Bourne 3: The Bourne Ultimatum

Elevator Pitch: Bourne travels to London from Moscow, where he contacts Guardian journalist Simon Ross who has written about the CIA project “Blackfriar”, naming Bourne. Ross is killed by a CIA asset, but Bourne gains information which takes him to Madrid where he meets Nicky Parsons, and the two go on to Morocco in pursuit of the Treadstone intimate, Neal Daniels. Daniels is killed and Nicky pursued by the asset, but is terminated by Bourne, who then moves on to New York, to finally find out who he is and expose the villainous secret service management to the world.

Content: Just a bit of snogging, but no sex or nudity. Bourne attempts to save the life of the journalist in Waterloo Station, unsuccessfully. The CIA are seen in their bunkers, working on screens to present information and video usually frustrated by Bourne’s knowledge of their systems. There are chases in various countries, a motor bike chase and a foot chase over the rooftops of Tangier and an extended car chase in New York. The CIA are mostly wrong-footed by Bourne who is at risk sometimes due to suffering from flashbacks relating to his enrolment in Treadstone.

A View: This, the third Bourne outing, was generally seen as being the best. It made money and unusually for an action film, won three Oscars. I have watched it again and reviewed it again for this site and it is a terrific film. I really like my superheroes to be invincible, and Bourne gets as close to being invincible as it is possible to be. If you have not seen any of these movies, go back to the first, if you have seen the first two, enjoy this, and if you have seen it before, give it another go. It is splendid stuff.

Additional Info: Apparently 150 stunt people were used in the making of the film.