History Film / TheBourneIdentity

* FreakOut: Maree starts to seriously panic after Castel murders a witness and tries to kill them, commits suicide rather than be interrogated, and has [[ParanoiaFuel has pictures of the two of them taken inside the US Embassy the day before]].

''The Bourne Identity'' is the first movie in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'', directed by Doug Liman. It was released on June 14th, 2002.

* AlasPoorVillain: The Professor's death scene. Despite trying to kill Bourne seconds earlier, our hero is horrified to realize he's another Treadstone agent. The audience already knows this, which may fatigue them with exposition. The screen writer avoids this by injecting humanity into him, so instead of a steely eyed assassin, we meet a very human figure. Bleeding to death slowly, he begins to seemingly babble as Bourne tries to interrogate him, asking Bourne where he comes from, and darkly laughing about their terrible headaches-- a result of their mutual behavioral conditioning. In fact, he is not babbling, but seeking commonality in his final moments. Near death, he looks down at his own wound, turns to Bourne and moans his haunting final words, "Look at this. Look at what they make you give." The scene sets a tone for the rest of the movie series. It would initially seem to be about the Professor's lost life, but over the course of the trilogy, with the eventual losses Bourne will endure, the audience sees [[spoiler: that he's really talking about his sacrifice of his humanity to his government,]] and is [[MeaningfulEcho echoed]] in the final movie [[spoiler: as Jason Bourne's last line.]]
-->[[spoiler: "Look at us. Look at what they make you give."]]

* WouldntHurtAChild: [[spoiler: The reason for Bourne's botched mission that led to his amnesia. After having his gun trained point-blank on Wombosi's head, he sees Wombosi's children in his lap and sleeping about the room and aborts the mission at that point, leading to his shooting and subsequent fall from the yacht.]]

''The Bourne Identity'' is the first movie in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'', directed by Creator/DougLiman. It was released on June 14th, 2002.

''The Bourne Identity'' is the first movie in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'', which was released on June 14th, 2002.

* TheBackwardsR: His alias in russian passport is Foma Kiniaev, and in russian it is "Ащьф Лштшфум" (Astch'f Lshtshfum, yes, it is as unpronounceable as it looks). It is just the name "Foma Kiniaev" typed in russian keyboard layout.

-->'''Bourne: [[ThatManIsDead Jason Bourne is dead]]. You hear me? He drowned two weeks ago. You're gonna go tell them that Jason Bourne is dead, you understand?

* RoadTripPlot: WordOfGod says the film evokes this.

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: The French version is titled ''La Mémoire dans la peau'' ("Memory Under the Skin" or "Memory Deep Within"). Similarly, ''Supremacy'' and ''Ultimatum'' are titled ''La Mort (Death) dans la peau'' and ''La Vengeance dans la peau''.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7026f69a61d877491624b9c88e61637f.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TagLine Danger is Bourne]]''.]]

''The Bourne Identity'' (2002) is the first movie in ''Film/TheBourneSeries.''

''The Bourne Identity'' (2002) is the first movie in ''Film/TheBourneSeries''.

A man (Bourne) is fished out of the Mediterranean Sea riddled with bullet-holes and with no memory of who he is. He makes the surprising discovery that he knows how to speak several languages, has plenty of money and passports in a safety deposit box, and he knows how to kill anything that moves. Retracing his steps, he finds himself being hunted by the government and, with the help of a pretty German globetrotter, he goes in search of his identity.

!!This film provides examples of:

* AlasPoorVillain: The Professor's death scene. Despite trying to kill Bourne seconds earlier, our hero is horrified to realize he's another Treadstone agent. The audience already knows this, which may fatigue them with exposition. The screen writer avoids this by injecting humanity into him, so instead of a steely eyed assassin, we meet a very human figure. Bleeding to death slowly, he begins to seemingly babble as Bourne tries to interrogate him, asking Bourne where he comes from, and darkly laughing about their terrible headaches-- a result of their mutual behavioral conditioning. In fact, he is not babbling, but seeking commonality in his final moments. Near death, he looks down at his own wound, turns to Bourne and moans his haunting final words, "Look at this. Look at what they make you give." The scene sets a tone for the rest of the movie series. It would initially seem to be about the Professor's lost life, but over the course of the trilogy, with the eventual losses Bourne will endure, the audience sees [[spoiler:that he's really talking about his sacrifice of his humanity to his government,]] and is [[MeaningfulEcho echoed]] in the final movie [[spoiler:as Jason Bourne's last line.]]
-->[[spoiler:"Look at us. Look at what they make you give."]]

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The name on Bourne's Russian passport is written "Kiniaev Foma" in Latin letters and "Лштшфум Ащьф " (Lshtshfum Aschf) in Cyrillic letters. Apparently, the designers of the prop just typed the name in the Russian keyboard layout without actually translating it. The name was corrected in ''The Bourne Supremacy''.

* BaitAndSwitch: After leaving Treadstone's Paris HQ, Jason is seen walking down a street. We cut to a Treadstone agent preparing his pistol, seeing a shadowy figure approaching his car. He steps out of the car, but instead of Bourne, it's Conklin, [[YouHaveFailedMe who's unceremoniously shot by him]].

* BoomHeadshot: As Nikwana Wombosi walks down a flight of stairs in conversation with someone behind him, he passes by a window at head level. That's all it takes for The Professor to snipe at him with ''four'' shots -- one to kill, and three just to be ''certain''.

* ComeAlone: Jason tells Conklin this. Conklin is smart enough to disguise his backup as innocent bystanders, but Jason doesn't buy it. [[spoiler:Turns out Jason only wanted to lure him out into the open so he could put a tracker on their van, leading him to their local safe house.]]

* DeadlyEuphemism: At the end [[spoiler: Abbott]] claims that Treadstone was [[BlatantLies an advanced game program]] that was [[spoiler: terminated because of its high cost]] before a [[spoiler: Senate Oversight Committee]]. He says this just after [[spoiler: ordering Conklin's murder]].

* FamousLastWords: ''Look at what they make you give''

* GunsAkimbo: When Bourne is breaking out of the Treadstone safehouse through a handful of mooks. And he's actually firing one of the captured pistols while holding it ''[[ImprobableAimingSkills upside-down]]''.

* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:After the MoodWhiplash events of having a man with an assault rifle suddenly crash through the window and attack Jason, finding her own face on a wanted poster in the assassin's bag, and then see him commit suicide for no logical reason]], Marie goes into shock and has to be dragged from the apartment by Jason.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Conklin]] had been responsible for [[spoiler: multiple assassinations around Europe]] and had [[spoiler: ordered Bourne killed]]. By the end [[spoiler: he himself was killed by a Treadstone agent on Abbott's orders]].

* LampshadeHanging: [[spoiler:“Boy, great police work! Really brilliant! Why don't they just hang out a banner that says, "Don't come back!" Jesus Christ! What is the French word for "stakeout"?”]]

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: WordOfGod says Conklin is based heavily on Col. Oliver North from the Iran/Contra scandal in the 1980s.

* ShoutOut: The Parisian car chase in Marie's Mini Cooper is in homage to ''Film/TheItalianJob''. Maybe that's why one of Bourne's aliases was John [[Creator/MichaelCaine Michael Kane]].

* TookALevelInBadass: When Bourne first sets out to find his identity, he is given ill-fitting, ratty clothes by fishermen, and sticks out in his surroundings not simply due to his ignorance of his identity, but visibly by his outfit. Over the course of the movie, as he investigates his past and comes to better understand his skills, his behavior changes. By the time he duels The Professor, his awkward demeanor has transformed into a more heroic self confidence, symbolized by his new upgraded clothing, complete with an additional [[BadassLongcoat longcoat]].
* WeHaveTheKeys: Bourne plans out a complex plot to get information from a hotel information desk. When he doesn't get the phone call from Marie, he assumes that she's bailed on the plan. She then appears right behind him. [[spoiler:"I just asked them for it." "...Asked them?" "What? You didn't think of that?"]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Treadstone Asset Manheim, seen several times throughout the movie, just up and vanishes. In ''Supremacy'', Bourne confronts an Asset named Jarda who says they are the last two agents. It could be assumed they simply decided to replace Manheim with Jarda, since his name was never mentioned in ''Identity'' and neither is Jarda's in ''Supremacy'', but they are played by two different actors.

* WouldntHurtAChild: [[spoiler:The reason for Bourne's botched mission that led to his amnesia. After having his gun trained point-blank on Wombosi's head, he sees Wombosi's children in his lap and sleeping about the room and aborts the mission at that point, leading to his shooting and subsequent fall from the yacht.]]
** [[spoiler: He also becomes very protective of Eammon's kids rather quickly, keeping watch at night because he was worried about them. When he realises he has been tracked to the house and Marie says, "If anything happens to those kids..." Bourne immediately replies with, [[PapaWolf "That's not going to happen."]] ]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: Oh yes. The primary twist of ''Identity'' is that at the climax, Bourne, after spending the rest of the movie running away from assassins and government agents, finds out that he is, in fact, one of the government assassins himself. He is so horrified by what he did to make a living in his past that he decided to quit being an assassin entirely.

* StressVomit / VomitIndiscretionShot: Already in shock from the MoodWhiplash of events after Castel attacks Bourne, Marie throws up as she's herded out of the apartment by Bourne and sees the headshot body of the concierge.

* WeHaveTheKeys: Bourne plans out a complex plot to get information from a hotel information desk. When he doesn't get the phone call from Marie, he assumes that she's bailed on the plan. She then appears right behind him. [[spoiler:[[CrowningMomentOfFunny "I just asked them for it." "...Asked them?" "What? You didn't think of that?"]]]]

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