50 Greatest Bourne Movie Moments

Self Help

The Moment: Bourne gives the Russian police the slip before patching up his wounds at the beginning of Ultimatum . Despite being momentarily distracted by a flashback, he still manages to disarm a copper who takes him unawares! Always on the alert…

Bourne Cool: There's something particularly macho about cleaning up your own wounds. And Bourne has plenty of them to clean up.

You've Done Enough

The Moment: Physically drained by the effects of the Outcome virus, Cross attempts to send Dr. Shearing away, telling her there's $40,000 stashed in his jacket she can take to make a new life. "You've done enough for me," he says, before passing out once more.

Bourne Cool:
It's the first moment when we see the bond between Shearing and Cross deepening beyond a mutual survival instinct. In an occasionally cold film, it's quite a heartwarming moment.

Confession

The Moment: An ashen-faced Bourne tracks down the daughter of the Neski family, whose parents he killed under Treadstone orders some years previously. "I'd want to know," he says, as he explodes the myth that her mother was the one who pulled the trigger.

Bourne Cool:
As emotional resolutions go, this one doesn't pull any punches. There's no forgiveness for Bourne, nor much comfort for the young girl, but what she does have is the truth. Whether or not that's any better remains up for debate…

New Skills

The Moment: Having been discovered dozing on a park bench, Bourne is rudely awoken by a pair of truncheon-wielding policemen. Without fully realising what he's doing, Bourne grabs their weapons and disables them both in seconds.

Bourne Cool: It's Bourne's first fight scene, such as it is, and the way our hero's muscle memory kicks into gear is spine-tinglingly exciting. Who is this guy?

Play Ball

The Moment: Bourne is taken into custody by a particularly cocky CIA agent, who promises our stubbornly silent hero that, "you will play ball". Unsurprisingly, it doesn't quite turn out that way, as Bourne overpowers his captor with a minimum of fuss.

Bourne Cool: From the minute Bourne is led into the interrogation room you know what's going to happen, and yet that doesn't make it any less cool when it does!

Necessary Evil

The Moment: Byer pays Aaron Cross a visit after a particularly brutal mission to encourage him not to think too much about the ethics of the situation. "We're the sin-eaters," he explains calmly. "Morally indefensible and absolutely necessary."

Bourne Cool:
Ed Norton is excellent as Byer, never coming down fully on the side of straightforward villainy, but exuding a quiet menace nonetheless. When he describes himself as a patriot, you can tell he believes it, as evidenced by the thorny moral code he outlines above.

Collateral Damage

The Moment: Danny Zorn reveals to Abbott that he suspects the Berlin hit to be a set-up designed to frame Bourne. Doing a quick mental calculation, Abbott asks him to show him again, before stabbing him in the back.

Bourne Cool: We knew Abbott was a bad egg, but this sudden demonstration of brutality is pretty shocking nonetheless.

Life In A Suitcase

The Moment: Bourne arrives at the bank in Geneva where a payload of clues relating to his old life is waiting. On first look, it appears to be a case full of mundane personal effects, only for a hidden layer to be discovered, stuffed to the brim with cash, fake passports and a gun.

Bourne Cool: The discovery of the hidden layer is a wonderful touch, as Bourne receives a sudden shocking insight into who he really is! "My name is Jason Bourne"

Where's The Dog?

The Moment: Marie's friend Eamon remarks that the dog has gone missing, an unusual occurrence due to the pooch's love of breakfast. Bourne smells a rat, and sure enough, the phones are dead. Everybody down to the basement…

Bourne Cool: It's a supremely creepy moment when our heroes' safehouse suddenly seems extremely vulnerable, not least because there's a pair of children involved now as well.

Fly Swatting

The Moment: Bourne and Jarda go at it hammer and tongs in the latter's tastefully outfitted apartment, Bourne showing off his resourcefulness once more by reaching for a magazine and turning it into a deadly weapon.

Bourne Cool: Up until this point we'd never really considered the potential for a rolled-up magazine to do so much damage. More fool us, eh?

George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.