 Part of a 3-Movie Boxed Set Get ready for non-stop action, edge-of-your-seat suspense and spectacular chase sequences with everyone's favorite assassin in The Bourne Trilogy! Matt Damon is Jason Bourne, an elite government agent determined to outwit and outmaneuver anyone who stands in the way of his finding out the secrets of his mysterious past. Follow his explosive, action-packed adventures in three blockbuster films from one of the most popular series of all time: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Loaded with hours of bonus features, The Bourne Trilogy is the complete Bourne experience for movie fans everywhere! The Bourne Identity Academy Award Winner Matt Damon stars in this explosive, action-packed hit filled with incredible fight sequences. Found with two bullets in his back, Jason Bourne discovers he has the skills of a very dangerous man and no memory of his violent past. Racing to unlock the secret of his own identity, he discovers the deadly truth: he's an elite government agent, a $30 million weapon the government no longer trusts. Now this top operative is the government's number one target in this super-charged, thrill-a-minute spectacular loaded with "Non-stop action!" (Bill Zwecker, FOX-TV) The Bourne Supremacy They should have left him alone. Academy Award winner Matt Damon is back as expert assassin Jason Bourne in this stunning, non-stop action hit. Fuelled by awesome fight scenes and some of the most breathtaking chase sequences ever filmed, it's a state-of-the-art espionage thriller that explodes into action and never lets up! The Bourne Ultimatum Matt Damon returns as highly trained assassin Jason Bourne, who is on the hunt for the agents who stole his memory and true identity. With a new generation of skilled CIA operatives tracking his every move, Bourne is in a non-stop race around the globe as he finally learns the truth behind his mysterious past. Loaded with incredible fight and chase sequences, it's the exhilarating movie with "mind-blowing action" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) that you can't afford to miss! Storyline: (The Bourne Ultimatum) Bourne is once again brought out of hiding, this time inadvertently by London-based reporter Simon Ross who is trying to unveil Operation Blackbriar--an upgrade to Project Treadstone--in a series of newspaper columns. Bourne sets up a meeting with Ross and realizes instantly they're being scanned. Information from the reporter stirs a new set of memories, and Bourne must finally, ultimately, uncover his dark past whilst dodging The Company's best efforts in trying to eradicate him. Written by Corey Hatch Reviewer's Note: (The Bourne Ultimatum) Reviewed by Casey Broadwater, January 26, 2010 -- Most sequels languish under the law of diminishing financial and creative returns, but the Bourne franchise seems to be a statistical anomaly, an action series where each new installment is somehow better, bolder, and more aptly realized than the last. And this really is saying something, as The Bourne Identity—the first in the trilogy—basically defined action films for the new millennium with its cerebral, effortlessly exciting take on the spy-versus- spy sub-genre. When director Paul Greengrass (United 93) took the reins from Identity's Doug Liman for the sequel, The Bourne Supremacy, he introduced the much-discussed shaky-cam aesthetic, which nauseated some viewers while others praised the frenetic mirroring of style and substance. (As an aside, the nausea-inducing effect is much diminished at home on Blu-ray, no matter how big of a screen you have.) More than just a visual upheaval, however, Supremacy delves further into the shadowy world of Matt Damon's Jason Bourne, a psychogenic amnesiac and one-time spy who's out to collect—by whatever means necessary—the scattered puzzle pieces of his identity. This theme of self-discovery literally and figuratively comes home in the third film, The Bourne Ultimatum, which brings our impossibly skilled superspy back to where it all began—the covert government program where his personality was reprogrammed into that of a capable killer. Essentially, he's Wolverine in X2, with elite spy training instead of adamantium claws, but just as deadly and conflicted. Skipping nary a beat, the film opens almost exactly where Supremacy left off, with Bourne wounded by an assassin in snowy Moscow. Bourne breaks into a dingy clinic, only to be interrupted by two local police, whom he promptly disarms. "My argument is not with you," he tells them before fleeing into the night—and into the story proper—to find some far bigger fish in need of frying. From here it's simply a matter of following a trail of documents and possible informants back to the origin of his lethal skill set. First it's off to London, where Bourne meets a somewhat less-than-intrepid journalist (Paddy Considine) who has heard rumors of an "Operation Blackbriar," which might very well control all of the C.I.A.'s legally thorny black ops. Bourne then jets to Madrid to track down the journalist's source, a C.I.A Station Chief (Colin Stinton), but when he meets up with Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), his former C.I.A. contact/love interest, the trail leads to Morocco, where the two are pursued by an "asset"—that's "assassin" in C.I.A. speak —who has been "activated" to make sure no information about Operation Blackbriar gets leaked. Fat chance one measly assassin is going to stop Jason Bourne, though, right? Bourne gets the info he requires and flies to New York—I hope this guy is getting frequent flyer miles—to confront his maker and bring the insidious Operation Blackbriar to light. All the while, he's being tracked by ruthless and single-minded C.I.A. Deputy Director Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), with help from Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), who is much more sympathetic to Bourne's plight. The A-to-B-to-C plotting seems quite complicated at first, but it's deceptively simple, actually, and all of this fast-paced jet-setting really only serves to give exotic new locales to director Paul Greengrass and choreographer Jeff Imada's masterfully staged action set pieces. Because honestly, it's not as if the mystery of Bourne's identity is of substantial interest to the audience. We care because Bourne cares, but it's not like we're holding our breath just waiting to find out what his real name is. Rather, we're along for the ride to marvel at Bourne's abilities, to see him outwit and overpower his opponents, to be thrilled by hold-on-to-your-hats car chases and nail- biting near escapes. And there needs to be a reason for all this high-octane action to happen. The mystery, then, is simply the rocket fuel that propels the plot, which quickly reaches supersonic speeds and rarely relents. Greengrass sets the pulse of the film high from the very first frame, and the prolonged action sequences in Ultimatum are, in my opinion, by far the best in the series. At its core, the film is one long chase scene made up of smaller, location- centric pursuits. During the segment in Tangier, Nicky is hunted down by an assassin, who is followed by Bourne, who is trailed by local cops—as if they're ever going to catch up. In the hands of a less capable director, a multi-layered sequence like this could become geographically confusing and not easily followed, but Greengrass is the ultimate pursuer here, chasing the action with a panther-like grace and capturing it all in what feels, to us, like real time. During the scene at London's Waterloo Station, where a sniper glasses Bourne and his journalist contact from a hidden perch, the director's characteristic shaky-cam darts and zooms through the crowds with a paranoiac anxiety that matches the innate tension of the situation. As with its predecessors, The Bourne Ultimatum is a classy, handsome production that distinguishes itself from the pack of lesser actioners through sheer talent and professionalism. The action scenes throb with excitement, the ancillary actors lend riveting and nuanced performances, and leading man Matt Damon belies his boyish, All-American face by surging with a dark undercurrent of aggression and regret. We may not always be emotionally attached to the MacGuffin of Bourne's personal quest—though a scene where he confesses remembering the faces of everyone he's killed is genuinely arresting —but the Bourne franchise, and Ultimatum in particular, grips us thematically, encapsulating our collective post-9/11 uncertainty about the government's intentions and motivations. Lest we forget, the bad guys in the series are power-hungry C.I.A. officials who have little trouble killing in cold blood to further their own sinister and unchecked agendas. In what is perhaps the film's most chilling moment, Pam Landy asks Noah Volsen when all this out-of- control bloodletting will end. "It ends," says Volsen, utterly convinced of his own patriotism, "when we've won." No terms are given as to what winning entails, but we can assume it involves Bourne—and the truth about Blackbriar's illegal operations—being silenced forever. The truth always comes out, though, and with a fourth film currently in preproduction, it looks like Bourne will be back in short order to make sure that it does. With the reboot of the Bond franchise and the emergence of a new superspy named Jason Bourne, the '00s have been a great decade for cinematic espionage. The Bourne Ultimatum is one of my favorites among the recent crop of spy flicks, packing more thrills per minute than most other action films could hope for in an entire runtime. To put it simply: the action comes hard and fast, Paul Greengrass' direction is astute and assured, and Matt Damon is better than ever. The film also looks and sounds absolutely fantastic on Blu-ray, and comes with a generous supply of bonus features, including an excellent commentary track by Greengrass and an abundance of picture-in-picture featurettes. Highly recommended. Cast Notes: Bourne Identity -- Matt Damon (Jason Bourne), Franka Potente (Marie), Chris Cooper (Conklin), Clive Owen (The Professor), Brian Cox (Ward Abbott), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Wombosi), Gabriel Mann (Zorn), Walton Goggins (Research Tech), Josh Hamilton (Research Tech), Julia Stiles (Nicolette), Orso Maria Guerrini (Giancarlo [as Orso Maria-Guerrini]), Tim Dutton (Eamon), Denis Braccini (Picot), Nicky Naude (Castel), David Selburg (Marshall). Cast Notes: The Bourne Supremacy -- Matt Damon (Jason Bourne), Franka Potente (Marie), Brian Cox (Ward Abbott), Julia Stiles (Nicky), Karl Urban (Kirill), Gabriel Mann (Danny Zorn), Joan Allen (Pamela Landy), Marton Csokas (Jarda), Tom Gallop (Tom Cronin), John Bedford Lloyd (Teddy), Ethan Sandler (Kurt), Michelle Monaghan (Kim), Karel Roden (Gretkov), Tomas Arana (Martin Marshall), Oksana Akinshina (Irena Neski). Cast Notes: The Bourne Ultimatum -- Matt Damon (Jason Bourne [also archive footage]), Julia Stiles (Nicky Parsons), David Strathairn (Noah Vosen), Scott Glenn (Ezra Kramer), Paddy Considine (Simon Ross), Édgar Ramírez (Paz), Albert Finney (Dr. Albert Hirsch), Joan Allen (Pam Landy), Tom Gallop (Tom Cronin), Corey Johnson (Wills), Daniel Brühl (Martin Kreutz), Joey Ansah (Desh), Colin Stinton (Neal Daniels), Dan Fredenburgh (Jimmy), Lucy Liemann (Lucy). IMDb Rating (11/11/09): 8.2/10 from 126,890 users Top 250: #145
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