The Bourne Supremacy: Scene by Scene

After Bourne seizes Nicky during the demonstration, dialogue and editing confirms that Bourne needs to investigate the murder of Vladimir Neski further. “It was something to do with a Russian politician,” she tells him. There is a low drone in the background and a brief flash of images as Bourne has another memory of the night in Berlin. “Neski,” Bourne says and Greengrass cuts suddenly to another flurry of images. “Training is over,” Conklin’s voice says. Bourne becomes more agitated, demanding that she reveal when he was in Berlin. “I know I was here, Nicky!” he yells. There is a sudden flurry of images and sounds: Bourne loading a pistol, anguished screams, a child’s eye, a terrified woman and a gunshot. Bourne leaves abruptly.

The following scene develops the antagonism between Landy and Abbott through the use of dialogue.

Abbott: You’re in a big puddle of shit, Pamela, and you don’t have the shoes for it.
Landy: He said he didn’t know anything about Berlin.
Abbott: He knew that Nicky was wearing a wire. Don’t you think that was for our benefit?
Landy: He didn’t sound like a man in control to me.
Abbott: We know he was in Berlin. His mind is broken. We broke it. And now…
Landy: What now? Terminate him? You’ve been pushing that agenda ever since we got here.
Abbott: He also said you were running Treadstone. Should we believe that too?
Landy: I’m convinced bourne knows something.
Abbott: He knows that you’re after him and in the interest of self-preservation you might start with that.

In the next scene, Bourne goes to an internet cafe to find out more about Vladimir Neski. In this scene, Greengrass uses a combination of handheld camera movement and dramatic music to give the scene a sense of urgency and drama. Greengrass cuts rapidly between shots of Bourne’s eye at the edge of the frame, shots of him typing search terms, headlines and newspaper articles, The camera moves restlessly over Bourne’s shoulder which obscures the screen, pulling focus and panning rapidly across the articles. The camera lingers for a moment on the words ‘Early democratic idealist and outspoken critic of oil privatisation’ next to a photograph of Vladmir Neski. The camera pans erratically across another headline: “Vladimir Neski and wife found shot at hotel in Germany”. The words ‘Murder-Suicide’ appear on screen, then ‘Hotel Brecker’. The intensity of the music increases and the scene ends when Greengrass cuts to an extreme close up of the hotel’s address, then back to a shot of Bourne who stands abruptly. This scene typifies the style of The Bourne Supremacy. As David Bordwell notes in the article [insert your favourite Bourne pun here]: “Supremacy displays a more mixed style. It contains passages of wobbly, decentered framing, but those exist alongside more traditionally shot scenes—stable framing, with smooth lateral dollying and standard establishing shots. There are some aggressive cuts, as in the crisp emphasis on the sniper at the start of the first pursuit, but on the whole the editing isn’t more jarring than usual these days. We also get, as I mentioned in the earlier entry, some almost wilfully obscure over-the-shoulder shots, and occasionally we get the eye-in-the-corner technique that would become more prominent in Ultimatum.”

In the next scene, Abbott murders a young CIA agent who realises that Bourne might have been framed. After he stabs the agent, there is a low, non-diegetic drone which helps to reinforce his ruthlessness. When he leaves the room, Greengrass lingers on a shot of Abbott, backlit by the light from the stairwell. He sighs, clearly shocked by what he has done. “It’s tiny little details like that in a performance that give a character depth,” Greengrass says.

When the CIA closes in on Jason Bourne at Hotel Brecker, Greengrass uses kinetic, documentary style camerawork to engage the audience and give the scene a sense of drama and urgency. The use of parallel editing and flashbacks throughout this sequence also heightens the drama of the scene. The scene begins as Bourne approaches the hotel room that haunts his memories. Greengrass’s subjective use of flashbacks encourages the audience to identify with Bourne as he discovers what happened in Berlin. Approaching the hotel room, there is a dreamlike montage of shots: a photograph of his target, the room number, Bourne filling a hypodermic syringe. As he starts to remember what happened, Greengrass uses parallel editing to increase suspense as the CIA closes in on his location. Greengrass cuts to the hotel staff receiving a faxed image of Jason Bourne. One of them picks up the telephone. As he enters the hotel room, percussive music helps to engage the audience by emphasising the drama. He cuts back to the lobby as two detectives arrive. The pace of editing continues to increase as the CIA is notified and armed police start closing in. Greengrass continues to cut back and forth between Bourne and the approaching authorities. In the flashback sequence, erratic handheld camera movement contributes to the drama as Bourne recalls killing Neski and his wife. Dramatic music emphasises the drama as Greengrass cuts to a shot of the man’s face and a photograph of his family. There is a brief moment of silence as the camera lingers on Bourne, who is clearly disturbed by the memory. The silence is punctuated by a telephone call as Greengrass cuts rapidly back and forth between erratic, handheld footage of the approaching officers and Bourne escaping through the hotel window. This scene is important, resolving the mystery about what happened to Bourne in Berlin.

In Abbott’s hotel room, a brief conversation with Gretkov reveals his involvement with the Neski murder.

Abbott: They’re onto Neski.
Gretkov: This is not a clean phone.
Abbott: They can’t prove anything without Bourne. Kill Bourne and you kill this investigation.
Gretkov: I’m afraid, Ward, the time has come for us to part company.
Abbott: Listen, Yuri, you bought those oil leases with 20 million in stolen C.I.A. seed money. You owe me. I gave you your cut. We both got rich.
Gretkov: I don’t owe you anything.
Abbott: The plan can still be salvaged. Just get Bourne. You hear me? He’s still out there. Now get him. Get Jason-

Bourne steps out from behind Abbott when the phone call ends. The conversation between Bourne and Abbott helps to resolve his quest for revenge. “It’s what you are, Jason,” Abbott says. “A killer. You always will be.” He urges Bourne to kill him. “She wouldn’t want me to,” he says breathlessly. “That’s the only reason you’re alive.”