The Bourne Supremacy

The second Jason Bourne movie, The Bourne Supremacy, came out in 2004. This is a good sequel with Jason (Matt Damon) still being pursued by Treadstone, or what remains of it. The film is rated PG-13 for violence and intense action and for brief language.

Jason and Marie (Franka Potente) have been on the run, most recently settling in Goa, India. A great thing about these films is the ground covered, literally, as we go continent hopping with Jason.

Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) is a higher level CIA staff who stumbles across Bourne’s existence and ruffles feathers at Langley when she insists on seeing classified information about Treadstone and Jason.

Jason is not one to be underestimated, as Nicky (Julia Stiles) warns the team of CIA operatives. Jason is fed up with being pursued and targeted for assassination, and is always one step ahead of those pursuing him.

Jason still struggles with headaches and his amnesia, while staying in shape and being aware of his surroundings. He is plagued by flashbacks of things that have happened in his past, dark secrets he almost doesn’t want to uncover. Is he really this cold blooded killer inside, coexisting with the man who loves Marie so completely, the man who can fight with trained assassins and win, the man who won’t pull the trigger, who has a conscience?

Jason is anything but simple. He is a complicated man trying to find his way, protecting himself and Marie as best he can, trying to find the way out from under government surveillance.

Pamela is a sharp woman, stopping at nothing to solve this mystery. She seems to respect Jason ultimately, just as Nicky does. What Jason does at the end of the film is touching and shows the true nature of the man inside, the part of him that couldn’t be shaped and molded by the military.

This is another good Bourne episode, one with the requisite action packed fighting sequences and high speed chases that one has come to expect from films with espionage and intrigue. They are just over the top crazy sequences; almost makes Jason seem superhuman at times. But that’s entertainment for you.

Why I keep watching this is because Jason is a complicated character, human, someone who has been used by the military with no regard for his own life or for human life. It’s a theme that is relevant today when soldiers are used and then sent home damaged, unable to function in society, depressed, suicidal, with PTSD and a lot to deal with. The average soldier though is not the almost superhuman Jason Bourne and has no resources to deal with the damage that’s been inflicted on him.

So there’s my plea for funding of programs for returning veterans. If they’re going to be used that way for the purposes of empire and the selfish wants of global corporations, the least we can do as fellow citizens is help them return and heal.

Stay tuned for the next Bourne review.