The Bourne Identity
Short description
A man is pulled from the sea by the crew of an Italian fishing boat, gravely wounded and with no memory of who he is. He carries a bank account number and little else, and what he discovers about himself points to a dangerous past: he speaks several languages fluently, handles weapons with ease, and reacts to threats with trained precision. His search for his identity takes him to Zurich, where the contents of a safe deposit box deepen the mystery rather than resolve it. He is Jason Bourne, and the people who once employed him now want him dead. With help from a German woman named Marie, whom he persuades to drive him onward, he tries to stay ahead of pursuers while piecing together his past.
Doug Liman directed the film, the third of fourteen features he has made in chronological order, following Go and preceding Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Matt Damon plays Bourne, with Franka Potente as Marie, and Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in supporting roles. Tony Gilroy and W. Blake Herron wrote the screenplay, and Liman produced with Richard N. Gladstein and Patrick Crowley.
Made for about 60 million dollars, the film returned roughly 214 million worldwide, a strong multiple of its cost. On IMDb it holds 7.8 from around 611,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.5 from over 10,000. A critics' rating of 7.1 from 192 reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- A Russian foreign passport in the name of “Foma Kiniaev” displays the surname as “Ащьф Лштшфум” in Russian, which corresponds to the name “Foma Kiniaev” typed with the Russian keyboard layout enabled.
- The film was originally scheduled for release on September 7, 2001. However, when the filmmakers decided to rework the ending, the premiere was pushed back to May 31, 2002. After that, the release date was changed again to June 14, 2002.
- In the scene with Wambosi's murder, as he descends the stairs, he is not wearing a jacket (he is carrying it in his hand), but at the moment of the shooting and in the subsequent scene, the jacket is already on him.
- The film is based on Robert Ludlum's novel "The Bourne Identity" (1980).
- Filming scenes with Brian Cox and Chris Cooper took about five days. However, both actors later returned to the set to participate in reshoots.
- During the fight between Bourne and the Professor, the latter pulls a Walther P5 Compact pistol from his bag, but when he drops it, a CZ 100 pistol is lying on the ground instead.
- At the beginning of the film, Jason Bourne looks in a mirror and speaks in Dutch: “Weet je wie ik ben? Hou dan godverdomme op met dat gezeik en zeg het me,” which translates to: “Do you know who I am? Then stop talking nonsense and tell me.”
- Brian Cox (Ward Abbott) had previously played in a film about an assassin suffering from memory loss after a trauma, in the 1996 film "The Long Kiss Goodnight".
- One of the rare films not burdened with a large number of opening credits.
- David Self is listed as one of the authors of the screenplay dated September 2, 2000. However, his name does not appear among the screenwriters in the finished film.
- The role of Jason Bourne was offered to Brad Pitt, but he chose to star in "Spy Game" (2001).
- Most of the extras, portraying American soldiers at the American embassy in Zurich, were real US Marines sent to Europe at the request of producer Frank Marshall. Naturally, they did not need to be provided with special uniforms. Together with the director, they worked on the dialogues (which were ultimately cut from the film) and developed tactical plans for filming the embassy operation.
- Director Doug Liman did not allow screenwriter Tony Gilroy to read the novel "The Bourne Identity," on which the film was based. Instead, Doug prepared a script outline, which Mr. Gilroy had to work with.
- Principal photography for the film took place from October 31, 2000, to February 2001 in the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.
- The Professor’s rifle is a Swiss SIG 550 Sniper.
- The special edition DVD of the film for Region 2 lacks the title card present in both the theatrical and alternative versions. At the beginning of the film, viewers only see the Universal Studios logo, but the credits do not appear until the end, and even then, the title card is missing.
- Clive Owen's character drives a BMW in the film. Interestingly, Clive is a brand ambassador for BMW – he has starred in several commercials for them.
- During the chase scene at the American embassy in Zurich, Bourne escapes through an emergency exit. He descends from a metal platform and hangs from the stairs by his hands. At that moment, the camera focuses on the platform he climbed down from, revealing that there is no snow on it (the snow was blown off when the platform’s supports couldn’t handle Bourne’s weight). When the embassy soldiers later ran out of the emergency exit, snow is visible on the platform.
- In the first version of the script, Marie was American, her last name was Parsell, and she had green hair. In the film, she is German, her last name is Kreutz, and she changes her hair color several times throughout the movie.
- Composer Carter Burwell was actively working on the soundtrack for the film, but due to a delay in its release, he was forced to leave the project in 2001.
- The pistol Bourne discovers in the bank safe deposit box in Zurich is a SIG-Sauer SIG Pro SP2009 (9mm).
- Robert Ludlum, the author of the Jason Bourne books, died during post-production on March 12, 2001.
- The film's release date was originally scheduled for June 2001. The delay was due to the director Doug Liman's desire to reshoot some scenes, particularly the famous chase scene in the middle of the film.
- Among the items Bourne finds in his safe deposit box at the Gemeinschaftsbank in Zurich are an American Express credit card and a rather rare Air France Club 2000 frequent flyer card. This card is issued only to Air France management and corporate clients who manage multi-million dollar flight budgets.
- Judy Parfitt played a psychologist, but the scene with her participation was cut from the film. This episode can be viewed on the DVD in the "Deleted Scenes" section.
- After Bourne scans his handprint at the bank, he removes his hand from the scanner. But in the next frame, he is holding his hand on the scanner again, and removes it again.
- Jason Bourne's hand-to-hand combat technique combines Krav Maga and Eskrima/Kali.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
