Greengrass To Helm 'Bourne Ultimatum'
Hollywood movie-maker Paul Greengrass has signed up to direct Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum - the third installment of the action franchise. Speaking at Monday night's Empire Awards in London, the director, who also helmed The Bourne Supremacy after The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman pulled out, insisted The Bourne Ultimatum will be bigger and better than its predecessors in every way. He says, "We've got a script and we're underway. It's a new story, completely different from the novel. It was written by Tony Gilroy and Tom Stoppard. It's going to have all the excitement you'd expect from a Bourne film and all the intensity you'd expect from a Bourne story. I can't wait - it's just going to be f**king fantastic. It's going to rock. That's honestly what it's going to do. What direction? We'll have a better car chase, have more exciting action, more intensity and just generally be a f**king classy film. I think Matt Damon's looking forward to it like I am. It's going to be an absolute laugh."
Ignoring source material and writing something completely new - Strike One.
Trying to pitch the movie as an exciting, intense, fantastic, rocking, action, classy comedy - Strike Two.
Having no contact with star actor on project thus far - Foul Ball.
Wonder how it will turn out?
"a f**king classy film"
i love that. it must make its way onto the marquee somehow.
Quote from: Raikus on March 20, 2006, 09:51:40 AM
Ignoring source material and writing something completely new - Strike One.
Well, the first two movies came out okay, and they were about as close to the books as "She's The Man" is to Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" (less so, even!)
Bernal could be bad guy for new 'Bourne'
Source: Hollywood Reporter
"The Bourne Ultimatum," the third installment of the hit action series, began shooting this week in Tangier, but it is still without a worthy nemesis for its amnesiac spy hero, Jason Bourne.
With the clock ticking, an offer has gone out to Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal to take on the role, though negotiations have not yet begun. Bernal, whose credits include "Amores Perros," "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and "The Motorcycle Diaries," is currently in theaters with Michel Gondry's whimsical comedy-drama "The Science of Sleep."
Matt Damon reprises his title role, and Joan Allen and Julia Stiles are also back, as is Paul Greengrass, who directed the 2004 sequel "The Bourne Supremacy." David Strathairn ("Good Night, and Good Luck") is new to the cast.
The story centers on Bourne uncovering mysteries of his past, which puts him in the cross-hairs of a superkiller. In addition to Tangier, shooting locations include Madrid, Paris, New York, London and Riga.
While it is unusual for a major production to begin filming without having cast a central role, it is not without precedent. Last year, the James Bond movie "Casino Royale" kicked off its production without either an opponent for 007 or a leading lady.
No Bernal for The Bourne Ultimatum
Source: CHUD
Several weeks ago, The Hollywood Reporter said that an offer had gone out to Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal to play the nemesis in The Bourne Ultimatum, which is currently shooting. CHUD caught up with the actor, who said he's not taking on the role.
"I love those movies," he told me, but he won't be taking the role. The reason, he said is that he's finishing up his directorial debut, Deficit, a film about some rich boys who learn some tough lessons. It's a vague description, but Bernal says that because hes basically rewriting the film in the editing room.
The third installment of the Jason Bourne franchise, directed by Paul Greengrass, stars Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, David Strathairn and Paddy Considine. The film's shooting locations include Tangier, Madrid, Paris, New York, London and Riga.
Ramirez is the Bourne Ultimatum Baddie
Source: Empire Online
Empire Online has learned that Edgar Ramirez (Domino) has landed the role of Paz, the villain in The Bourne Ultimatum. The sequel is currently filming for an August 3 release.
In the new chapter of this espionage series, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris, Madrid and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne--all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their crosshairs.
Directed by Paul Greengrass, the Universal feature also stars Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, David Strathairn and Paddy Considine.
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Trailer here. (http://trailerjunkie.de/The_Bourne_Ultimatum.mov)
Release Date: August 3rd, 2007 (wide)
Starring: Matt Damon, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Paddy Considine
Directed by: Paul Greengrass (United 93; The Bourne Supremacy)
Premise: Legendary assassin Jason Bourne uncovers mysteries of his past, which puts him in the cross-hairs of a superkiller.
Quote from: MacGuffin on March 28, 2007, 01:53:36 PM
Premise: Legendary assassin Jason Bourne uncovers mysteries of his past, which puts him in the cross-hairs of a superkiller.
I'll see this with some glee, but the only motivation now for the series seems to be able outdue the action sequences of the last. Jason Bourne is now super agent and the only new potential storyline is the addition of an even greater super killer for Bourne to defeat. His past, his characterization, all supposebly there, but all of little interest. This film will be dense with overbaked filmmaking to just show action.
The Bourne Identity was an average film, but had a unique spin. It focused on the intangibles that made Bourne unique and that led him to some self discovery. Then the Bourne Supremacy exploited it. I'm guessing Ultimatum will continue the exploitation.
New Trailer here. (http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1571292&sdm=web&qtw=480&qth=300)
The Bourne Ultimatum
Source: Entertainment Weekly
Here's a confession from a longtime summer-movie buff. Every time I see that black CG goo oozing over Tobey Maguire's Spidey suit in the Spider-Man 3 trailer — and every time I see Davy Jones' tentacle beard squiggling in the Pirates 3 ads, or even Optimus Prime jackknifing into computer-assisted life in the cool Transformers TV spots — it makes me that much more jazzed to catch The Bourne Ultimatum on Aug. 3.
No offense to Spidey, Davy, or Mr. Prime — see all you dudes on opening weekend — but at the moment, the Bourne movies are the best thing going for the thinking action fan. The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy are sleek, old-school spy vehicles: pile-driving, character-driven, and anchored by a riveting hero who is in no way played by a computer. As Jason Bourne, the CIA-trained amnesiac assassin screwed over by his government, Matt Damon has found a role perfectly constructed for his tightly coiled and wounded mien. And the Bourne movies are currently doing more than any other franchise to bring verisimilitude back to the blockbuster, which every year seems to be losing more and more of its soul to the encroaching black goo of CG fantasy.
''I think the unique thing about the franchise is that it has got that root in reality,'' says Paul Greengrass, the director of Supremacy and Ultimatum, and a recent Oscar nominee for United 93. ''Bourne's not a superhero, is he? I always remember that moment in Supremacy when he uses the magazine in the fight, and it's nothing — just a magazine. He doesn't worship at the altar of technology like a lot of these heroes do, with their bigger and bigger cars and gadgets. I think that helps ground him.'' Indeed, it was astonishing, last fall, to witness the obvious influence Bourne exerted on the grittier, shorter, more muscular, more vulnerable, and suddenly more realistic James Bond in Casino Royale. The upstart had schooled the granddaddy.
Despite being loosely based on Robert Ludlum's spy trilogy, the Bourne movies weren't originally conceived as summer-movie franchise fodder. Identity was slated for release in the fall of 2001 until director Doug Liman's reshoots forced a move to June 2002. And at the time, Damon's status as a leading man was scuffling — he'd seen All the Pretty Horses and The Legend of Bagger Vance tank. But Identity was a surprise hit, winning over critics and grossing $122 million. And when 2004 rolled around, Supremacy was an even bigger one, grossing $53 million on its opening weekend and a domestic total of $176 million. All of which presented an amusing problem: Nobody had gotten around to thinking what they'd do if audiences demanded a third movie.
''We made each movie with absolutely no eye to the next,'' says Damon. ''If we had thought, 'Well, we're gonna make three or six or ten, then I don't think we would've killed Marie [his love interest in Identity, played by Franka Potente], because that's something you want to save.'' Then he laughs. ''Maybe we would've let them run around the world for part 2, and held back her death for part 3. But it's a cynical approach to think, 'Okay, this is going to be a big franchise.' We didn't want to do that.''
So what is Bourne up to in Ultimatum? If the strong story hook of Supremacy was Marie's death, Greengrass explains, this time the heart of the movie is ''bringing Bourne home'' as he still tries to unravel the secrets of his famously lost identity. En route, the superspy takes on a new breed of government assassins overseen by a new character played by David Strathairn. Eventually, after a motorbike and rooftop chase through Tangier, Bourne ends up back in New York, where the film climaxes with a car chase through midtown and downtown Manhattan that took six weeks to film. ''We've had two really great chases in the previous films,'' explains Damon, ''and they were both stepchildren of the one in The French Connection in a way, and so we felt we had to dare to go back to New York.'' Greengrass promises the scene adheres to ''the Bourne aesthetic,'' which means he actually shot in the city streets, and the sequence isn't digitally created.
The director adds that even though this Bourne trilogy is completed, he'd love to see the character keep going. ''The Bourne movies stand out because Bourne is a real man, in a real world,'' he says. ''And he's in pursuit of a quest that's as mythic and old as Greek tragedy: He's in search of his identity. And when you marry those things together as a Bourne movie, it's a precious thing. It's not just a big-budget popcorn movie — I mean, it's gotta be that, it's gotta work on a Saturday night throughout the world. But if it's just that, it's not a Bourne movie. Then it's just like all the others.''
No More Bourne for Matt Damon
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Matt Damon told the press today in Cannes that The Bourne Ultimatum will be his last time to play Jason Bourne, despite the franchise earning hundreds of millions of dollars around the world.
"The 'Bourne' thing I'm definitely done with," Damon said, as he sat in a news conference with co-stars from Ocean's Thirteen, which was being shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Oscar-winner added, though, that the Bourne character may well live on, played by another actor, much like the James Bond series.
The Bourne Ultimatum opens in theaters on August 3.
Circuit City has the first two Bourne films on DVD for $3.99 this Memorial Day weekend.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolcdn.com%2Fmoviefeatures%2Fbourne-ultimatum-poster-425&hash=5b98d31b5d1c348bcdc91d67d4445c0a0638498e)
New Trailer here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/thebourneultimatum/)
nice trailer. what happened to his voice?
tagline should say "this summer bourne comes home, or else.." it would both make sense and not make sense at the same time.
it'd be cooler if home were snowdon, wales. consider the action..
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Spoilers......This is really good.
It doesn't re-establish what made The Bourne Identity good, but it is a quality non-stop thrill ride. The action sequences aren't repititious or limited like in Supremacy, but intricate and well thought out here. The film kept surprising me with new twists and details to the action. Nothing was too overblown or ridiculous, but tightly focused and a lot of fun.
I think this is the movie Live Free or Die Hard wanted to be, a continuous amount of action scenes for just a good time. Of course Die Hard had the dumbest overblown ideas and didn't even tie the action scenes into the story. Ultimatum managed to have multiple storylines mixed into the action, like when Bourne is evading police by jumping roof tops while trying to locate and save Nikki from an assasin.
The film didn't try to do too much. It just is what it is. I expected a melodramatic ending with Bourne getting his freedom but it ended a much subtler note.
As a sidenote, I hope this isn't the end. The film suggested there was a backstory between Bourne and Nikki. It should resolve that.
I agree with everything GT said, expect that Die Hard and this are completely different movies. Die Hard is a little absurd on purpose and this one stays more within realistic possibilities (even though at some points goes borderline).
This was for sure one of the best summer movies, and probably the best sequel of the year (which wasnt too hard to accomplish). I was excited and entertained and happy every minute of it.
SPOILERS
I loved the action scenes and how the story came together. I was wondering how they were going to match the ending of the 2 with how this one started but it was all perfect. The Nikki/Bourne thing was cool and I liked that they left it there. The ending was excellent... when the music started playing I wanted to jump.
I dont know how soon there will be another one, but I know somebody now took over the writing for the new Bourne books. If they write more books they will probably make more movies. I hope Damon is on board because he is impressive and great in this role. He is a badass Jack Bauer / James Bond character.
I'm with GT. This was very good. It keeps the consistancy of the character and series, making for a great bookend for the trilogy (if it does end here).
My only gripe is, like the tunnel chase of Supremacy, the jumpy, bouncy handheld camera work in some of the chases is just way too disorienting and distracting.
Quote from: MacGuffin on August 05, 2007, 11:30:51 AM
My only gripe is, like the tunnel chase of Supremacy, the jumpy, bouncy handheld camera work in some of the chases is just way too disorienting and distracting.
I don't like Greengrass as a director. It's fine if he wants to build tension, but his camera tricks become nauseating.
I wish the film would have built to a little more instead of repeating many of the themes of the second movie. What we're left with is a very, very long chase sequence. Nothing more.
And they even used old faithful.
"You have no idea what you're dealing with!"
It had the biggest August opening ever (70M) and a lot more than the other Bourne films... so probably the 4th one is already in pre-production starting tomorrow... I wonder when the book comes out.
Quote from: The Red Vine on August 05, 2007, 11:50:28 AM
Quote from: MacGuffin on August 05, 2007, 11:30:51 AM
My only gripe is, like the tunnel chase of Supremacy, the jumpy, bouncy handheld camera work in some of the chases is just way too disorienting and distracting.
I don't like Greengrass as a director. It's fine if he wants to build tension, but his camera tricks become nauseating.
I actually blame the Second Unit Director:
According to Bradley, the real secret to avoiding action that looks staged in the "Bourne" films is rehearsing a great deal then going for a chaotic and frenetic blend of action. "I tell my camera department that I really want to feel lucky that I got to see the moment," said Bradley, who, as second unit director, typically runs a second unit camera crew. "I don't want them putting the cross hairs on the action and panning on the scene perfectly. I would rather feel like it's going so fast and furiously that it's really hard to keep in the frame. The hard part is that camera guys train their entire careers not to do that. They train to make it smooth and perfect. I just go in and tell them to 'F it up more.' "
I sorta dig the shaky camera work. Not so much when they're doing car chases, but the fight scenes I think feel more intense because of the technique.
ah, that's what happens when directors don't know how to do action and leave the best parts of their movies to stunt coordinators.
Quote from: MacGuffin on August 05, 2007, 11:30:51 AM
I'm with GT. This was very good. It keeps the consistancy of the character and series, making for a great bookend for the trilogy (if it does end here).
My only gripe is, like the tunnel chase of Supremacy, the jumpy, bouncy handheld camera work in some of the chases is just way too disorienting and distracting.
was gonna say i agree with GT but this one actually holds the par perfectly which is still (as noted) in agreeance with Geets.
Well, the filmmaking by Greengrass isn't going to change. No matter what the story is. I've come to accept it. I thought he could have filmed this a lot better. Making it look standard wouldn't have worked though. The gritty feel makes this Bourne film work a lot better. He just could have had some workable scheme. Greengrass doesn't have different speeds to his editing. He doesn't have different variations. It is all gritty and intense.
He's a limited filmmaker, but this film is good because of the well thought out action scenes. It is good for how perfect Matt Damon is as Jason Bourne. Greengrass being erratic won't make or break it.
Quote from: pozer on August 06, 2007, 12:45:14 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on August 05, 2007, 11:30:51 AM
I'm with GT. This was very good. It keeps the consistancy of the character and series, making for a great bookend for the trilogy (if it does end here).
My only gripe is, like the tunnel chase of Supremacy, the jumpy, bouncy handheld camera work in some of the chases is just way too disorienting and distracting.
was gonna say i agree with GT but this one actually holds the par perfectly which is still (as noted) in agreeance with Geets.
edit: this actually sums up best the way i feel about the movie http://youtube.com/watch?v=gnPWJOJYVKc (http://youtube.com/watch?v=gnPWJOJYVKc)
so I went and saw this movie and it was pretty good. the fights were pretty cool. well-placed too. the pacing and the buildup to the fight in the waterloo station and then later in morocco were both pretty great. they also managed to make pakour seem less trendy. the filmmaking was fairly standard-- high tech stuff with a handheld camera, but it got the job done. I know I'm the only one on this board that talks about fight choreography, but they clearly took a combination that was inspired by Fist of Legend!
I really really really loved this. It was constructed very well and I couldn't wait to know where it was going. I also was anticipating his move to NYC. The car chase scenes were amazing and had me clenching because I hate being i car cashes and I've been in more than my fair share of them. But man, was this movie worth it, my only drawback I have to say is that the hand held camera work got a bit redundent and left me with some motion sickness. But so did Hard candy and Irreversible and I still got those on DVD.
I loved this, too. What really impressed me is how they managed to keep all the trademarks of a Bourne film (Car chase, hand-to-hand assassin combat, hazy flashbacks and CIA tracking) without once feeling forced. To do that whilst topping
Identity and
Supremacy on both scale and execution in all those elements is really impressive.
I'm looking forward to finding out about
that window jump shot. I'm guessing it was some kind of Skycrane. I don't feel bad to admire this film so much for its technical execution because this series has married filmmaking technique perfectly with the material. Okay, with the fight choreography, as Pete says, there is some borrowing and I'm reminded of Friedkin with
The Hunted (and obviously
The French Connection) for a lot of the chase and combat scenes.
And yes, there have been others before the Bourne series and there'll probably be more but I think this is the first film of it's kind to get it really right. To do this as a series of three equally successful films is unprecedented and rare.
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on August 03, 2007, 02:43:36 PM
As a sidenote, I hope this isn't the end. The film suggested there was a backstory between Bourne and Nikki. It should resolve that.
I've been wondering what could possibly bring the Bourne team back but this is it. Exactly right.
Quote from: Redlum on August 18, 2007, 01:10:30 PMI'm looking forward to finding out about that window jump shot. I'm guessing it was some kind of Skycrane.
Here's the entire article I quoted from:
How 'The Bourne Ultimatum' got its thrillsFranchise's latest installment takes the action to new heights.Source: Los Angeles Times
Jason Bourne could destroy Indiana Jones if it came down to a fight, according to Dan Bradley, the mastermind behind the action in "The Bourne Ultimatum," its predecessor "The Bourne Supremacy" and Steven Spielberg's upcoming fourth installment of "Indiana Jones."
"There are two actors I've worked with who would make top-notch fight guys as actual stuntmen, and that's Matt Damon and Harrison Ford," says Bradley, who is officially credited as second unit director and stunt coordinator, but is known in the industry as one of the preeminent action directors working. Despite the real-life actors' fighting abilities, and even figuring in their age differences, Bradley still thinks Bourne would kill Indy. " 'Bourne' is pretty hard-edged, realistic stuff, and 'Indy' is very much cliffhanger, B-movie, old-school action style," he explained on a recent phone call from the "Indiana Jones" set in Hawaii.
For that matter, Bradley says, Bourne could take James Bond and Spider-Man too. (He speaks from experience, having directed the action on the second and third installments of "Spider-Man," and he's about to jump into director Marc Foster's "Bond 22" in Europe.)
"People are really entertained by a big cartoon, but I don't think people are as convinced on a visceral or emotional level" by Spider-Man, Bradley explained. "Whereas I think James Bond is more about gadgets. With Bourne, it's more about his sheer intellect and will. I think the reason Bourne has captured the audience he has is because he's a thinking man's action hero."
With "Bourne Ultimatum," Bradley delivers three big action sequences, each bound to influence the action-direction canon in some way. First is a chase scene on foot inside the bustling Waterloo train station in London, where Bourne meets up with a reporter (Paddy Considine) who knows his spy agency's secrets.
It is followed by a breathtaking rooftop chase and brutal fight sequence the crew shot for 14 days in the medina in Tangier, Morocco, during Ramadan. The action is centered on Bourne and Desh (Joey Ansah), a newer black-ops agent, who has an order to kill Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles).
In one shot, touted in the movie's trailer, Bourne leaps down from a rooftop to crash into a picture window. The action was captured by a stuntman who jumped right behind Bourne while carrying a small, lightweight Arriflex 235 film camera."I very often hand cameras to stunt people," Bradley said. "They're not too freaked out about getting hit or sliding under something while holding a camera. Some of the best shots in 'Supremacy' and 'Ultimatum' are because the stunt guys were operating."
If anything differentiates Bradley's approach to choreographing and shooting action, it is this first-person point of view that he said he gleaned from his days working as a stuntman.
It was the bare-knuckle, six-minute car chase through a Moscow tunnel in "Supremacy" that catapulted Bradley into the limelight, making action directors around the world reconsider how to stage convincing action set pieces.
"I always try to make it very, very real," he said. "So, I used my own experience as a stuntman. I've driven in hundreds of car chases, and I always saw these amazing things that were never captured on film. So my intention was just to go out and shoot my own experience."
For "Ultimatum," Damon and the studio asked Bradley to devise a condensed version of his Moscow car chase sequence. But this time, he was given half the screen time and taxed with incorporating the same amount of action while setting it all in Manhattan's congested streets in the middle of the day. Bradley put Bourne in a small police car and has the amnesiac spy doing skateboard grinds off of cement barriers.
"I think it's a bit of a gamble to do another big car chase," Bradley said. "There's an argument to do it and there's an argument to do something different. But they wanted a newer car chase. So I am anxiously waiting to see how the audience reacts to this one."
According to Bradley, the real secret to avoiding action that looks staged in the "Bourne" films is rehearsing a great deal then going for a chaotic and frenetic blend of action. "I tell my camera department that I really want to feel lucky that I got to see the moment," said Bradley, who, as second unit director, typically runs a second unit camera crew. "I don't want them putting the cross hairs on the action and panning on the scene perfectly. I would rather feel like it's going so fast and furiously that it's really hard to keep in the frame. The hard part is that camera guys train their entire careers not to do that. They train to make it smooth and perfect. I just go in and tell them to 'F it up more.' "
Wow. Thanks Mac.
I hope a making-of crew captured that.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4bKAKsC4Pf0
I think a few different making of videos all had that shot in different sizes. The camera operator was on a harness rig. He didn't jump through the window but off of the rooftop.
the hong kong film "time and tide" had a lot of shots like this, in which the cameraman swung bounced around between buildings on a cable, following the action. check it out if you're bored (http://youtube.com/watch?v=g4GvtiTmx-c).
the rooftop chase was still very cool though. as I've been insisting--pakour is going to be the new hip thing and in a year or two, you'll be seeing pakour in every other action movie, just as they've been doing flying kungfu for the past 10 years. pakour will take it over. however, in bourne ultimatum it did not feel like a nike commercial (like it did in the first bond movie) or anything trendy. they added a lot of gritty details (like the broken glass), a lot of geography, and a few vulnerable characters, to make the whole scene feel very engaging.
i was asleep during this whole sequence and woke up just as it was ending.
I think I wet myself.
Quote from: Pubrick on August 15, 2007, 12:42:43 AM
to replace bergman..
Stina Nordenstam cowboykurtis and fulty: STILL ALIVE
Quote from: pete on August 19, 2007, 05:33:10 AM
the hong kong film "time and tide" had a lot of shots like this, in which the cameraman swung bounced around between buildings on a cable, following the action. check it out if you're bored (http://youtube.com/watch?v=g4GvtiTmx-c).
I bought Time and Tide ages ago. I can't believe I haven't watched it yet.
I can't add much to the praise for this film. This is a tight, entertaining action thriller.
David Bordwell's take on the Bourne style (http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?m=200708)
wow, I guess when you put enough monkeys in front of enough keyboards with matt damon in their minds, you do get a few paragraphs of grammatically correct sentences.
Finally got around to seeing these movies. The first one is meh (except for the car chase with the little red car). Supremacy was good and a clear step up in realism. But Ultimatum is amazing. I can't think of an "action" movie that I genuinely like more than this.
In particular, the Waterloo sequence (the surveillance chase scene) completely blew me away. There have probably been other surveillance chase scenes, but surely none as complex and beautiful as this one.
yes that was the best.
I think speilberg in minority report tried something like this, but didn't really build up like this.
I mentioned elsewhere (or on facebook?) in a conversation with GT, about the action films that sum up an era. He said Die Hard really defined the 80s, as themes and aesthetics all added up to this one movie at the end of the era. Then we had dozens of movies imitating that premise. Similarly then, I thought Matrix summarized the 90s. And in the same way, I think Bourne Ultimatum did it to the 00's.
die hard was about the excess and nihilistic greed, as the Christmas-ignoring, mega rich Japanese are kept hostage by thieves posting as ideological terrorists.
matrix had that y2k paranoia coupled with some kinda multicultural fantasy, in which, beneath all the machines that keep us isolated and selfish, there is some kinda tribal, east meets west, one-philosophy-fits-all connection that will help us triumph over the machines.
and bourne tapes into the bush-era confusion. it didn't start out that way but began heading that direction as the series went on. it's one american trying to absolve himself of sins that he didn't know why he'd committed in the first place. it was about the dangers of that nationalistic fervor.
then there were all the action aesthetics to go with the movie. the die hard series tapped into the thrillers in the 70s, all about how the EveryMan is able to trump the odds and outwit and out-brawn insurmountable obstacles. but as time went on, the EveryMan in the movie slowly becomes more and more super-heroic.
And that comes in a time where Jackie Chan, the Ultimate EveryMan, blurs the line by performing superheroic feats and doing his own stunts. Then there comes this stunt fetish, which crosses its path with the maturation of computer technology. All of a sudden every actor is Doing His Own Stunts, and coordinators and directors are outsourced from Hong Kong. Then the audience grows tired of the EveryMan, of the gritty or realistic action heroes, and big ridiculous movies, starting with The Rock (Which still has that EveryMan Trapped in a Place Against Evil Guys) plot, and out of all that comes The Matrix.
So after The Matrix, the game changes, and everyone is flying and doing kungfu. Every SuperHero is now a martial artist. While most of the studios still follow that model to this day, there begins a more "liberal" strain of mainstream filmmaking where the hero is a journalist, uncovering international conspiracies that are Ripped from Headlines (which is an evolution of the post-matrix paranoia, except it's now political as opposed to technological), all the while moving away from the Clancy-esque intrigues to something much more simple; Innocent, Civilian-Minded EveryMan Who Happens to be a SuperHero (bourne, bond, Hanna, liam neeson in Taken, the new "gritty" Miami Vice, Clive Owen in The International...etc.) battles something Americans vaguely know something about.
It's also this relentless American obsession with realism - even in fantasies, Americans want these feats justified - Crouching Tiger begins with an explanation on kungfu people's "enlightenment", Matrix uses the computer programs, so now, especially after The Seals having taken out Bin Laden, we are going to get a bunch more movies where specialized tactical training will justify every spectacle.
So, as it emerges - super spies and special forces are our new super heroes (who were the EveryMan), parkour and closer quarter combat have taken over flying and kungfu.
rambling over