The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American action-thriller film based on Robert Ludlum's character Jason Bourne, a CIA assassin and psychogenic amnesiac portrayed by Matt Damon. Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, Édgar Ramírez, Albert Finney, and Joan Allen also star. The film was directed by Paul Greengrass and written by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, and George Nolfi. Loosely based on the novel of the same name, the story takes place both during and after the events of The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and follows Bourne as he continues searching for information about his past before joining Treadstone, while also being pursued by a similar program, Blackbriar.
Following the release of Supremacy, Greengrass agreed to return to direct the third installment. Gilroy, the writer of the previous two films, wanted to explore Bourne seeking redemption for his murders, an aspect that he felt was missing from the previous film. Principal photography began in New York City on October 2, 2006. The visual effects were produced by Double Negative.
The Bourne Ultimatum premiered at ArcLight Hollywood on July 25, 2007, before being theatrically released on August 3 in the United States, by Universal Pictures. It received critical acclaim, grossed $444 million worldwide, and won three Academy Awards. A fourth film, The Bourne Legacy, was released in 2012, without the involvement of Damon or Greengrass. A sequel to Ultimatum, titled simply Jason Bourne, was released in 2016.
Plot
Following his pursuit by Kirill, Jason Bourne evades Moscow police while wounded and deals with more flashbacks of when he first joined Operation Treadstone, seemingly of him being forced to comply with the program. Six weeks later, CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy reveals the audiotaped confession of Ward Abbott, the late former head of Treadstone, to Director Ezra Kramer. Meanwhile, in Turin, journalist Simon Ross of The Guardian has been writing a column on Bourne. He learns about Operation Blackbriar, the program succeeding Treadstone.
Using the ECHELON system, the CIA detects Ross when he mentions Blackbriar during a phone call to his editor. After informing Marie's brother, Martin Kreutz, of her assassination in India, Bourne, who had read Ross' articles, arranges a meeting with him at London Waterloo station. Realizing the CIA is following Ross, he helps him evade capture, but Ross, in a panic, is shot dead by Blackbriar assassin Paz on orders of Deputy Director Noah Vosen. Vosen's team, reluctantly assisted by Landy, analyzes Ross' notes and identifies his source as Neal Daniels, a CIA station chief based in Madrid. Bourne makes his way to Daniels' office, dispatches Vosen's agents, and finds Nicky Parsons, a former Treadstone operative he has encountered. She tells him that Daniels has fled to Tangier and aids his escape from an arriving CIA unit, hinting at a romantic past prior to his amnesia.
Meanwhile, Blackbriar asset Desh Bouksani is tasked by Vosen with killing Daniels. Upon noticing that Nicky accessed information about Daniels, Vosen suspects her cooperation with Bourne; he orders Bouksani to kill Nicky and Bourne, a decision with which Landy fiercely disagrees. Bourne follows Bouksani and fails to prevent Daniels' assassination. He intercepts Bouksani, who is pursuing Nicky, and strangles him to death. Bourne sends Nicky into hiding. Examining the contents of Daniels' briefcase, Bourne finds the address of the deep-cover CIA bureau in NYC, where Vosen directs Blackbriar, and heads there.
Landy receives a phone call from Bourne, which is intercepted by Vosen. She tells him that his real name is David Webb and gives him the birth date "4-15-71". Vosen also intercepts a text to Landy from Bourne of a location to meet up, and leaves his office with a tactical team. Bourne, however, instead enters Vosen's office, and calls Vosen. Recording Vosen's voice, he accesses the Deputy Director's secure safe and takes classified Blackbriar documents. Realizing what is going on, Vosen sends Paz after Bourne and informs Dr. Albert Hirsch, the man who ran Treadstone's behavior modification program, of this situation. The resulting chase ends with both crashing their cars. Bourne holds the injured Paz at gunpoint, but spares his life.
Bourne meets Landy at a hospital at 415 East 71st Street, having figured out Landy's coded message. He gives Landy the Blackbriar files before going inside. Bourne confronts Hirsch about his past; Hirsch reveals Bourne actually volunteered for Treadstone, and willingly killed a man he knew nothing about to prove his loyalty. While fleeing to the roof, Bourne is confronted by Paz, who questions why Bourne spared him. Bourne asks Paz if he understands the motivation behind his assignments, repeating the final words of the Professor, a Treadstone asset: "Look at us. Look at what they make you give." Paz lowers his gun, but Vosen appears and shoots at Bourne, who jumps into the East River.
Three days later, Nicky watches a news broadcast about the exposure of Operation Blackbriar, the arrests of Hirsch and Vosen, a criminal investigation against Kramer, and the status of David Webb, a.k.a. Jason Bourne. Upon hearing that his body has not been found, Nicky smiles. He turns out to have survived the fall and swims into the darkness.
Cast
In addition, Colin Stinton plays Neal Daniels, a CIA Station Chief who is leaking information to Ross, while Joey Ansah plays Desh, the Blackbriar assassin sent to kill Daniels and later Bourne.
Production
The Bourne Ultimatum was filmed at Pinewood Studios near London and in multiple locations around the world, including Tangier, London, Paris, Madrid (as itself and double for Turin), Berlin (as double for Moscow), New York City including the Springs Mills Building (as the deep cover CIA offices), and other locations in the U.S.
Tony Gilroy, who had co-written the screenplays of the first two Bourne films, had intended The Bourne Supremacy to emphasise Bourne's repentance and atonement for his murders, but felt that the released film omitted this focus. Gilroy was persuaded to write an initial draft of The Bourne Ultimatum, but did not participate further, and as of 2009 had not watched the finished film. Gilroy's screenplay draft was subsequently criticized by Matt Damon.Tom Stoppard wrote a draft of the screenplay, later saying "I don't think there's a single word of mine in the film."
Greengrass said the film included several allusions to scenes from previous Bourne films. Most of the film's runtime takes place within the events of The Bourne Supremacy, with the opening chase sequence picking up immediately after Bourne's confrontation with Kirill in Moscow near the end of previous film and takes place soon after Bourne's apology to Neski's daughter. Before the third act, the film recreates Bourne's phone call to Landy in the final scene of Supremacy, and then moves past it in the timeline.
Paul Greengrass spoke about the characterization of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Ultimatum shortly before its release:
Visual effects The visual effects for the film were produced by Double Negative, marking their second collaboration with a movie directed by Paul Greengrass, following United 93 (2006). The studio's production visual effects supervisor, Peter Chiang, oversaw the visual effects production with more than 590 "invisible" shots for the film being made, including set extensions, digital doubles, computer-generated cars, debris, and hundreds of 2D fixes, all of which were for key sequences in the movie.
Music
The Bourne Ultimatum: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the official soundtrack for the film. As with the previous installments in the Bourne film series, the score was composed by John Powell, and the soundtrack was released by Decca Records in 2007. A new version of Moby's single "Extreme Ways", entitled "Extreme Ways (Bourne's Ultimatum)", was recorded for the film's end credits.
"Scotty Doesn't Know", which Bourne listens to while sniping, is a song that Damon's character sings in EuroTrip.
Release A premiere of The Bourne Ultimatum was held in downtown Oklahoma City on July 31, 2007, at Harkins Bricktown Theaters to benefit The Children's Center, located in suburban Bethany. The film was shown simultaneously on three screens. Matt Damon was at the event to greet guests. The film premiered at Leicester Square in London on August 15, 2007, with Matt Damon, Julia Stiles and Joan Allen attending. The film was released the next day. The film premiered in Sydney on August 8, 2007, at the State Theatre, with Matt Damon attending. An advance screening of The Bourne Ultimatum was held at The Egyptian Theatre to benefit Boise Contemporary Theater on July 30, 2007. Producer Frank Marshall and actor Matt Damon were in attendance. The first two films, The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy, also had advance charity screenings in Boise. The Bourne Ultimatum was released nationwide on August 30, 2007.
Home media The film was released on both DVD and HD DVD on December 11, 2007 in North America. The DVD was released in both Fullscreen and 2.35:1 Widescreen aspect ratios. The HD DVD and DVD special features include several deleted scenes, featurettes, audio commentary, and exclusively on the HD DVD version, HDi Interactive Format features such as Picture-in-Picture Video Commentary. In addition to the stand-alone DVD release, there is a limited edition 'The Jason Bourne Collection' gift set, featuring all three films on DVD and a bonus disc with myriad bonus features such as deleted scenes and featurettes. The gift set features Swiss Bank safe deposit box packaging including foreign currency and a Jason Bourne passport. The film and special features on the HD DVD version are presented in 2:35:1 Widescreen high definition 1080i and offer Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio options.
Reception
Box office The Bourne Ultimatum earned $69,283,690 during its opening weekend at the box office, which at the time had the highest August opening weekend, beating Rush Hour 2. It would hold that record for seven years until it was overtaken by Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. At the end of its theatrical release, the film grossed a total of $227,471,070 in the U.S. and $216,572,326 in foreign markets for a worldwide total of $444,043,396, making it the highest-grossing film in the series.
Critical response The Bourne Ultimatum garnered acclaim from critics, with praise for its intense action, gritty realism, rapid pacing, and Matt Damon's performance. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported that out of 263 critic reviews, 92% of them were positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's consensus states: "The Bourne Ultimatum is an intelligent, finely tuned non-stop thrill ride. Another strong performance from Matt Damon and sharp camerawork from Paul Greengrass make this the finest installment of the Bourne trilogy." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A" on scale of A+ to F. All segments of the audience gave it a grade "A" or better. The audience was 56% male, and 82% was 25 or older.
Like its predecessor, The Bourne Supremacy, the film was criticized for its use of "shaky" camerawork, as Richard Corliss of Time magazine, in an otherwise positive review, wondered "why, in the chat scenes, the camera is afflicted with Parkinson's? The film frame trembles, obscures the speaker with the listener's shoulder, annoys viewers and distracts them from the content of the scene."