The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

And yet another incredibly misleading Bourne trailer!

Best out of the 4, hands down.

I think I kind of understand the handheld camera arguments both for and against.  I would have kept the style but with less actual limitations from jiggly cameras.

It’s the denouement, the third act, the finale, the end, the finish, the close, the coda.  A lot of the loose ends are tied up and while the mysteries about Treadstone and Blackbriar aren’t completely revealed, a lot of gaps are filled in with David Webb.  Supposedly his memory returns completely and he’ll be making some kind of reunion with Nicky Parsons.  This movie finishes Bourne’s de-evolution from killing machine back into human enough that we finally realize that unlike most movies like this, it was never so much about revenge as learning as much of the truth as he could to finally feel like he could be done with it all.  Act 1 was a collection of his and our revelations about the mystery man in the sea, Act 2 was his past come back to haunt him and his inability to remain aloof with who he had become and then with Act 3 comes resolution and the ability to stop killing and really walk away.

This movie clearly shows the effect the War on Terror was having on the genre and there are quite a few novel modern intelligence elements inserted (extraordinary rendition cough cough).  All 3 movies were made after 2001 but there is a tangible difference.  All 3 movies made efforts to show the governmental apparatuses at work but there is a definite shift in tone in this movie.  All 3 movies concern the CIA but this one adds the NSA.  Ask Glenn Greenwald how he feels about the Simon Ross character.

In the end, he may not have been able to become David Webb again but he was able to stop being Jason Bourne.

–Kryptosfan