I'm going to an advanced screening of this flick on Tuesday. I'll let you know how it was.

Well, due to serious overbooking I didn't get to see this flick.

But, I got to see Insomnia instead so it worked out in the end.

Just saw it.

Very good.

Spoiler Warning:

Nit: In the car chase scene, Jason drives on the right side of the road. Europeans drive on the left side of the road. ^_^

CC, thanks for the warning, but that's not really a spoiler. In any action movie, there's *ALWAYS* a car chase scene.

Was thinking that, Scott, but with some people I know, they'd say it was.

Nitting a nit: IIRC England, Finland, and Japan are the only places where they drive on the left.

*blows Sam a big raspberry* PBBBBTT!!!!

What-EVER!

She even had a car that had the steering wheel on the left side.

S. Donaldson:
Nitting a nit: IIRC England, Finland, and Japan are the only places where they drive on the left.

Oh really? Maybe that's why I've had several head on collisions here in Ireland where I've been driving on the left for all of my audult life! Oh wait, I haven't had any crashes and everyone else is driving on the left too. Could it be that the above nit of a nit is in fact incorrect? Well sort of anyway. He is right that most of Europe drive on the right - including France and Switerland.

By the way, I think Australia are lefties too. Not sure bout that one though!

Thailand also drives on the left (as well as the middle and right when they feel like it) that's where I am now. They also have The Bourne Supremacy on DVD playing in a pub over here about two weeks before it's cinema release.

SPOILERS

****
Nits written on the go, during the movie.

++++

It's a miracle that in the dark night, with high waves, the fishermen find Bourne drifting in a black diving suit, when it's awfully hard to find people you're looking for, wearing orange life-vests and waving...

At least the suit explains why he didn't freeze in the water.

Giancarlo, the Italian fisherman who operates on him, is a strange kind of doc: he starts investigating the silver bullet, instead of patching up his patient first.

So when Bourne grabs him, Giancarlo firsts talks Italian (without subtitels), then the conversation switches to English. Because subtitles would be too difficult (like in "Red Alert", the movie about the russian sub, where they switched away from the subtitles after the first 10 min.s?)
Or does Bourne speak English all the time, and people answer him? (In that case, their proficiency in a second language is amazing.)

When Bourne is practising asking who he is, he speaks French and Dutch, so is he fluent in these languages (and other european ones, too)?

I really wish the movie would adress the multiple-language problem better - I couldn't figure out if Bourne and the others were supposed to be talking English, or the local language. Eg., when arriving in Paris, Bourne slips into French easily (and Marie doesn't have enough French to read the newspaper later - quite believable, you can't know every language).
But does this mean Bourne talks to the French farmer with the kids in English, too, instead of French?

When Bourne leaves the fishingboat, Giancarlo gives him a bit of money, but then Bourne travels to Switzerland with the TGV! That's not only the most famous french train, it's also the fastest, and therefore, likely to be most expensive.

When Bourne calls his flat in Paris, his answering machine is in English first, then french. Is this a good idea, or does Bourne know he mostly get calls from English-speaking people?

Three times in the same day, Bourne leaves a gun behind (at the park from the swiss police, at the bank, at the consulate). I wonder if he's really an American

When Bourne started beating the guards in the consulate, I thought that if he continues like that, he won't have any friends left soon. (Esp. since he went into the consulate to escape the Swiss police who were rightly mad at him for beating up two policemen in the night.)

In the consulate, Bourne grabs a floor plan in the 2nd floor, then runs up to 5th floor, and looks at it again. I don't think it will be useful there...

When Bourne goes through the emergency exit and gets ready to climb, with the bag strap over one shoulder, I was rolling my eyes that he should put the strap crosswise over the opposite shoulder before climbing. Promptly I was proven right when his bag fell down.

That piece of climbing Bourne does at the consulate, while not impossible, is nevertheless amazing, considering the temperature of the stone (his fingers should freeze after a few minutes, esp. when touching cold stone) and his bulky boots (which can't give him purchase on these small ledges.)

Strange that Marie doesn't think a guy who's wanted by the police and waves thousands of dollars around may have robbed a bank.

Bourne wonders who has money, a gun, and different passports in his bank account. What about a professional killer?

Even if this takes place in 2000, after the Schengen Abkommen (free travel inside EU countries), the Swiss isn't part of this. They must have crossed that border although both are wanted.... Remarkable.

Just how does the CIA find out all these facts about Marie so quickly? Even if she submitted some info to get the visa, things like telephone bills in Belgium etc. are private. Unless the CIA is very good at hacking into several different European computers and databases, I don't think they could've gotten this information legally.

I first wondered about Marie using the american euphenism of "Bathroom", until I saw she really wanted the bathroom, and not the toilet. (After driving the whole time, a shower would've been nice. Though it's lucky the hot water didn't work, otherwise she wouldn't have noticed the fight at all, and Bourne would've had to carrry her away half-naked.)

So what exactly alerted Bourne to the killer coming, when he was listening on the phone, and the water was running in the bathroom, and Marie talking? (he has somekind of ESP radar?)

The first few fights were pretty quick, but the one in his flat was very drawn-out and almost too violent.

The CIA does a very bad job, considering they know about the paris flat and have all the time to prepare it. Even if they want Bourne dead, why not arrange sth. less conspicious? Or if they want him shot, why not drug him first, take him to a quiet location and shoot him there, instead of using a submachine gun in a residental area? This is not normal in Paris!
I guess the CIA is so sloppy with their operations, they don't need somebody to tell their secrets, they mess up enough on their own

I wonder where Marie left her brains. She sees two guys fighting, and although she has driven Bourne for a few days, she doesn't know anyhting about him. But instead of getting out of the way (or grabbing the next chair to hit the bad guy) she stands around and watches.
And then she refuses to go to the police. Is she hungry for some adventure??? (After she was shocked when she saw the fight in the flat?)

So why does Bourne hide the bag in the central station? Won't he need the money and the stuff that could be clues during his search? (Or did he take the essential things out and put them into his coat pockets?)
It's also interesting that the usual lockers at European train stations have a time limit (max. 3 x 24 hours) on them, so he has to come back anyway. (This always makes me wonder about the US movies, where somebody finds a key that belongs to a locker in a bus terminal or similar, holding important information/stuff,... that has been occupied for who knows how long.)

The mini takes an awful lot of punishment during the chase in Paris, but still works fine...

Neither of them ever mentions going to a doctor or hospital about the amnesia (or Marie's shock).

I'm surprised that the police doesn't find them at the hotel, if the blonde agent has issued fake wanted posters for both, and they have to register with their passports when checking in?

Apparently, the CIA knows only one method to get rid of people: shoot them with guns. If the black guy already told the press he has important knowledge he wants to reveal, won't they get suspicious if he's shot? How about food poisoning, an overdosis of medication to cause a heart attack, sabotaging his car....

I'm very surprised that Bourne bribes the morgue attentdant with american dollars! Does he know there's a lot of trouble and some fees involved to change that into francs? And the bundles of money in the bank account were of different colors, presumably different countries. With all the asking around, Bourne didn't have the time to change some dollars into francs? Then where did they get all the change and tokes for the telephone calls, hotel, cafes, etc.?

When Bournes smashes the car window and shows Marie the wanted posters, the top line reads "Gesucht!" Why in German, if it's for the french police?

Out in the country: Just what kind of shot is in these thick bullets Bourne uses with the hunting rifle? It blows up a car, and the guy with glasses dies after two shots. Wouln't a hunting rifle uses birdshot or similar, instead of big killing bullets?

And Bourne must be pretty sure that there are only bad guys in the vicinty, and not some innocent hunters or similar.

Bourne tells Marie to vanish completly, and stop having friends. Just because he can't remember his family, doesn't mean it's easy for Marie to give up her grandmother and stepbrother. Normal people are attached to their friends and family and don't want to break contact with them.
Also, how would she know if he succeeds in solving the puzzle and stopping the trail, if she vanishes? Would she have to live the rest of her life looking over her shoulder?

When Bourne calls the last number on the cell phone from Guy with glasses, the blonde women routes the call to the CIA. Does Bourne not know cell phones can be easily traced to a certain area? (And the connection is very good for being in the woods somewhere).
That re-routing equipment the CIA uses to forward the cell phone call from Paris to CIA USA is a marvel of technology. Not only is the reception on Bourne's end crystal clear out in the neck of the woods (he doesn't shout as people usually do when the connection is bad, or get a beeping tone to indicate that the signal is so weak it has almost drained the battery - there's no time delay. We once calculated the time delay for phone calls using satellites between the US and Europein physics class as around 30 sec., and from personal experience (with normal phones) I can tell you that you need to get used to this kind of delay, because if you just interrupt the other person, some information will be lost.

Bourne then sets up a meeting in Paris at 5:30 pm. Does he know this will work with the time lag between the US and France of 6 hours, plus flight time and schedules?

When Bourne confronts CIA boss and has a flashback, we see he can't shoot the black guy because he's father of children. Oh pleeaaase, somebody put away the violins and cheese. I don't believe for one minute that somebody trained that efficiently as soldier, who has no problems or hesitation shooting or maiming other guys, will hesitate over a few children.
(When Elite troups are trained, they often have a pet as troup mascot, which the traines are asked to kill at the completion of the course, to show they are ready to kill everything when ordered to for the greater good.)

No wonder the CIA needs somebody who's invisible, if they always start shooting with machine guns. That's not a quiet way to blend into the neighborhood. (unless they had set up shop in the suburbs instead of central Paris.)

Oh shucks, what were TPTB /writers thinking to have Bourne fall from several stories, managing to shoot a guy in passing, and survive the crash because a body cushioned the fall? No way he just walks away dazed!

The CIA boss doesn't turn the body on the ground around to see if it's really Bourne?

So what was Treadstone? A program to condition these soldiers to be more efficient killers? Failed spectaluraly, then. And why would they need a special new problem, if the old methods work well enough? (since guy with glasses mentions headaches, I assume they want us to believe in some kind of special drugs. But that's not necessary. Normal conditioning works just fine with the right people.)
Or a program to teach people to be invisible? That wasn't successful, either, since Bourne made a lot of mistakes, allowing to be found easily.

So how did Bourne find Marie at the end, if he doesn't have the CIA resources at hand? Is he that expert at computer hacking? Did Marie tell him off-screen she always wanted to rent scooters in Greece?

Even with a lot of money, it would be difficult to disappear completly for a normal person who doesn't know where to get a false passport. And life as an illegal is very difficult. Maybe spies know how to do that, and illegal immigrants usually have their own network of family or the traders who smuggled them in.


I can't understand why Marie's drawn to Bourne. He's either totally stony-silent, or erupting in a temper. In between, he fights with people.


General impression:

A general action flick with major holes. From the hype around it, I expected much more.

My TV Guide says the movie is based on a book by Ludlum. Apparently, he writes in the same manner as Tom Clancy - I read one novel from him and disliked his attitude intensly.

Cynical Chick,

who told you that Europeans drive on the left? Continental Europe drives on the right (excepting the Finish), and the Isles (UK and Ireland) consider themselves special, anyway. Sweden was the last major country to switch over, and that was in the 60s.

I didn't think he hesitated because the guy was a father, but because the children were in his arms at the time. Still, it does seem kind of odd that he would hesitate.

As for Marie being drawn to Bourne, I've seen women that are attracted to guys that are much worse

"It's a miracle that in the dark night, with high waves, the fishermen find Bourne drifting in a black diving suit..." constanze

I believe Bourne's suit had a strobe light.

"In the consulate, Bourne grabs a floor plan in the 2nd floor, then runs up to 5th floor, and looks at it again. I don't think it will be useful there..." c

Most US consulates are like hotels, the floors are pretty much the same to keep cost down.

"Just how does the CIA find out all these facts about Marie so quickly?" c

The CIA usually has a good relationship with MI-6, Interpol, and other European agencies who would have access to these things. I'm not positive, but I don't believe there are restrictions on this information in many European coutries.

"So what exactly alerted Bourne to the killer coming...?" c

He heard the sound of the rope as the bad guy was repelling down the side of the building, just as we did.

"Just what kind of shot is in these thick bullets Bourne uses with the hunting rifle? It blows up a car, and the guy with glasses dies after two shots." c

It's a shotgun, not a rifle, and shotguns use shells, not bullets. I apologize if I sound condscending, I'm just letting you know. Bourne blows up a gas tank, natural I think, not the car since the guy drives away with the kids and Marie.

"When Elite troups are trained, they often have a pet as troup mascot..." c

What elite troops are these? I've worked with SEALS and have friends in SF, Rangers, and HRT and I've never heard of this.

I've not read the book, so I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that Treadstone is an advanced group of CIA assassins, more so than the regular ones, that undergo intense physical/psychological training that inculdes experimental drugs.

Are apartments in France also called flats? I thought this was a British term?

Forgot one; "(like in "Red Alert", the movie about the russian sub, where they switched away from the subtitles after the first 10 min.s?)" constanze

The movie was "The Hunt For Red October." I like the way they handled the subtitles in that movie but I was told, by people who are fluent in Russian, that they butchered the language.

Europeans drive on the left side of the road.
When my girlfriend and I were in Paris last year, the Parisians (and I assume all French) drove on the right hand side of the road.
This was filmed once before, for TV.

I think they drive on the right in Germany as well, but I'm not sure.

Constanze already mentioned needing a passport to travel around Europe during the time this movie was shot, but what about pulling into a seaport? Is there no customs or immigration pulling into port in the Med?

When Jason first got onto that broken fire escape he knocked most of the snow off, and you can see that as he's climbing around. When the marines show up however, there's still a lot of snow on it, with obvious footprints so I find it incredibly hard to believe that they would leave so soon.

There seems to be a little confusion about what languages are being spoke. Obviously, Borne is multilingual, to become more invisible one would think. I'm sure his memory problems have something to do with any inconsistancies.

Is the second Bourne movie somewhere else? I thought all three had their own board. Anywho, the first time I saw Bourne Supremacy I didn't care for it much and didn't follow it all that well, but I just watched it again recently and it was better than I remember.

I never knew Russian cars were so durable! Actually, I believe they're among of the worst in the world. When Jason is running around Berlin he escapes from a boat by climbing up a boat-hook to a bridge. With probably over twenty cops and CIA agents watching along the shore and other places, somehow, I doubt that. During the car chase the Russian police call for help from the FSB, and they show up in black Mercedes. Are these guys better drivers than patrol officers who are in their cars all the time or something? Also, the other bad guy chasing him said he was secret service; I thought that was the same as FSB in Russia?

I'm sure there were more but I don't remember now, oh well. Anybody on here read the books? I ask because I'm curious if they're any good.