Must-Watch Film

Rating: 10/10 (26 September 2013)

Directed by Paul Greengrass and produced by Universal Pictures, The Bourne Ultimatum is the third part of the Bourne series, as a sequel to The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy. The Trilogy is a novel adaptation, written by Robert Ludlum. In 2008, the action-thriller movie won three Oscar awards. IMDb's rating is 8.1 and Rotten Tomatoes, 8 out of 10. Robert Ludlum was an ex-marine and a theatrical actor before becoming an author, who sold more than 210 million books worldwide. He typically portrays a one-man story, who is faced with mysterious and scheming conspiracies from powerful organizations and governments. His style of writing is suspenseful and detail-oriented. Jason Bourne is America's version of James Bond, who takes espionage to the next level by being highly-resourceful, tactical, and blending in with any part of the world like a 'chameleon'. Paul Greengrass attempts to bring the best out of the novel, however no movie can match a book that covers all details and stays in the original story line. The movie does not include "Carlos" a global terrorist who is one of the main characters in the novel series. In The Bourne Ultimatum, the CIA red flags a conversation by an English reporter, Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) who talks about operation "Blackbriar" and Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). Ross publishes his investigations in The Guardian, which is read by Bourne after his trip to Paris. In Paris, Bourne meets the brother of his girlfriend, Maria Kreutz (Franka Potente) to inform him of her death in India. Bourne says "someone started all this, and I'm going to find out who". Bourne calls up Ross's office and sets up a meeting with him in London's Waterloo station. Here, Bourne realizes Ross is being tracked and slips him a cell phone. Bourne guides Ross to evade the crack teams and the cameras. After some brilliant action sequences, Ross panics and runs out into the open. A CIA "asset", Paz (Edgar Ramirez) is waiting to take out both Ross and Bourne at the busy train station. When Ross comes out, Paz shoots him with a sniper but is unable to get Bourne, who by now is running after the assassin. Paz eventually escapes in a train. Bourne and the CIA (director Noah Vosen and deputy director, Pamela Landy) are after Ross' source, who is Neal Daniels, the station chief in Madrid. Daniels was involved with Treadstone as well as Blackbriar, who Bourne vaguely recollects during his first day of the Treadstone program. Bourne goes to Daniels' office which is empty but a CIA squad team reaches there as well. After another mind-numbing action scene, he meets Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) who is willing to help him. Both of them reach Tangier, where Daniels is waiting to withdraw his escape money (which is held by the CIA, so they can assassinate him). They intercept the "asset" but are unable to save Daniels. The "asset" is now after Nicky, and the audience is treated to some roof-top Parkour action from Bourne. The "asset" is killed and Nicky is sent into hiding. Bourne returns to New York City and lures Noah Vosen away to break in to his office. The climax of the movie takes place in NY, and the audience will not be disappointed with the car chases and the thrilling action sequences. This is a must-watch movie, and is at its best if watched in the original Trilogy order, starting from "The Bourne Identity". The 2013 movie, "The Bourne Legacy" stars Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton, which was directed by Tony Gilroy.