The Bourne Identity (2002 film)
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The Bourne Identity is a 2002 action-thriller film based on Robert Ludlum's 1980 novel. It was directed and co-produced by Doug Liman and written by Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, a man suffering from psychogenic amnesia attempting to discover his identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the CIA. It also features Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox, Walton Goggins, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. The first installment in the Bourne film series, it was followed by The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), The Bourne Legacy (2012), and Jason Bourne (2016).
Although Robert Ludlum died in 2001, he is credited as an executive producer alongside Frank Marshall. Universal Pictures released the film to theatres in the United States on June 14, 2002. The film opened to critical and commercial success, grossing $214 million on a $60 million budget.
Plot
In the Mediterranean Sea, Italian fishermen rescue an American man adrift with two gunshot wounds in his back. They tend to his wounds and find he has no memory of his identity, but demonstrates advanced combat skills and fluency in several languages. They find a laser projector under the man's hip that gives the number of a safe deposit box in Zürich, and the man decides to go investigate. He goes to the bank to investigate the deposit box where he finds various currencies, passports and IDs, and a handgun. The man takes everything but the gun, and starts using the name on the American passport, Jason Bourne. After Bourne's departure, a bank employee contacts Operation Treadstone, a CIA black ops program. Treadstone's head, Conklin, issues alerts to police to capture Bourne and assigns three agents to kill him: Castel, Manheim, and the Professor.
CIA Deputy Director Abbott contacts Conklin about a failed assassination attempt against exiled African dictator Wombosi, and Conklin promises that he will deal with the agent who failed. Bourne tries evading the Swiss police by using his U.S. passport to enter the American consulate, but is pursued by Marine guards. He escapes before offering $20,000 to Marie Kreutz, a 26-year-old German woman whom he saw at the consulate, to drive him to an address in Paris. Upon reaching the address, they enter an apartment where Bourne contacts a hotel through the phone. He inquires about the names on his passports there, learning that a "John Michael Kane" was registered but died two weeks prior in a car crash. Castel ambushes Bourne and Marie in the apartment, but Bourne gets the upper hand. Instead of allowing himself to be interrogated, Castel throws himself from a window to his death.
While searching through Castel's belongings, Marie finds wanted posters of Bourne and herself, and agrees to help him. After the two evade police in Marie's car, they spend the night in a Paris hotel. Meanwhile, Wombosi obsesses over the attempt on his life. Conklin, having anticipated this, planted a body to pose as John Michael Kane in a morgue to appear as the assailant, but Wombosi remains unconvinced and threatens to report the CIA’s actions to the media. The Professor then assassinates Wombosi on Conklin's orders. Bourne, posing as Kane, learns about the failed assassination attempt on Wombosi's yacht, and that the assassin was shot twice in the back during the escape, ultimately realizing that he was responsible for the attempt. Bourne and Marie take refuge at the French countryside home of Marie's friend Eamon and his children.
Under pressure from Abbott to handle the matter, Conklin tracks Bourne's location and sends the Professor to kill him. The Professor is mortally wounded by Bourne, and reveals their shared connection to Treadstone before dying. Bourne sends Marie, Eamon, and the children away for their protection, then contacts Conklin via the Professor's phone, and they agree to meet alone in Paris. When Bourne sees Conklin is not alone, he abandons their meeting, but manages to place a tracking device on Conklin's car, leading Bourne to Treadstone's safe house in Paris. Bourne breaks in and holds Conklin and logistics technician Nicky Parsons at gunpoint. Conklin reveals to Bourne his association with Treadstone and presses him to remember his past. Bourne recalls his attempt to assassinate Wombosi through successive flashbacks.
Under orders from Treadstone, Bourne infiltrated Wombosi's yacht as Kane and managed to get close enough to assassinate him. However, Bourne was unable to find the nerve to kill Wombosi while his children were present, and instead fled, being shot during his escape. Bourne announces he is resigning from Treadstone and warns Conklin not to follow him. As agents descend on the safe house, Bourne fights his way through. When Conklin leaves the safe house, he encounters Manheim, who kills him under Abbott's orders. Abbott then shuts down Treadstone. Abbott reports to an oversight committee that Treadstone is "decommissioned" before discussion turns to a new project codenamed "Blackbriar". Some time later, Bourne finds Marie renting out scooters to tourists on Mykonos, and the two reunite.
Cast
thumb|upright=0.60|Damon in 2001
- Matt Damon as Jason Bourne / David Webb
- Franka Potente as Marie Kreutz
- Chris Cooper as Alexander Conklin
- Clive Owen as The Professor
- Brian Cox as Ward Abbott
- Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Nykwana Wombosi
- Gabriel Mann as Danny Zorn
- Julia Stiles as Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons
- Orso Maria Guerrini as Giancarlo
- Tim Dutton as Eamon
- Nicky Naude as Castel
- Russell Levy as Manheim
- Vincent Franklin as Rawlins
Walton Goggins, Josh Hamilton, and Brian Huskey appear as Treadstone research technicians. David Bamber has a minor role as a clerk at the American consulate who denies Marie a student visa, David Gasman has one as the deputy chief of mission, and Hubert Saint-Macary as a Paris morgue director.
