it doesn’t belabor it; The Bourne Supremacy quickly moves on to the next interesting chase scene or dialogue scene or location. Compared to the way that the current Bond movies shuffle through the same well-worn plots like bloated zombies, it’s really refreshing to see a spy thriller as nimble as this one.

Posted: Thu - August 5, 2004 at      

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