Jason Charles Bourne is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the novels of
Robert LudlumRobert Ludlum was an American author of 23 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.-Life and...
and subsequent film adaptations. He first appeared in the novel
The Bourne Identity (
1980The year 1980 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman to be elected to the Académie française....
). This novel was first
adaptedThe Bourne Identity is a 1988 television movie adaptation of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity.The film follows the storyline of the novel, with a run-time of 3 hours 5 min...
for television in 1988, and then adapted to the film, which is very loosely based on the novels, in 2002 under a title of
the same nameThe Bourne Identity is a 2002 American spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency . The film also stars Franka...
.
The character has been in eight sequel novels (the last six of which are written by
Eric Van LustbaderEric Van Lustbader is a writer of thriller and fantasy novels.He is a graduate of New York's Stuyvesant High School and Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology, and is a second-level Reiki master.-The Pearl Saga:...
) with another novel due to be released in 2012. Along with the first feature film,
The Bourne IdentityThe Bourne Identity is a 2002 American spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency . The film also stars Franka...
(2002), Jason Bourne also appears in two sequel movies
The Bourne SupremacyThe Bourne Supremacy is a 2004 American 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...
(2004) and
The Bourne UltimatumThe Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American spy film directed by Paul Greengrass and loosely based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same title. This film is the third in the Bourne film series, being preceded by The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy...
(2007). Actor
Matt DamonMatthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
stated in November 2009 that no script had been approved for a fourth film, but that he hoped that a film would begin shooting in mid-2011. The next month however, he said that he would not do another Bourne film without
Paul GreengrassPaul Greengrass is an English film director, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of real-life events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras.-Life and career:...
, who announced in late November that he had decided not to return as director.
Backstory
Jason Bourne has a tormented past, which continues to influence him throughout his lifetime. Jason Bourne is but one of many aliases used by
David Webb. Webb is a career
foreign service officerA Foreign Service Officer is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. As diplomats, Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. FSOs spend most of their careers overseas as members of U.S. embassies, consulates, and other diplomatic...
and a specialist in Far Eastern affairs. Before the events in
The Bourne Identity, Webb had a
ThaiThailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
wifeA wife is a female partner in a marriage. The rights and obligations of the wife regarding her spouse and others, and her status in the community and in law, varies between cultures and has varied over time.-Origin and etymology:...
named Dao and two children named Joshua and Alyssa in
Phnom PenhPhnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
, the capital of
CambodiaCambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. Webb's wife and two children were inadvertently killed during the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
when a fighter plane strayed into Cambodia, dropped two
bombA bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
s and strafed a spot near the Mekong River. Due to Cambodia's
neutralityA neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
in the war, every nation disclaimed the plane, and therefore no one took responsibility for the incident. Since he had nothing left, Webb went to Saigon and elected to train for an elite Top Secret Special Forces unit called
Medusa, which would remain a Top Secret unit for many years. In
Medusa, Webb was known only as
Delta, his code name within the unit.
Medusa
David Webb's life was slowly consumed by his membership in
Medusa. Webb was recruited into
Medusa during
VietnamThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
by friend and
CIAThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
officer Alexander Conklin after the death of Webb's wife and children. Webb was furious with the tragedy of his loss, and sought revenge by joining
Medusa. Initially
Medusa was designed to infiltrate parts of Northern Vietnam, and kill suspected members of the Viet Cong and its collaborators.
Medusa was considered an
assassination team or
death squadA death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
. Each member of
Medusa was paid for their work performing assassinations for the United States Government.
The members of Medusa were all criminals who were led by Delta. Delta ran
Medusa with an iron fist, and became well known for his ruthlessness, his disregard for orders, and his disturbing success rate on his missions, resulting in the kidnapping of his brother, U.S. Army Lieutenant Gordon Webb, during his tour of duty in Saigon.
During the mission to save David Webb's brother an original "Medusa" team member, named
Jason Charles Bourne, was discovered to be a double agent who alerted a large amount of North Vietnamese soldiers to their whereabouts. When Delta found Bourne after killing his way through the North Vietnamese he simply executed Bourne in the jungles of Tam Quan. Bourne had compromised the secret rescue of Gordon Webb. Bourne's murder by Delta was never exposed due to the Top Secret status of
Medusa.
Operation Treadstone
Years later, a black ops arm of the CIA was formed to eliminate the notorious
Carlos the JackalIlich Ramírez Sánchez , better known as Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan pro-Palestinian currently serving a life sentence in France for shooting to death two French secret agents and a Lebanese informer in 1975....
and called
Treadstone Seventy-One, named after a building on New York's Seventy-First Street, and Webb was called up by the creator of Treadstone and Medusa, David Abbott, who was nicknamed
The Monk, (short for
The Silent Monk of Covert Operations.) to be its principal agent. At this point, Webb (Delta) takes the identity of Jason Bourne due to the actual Bourne's status as MIA in the war as well as the fact that Bourne was in reality a ruthless killer with 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 myth was to create competition for a well known assassin named
Carlos, or
Carlos the JackalIlich Ramírez Sánchez , better known as Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan pro-Palestinian currently serving a life sentence in France for shooting to death two French secret agents and a Lebanese informer in 1975....
, 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 Viet Cong. 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 the reclusive Carlos out in the open " long enough to put a bullet in his head". To add insult to Carlos's name, Cain stole the credit for Carlos's kills, even if Cain had no part.
Novels
The Series has included nine novels which have been written by two authors,
Robert LudlumRobert Ludlum was an American author of 23 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.-Life and...
and
Eric Van LustbaderEric Van Lustbader is a writer of thriller and fantasy novels.He is a graduate of New York's Stuyvesant High School and Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology, and is a second-level Reiki master.-The Pearl Saga:...
. Ludlum's series include the first three books, better known as the
Bourne TrilogyThe Bourne Trilogy is a series of novels by Robert Ludlum, which have been adapted to film in a series starring Matt Damon.The original three Jason Bourne novels are:* The Bourne Identity * The Bourne Supremacy...
. After Ludlum's death in 2001, Lustbader took over the character in his own series of novels, which span six current books plus a seventh novel that is slated for release in 2012.
Identity
Jason Bourne is initially found floating in the Mediterranean sea, suffering from serious injuries. He is picked up randomly by a fishing vessel. A head wound causes him to suffer from amnesia, preventing him from remembering anything that has happened previously in his life. As he tries to reclaim his memory, he attracts the attention of hostile people for reasons unknown to him. At a hotel, while cornered, Bourne takes a young woman hostage to escape. This woman, named Marie St. Jacques, is an employee of the
CanadianCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
government. Bourne and Marie start discovering the identity of Jason Bourne, the contract assassin. It is later discovered that both the CIA and a contract killer known as Carlos the Jackal have an interest in him. Marie is convinced that the man she knows as Jason Bourne cannot be the ruthless killer that all the 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.
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
drug lordA drug lord, drug baron or kingpin is the term used to describe a person who controls a sizable network of persons involved in the illegal drugs trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they might never be directly in possession of something illegal, but are insulated from...
. 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 warA civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
in
ChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
over the ownership of
Hong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
.
Ultimatum
As
Carlos the JackalIlich Ramírez Sánchez , better known as Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan pro-Palestinian currently serving a life sentence in France for shooting to death two French secret agents and a Lebanese informer in 1975....
enters old age and his infamy fades, he decides that he will do two things before he dies: kill Jason Bourne and destroy the KGB facility of Novgorod, where the Jackal was trained and later turned away. 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 before Webb stages his own death and convinces the Jackal that he has succeeded. Following this, the Jackal turns to his second goal. 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, the Jackal is led into a dam lock in which he drowns and Webb returns to his family.
Legacy
With the climactic events of
The Bourne Ultimatum behind him, Jason Bourne is able to once again become David Webb, now professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. However, this serenity does not last for long. When a silenced gunshot narrowly misses Webb's head, the Bourne persona reawakens in him yet again. His first objective is to get to his long-time friend and handler at the CIA, Alex Conklin. However, unknown to Bourne, a Hungarian by the name of Stepan Spalko has now drawn Jason into a web—one which he cannot escape as easily as his professional facade. And the man who nearly killed him in Georgetown continues his deadly, intensely personal pursuit...
Betrayal
Jason Bourne takes a mission to rescue his only friend in the
CIAThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, Martin Lindros, who disappeared in
AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
while tracking shipments of yellowcake
uraniumUranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
. Once safely back in America, Lindros persuades Bourne to help track the money trail of terrorists buying the nuclear material in
OdessaOdessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
. But once there, Bourne is hampered by confusing flashbacks of unfamiliar places and events and he wonders: Is someone brainwashing him in order to throw him off the trail? Or worse, is the man he saved in Africa really Martin Lindros? Now, Bourne must gather evidence while trying to stay one step ahead of the terrorists who won't let anyone stand in their way.
Sanction
Jason Bourne returns to Georgetown University and the mild world of his alter ego, David Webb, hoping for normality. But, after so many adrenaline soaked years of risking his life, Bourne finds himself chafing under the quiet life of a linguistics professor. Aware of his frustrations, his academic mentor, Professor Spector, asks for help investigating the murder of a former student. The young man died carrying information about a group's terrorist activities, including an immediate plan to attack the United States. The organization, the Black Legion and its plot have also popped up on the radar of the Central Intelligence Agency, whose new director Veronica Hart is struggling to assert her authority. Sensing an opportunity to take control of the CIA by showing Hart's incompetence, National Security Agency operatives attempt to accomplish what the CIA never could do, hunt down and kill Jason Bourne. In Europe Bourne's investigation into the Black Legion turns into one of the deadliest and tangled operations of his double life - while an assassin is getting closer by the minute.
Deception
Jason Bourne's nemesis, Arkadin, is still hot on his trail and the two continue their struggle, reversing roles of hunter and hunted. When Bourne is ambushed and badly wounded, he fakes his death and goes into hiding. In safety, he takes on a new identity, and begins a mission to find out who tried to assassinate him. Jason begins to question who he really is, how much of him is tied up in the Bourne identity, and what he would become if that was suddenly taken away from him. Meanwhile, an American passenger airliner is shot down over Egypt by what seems to be an Iranian missile. A massive global investigative team is assembled to get at the truth of the situation before it can escalate into an international scandal. Jason Bourne's search for the man who shot him intersects with the search for the people that brought down the airliner, leading Bourne into one of the most deadly and challenging situations he has ever encountered. With the threat of a new world war brewing, Bourne finds himself in a race against time to uncover the truth and find the person behind his assault, all the while being stalked by his unknown nemesis.
Objective
The Bourne Objective is the eighth novel in the Bourne series, and the fifth written by Eric Van Lustbader. The book was released in 2010, sequel to
The Bourne Deception.
The killing of an art dealer dredges up snatches of Jason Bourne's impaired memory, in particular the murder of a young woman who entrusted him with a strangely engraved ring. Now he's determined to find its owner and purpose. But Bourne neer know what terrible acts he'll discover he committed when he digs into the past.
The trail will lead him to a vicious Russian mercenary, Leonid Arkadin, also a graduate of the Central Intelligence training program Treadstone. The covert course was shuttered by Congress for corruption, but not before it produced Bourne and Arkadin, giving them equal skills, equal force, and equal cunning.
As Bourne's destiny circles closer to Arkadin's, it becomes clear that someone else has been watching and manipulating them. Someone wants to know,
Who is the more deadly agent?
Dominion
Jason Bourne's enemies are gathering force. Severus Domna, a secret and ancient cabal, has called forth its members from around the globe, with one objective: to vanquish the last person capable of destroying their bid to de-stabilize the world economy – Jason Bourne. But how can they possibly succeed where so many others have failed? By turning Bourne's most trusted friend into his greatest – and most deadly – enemy. Boris Karpov has reached the pinnacle of his career. He has taken over one of the most powerful security organizations in the world – but at a price. Karpov agreed to a devil's pact with the former head, and now he has to deliver. But it's far worse than anything Karpov could have imagined – he must kill his oldest friend, Jason Bourne. Now Bourne finds himself in a world where friend and foe go hand-in-hand. Bourne's journey will lead him down a path of brutal murder and destruction – one from which there is no escape...
Imperative
The tenth book in the series,
The Bourne Imperative, is anticipated to be published in 2012.
Television movie
In 1988 a
two-part made-for-television movie of The Bourne IdentityThe Bourne Identity is a 1988 television movie adaptation of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity.The film follows the storyline of the novel, with a run-time of 3 hours 5 min...
aired on
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. It starred
Richard ChamberlainGeorge Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
in the role of Jason Bourne and
Jaclyn SmithJacquelyn Ellen "Jaclyn" Smith is an American actress and businesswoman. She is best-known for the role of Kelly Garrett in the television series Charlie's Angels, and was the only original female lead to remain with the series for its complete run...
as Marie St. Jacques. The TV movie was largely faithful to Robert Ludlum's novel, both in plot as well as in the portrayal of the character of Jason Bourne.
Film universe
In the films, the character of Jason Bourne, portrayed by
Matt DamonMatthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
, varies from the character described in the novels. The films omit the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and the character of
Carlos the JackalIlich Ramírez Sánchez , better known as Carlos the Jackal, is a Venezuelan pro-Palestinian currently serving a life sentence in France for shooting to death two French secret agents and a Lebanese informer in 1975....
. They also focus significantly more on the female roles of Nicky (
Julia StilesJulia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress.After beginning her career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and David Mamet...
) and Marie (
Franka PotenteFranka Potente is a German film actress and singer. She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval and gained critical recognition in the action thriller Lola rennt . Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in Run Lola Run and...
).
Background
In the films, David Webb was born in
Nixa, MissouriNixa is a city in Christian County, Missouri, United States. The population was 12,124 at the 2000 census, though a 2009 estimate places it at 19,458. It is part of the Springfield, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
. He is a Captain in the
United States ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, a Roman Catholic, and his Social Security Number is 829-63-1204. Other details vary in different parts of the trilogy: his
blood typeA blood type is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells . These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrates, glycoproteins, or glycolipids, depending on the blood group system...
is O- on his dog tags but A+ in his induction report, and numerous birth dates are given, including August 21st, 1969 on his file in Supremacy and September 13, 1970, as indicated by his various files in Ultimatum.
Bourne volunteered for Operation Treadstone, a top-secret
CIAThe Special Activities Division is a division in the United States Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service responsible for covert operations known as "special activities"...
project under which he endured behavioral modification, shaping him into a malleable asset. His first test was to kill a man, after which he was informed that his transformation into Jason Bourne was complete. He initially refused to shoot the unknown man under the pretense that he wasn't given a reason why he was to do so, but after persuasion he capitulated and killed the subject.
Bourne was highly trained in the CIA's protocols and
tradecraftTradecraft is a general term that denotes a skill acquired through experience in a trade.The term is also used within the intelligence community as a collective word for the techniques used in modern espionage...
. His skills include expertise in hand-to-hand
combatCombat, or fighting, is a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition, or to terminate the opposition forever, or drive the opposition away from a location where it is not wanted or needed....
, firearms, knives, explosives, handling numerous vehicles, and speaking fluent
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
,
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
,
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
,
RussianRussian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
,
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
,
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
,
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
,
PolishPolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
and
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
. Although he has never shown speaking
PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, he holds a Brazilian passport as
Gilberto de Piento in The Bourne Ultimatum, although in The Bourne Identity he holds a Brazilian passport as
Joao do Carmo, and
Gilberto de Piento is the Consul General who signed the passport.
Once his training was complete, Bourne was deployed as a highly-trained covert assassin for a variety of missions all involving lethal action. He completed his missions mechanically, without knowledge of his subjects' identity or the crimes they had allegedly committed.
It is implied that he had some type of relationship with fellow Treadstone operative Nicky Parsons- essentially the agents' psychiatrist, assigned to monitor potential behavioural problems they might develop due to their stressful careers-, but this is never confirmed, although Nicky's interaction with him is suggestive of some form of affection.
On a job in France, he had a sudden attack of conscience when he saw his target in the company of his children. Bourne aborted his mission, and was shot in the back twice while attempting to escape. He awakens with his
memory goneRetrograde amnesia is a loss of access to events that occurred, or information that was learned, before an injury or the onset of a disease....
.
The character of Bourne in the films is a very quick-thinking, linear type of person who moves quickly and brutally towards his goal. He gives the impression of someone who has been severely traumatized. He is tormented by fragment memories of his past. He is highly adept at hand-to-hand combat, and appears to retain his knowledge of how to remain 'off-the-grid' even if he cannot recall how he learned such skills. He also shows an immediate ability to utilize
lateral thinkingLateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic...
to solve problems. He often uses improvised weapons, for example using a pen to stab an assassin in
The Bourne Identity, utilising a wrapped up magazine as a blunt object in
The Bourne Supremacy and using a book and a towel to kill an opponent 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 (
The Bourne Supremacy). He is also proficient with firearms, explosives, electronics and evasive protocols — for moving, driving, and the like.
Bourne in the films
The overarching story of Jason Bourne through the film trilogy is his attempt to regain knowledge of who and what he is.
In
The Bourne IdentityThe Bourne Identity is a 2002 American spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency . The film also stars Franka...
, after aborting an assassination on an exiled African leader named Nykwana Wombosi, Bourne is shot by one of Wombosi's bodyguards and left for dead in the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
south of Marseilles. Bourne is rescued by the crew of an Italian fishing boat, where he discovers he's suffering from
amnesiaRetrograde amnesia is a loss of access to events that occurred, or information that was learned, before an injury or the onset of a disease....
. While Bourne is on board, the captain discovers a microchip implanted in Bourne's body that contains the number of a safety deposit box. Bourne eventually lands and makes his way to Zurich where he obtains access to a safety deposit box at Gemeinschaft Bank containing multiple passports, assorted personal items, cash in various currencies, and a Sig Pro handgun. Bourne later takes refuge in the American embassy, but is forced to strike out on his own after nearly being captured at the embassy. He then enlists the aid of Marie Kreutz, a nomadic German-born woman, to take him to Paris where he has discovered he once resided. After Bourne offers her $20,000, Marie agrees and the two embark on their journey, arriving at Bourne's apartment on Rue Du Jardin. In the apartment, while Bourne is trying to sift through his things to find clues to his identity, he is attacked by another Treadstone assassin known as Castel. After brutal hand-to-hand combat, Bourne emerges the victor but is unable to interrogate Castel before he commits suicide by leaping out a window. Bourne and Marie flee the apartment and are involved in a high-speed pursuit by Parisian police before evading them and ditching their vehicle. The two stay in a small hotel in Paris while they investigate Bourne's whereabouts during the weeks leading up to the assassination attempt on Wombosi. Bourne eventually learns his connection to Wombosi and that he was the man Wombosi claimed had sneaked onto his yacht in the middle of the night and tried to kill him. After this revelation, Bourne and Marie reluctantly remain together to again evade the Paris police after the location of their hotel is discovered. They venture into the French countryside, planning on staying with Marie's friend Eamonn. It is there that Bourne encounters another Treadstone assassin known as The Professor. Bourne succeeds in eliminating The Professor, then sends Marie on her way in order to keep her safe. He returns to Paris where he arranges a meeting with Treadstone's director, Alexander Conklin, on the
Pont NeufThe Pont Neuf is, despite its name, the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. Its name, which was given to distinguish it from older bridges that were lined on both sides with houses, has remained....
. Bourne uses the meeting to tag Conklin's vehicle and track him to the Treadstone safehouse. There, Bourne confronts Conklin and informs Conklin he's finished with Treadstone. After killing several CIA guards, Bourne escapes the safehouse and disappears into the night. Bourne eventually tracks Marie to the Greek island of Mykonos where she is running a small scooter rental shop and restaurant; the two reunite.
In
The Bourne SupremacyThe Bourne Supremacy is a 2004 American 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...
Bourne and Marie are now residing in Goa, India when their quiet life is disturbed by the arrival of a man named Kirill whom Bourne immediately concludes is a threat. He and Marie attempt to flee Goa and in the process Kirill kills Marie (intending to kill Bourne). Bourne is presumed dead however and uses the advantage to once again wage war on Treadstone (which Bourne believes is still active). Bourne arrives in Naples, Italy by ferry and intentionally has his passport run by immigrations. A European CIA substation in London is alerted to Bourne surfacing on the grid and measures are taken to bring Bourne into custody. An arrogant embassy agent sent to interrogate Bourne ends up being subdued along with an Italian security officer standing guard in the interrogation room. Bourne learns of a new name in the company, Pamela Landy, who suspects Bourne of being behind the assassination of two CIA agents involved in an operation in Berlin a few days prior (the agents were in actuality assassinated by Kirill). Bourne arrives in Berlin by way of Munich (where he encounters Jarda, a supposedly inactive Treadstone agent). It is there that he shadows and later makes contact with Landy. After some investigation and indirect aid from Bourne, Landy discovers the assassination of her agents was part of a larger conspiracy perpetuated by former Treadstone director Ward Abbott and his co-conspirator, oil mogul Yuri Gretkov. Upon his discovery, Abbott commits suicide and Gretkov is arrested by Russian police. Bourne travels to Russia having learned that the flashes of his first mission involving a Russian politician had been the work of Abbott to cover up his theft of CIA funds. While in Moscow Bourne engages Kirill in a high-speed pursuit that results in the supposed death of Kirill in a tunnel. In
The Bourne Supremacy we last see Bourne an indeterminate amount of time later spying on Landy as he speaks to her over the phone.
In
The Bourne UltimatumThe Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American spy film directed by Paul Greengrass and loosely based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same title. This film is the third in the Bourne film series, being preceded by The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy...
Bourne travels to London in an attempt to contact an investigative reporter named Simon Ross who has been writing articles speculating on who Bourne is. Bourne learns that Ross may have been in contact with someone involved deep within Treadstone and desires to learn the information. His plans are thwarted when Ross is assassinated by Paz, one of a new breed of assassins generated by a Treadstone upgrade program called "Blackbriar". From London Bourne travels to Madrid, where he locates a CIA safehouse where Neil Daniels had been residing, the same man Ross had interviewed. Bourne finds the safehouse empty, and is forced to engage two CIA operatives sent to eliminate him. Nicky Parsons arrives on site and teams up with Bourne and helps him track Daniels to Tangiers, Morocco. Before they can get to Daniels, he is assassinated by another Blackbriar asset known as Desh Bouksani. Noah Vosen, director of Blackbriar, authorizes Desh to eliminate Bourne and Parsons as secondary objectives. After a long pursuit through Tangier on moped and on foot, Bourne manages to intervene just before Desh closes in on Nicky's location. Bourne eliminates Desh and fools Blackbriar into believing he and Parsons had been successfully eliminated by Desh, giving them enough time to close in on Blackbriar. Bourne travels to America alone and the truth about his identity is finally brought to light as Landy goes rogue and attempts to reach out and help Bourne in his pursuit. Bourne learns his real name is David Webb and is given the address to the Treadstone training facility on 71st St. in New York City. It is there that Bourne's past is revealed in full, and after a pursuit through the building he is presumably shot by Vosen as he leaps off of the 10th story roof into the
East RiverThe East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
. It is reported that Bourne's body was never recovered and he is still at large—Bourne is seen swimming away after regaining consciousness, somewhat reminiscent of the opening scene of
The Bourne Identity. The first part of this movie corresponds chronologically to the events portrayed in the previous film; Bourne's telephone conversation with Landy upon arriving in New York is the same scene as at the end of the last movie, meaning that there was a longer gap between the crash that killed Kirill and Bourne's phone call than it originally appeared.
Films
- The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity is a 2002 American spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency . The film also stars Franka...
(2002)
- The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Supremacy is a 2004 American 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...
(2004)
- The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American spy film directed by Paul Greengrass and loosely based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same title. This film is the third in the Bourne film series, being preceded by The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy...
(2007)
Video games
A video game titled
The Bourne Conspiracy was released in 2008 for the
Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and
PlayStation 3The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
.
The Ludlum estate obtained the rights to the video game franchise and sold it to
Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
in 2009. EA plans to make several
Bourne games. The first Bourne game will be developed by
Starbreeze StudiosStarbreeze Studios is a video game development studio founded by members of the demo group Triton, based in Uppsala, Sweden.-History:The company was founded in 1998, under the name O3 Games. In 2000, O3 Games merged with the smaller company Starbreeze Studios which was then based in Härnösand, Sweden...
. However, the new game has been shelved by Starbreeze Studios.
Franchise overview
The
Bourne franchise consists of several novels, movies, and a video game, all featuring one of the several versions of the Jason Bourne character.
- Novels:
- The Bourne Identity (1980)
- The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Supremacy is the second Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum, first published in 1986. It was the sequel to Ludlum's bestseller The Bourne Identity and precedes Ludlum's final Bourne novel, The Bourne Ultimatum ....
(1986)
- The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Ultimatum is the third Jason Bourne novel written by Robert Ludlum and a sequel to The Bourne Supremacy . First published in 1990, it was the last Bourne novel to be written by Ludlum himself. Eric Van Lustbader wrote a sequel titled The Bourne Legacy fourteen years later.A film titled...
(1990)
- The Bourne Legacy
The Bourne Legacy is a 2004 spy fiction thriller written by Eric Van Lustbader. It is the fourth novel in the Jason Bourne series created by Robert Ludlum and the first to be written by Lustbader...
(2004)
- The Bourne Betrayal (2007)
- The Bourne Sanction
The Bourne Sanction is the title for the novel by Eric Van Lustbader and the sixth novel in the Jason Bourne series created by Robert Ludlum. It was released on July 29, 2008...
(2008)
- The Bourne Deception
The Bourne Deception is the title for the novel by Eric Van Lustbader and the seventh novel in the Jason Bourne series created by Robert Ludlum. It was released on June 9, 2009. It is Lustbader's fourth Bourne novel, following The Bourne Sanction that was published in 2008.-Plot introduction:The...
(2009)
- The Bourne Objective
The Bourne Objective is the eighth novel in the Bourne series and fifth by Eric Van Lustbader. The book was released on June 1, 2010, as a sequel to The Bourne Deception...
(2010)
- The Bourne Dominion
The Bourne Dominion is the ninth novel in the Bourne series and sixth by Eric Van Lustbader. The book was released on June 19, 2011, as a sequel to The Bourne Objective....
(19 July 2011)
- The Bourne Upset (2012)
- Films:
- The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity is a 1988 television movie adaptation of Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity.The film follows the storyline of the novel, with a run-time of 3 hours 5 min...
(1988 TV film)
- The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity is a 2002 American spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency . The film also stars Franka...
(2002)
- The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Supremacy is a 2004 American 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...
(2004)
- The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American spy film directed by Paul Greengrass and loosely based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same title. This film is the third in the Bourne film series, being preceded by The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy...
(2007)
- The Bourne Legacy (2012)
- Video Games:
- The Bourne Conspiracy (2008)