Jason Bourne says: Your brain. Exercise it.
It's not often I am reduced to theater-rage, but this kid in front of me during my second Ultimatum viewing really tested my willpower. He had his cell phone flipped open for 15. MINUTES. STRAIGHT. Texting somebody back and forth. Now, besides the fact that the corner of my right eyeball was being thoroughly blinded, the question arose: why do you even spend the $8+ to see a movie you're not going to bother following? Especially one like this, where every spare second needs to be processed.
People.
My mother, at least, further proved her smarts and the existence of her inner fangirl by helping me sort out a few observations...
Bourne's flashbacks in Ultimatum depict him being subjected to several forms of pretty brutal treatment - the foremost being the water tank he's dumped into while hooded. The reports and files he steals out of Vosen's safe reference the "Tank Method" as an extra measure to break David Webb - implying that he was somehow resisting his behavior modification.
Why is this interesting? Well, in that final scene, Hirsch kept trying to beat it into Bourne's head that he volunteered, without hesitation; that he made the decision and he's responsible. Even Conklin and Abbott have previously dropped hints that Bourne/Webb's induction into Treadstone was voluntary. But from the evidence of his flashbacks, and the evidence of the Blackbriar reports, we see (and Bourne sees) that this isn't the whole truth. He did resist. There was a serious amount of hesitation, when push came to shove - when his first kill was sitting there hooded in the corner, waiting. He was lied to and cornered, told he was going to "save American lives" - but all along, he instinctively knew something wasn't right.
Of course he's still responsible. Yes, he makes the ordered kill and snaps for the first time into Jason Bourne. Yes, he completed the training mission in Berlin and countless others before Wombosi.
But when we get to Wombosi... Identity makes it obvious that something in him during that mission snapped back. Whatever the reason (I think it was a combination of many things), he had Wombosi at gunpoint and couldn't take the shot. Leading us to the opening frames of the first movie, with him floating in the ocean (beautifully enough, this is also the last image of Ultimatum).
So the big reveal of the final film? Is not that he was a volunteer. It's that he was never broken. Never fully, at least. Cracked, fractured - sure.
But never broken. Which is why he can say "I'm no longer Jason Bourne" to Hirsch - why he can successfully revert back to David Webb.
So frelling kickarse.
Yeah, I need to cut out my Bourne-rambles, because there's a whole load of other things I'm dying to blather about lately. But I'll touch on them soon enough. ATM, it's off to finish Peacekeeper Wars.
People.
My mother, at least, further proved her smarts and the existence of her inner fangirl by helping me sort out a few observations...
Bourne's flashbacks in Ultimatum depict him being subjected to several forms of pretty brutal treatment - the foremost being the water tank he's dumped into while hooded. The reports and files he steals out of Vosen's safe reference the "Tank Method" as an extra measure to break David Webb - implying that he was somehow resisting his behavior modification.
Why is this interesting? Well, in that final scene, Hirsch kept trying to beat it into Bourne's head that he volunteered, without hesitation; that he made the decision and he's responsible. Even Conklin and Abbott have previously dropped hints that Bourne/Webb's induction into Treadstone was voluntary. But from the evidence of his flashbacks, and the evidence of the Blackbriar reports, we see (and Bourne sees) that this isn't the whole truth. He did resist. There was a serious amount of hesitation, when push came to shove - when his first kill was sitting there hooded in the corner, waiting. He was lied to and cornered, told he was going to "save American lives" - but all along, he instinctively knew something wasn't right.
Of course he's still responsible. Yes, he makes the ordered kill and snaps for the first time into Jason Bourne. Yes, he completed the training mission in Berlin and countless others before Wombosi.
But when we get to Wombosi... Identity makes it obvious that something in him during that mission snapped back. Whatever the reason (I think it was a combination of many things), he had Wombosi at gunpoint and couldn't take the shot. Leading us to the opening frames of the first movie, with him floating in the ocean (beautifully enough, this is also the last image of Ultimatum).
So the big reveal of the final film? Is not that he was a volunteer. It's that he was never broken. Never fully, at least. Cracked, fractured - sure.
But never broken. Which is why he can say "I'm no longer Jason Bourne" to Hirsch - why he can successfully revert back to David Webb.
So frelling kickarse.
Yeah, I need to cut out my Bourne-rambles, because there's a whole load of other things I'm dying to blather about lately. But I'll touch on them soon enough. ATM, it's off to finish Peacekeeper Wars.