The Power of Observation keeps Jason Bourne ahead of his predators...

Rating: 9/10 (12 August 2006)

The Bourne Identity & The Bourne Supremacy As a strategy consultant, & whenever I go to the movies (or watch movies at home), I often take the opportunity to seek out possibilities of using them to teach life (survival) skills to participants in my seminars & workshops.
The two Bourne movies, namely Bourne Identity & Bourne Supremacy, are two great examples.
Both movies are loosely based on Robert Ludlum's work, which included The Rheinmann Exchange, The Osterman Weekend & the Holcroft Covenant. They have also been made into great movies.
In the first movie, with the opening scene: An unconscious young man is pulled out off the Mediterranean coast by a fishing boat one stormy night. Thinking that the young man is dead, a curious fisherman with a scalpel finds two bullets in his back & a microchip in his hip. The chip reveals a Swiss bank account. But our wet hero isn't dead but realises that he has amnesia. He then rushes to Zurich. In the bank vault, he discovers his name, Jason Bourne (played by Mark Damon). In addition, he finds a baffling pile of different passports, all with his picture, and a large chunk of cash. In the US Embassy, he bumps into Marie (played by Franka Potente), along with the fact that someone wants to kill him. Armed with a bag of money and superb martial arts skills, & with Marie by his side, he scours Paris for clues about his identity and past life...& finds himself in the middle of two assassination plots (one assassin was played by Clive Owen, as 'The Professor') masterminded by rouge elements of the CIA.
In the second movie, with the opening scene, continuing from the first movie: Jason Bourne is recovering in Goa, India with Marie. He spots a mysterious dark-glassed man with the wrong clothes while jogging. He escapes with Marie but she is shot in the ensuing chase. The next scene shows CIA operatives under deputy director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) conducting a sting operation to fish out a mole in CIA but something goes wrong. Her subsequent investigation leads to the highly-classified Treadstone project, which apparently involves Jason Bourne. She even finds evidence that Bourne is behind what happened to her botched operation. So Bourne sets out to clear his name. The remaining part of the movie shows Bourne outsmarting CIA operatives - & the assassin (played menacingly by Karl Urban as Kirill) - & tracking down the rogue elements in the CIA with shady connections to the Russian mob, who have jointly framed him in the first place.
In the two movies, Jason Bourne demonstrates his uncanny ability to observe & pay attention to what's around him - note: notice the exceptions in the details of the environment - which allows him to constantly stay ahead of his predators & at the same time, stay agile (mentally & physically) to anticipate dangers & get out of precarious situations.
For example...remember the scene in the second movie...after he had jogged at the beach, he observed a dark-glassed man whose clothing & behaviour somehow did not match the environment...
His ability to stay calm, size up dangerous situations & come up with super-quick, innovative solutions to escape from capture is well demonstrated in both movies.
For example...remember the scene in the first movie, where he jumped down several storeys with a dead body as cushion while blasting his gun at his assassins running up the staircase...the scene in the second movie, where he improvised a weapon out of rolled newspapers & an explosive escape using a magazine stuffed into a burning toaster in a quickly engineered gas-filled room...Wow! that was great! Naturally, I am also fascinated by the many unique fighting sequences (particularly the one within a tight environment in the second movie), car chases, cat & mouse games, etc. in both movies.
Additionally, what I like about both movies is the total absence of super-duper gadgets commonly found in such spy-thriller movies. Jason Bourne used only his sheer human ingenuity & creativity to outsmart his enemies.
To end my review, I must add that I have enjoyed watching both movies, experientially as well as educationally.