The Bourne Supremacy (2004) Universal/Action-Adventure RT: 109 minutes Rated PG-13 (language, intense violence and action) Director: Paul Greengrass Screenplay: Tony Gilroy and Brian Helgeland Music: John Powell Cinematography: Oliver Wood Release date: July 23, 2004 (US) Cast: Matt Damon, Franke Potente, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles, Karl Urban, Gabriel Mann, Joan Allen, Marton Csokas, Tom Gallop, John Bedford Lloyd, Ethan Sandler, Michelle Monaghan, Karel Roden, Tomas Arana, Oksana Akinshina Box Office: $176M (US)/$288.5M (World)
Rating: *** ½
I frequently bemoan the current state of major Hollywood films, complaining about how many of them are nothing more than empty-headed big budget noisefests. There are exceptions to every statement, and the Bourne movies stand as a perfect example.
Take The Bourne Supremacy, the action-packed sequel to 2002’s The Bourne Identity. It certainly has its fair share of action and noise- many fight scenes, several pursuits on foot, a sizable explosion, and a couple of car chases. It’s intercut with scenes of government types sitting at computer terminals trying to predict the hero’s next move. It’s just as implausible and preposterous as any other big action flick. So what makes this movie different from something like xXx? How about a screenplay that doesn’t insult the viewer’s intelligence?
The Bourne Supremacy may be highly implausible, but there’s a sense of logic to the proceedings. The plot doesn’t rely on a lot of surprise revelations; it’s fairly obvious who’s behind the latest attempts on amnesiac superspy Jason Bourne’s life. It also doesn’t involve larger than life villains with aspirations of total world domination; they simply want Jason Bourne dead. It’s a foregone conclusion he will survive every attempt made on his life. The suspense lies elsewhere. Not only must he figure who wants him dead and why, he still hasn’t remembered who he is.
There’s something else that makes the Bourne movies stand out and it has to do with Matt Damon’s portrayal of the main character. No two ways about it, Jason Bourne is a total bad ass. He has some seriously awesome combat skills, he’s very intelligent and can run really fast (take that, Tom Cruise!). Unlike other movie spies, he doesn’t rely on disguises or clever gadgets and weapons to achieve his objectives. He doesn’t need them. He’s clever and resourceful enough to use his surroundings to his full advantage (wait until you see what he does with a toaster). He just walks right into any given situation armed with little more than his wit and skills, sometimes a gun.
Much like any action hero, Bourne survives a lot of deadly situations with minimal physical damage. There’s a wild car chase at the end of the movie in which Bourne smashes into a lot of stuff as he tears up the streets of Berlin. By the end of the chase, his vehicle looks like it just went a few rounds at the demolition derby. He walks away with only a slight limp. Also, Bourne never really finds himself in the same precarious situations as esteemed cinematic colleagues Ethan Hunt or James Bond, so don’t expect to see him dangling from the world’s tallest building or jumping off the Eiffel Tower any time soon. He’s a slightly more believable action hero, but he still doesn’t resemble any spies you’re likely to meet in the real world.
The Bourne Supremacy picks up about two years after the events of the first movie with Bourne and his girlfriend Marie (Potente) hiding out in India. Although he now knows he was part of an elite team of CIA assassins (“Operation Treadstone”), Bourne still can’t remember much of anything about his past life. He has nightmares that consist of flashes of seemingly disconnected images that may or may not provide clues about certain aspects of his identity.
One day, Bourne spots a stranger walking around town and his paranoia kicks into full gear. He assumes (correctly, as it turns out) that the man has come to kill him, so he grabs Marie and they take off in a jeep. The man chases them, shoots and kills Marie and causes their vehicle to run off a bridge into the river. Of course, Bourne survives. Convinced the CIA still wants to kill him, he sets out to find those responsible for Marie’s violent death. He wants answers and revenge.
It turns out the killer (Urban, Star Trek) is actually a Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) agent sent by an important businessman (Roden, 15 Minutes) to kill Bourne as part of a much larger scheme. Earlier, the killer destroys a CIA operation in Berlin by killing the two principal figures and making off with a large sum of money. He plants Bourne’s fingerprint at the scene as a way of throwing the CIA off the right track. The agent in charge of the operation, Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Allen, The Ice Storm), follows the fingerprint evidence after gaining access to the CIA archives and the highly classified Treadstone files. She stumbles across vital information about Bourne and his late supervisor, information that implicates both of them in some financial malfeasance. When Bourne gets apprehended in Naples, Landy’s supervisor orders her and Deputy Director Abbott (Cox, Manhunter) to handle the situation.
Director Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, United 93) makes sure The Bourne Supremacy crackles with tension and excitement. You see, the cool thing about the Bourne movies is they’re all incredibly intense. Let me pause here to make an important distinction. When I describe the movie as “intense”, it’s NOT the same as “extreme”. In this context, that term would imply some brain dead piece of crap like xXx. I don’t care about secret agents who participate in extreme sports. I want to see spies with mad combat skills and high IQs. I will always be a loyal James Bond fan and the first to point out that several of the latest entries in the long-running franchise have been comparatively lackluster (Die Another Day, Quantum of Solace).
That being said, the Bourne movies have this current of intensity flowing through them and it’s like a jolt of electricity for the senses. The filmmakers obviously know how to orchestrate an effective action scene and they do it several times throughout the course of The Bourne Supremacy.
The whole cast does a good job. It’s especially nice to see Julia Stiles (Save the Last Dance) get to do more this time around. Her character’s job duties include assessing the psychological state of the Treadstone agents so she has some insight about Bourne and his unpredictable state of mind. Therefore, it makes sense for her to be the one who meets with the intrepid agent at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz to exchange vital information. Allen makes a nice addition to the cast as the agent determined to take down those responsible for the failure of her Berlin operation.
In a way, The Bourne Supremacy acts as sort of a throwback to the 80s action movies with its Russian villains (the go-to bad guys in the Reagan era!). Either way, it’s a good movie, every bit as good as its predecessor. It should please even the most demanding action junkies. Additionally, it firmly establishes Matt Damon as a formidable action star. Nobody does it better than James Bond, but Jason Bourne comes very close.
