| Jason Charles Bourne (David
Webb) |
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in the film
The Bourne Identity |
| First appearance |
The Bourne Identity |
| Last appearance |
The Bourne Betrayal |
| Cause/reason |
No further appearance yet. |
| Created by |
Robert Ludlum |
| Portrayed by |
Richard Chamberlain and Matt
Damon |
| Information |
| Aliases |
Delta One, Jason Charles Bourne, Cain, John Michael Kane, Charles Briggs, George P. Washburn, Foma Kiniaev, Mr. Cruett
(Supremacy), Gilberto do Pinto |
| Gender |
Male |
| Date of birth |
13 September 1970 (Ultimatum film) |
| Spouse(s) |
Marie St. Jacques (beginning with Supremacy) |
| Children |
Jamie Webb, Alison Webb, Joshua Webb (Known as Khan in The Bourne Legacy) |
Jason Charles Bourne is a fictional character of Robert Ludlum novels and
subsequent film adaptations. He first appeared in The Bourne Identity
(1980). This novel was adapted for television in 1988 and a film by the same name in 2002.
The character has since been in four sequels (the last two written by Eric Van
Lustbader) and two other films, The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).
Back-story
Jason Charles Bourne has a long and mysterious past which continues to torment him throughout his lifetime. His real name is
David Webb, and he is a career foreign service officer and a specialist
in Far Eastern affairs. Before the events in Identity, Webb had a Thai wife named Dao and two children named Joshua and Alyssa in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. But during the Vietnam War, an aircraft strayed into Cambodia dropping two
bombs and strafed a spot near the Mekong River, unintentionally
killing Webb's wife and two children. Owing to Cambodia's neutrality in the war, every
nation disclaimed the plane, since no one wanted to be responsible for the incident. Having nothing left, Webb went to
Saigon and trained for a special top-secret unit called Medusa. (Many years
later the unit and its actions would still remain top secret.) At this point, Webb was known only as Delta One, his code
name within the unit.
Medusa
The top-secret and government-funded project codenamed 'Medusa' is a vital part of David Webb's life. Taking place during the
Vietnam War, Webb was recruited into Medusa by friend and CIA agent, Alexander Conklin, after the death of Webb's wife and children. At the time, Webb
was furious and wanted revenge in any possible capacity. By joining Medusa, he felt he was seeking revenge against the people who
presumably killed his wife and children, the North Vietnamese. The reason Medusa remains top-secret is the fact that many of the
members of Medusa were criminals whom the American government hired during the war to infiltrate parts of Northern Vietnam and
kill suspected members of the Viet Cong. In addition,
they also killed village chiefs that were suspected to be in collaboration with the Viet Cong and aided in rescuing
POWs wherever they could. They were considered an assassination team or a
death squad. Each member would be compensated by the United States for doing this.
Most of the members were murderers, fugitives, smugglers, arms dealers, or drug lords being led by a man called Delta. Delta
became well known as a ruthless person, with little regard for orders, but succeeding in all his missions. But the fact that
"Delta" was really David Webb had become known to too many people. To get to Delta, his brother, Gordon Webb, was kidnapped.
One member of Medusa was a man by the name of Jason Charles Bourne. During the mission to save Gordon Webb, it was found out
that the Australian-born Jason Bourne was a double agent. Bourne was involved in illegal activity including slavery, narcotics,
smuggling, and assassinations. With this knowledge, Delta executed Bourne in Tam Quan while he
(Bourne) was busy exposing the rescue operation. This was on March 25, 1968. Due to the American government not wanting to
acknowledge the existence of Medusa or its members, it never reported the death of Bourne, but rather listed his status as
MIA.
Years later, a black ops arm of the CIA was formed called Treadstone 71, named after a building on New York's
Seventy-First Street, and Webb was called up by the creator of Treadstone and the creator of Medusa, David Abbott, who was
nicknamed The Monk, short for The Silent Monk of Covert Operations. At this point, Webb (Delta) takes the identity
of Jason Bourne due to his status as MIA in the war and the fact that Bourne was in reality a ruthless killer that had a long
criminal record. The point of all this was to turn Jason Bourne into something more than he really was, a contract assassin who
would be known all over the world for terminating the lives of just about anyone. The assassin's alias was Cain. The
reasoning for creating such a fallacy was to create a competition for a well-known assassin named Carlos, or
Carlos the Jackal, real name Ilich Ramírez
Sánchez, who at that time was considered the world's best and most famous assassin. The name Cain was chosen because it
had some significance for what he was doing. During Vietnam, Cain was used instead of Charlie in the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot...) because Charlie became
synonymous with VietCong. So Delta dropped back one letter to Cain, which stood for Charlie. In Spanish, Charlie is Carlos;
Carlos was Venezuelan. The myth of Cain was created by having Cain take credit for any well-publicized killings that took place
in Asia, and later Europe, regardless of the circumstances. By creating this myth, Cain was to drive Carlos out in the open, kill
him, and take his place. To add insult to Carlos's name, Cain stole the credit for Carlos's kills, even if Cain had no part. One
such killing was of an ousted African dictator, Nykwana Wombosi. However, Cain was unsuccessful and ended up being shot a few
times, once in the head, and left for dead in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. He
would later be recovered by a fishing boat, but awoke as an amnesiac. Being shot in the head had
blocked off his memory.
Novels
Identity
For the full plot of the novel, see The Bourne Identity.
Throughout the novel Bourne fights to learn about his past and his true identity while being chased by both the CIA and
Carlos's henchmen. During the novel, at a hotel, Bourne takes a young woman hostage to escape. This woman, named Marie St.
Jacques, is an employee of the Canadian government. Bourne and Marie start discovering the
identity of Jason Bourne, the contract assassin. The true identity of David Webb is known only to those at Treadstone. She is
convinced that the man she knows as Jason Bourne cannot be the ruthless killer that all discoveries they make seem to imply. It
is due to Marie that Jason continues to search for his true identity and in the end finds the truth. Through this time, Bourne
continually has the phrase "Cain is for Charlie, and Delta is for Cain" flash through his mind, propelling him in the direction
of his mission. Charlie refers to Carlos in Spanish and Bourne (Cain) is to replace him.
Between the books Identity and Supremacy, Bourne marries Marie and they both settle down (although under guard)
in a small town in Maine. David Webb would go on to become an associate professor in Asian studies
at a local university.
Supremacy
For the full plot of the novel, see The Bourne Supremacy.
When Supremacy starts, Marie is taken captive by the United States government in an attempt to turn David Webb back
into his former self, the mythical Jason Bourne. While in reality it was the U.S. government who took Marie captive, it has
pinned the blame on a fictitious powerful Chinese druglord. This scheme was conducted to send Bourne after a phony Jason Bourne
who had been credited with a Far East political assassination that could, in a worst-case scenario, cause a civil war in China over the ownership of Hong Kong.
Ultimatum
For the full plot of the novel, see The Bourne Ultimatum.
As Carlos the Jackal enters old age and his infamy fades, he decides that he will
do two things before he dies: the first is to kill Jason Bourne. Webb's family is forced to hide in the Caribbean while Webb
himself works with old friend and CIA agent Alex Conklin to hunt down and kill the Jackal first. Webb poses as an important
member of Medusa, now a nearly omnipotent economic force that controls the commander of NATO,
leading figures in the Defense Department, and large
NYSE firms. The plan is to use Medusa's resources to contact the Jackal. Webb
just misses the Jackal several times, including when the Jackal locates Webb's family in the Caribbean, before Webb stages his
own death and convinces the Jackal that he has succeeded. Following this, the Jackal turns to his second goal: to destroy the KGB
facility of Novgorod, where the Jackal was trained and later turned away. His files with his real identity were still stored
there. Webb tracks the Jackal down with the help of Conklin and a KGB agent as the Jackal begins destroying the KGB compound. In
a final confrontation, Webb at last kills the Jackal and returns to his family.
Legacy
For the full plot of the novel, see The Bourne Legacy.
2004 novel by Eric Van Lustbader continuing the series.
Betrayal
For the full plot of the novel, see The Bourne Betrayal.
2007 novel by Eric Van Lustbader continuing the series.
Television movie
In 1988 a two-part made-for-television movie of The Bourne
Identity aired on ABC. It starred Richard Chamberlain in the role of Jason Bourne and Jaclyn
Smith as Marie St. Jacques. The TV movie was largely faithful to Robert Ludlum's novel.
Feature films
In the films, the character of Jason Bourne, portrayed by Matt Damon, is a much simpler
character than the one described in the novels, and the background story is moved forward from the Vietnam War to the Gulf War. The movies make no mention of Carlos the
Jackal; the real Carlos, whose real name is Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, was in prison by
the time the films were made.
Jason Bourne was born as David Webb on September 13, 1970
in Nixa, Missouri. He joined the Army and was deployed in the Gulf War. Later he joined
the United States Army Special Forces and attained the rank of
Captain. He is a Catholic with type O Blood type as shown on his Dog Tags in Bourne Ultimatum.
In June 1999, Webb volunteered for Operation Treadstone which was a secret CIA black-ops program. The Bourne Ultimatum reveals that Webb's free will and sense of morality were
intentionally broken down by means of an insidious behavior modification process: he was deprived of sleep for days on end; a
hood was pulled over his head and he was repeatedly held underwater in a tank almost killing him; and he was told to shoot and
kill an unknown bound, gagged and hooded man sitting in the corner of a room, as the head of the department asks him, "Can you
commit yourself entirely to the program?". Webb's questions of "what has he done" were brushed aside; the man is to be killed
because Webb has been ordered to kill him, and refusal to kill the man results in Webb being subjected to another near-death
experience in the water tank. Finally Webb's personality was broken: he capitulated and killed the subject without remorse. The
Treadstone chief welcomed him to the program, and told him that David Webb was dead and that he is now Jason Bourne.
As Jason Bourne he learned all the CIA protocols and tradecraft. He is an expert in physical combat, superb at handling
vehicles, and speaks fluent French, Russian,
Dutch, German, Italian, and Spanish (as well as English), rather than French and "Eastern dialects" as in the novels.
Once training was over, Bourne was deployed to various locations around the world and assassinated many people. But on a job
in France he had a sudden attack of conscience, aborted his mission, and was shot in the back
twice while attempting to escape. Similar to the story in the novel, he was left for dead in the Mediterranean Sea and woke up with his memory gone.
The character of Bourne in the films is a very quick-thinking, linear type of person that moves quickly and brutally towards
his goal. He gives the impression of someone who has been severely traumatized and who is suffering from paranoia. He is tormented by fragment memories of his past. He is highly adept at hand-to-hand combat. He also
shows an immediate ability to utilize lateral thinking to solve problems. He sometimes uses improvised weapons, for example using
a pen to stab an assassin in The Bourne Identity and using a book and a towel in The Bourne Ultimatum. He is shown
using tactical improvisation such as using a fan, torch light and tape to fake his location (The Bourne Ultimatum) and
gas, a toaster and a magazine to cause an explosion (Bourne Supremacy). He is also proficient with firearms, explosives,
electronics and evasive protocols — for moving, driving, and the like.
His training has apparently been very efficient, but also ruthless to a degree that indicates severe psychological and
physical side effects requiring drug treatment. This indicates that the training methods are, at least to some degree, based on
the brainwashing-based techniques rumored (but never substantiated) to have been used on Soviet special forces during the
Cold War.
The Bourne Identity (2002)
For the plot of the film see The Bourne Identity (2002 film).
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
For the plot of the film see The Bourne Supremacy (film).
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
For the plot of the film see The Bourne Ultimatum (film).
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