The Bourne Supremacy is a 2004 American action thriller spy film very loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. The film was directed by Paul Greengrass, written by Tony Gilroy and Brian Helgeland, and produced by Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley. Universal Pictures released the film to theaters in the United States on 23 July 2004. It is the second in the Bourne film series. It was preceded by The Bourne Identity and is followed by The Bourne Ultimatum.
The Bourne Supremacy continues the story of Jason Bourne, a former CIA paramilitary operative and assassin suffering from psychogenic amnesia.[2] Bourne is portrayed by Matt Damon. The film focuses on his attempt to learn more of his past as he is once more enveloped in a conspiracy surrounding the CIA and Operation Treadstone. The film also stars Brian Cox as Ward Abbott, Joan Allen as Pamela Landy and Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons.
Plot
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) and his girlfriend Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente) have been living incognito in Goa, India for the past two years where Bourne struggles to recall the specifics of his first mission as a black ops agent. In Berlin, CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) runs a "buy operation", spending $3 million to purchase evidence exposing the mole within the agency who stole $20 million in allocation money seven years prior. Before Landy's operative can complete the transaction, Russian FSB agent Kirill (Karl Urban) infiltrates the building, plants a fingerprint to frame Bourne, kills Landy's operative and the seller of the information, and makes off with the evidence and the money. Kirill then reports back to Russian oil magnate Yuri Gretkov (Karel Roden), who sends him to Goa to finish the job by assassinating Bourne. Bourne spots Kirill upon his arrival and flees with Marie in a jeep. Kirill gives chase and shoots at the vehicle, killing Marie and causing the jeep to run off a bridge into the river. Kirill leaves, believing Bourne to be dead. Bourne then departs for Naples, Italy, to seek vengeance.
Landy follows the planted fingerprint lead and gains security clearance to sift through the CIA archives to investigate "Operation Treadstone," the elite squad of covert CIA assassins in which Bourne was enlisted. She stumbles upon evidence implicating Alexander Conklin, the late former director of the operation. Landy questions Conklin's boss, Deputy Director Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), but he admits only to vague details. She then gives a report to her supervisor, Operations Director Martin Marshall (Tomas Arana), advising that some years back, Russian politician Vladimir Nevski acquired proof of the identity of the thief who stole the $20 million. When Nevski threatened to make the information public, he was killed along with his wife in what appeared to be a murder-suicide in a Berlin hotel room. Landy suspects Bourne and Conklin were responsible. The meeting is interrupted with a report that Bourne has just been detained in Naples. Marshall orders both Abbott and Landy to go to Naples to apprehend Bourne.
Meanwhile, in Naples, Bourne incapacitates the consulate field officer questioning him, copies the SIM card from his cell phone, and subsequently learns of Landy and her suspicions when he eavesdrops on a phone call. Bourne then heads to Munich to interrogate the only other living former Treadstone operative, Jarda (Marton Csokas), who informs him the program was shut down after Conklin's death. Jarda alerts the CIA of Bourne's presence and then attacks Bourne. After a brief fight, Bourne strangles Jarda, then blows up his house to avoid capture by the incoming CIA team. In Amsterdam, Landy and Abbott question former Treadstone support technician Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) and bring her along with them to Berlin. Believing that Landy ordered the hit in Goa, Bourne calls her and arranges to meet Nicky at the Alexanderplatz. After he abducts her, Nicky tells Bourne that Abbott was the true mastermind of Treadstone, not Conklin.
Next, Bourne visits the site of his first mission, the Brecker Hotel in Berlin, and recalls that he killed Nevski and his wife on Conklin's orders and made it appear as a murder-suicide. Abbott kills his assistant, Danny Zorn (Gabriel Mann), when Zorn shares his suspicions of a conspiracy. Bourne breaks into Abbott's hotel room and records an incriminating conversation between Abbott and Gretkov in which they discuss their roles in the theft of the $20 million. Holding Abbott at gunpoint, Bourne secretly records him confessing to ordering the hit in Goa, Nevski's murder, and the murders of the agents in Landy's buy operation to cover up the theft. Bourne doesn't kill Abbott only because Marie would not have wanted him to. After Bourne leaves, Landy shows up, only to witness Abbott commit suicide. Bourne later mails her the tape of Abbott's confession.
Bourne then travels to Moscow to find Irena Nevski (Oksana Akinshina), the Nevskis' orphaned daughter. Kirill tracks Bourne down and shoots him in the shoulder. Kirill, Bourne and the police engage in a high-speed car chase which ends with Kirill seriously injured after Bourne smashes his vehicle into a concrete divider. Bourne finds Irena and confesses to her his part in her parents' deaths and apologizes. Landy uses the tape of Abbott's confession to have Gretkov arrested.
Back in New York, Landy receives a phone call from Bourne. She expresses her gratitude for the tape and tells Bourne his real name is David Webb and he was born 4/15/71.
Cast
Production
There were no plans to make a sequel to The Bourne Identity (2002) when it was conceived. Matt Damon commented, "When The Bourne Identity came out I said, 'There is very little chance we will do a second film, just because nobody on the team who made the first wants to make another movie if it can't be as good as, or better than, the first one.'" According to producer Frank Marshall, the plot point of Marie's kidnapping to force Bourne back into his assassin persona in the novel The Bourne Supremacy and Bourne's threat to come after the CIA if they came after him again in the previous film, were the inspiration for the plot. Marshall said that screenwriter Tony Gilroy thought of an idea that Bourne "would go on what amounts to the samurai's journey, this journey of atonement." Producer Paul L. Sandberg felt that Gilroy's "veering away from the plot of the book" was necessary "because so much of the world has changed since the book's publication." The producers replaced director Doug Liman. This was mainly due to the difficulties Liman had with the studio when making the first film, and their unwillingness to work with him again. British director Paul Greengrass was selected to direct the film after the producers saw Bloody Sunday (2002), Greengrass' depiction of the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland, at Gilroy's suggestion. Producer Patrick Crowley liked Greengrass' "sense of the camera as participatory viewer", a visual style Crowley thought would work well for The Bourne Supremacy.[3] The film was shot in reverse order of its settings: some portions of the car chase and the film's ending were shot in Moscow, then most of the rest of the film was shot in and around Berlin, and the opening scenes in Goa were filmed last.[4][5]
Reception
The Bourne Supremacy grossed $288,500,217.[1] Reviews on Internet critic sites suggest an overall positive disposition towards the film. Rotten Tomatoes scores the film at 81% while Metacritic scores it at 73 out of 100. At the 2005 Taurus World Stunt Awards, veteran Russian stunt coordinator Viktor Ivanov won the "Best Vehicle" award for his driving in the Moscow car chase scene. Dan Bradley, the film's second unit director won the overall award for stunt coordinator.[6] The film ranks 454th on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.[7]
Accolades
Soundtrack
References
External links
![The Bourne Supremacy [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](http://content.answcdn.com/main/content/img/amg/classical_albums/cov200/cm000/m033/m03376wn3ql.jpg)
