Movies - The Bourne Identity

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	Movies - The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Identity is a 2002 movie based on the book of the same name by Robert Ludlum. The film is loosely based on the novel and adapted by Tony Gilroy. In 2004, The Bourne Identity was followed with a sequel titled The Bourne Supremacy
.

Plot

:For the plot of the novel see The Bourne Identity.

In addition to updating the politics and technology, the movie streamlines the plot of the novel, chiefly by dropping the business with Carlos and leaving out the final plot twist.

The film begins with the finding of Jason Bourne floating in the Mediterranean Sea with two bullet wounds in his back. He is picked up by a French fishing ship and nursed back to health; however, Bourne has no idea who he is and knows nothing of his past. A member of the ship, when treating Bourne's wounds, finds a message surgically embedded in Bourne's hip, containing details of a numbered Swiss bank account. When the ship reaches port, Bourne travels to Zurich to learn about his past, hopefully from the items in the mysterious bank account.

During his travels Bourne begins to notice certain characteristics about himself, including the use of martial arts when two Swiss cops try to kick him out of a park for sleeping on a park bench. He also speaks fluent English, French and German. The bank account contains numerous passports from various countries, two of particular interest titled: "Jason Charles Bourne" and "John Michael Kane". It also contains numerous bills of a variety of different currencies and a gun. Bourne takes everything in the container except the gun, but when leaving is flagged by an informant of a black ops arm of the CIA called Treadstone, who is trying to track and kill Jason.

After leaving the bank Bourne notices he is being tailed by Swiss police and loses them by entering the US Embassy using his John Michael Kane passport. However word quickly reaches the consulate that Bourne is a wanted man and the consulate's detachment of Marines attempt to apprehend him. Bourne disarms a Secret Service agent and two Marines and flees into the upper levels of the consulate building. There he obtains a radio from another agent and takes an emergency escape map off the wall to guide himself. He proceeds to an exit approximately ten stories up where he clings to half inch divots in the stone walls to elude capture and slowly crawls down the side of the consulate.

After Bourne's escape he meets Marie Helena Kreutz (Marie St. Jacques in the novel), a poor gypsy and pays her $20,000 to drive him in her Mini to Paris where John Michael Kane lives. On the drive Bourne admits his amnesia to Maria and ponders his unique abilities with her which now include exceptional climbing and timing and headaches when staring into lights (such as during a night drive).

Bourne convinces Maria to join him on his journey of discover because she is "the only person know." It turns out a super knows Bourne as John Michael Kane and shows him to his luxurious apartment. In the apartment Maria uses Bourne's sink to wash herself. As Bourne examines his possessions another Treadstone agent bursts through a window and attempts to kill Bourne. Bourne disarms him and subdues him in a fast and Zui Quan-esque manner. The subdued man then jumps out a window and falls several levels to his death.

In the background of the movie is a running side story concerning the CIA operatives tracking Bourne. Up until this point a CIA group has tracked Bourne from the bank in Zurich to the Swiss consulate to Maria's car to John Michael Kane's home. There apparent goal is to kill Bourne apparently because they feel his having left only his gun in the Zurich bank deposit box was intended as a threat. The CIA group is unaware of Bourne's amnesia.

While in John Michael Kane's apartment Bourne discovers in some paperwork and some followup phone calls that:

John Michael Kane's personal papers are being held at a Hotel in Paris
John Michael Kane is dead and his body is in a Morgue in Paris
John Michael Kane was researching a yacht before his death

Bourne and Maria travel to the Hotel John Michael Kane stayed at and Maria obtains copies of his personal papers. Bourne also visits the yacht manufacturer that constructs the yacht John Michael Kane was researching. They also visit the morgue where the body of John Michael Kane is missing. Bourne steals the visitor chart and leaves.

It turns out that Bourne was an assasin working for the CIA. He attempted to assassinate former Nigerian dictator (fictional) Nykwana Wombosi on his yacht but failed. Afterwards the CIA tried to cover the assassination up by placing a false body in the morgue but since the body didn't have two bullets in it Wombosi wasn't fooled. Note that although Bourne knows he was shot the CIA hasn't been in direct contact with him and did not know Bourne had been shot on Wombosi's yacht.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Bourne Identity (film) ]

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