Ultimatum is the ultimate spy story: the year's most satisfying thriller

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2007)

In 2002, The Bourne Identity gave the action/thriller genre the shot in the arm it so desperately needed. In 2004, The Bourne Supremacy improved on that, standing out as one of the boldest, most interesting spy films ever made. And now, with The Bourne Ultimatum, the year's best threequel, the trilogy ends triumphantly.
Set six weeks after the Moscow showdown at the end of Supremacy (the final scene, where the amnesiac hit-man learns some vital information, is actually part of Ultimatum's narrative), the film shows Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) on the run once again: even though he contributed to bringing down double agent Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), the CIA director is still convinced he is a threat, with only Pamela Landy thinking otherwise. Things don't get much better when a British reporter (Paddy Considine) writes an article about Bourne and several illegal operations, prompting counter-terror officer Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) to initiate a manhunt that will take the hero (and the viewer) across the globe and closer to the truth, as Bourne starts to remember things and realizes his only choice is to find out the definitive truth about his mysterious past.
Roger Ebert cleverly pointed out that in five years and three movies the quest for the truth has almost become, like Hitchcock would say, a MacGuffin, an excuse for the protagonist to run for his life and kick villainous butt in increasingly breathtaking set-pieces. He has a point, as director Paul Greengrass, whose hand-held, edgy approach made The Bourne Supremacy a unique summer blockbuster, ensures the adrenaline level stays sky-high for the entire duration of the film: The Bourne Ultimatum has more action than the first two movies combined, 75% of the picture containing the most inventive chases or fights (hardback book as a weapon, anyone?) since, well, the previous Bourne outing, and it is a real pleasure to watch Damon, who now wears the role as if it were a tailored suit, take the character to new extremes.
This doesn't mean the plot is sacrificed in favor of the style, though: the script is solid and intelligent, the traditional intrigue element being treated in a new way and allowing Damon's co-stars (the ambiguous Strathairn and scene-stealing Albert Finney most of all) to play their parts in a three-dimensional way that is unheard of in most action flicks. Heck, the movie is even audacious enough to reuse the second film's ending and give it a whole new meaning, proving once again the Bourne franchise is a lot of steps ahead of average genre pictures.
And that's without mentioning the brilliant conclusion: having revealed only what is strictly necessary, Greengrass exposes all his genius in the last images which, while hinting at a possible Bourne Legacy (unlikely, but possible), represent the perfect closure of a series that has raised the bar for action films for many years to come.