Gender, Geopolitics, and Contemporary

Representations of National Security

Jason Bourne:

By
Klaus
Dodds The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).
Photo courtesy of Photofest.

21
22 JPF&TJournal of Popular Film and Television
Abstract: This article explores the cin-
ematic portrayals of the amnesiac assas-
sin Jason Bourne. Bournes odyssey is
plotted against a number of themes
gender, dangerous places, and appar-
ently banal things, such as paper files.
It provokes interesting questions about
how a known unknown is addressed
by national security managers.
Keywords: Jason Bourne, gender, geo-
politics, national security, surveillance
Introduction
ithin his recent examination
W of cinematic geopolitics, Mi-
chael Shapiro returns to the
theme of what he terms the new violent
cartography and suggests that popular
culture has been suffused with images
of militarization, securitization, and
violence (Shapiro ). In the post-9/11 en-
vironment, the media and entertainment
industry showed a ready willingness to
produce and release television programs
and movies that were interpreted at the
time as sympathetic to the U.S. war ef-
forts in Afghanistan and later Iraq. The
most egregious example is to be found
in 24 in the fictional figure of Jack
Bauer, a counterterror officer working
against the clock to try and save Amer-
ica and Americans from terror. Over
seven series, Bauers modus operandi
is vindicated as he invokes emergency
measures to counter ticking bomb
scenariosthose situations in which
one might have to use violence on an in-
dividual to extract information deemed
vital to save the lives of innocents. Al-
though the terrorist is one particular en-
emy, the other threat that Bauer has to
tackle is his criticsthose well-mean-
ing individuals who disapprove of his
methods and associated ruthlessness but
are shown by events to have embraced
the wrong security paradigm. Homeland
security can only be facilitated by Bau-
With an emphasis on dramatic action
alongside speed, the action-thriller has been
at the forefront of cinematic representations of
national security and danger.
ers methodology and zeitgeist (Hark;
Ingram and Dodds). This long-running
show is less a reflection on the home-
land security culture than a constitutive
part of it. Former secretary of state for
Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff,
was a well-known fan of 24.
What about, however, another popu-
lar fictional figure Jason Bourne? Since
he burst onto the screens, this hyperki-
netic amnesiac assassin has been widely
credited with challenging the generic
standards associated with James Bond
and spy-/action-thrillers more generally.
Played by Matt Damon, a public critic
of the James Bond character, the Bourne
series raises troubling questions about
the use of violence and the excesses of
national security managers who decide
that this former U.S. soldier and trained
assassin is himself a security threat and
needs to be terminated. Taking its cue
from earlier films that have addressed
both the programming and subsequent
alienation of the state spy/assassin (e.g.,
The Manchurian Candidate), the trilogy
can be interpreted as a critique of the
processes of securitization and milita-
rization, which led ultimately to senior
CIA officials deciding to kill Bourne.
Their decision was made initially fol-
lowing his failure to carry out an as-
sassination. Subsequently, a desire to
discover more about his former iden-
tity and past operations led to the direct
order to bring him down. Fearing
exposure, because of corrupt dealings
with Russian officials and a network of
assassins, the three films contemplate
the messy world of the postCold War
era in which corrupt CIA officials do
grubby deals with Russian counterparts
while plotting the execution of a CIA
employee and his female companions.
The action-thriller, as the Bourne
series exemplifies, has proven a popu-
lar and commercially successful genre
in the contemporary geopolitical envi-
ronment (Higgins). While films such
as Black Hawk Down (2001) and The
Kingdom (2007) have been interpreted
as generally sympathetic to the U.S.
war/anti-terror effort, others includ-
ing The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and
Rendition (2007) offer more nuanced
critiques of government complicity, il-
licit violence, and suppression of truth.
As a genre, the action-thriller seems
well placed to reflect on contemporary
preoccupations with the threat posed
by terrorism and transnational net-
works (Debrix). With an emphasis on
dramatic action alongside speed, the
action-thriller has been at the forefront
of cinematic representations of national
security and danger. A highly gendered
relationship involving strong male-pro-
tector figures is a critical element within
these kinds of films, usually buttressed
by relationships with others who must
be confronted and those who must be
protected and secured (Young; Gunn).
Shockingly, as it turns out, a man
trained, programmed, and authorized to
maim and kill is cast out by his corrupt
superiors. He is disposable. The security
covenant has been broken and these en-
tanglements of power, money, and se-
curity increasingly endanger Bourne, as
he recovers slowly his memory. Deter-
mined to resist those who would execute
him summarily, his odyssey reveals how
national security can be, and frequently
is, marshalled in a highly opportunistic
manner. The U.S.-led system of global
surveillance and logistical networks
is turned against Bournehe is, in the
words of the former Secretary of De-
fense Donald Rumsfeld, a known un-
known. His mobility, his field craft, his
relationships with women allied with a
healthy dosage of luck and coincidence
prove to be critical to his survival. Just
as the war-on-terror espionage-thriller
can be seen to legitimate extraordinary
measures and extreme violence by U.S.
and Western security forces, the figure
of Jason Bourne suggests that this par-
ticular generic form can also offer skep-
tical even oppositional readings of those
who would invoke national security
as a cloak to legitimate and justify ex-
ceptionality (on the action-thriller, see
King; Bordwell; Higgins).
Copyright 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
DOI: 10.1080/01956050903450895
 Jason Bourne 23

Jason Bourne If Bournes quest is deserving of viewers

Based on the Cold War era novels
written by the American author Robert
Ludlum, the Jason Bourne series was
commercially successful and accrued
three Academy Awards for the latest of-
fering, The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).
The films are not faithful reproductions
and are only at best loosely inspired
by the stories themselves, which as the
James Bond series has demonstrated
is no barrier to popularity with global
audiences. Bournes quest to recover
his sense of identity and evidence of
his recent past challenges the political
and moral geographies of the national
security state. In the first film, The
Bourne Identity (2002), the parameters
of Bournes quest and the nature of
that challenge are established. Bourne
suffers from amnesia shortly after he
fails to kills a black African leader in
the presence of his childrena critical
moment in the subsequent narrative.
The site/sight of the amnesia experi-
ence is a foreign home (albeit on a boat)
within the confines of a traditional het-
erosexual family. It haunts Bourne and
exposes, as Cynthia Weber has noted,
the visual and material stakes in trying
to ground a moral grammar of war and
national security on particular gendered
foundationsBourne cannot perform
his role as hypermasculine protector
figure (Weber). In making good his es-
cape from a boat located in the Medi-
terranean, Bourne is shot and presumed
dead at sea. He eventually comes to
discover how he was once part of a se-
cret operation called Treadstone, which
employed him as a professional assassin
under the control of Alexander Conklin.
After enduring a series of tense encoun-
ters in France and Switzerland, Bourne
with the help of a girlfriend called Ma-
rie, is able to discover more about his
recent past. Despite their best efforts,
senior CIA operatives fail to bring in
Bourne for debriefing. He is a stubborn
visual trace and as such is evidence of
past wrongdoing capable of implicating
senior managers and exposing their cor-
rupt activities.
The Bourne Supremacy (2004) opens
with Bourne and Marie now living in
Goa. The CIA has abandoned Tread-
sympathy, it is because of the fact that his
male superiors are breaching their duty to
secure national security for their
domestic populations.
stone but not lost interest in tracking
down Bourne. A new CIA senior officer,
Pam Landy, is in charge of a Berlin-
based operation involving the Neski
files, which detail the theft of $20 mil-
lion from the CIA. When his girlfriend
is murdered in Goa, Bourne travels to
Germany and eventually confronts se-
nior CIA officials in an attempt to find
out why he is a person of interest. The
film concludes with Bourne helping to
expose high-level complicity between
senior CIA officials, including Ward
Abbot, and Russian business magnates.
Unwilling to face prosecution and public
humiliation, Ward Abbott kills himself
while Bourne attempts to make peace
with himself as he asks for forgiveness
from the daughter of a married couple
he assassinated in Berlin.
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) pro-
vides the denouement to the series.
While some CIA officials have created
a new secret operation called Black-
briar, Bourne still does not understand
what he has been involved with. In his
attempt to discover more about these
clandestine affairs, Bourne travels to the
United Kingdom, Spain, and Morocco
in quick succession. All that time, others
employed by the CIA pursue him. Even-
tually, he discovers his true identity
and the incorruptible Landy helps him
bring down those associated with the se-
cret operations of Blackbriar and Tread-
stone. Although Landy is clearly critical
of these covert operations, it is not clear
whether she would approve other covert
missions, provided there was proper
oversight and supervision. Bourne es-
capes from a CIA building in New York
City, and there remains a lingering un-
certainty as to his eventual fate.
If Bournes quest is deserving of
viewers sympathy, it is because of the
fact that his male superiors are breach-
ing their duty to secure national security
for their domestic populations. Their
determination to exterminate him raises
questions about the role of executive
power and the manner in which some
bodies, including Bourne, are labeled
dangerous. Bourne offers viewers an in-
sight into what happens when national
security managers target their own peo-
ple via surveillance, intrusion, and ex-
trajudicial assassination. The very sys-
tem that produced Bourne and needed
him to carry out extraordinary measures
such as assassination is turned against
him. His survival depends on resist-
ing particular constellations of power
and security and in so doing offers a
redemptive model of conflicted mascu-
linity, which uses violence in a selective
and knowing mannerBourne kills fel-
low professionals and apologizes to vic-
tims and their families.
The plot devices attached to the ac-
tion-thriller are critical to characteriza-
tion (including the moral consciousness
of Bourne) and the manner in which
specific places play a role in shaping
the films highly gendered landscape of
fear, extraordinary measures, and secu-
rity. Those devices include the use of
the chase, the race against time, the role
of non-Western places, and the stand-
off. They also provide opportunities to
demonstrate the capabilities of the na-
tional security state and, as it happens,
indirectly via highly trained personnel
such as Bourne, how it might be pos-
sible to resist and circumvent those very
capabilities.
First, the chase (whether on foot or
via motorcycle, car, truck, or bus) is of
considerable importance in outlining the
capacity of the national security state
to pursue suspects. For example, The
24 JPF&TJournal of Popular Film and Television

Bourne Ultimatum opens with Bourne

being pursued by Russian police officers [Bournes] amnesia also provides an opportunity to
after surviving a high-speed car chase in
The Bourne Supremacy. This Moscow- shape audience reactions to his plight.
based pursuit involving Bourne running
in and out of a railway station provides
a dramatic introduction to the new
film and picks up the narrative thread:
Bourne once more is on the move and,
this time, seeking impromptu medical
supplies to treat a bullet wound suf-
fered at the hands of the now-deceased
assassin. Cornered in a pharmacy by
two police officers, Bourne has to use
his special martial arts skills to disarm
the officers, but critically, he does not
kill them. He cannot afford to go to a
hospital because his condition would be
reported to the police authorities.
The scene in question also helps to es-
tablish characterization. Bourne, unlike
his adversaries associated with Tread-
stone, is capable of using his violence
in a restrained manner. Bourne is dis-
tinguishing between those he kills and
those he does not because it is not neces-
sary for his survival. His role as brain-
washed assassin has since the ending
of The Bourne Identity been transmogri-
fied increasingly into a role as a protec-
tor. He is adaptive. He can think quickly
on his feet (quite literally as it turns out)
and is prepared to be judicious. These
kinds of qualities help audiences asso-
ciate with the heroic individual and are
used to contrast with those who simply
follow orders without question.
If Bournes role as protector is shaped
by circumstances, then the role of co-
incidence is particularly striking when
it comes to determining the role of his
helpers. They are all women. Nicky
Parsons, a junior operative attached to
the Treadstone program is indicative of
a woman who is prepared to help him
because she knows of his physical abili-
ties and yet trusts his judgement. In the
first film, Parsons appears as a minor
character assisting the running of a CIA
safe house in Paris. Over the next two The Bourne Identity (2002 USA/Germany) aka Die Bourne Identitt. Shown from left:
films, her significance to the develop- Franka Potente (as Marie Helena Kreutz) and Matt Damon (as Jason Bourne).
ment of the plot expands in part through
her relationship with Bourne. In the have been doing in the German capital moment, to offer to come in and allow
second film, Parsons has been picked city. Spying on Landy and her team in himself to be questioned about recent
by Landy in Amsterdam and taken to Berlin, he happens to notice Parsons events. Engineering ensuing events,
Berlin as part of the latters attempt to standing in the office and on seeing her Bourne manages to secretly whisk
better understand what Bourne might decides, seemingly on the spur of the Parsons away from a crowded public

square to question her about Treadstone
and the mounting CIA interest in his
movements. The coincidental sighting
of Parsons enables Bourne to rejuvenate
his relationship with her, demonstrate
Jason Bourne 25
Photo courtesy of Photofest.
his field abilities, and at the same time
provide him with vital information. He
is also, via Parsons secret recording
device, able to inform Landy (by acci-
dent rather than design) that he could
not possibly have been involved in the
assassination of a CIA agent in Berlin.
A coincidental encounter is again crit-
ical in the final film, The Bourne Ulti-
matum. While in another CIA safe house
in Madrid, Bourne again meets Parsons.
She just happens to have been trans-
ferred from Amsterdam (we presume)
and is now working in Madrid. Unable
to uncover the location of station chief
Neil Daniels, it is Parsons who provides
Bourne with vital information. She
tells Bourne that Daniels has gone to
Morocco. She offers him access to her
car and is prepared to travel with him
while also accessing CIA secret infor-
mation via her computer. She has put
herself in danger because of her belief
in Bournes abilities. Without that coin-
cidental meeting, it is difficult to know
how Bourne might have been able to
track Daniels movements, given that he
discovered little information of appar-
ent value when entering the safe house
in Madrid. Indeed, having disarmed two
intruders sent to detain him, he was just
about to leave before Parsons entered
the building. Parsons knowledge and
experience allowed Bourne to discover
critical information about his past and
present activities. Coincidence helps
to level the playing field given the in-
frastructural power available to the na-
tional security state.
Bournes struggles are profoundly
shaped by an apparently uncaring and
ruthless government organization de-
termined to eliminate him. His amnesia
also provides an opportunity to shape
audience reactions to his plight. Seem-
ingly tortured by his lack of memory
and confused by the occasional flash-
backs, Bournes decision to seek infor-
mation about his complicity with past
operations (and his alienated condition)
is critical because disappearing out of
sight is not an option. He tried that in
Goa but was hunted down by individu-
als determined to kill him. Such is the
global reach of these ruthless national
security managers that international
boundaries are irrelevant. Distance does
not provide any form of security. Bourne
cannot be allowed to live because of
uncertainty over his future actions. All
national security organizations make
daily judgements about risk, and Bourne
26 JPF&TJournal of Popular Film and Television
went from being an elevated risk in the
first film to a high and finally a severe
risk in the second and third films,
respectively.
One well-known feature of action-
thrillers and national security states is
the so-called race against time. Both
depend on the public appreciating that
the dangers facing citizens are clear and
present. The situation calls for a heroic-
protector figure to carry out a spectacu-
lar plan of action. In the Bush admin-
istration, the race was on to find Iraqs
weapons of mass destruction lest Sad-
dam Hussein deploy them within what
was believed to be thirty minutes. The
use of time was critical in generating
suspense and the apparent need to dis-
cover and neutralize the threat quickly.
In The Bourne Supremacy, Bourne is in-
volved in a race against time in the sense
that he is desperate to understand why
he has been implicated in the assassina-
tion of a CIA agent in Berlin when he
was in Goa. Bourne does not have ac-
cess to privileged information such as
conversations held within the CIA and
among associates of rouge Deputy Di-
rector Ward Abbott, which are offered
to the audience. Without such human
intelligence, Bourne has to track down
Landy and Abbott in an attempt to se-
cure insights into his current plight. He
has to achieve this before a Russian-
based killer in the employ of a corrupt
oil oligarch assassinates him with the
connivance of elements of the CIA. The
race-against-time element is critical
and provides a visual justification for
violence and extraordinary measures.
There is little time to reflect.
Bournes mobility, as with other char-
acters in action-thrillers such as Wash-
ington, D.C.based lawyer Robert Dean
in Enemy of the State (1988), is critical.
Bourne has to keep moving because of
his superiors capacity for global sur-
veillance, and his ability to evade cap-
ture not only angers the corrupt senior
managers but also adds to the dramatic
tension. Will Bourne ever be caught?
The longer he evades capture, the more
likely it is that he will uncover either
incriminating evidence and/or discover
further details about his past life and
activities. To stop, let alone pause (as
demonstrated when Bourne is trying to
rebuild his life with Marie in Goa in The
Bourne Supremacy), is to risk capture,
even death. Bourne is ultimately test-
ing to a picaresque cast of superiors
including Cronkin and most notably
Vosen. In and around the control room,
as Vosen demonstrates time and time
again, anything is possible including
the willful use of exceptional measures
within and beyond the borders of the na-
tional state.
One way to resolve dramatic tension
and provide a finale is the standoff. The
resolution of The Bourne Ultimatum
and the trilogy more generally comes in
the shape of the New York Citybased
CIA training center. This is where it all
started for Jason Bourne. A roof-top en-
counter with a fellow assassin provides
an opportunity for the films dialogue to
resolve the narrative. The assassin, who
has now cornered Bourne on the roof, is
puzzled by Bournes earlier reluctance
to kill him. He asks Bourne why. Bourne
urges him, in his reply, to consider what
we (he and Bourne) have becomeas-
sassins who simply follow orders. The
other assassin hesitates and Bourne
jumps off the top of the building, just as
senior operative Vosen fires in his direc-
tion. Vosen misses, and Bourne survives
his jump into the freezing East River.
Testing Places
The New York City training center is
just one of a number of different kinds
of places that test the capability of
both Bourne and his security mangers
and their assets to handle the uncer-
tainty of Bournes location. From rail-
way stations and airports to a variety of
places and environments far removed
from the centers of calculations in New
York City and Washington, D.C., ne-
gotiating these environments is critical
for all concerned. The Bourne trilogy
features Cold War centers of spying in-
trigue, including Berlin and Moscow,
alongside more contemporary geopo-
litical locations such as Morocco and
the port city of Tangier. Alongside the
CIA infrastructure including CIA of-
fices in New York City and safe houses
across Europe, senior operatives using
private planes enter in and out of loca-
tions around the world. The seasonality
of places also matters because Bournes
home in sunny Goa contrasts markedly
with cold and bleak Central and Eastern
Europe. Indeed the death of Marie in In-
dia (The Bourne Supremacy) appears all
the more shocking because it is apparent
that they were committed to making a
new life far away from the metropoli-
tan centers of North America and Eu-
rope. Their beach house stood in stark
opposition to those urban environments
with accompanying infrastructure and
intrigue (so often associated with the
spy-thriller).
The Moroccan city of Tangier features
twice in the Bourne series. The first time
in The Bourne Supremacy, it is merely
mentioned in passing as it becomes clear
that he has traveled from India via North
Africa to Naples. Bourne wants to get to
Berlin and chooses to enter Europe from
Africa just like Al-Qaeda operatives did
when they bombed Madrid in March
2004. More significantly, the city again
features in The Bourne Ultimatum as
Bourne and Parsons track down Daniels
and confront an assassin sent by CIA
operative Vosen to terminate them. The
citys narrow streets and bustling bazaar
provide a powerful audiovisual setting
for a frenetic chase involving Parsons
and the assassin called Desh who has
just assassinated Daniels. Vosen be-
lieves that using a locally based assas-
sin, combined with global surveillance
abilities, should be more than sufficient
to terminate the lives of Bourne and Par-
sons as well (see Graham for a critical
assessment on U.S. military representa-
tions of the Islamic City; and Gregory
more generally).
Tangier is contextualized more as an
Orientalized center of contemporary in-
trigue rather than a popular tourist desti-
nation. Parsons is unable to escape from
a confusing maze of streets and unfa-
miliar houses. She does not appear to
speak either Arabic or French and, un-
like Desh, is not familiar with its social
geography and topography. Bournes
pursuit of Desh is complicated further
by the fact that he is being chased by
Moroccan police and having to negoti-
ate rooftops and accompanying laun-

dry lines (a common feature in Holly-
wood films featuring Arab citiese.g.,
Tangier in The Living Daylights, 1986).
Bourne eventually catches up with Desh
and saves Parsons from possible death
despite her own ability to escape and
evade him thus far.
Bournes capacity to evade capture
and at the same time protect those closely
associated with himall womenis
noteworthy. The logic of protection not
only differentiates between those who
protect and those who are protected but
also determines different roles (Con-
nell). National security managers de-
pend on a network of other men and
women prepared to occupy roles within
the military, intelligence agencies, and
government more generally. During the
war on terror, emphasis is also given to
a willingness to act (among both men
and women) at times of crisis. Appear-
ing to maintain control, whether in the
form of unilateral action or invoking the
prospect of full spectrum dominance,
was critical to the Bush administration.
Films such as the Bourne series help
to reproduce and question hegemonic
discourses about public forms of mas-
culinity and what is considered to be
acceptable, even revered. In general
terms, two aspects prevail. First, the
skilled use of weapons and technol-
ogy becomes part of the corroborative
evidence used to judge manliness and
expertise (Leyshon and Brace). Second,
it is common to see films portray lead-
ing men as having a willingness to act
and to throw, if necessary, caution to
the wind. Risks and threats are then to
be confronted and ideally eliminated.
Male toughness is revered in the action-
thriller, and audiences are often left in
little doubt that those men who display
Male toughness is revered in the action-thriller,
and audiences are often left in little doubt that
those men who display weakness, uncertainty,
tardiness, or reflectionlet alone cowardice
are to be pitied or even despised.
Jason Bourne 27
weakness, uncertainty, tardiness, or re-
flectionlet alone cowardiceare to
be pitied or even despised. Vosen and
Bourne are both men willing to take
risks and confront risks head-on.
Film theorists have long been pre-
occupied with the appeal of male pro-
tagonists to audiences (for instance, see
Cohan and Hark; Bingham; Lehman;
Longmuir). In action-thrillers, the lead
character is frequently a loner who has
difficulty maintaining family and per-
sonal relationships with women and
children. They are usually heterosexual
as well. They are taciturn men who do
not waste their words because the situ-
ation at hand usually demands, as far as
they are concerned, action. What makes
Bourne different from, say, a Vosen is
that his manly practices are now con-
sidered threatening to his superiors. In
the past they would have been revered
as essential for the job at hand.
Although super-spy James Bond
might have irritated his superiors, he
was never cast out and targeted for as-
sassination by his own side (perhaps at
worst for capture and interrogation; see
Die Another Day, 2002). Bourne is re-
peatedly troubled by his amnesia. In The
Bourne Identity, he is first viewed float-
ing aimlessly in the stormy Mediterra-
nean and later found to have bullet holes
in his body. Only by sheer chance is he
discovered by a passing fishing vessel.
He is confused and vulnerable, yet at the
same time he has finely honed abilities,
including martial arts and self-defense
skills. He is more than capable of de-
fending himself from police officers
and U.S. consulate guards encountered
in Zurich. Bournes body has to en-
dure, over the course of three films, be-
ing shot, strangled, and nearly stabbed
on countless occasions. Assassins try
unsuccessfully to kill him in London,
New York City, Tangier, Moscow, Mu-
nich, Berlin, Paris, rural France, and
Goa. Bournes body bears the brunt of
the violence associated with his national
security state. While Bournes physical
prowess and endurance are developed in
each of the films, his inability to recall
details about his past life and emotional
vulnerability are as well.
The role of women in aiding and abet-
ting Bourne is strikingly different from
that perceived by the senior CIA manag-
ers in the films, who tend to view women
as either junior personnel and/or, in the
case of the more senior Landy, as threats
to their privilege and position. Bourne
would not have circumvented elements
of the national security state without the
intervention of women. Three are criti-
calMarie, Nicky Parsons, and latterly
Pam Landy. Bournes girlfriend, Marie,
features in the first two films, albeit
barely in The Bourne Supremacy. It is
she who provides Bourne with an escape
route to Paris from Zurich. It is she who
provides companionship and opportuni-
ties to hide from Treadstone assassins,
such as a friends house in rural France.
Marie ultimately saves Bournes life in
The Bourne Supremacy by agreeing to
change places within a car that is about
to cross a bridge in India. The assassin
sent to kill Bourne accidentally targets
Marie because he simply shoots at the
driver, assumed to be Bourne. The lat-
ters escape from the car not only again
demonstrates his toughness (given that
the car plunged from a bridge) but also
provides further fuel for plot devel-
opment and character identification.
Haunted by Maries death, Bourne is
now determined to uncover her killer
and the individuals who tracked them
down to remote India.
Parsons and Landy also play criti-
cal roles in aiding and abetting Bourne.
Both, at critical times in the series, pro-
vide either physical assistance or in-
formation germane to his quest. By the
third film, Parsons has not only become
a key informant and associate but also
reveals to Bourne in a motorway-station
caf in Spain that they once had a brief
relationship. Unwilling to dwell on that
28 JPF&TJournal of Popular Film and Television
Location shooting in places such as New York
City, Moscow, London, Zurich, Paris, Tangier,
Berlin, and Goa provide evocative backdrops
to the materialization of different masculinities.
revelation and to embark on a more inti-
mate conversation about their past rela-
tionship, Bourne suggests that they need
to return to the car and head toward Mo-
rocco. While the coincidental presence
of two male police officers in the caf
has provided a sufficient visual justifi-
cation for Bournes decision to avoid the
question of their relationship, the im-
pression left is that Bourne is unwilling
to dwell on those kinds of physical in-
timacies, especially in the aftermath of
Maries death. Moreover, all three films
have implicitly warned Bourne and oth-
ers of the dangers of dwelling too long
in any one place.
Landy is instrumental in questioning
the existing threat analysis of Bourne,
as she discovers a secret and illegal pro-
gram of assassination, double-dealing,
and theft in The Bourne Supremacy. In
The Bourne Ultimatum, it is her encoun-
ters with senior colleague Vosen that
reveal two different logics of masculine
power. If Bournes conflicted masculin-
ity is one expression of physical prow-
ess and willingness to accept help from
women, Vosen provides an alternative.
Both men are shown to be action-orien-
tated, determined, and willing to work
long hours to secure their objective.
Vosen is introduced in the final film af-
ter succeeding Abbot who committed
suicide in the second installment. Vosen
is determined to hunt Bourne down, and
his rhetorical and bodily performances
in the office and the field are legiti-
mated and justified in the name of na-
tional security and Rumsfelds known
unknowns. They know that they do not
know Bournes location and that is rep-
resented as a security risk.
The key interloper between Bourne
and Vosen is Landy, just as she had
been between Bourne and Abbot in the
second film. She helps not only Vosen
when it comes to tracking down Dan-
iels via mobile-phone records but also
assists Bourne in his determination to
discover more about his past activities.
She uses both intuition and logic to un-
derstand the rationale behind Bournes
movements and actions around the
world. Places play a critical role in en-
abling these relationships to materialize
and develop the plot. But there are also
other gendered possibilities on display,
as observed above, in which the office-
based male is often unwilling, unlike
Bourne, to take the advice and support
offered by female colleagues who hold
critical bits of information.
The CIA offices, whether in Langley
or in New York City, are key here. In The
Bourne Supremacy, the offices of senior
CIA officers play a significant role in
positioning Landy and her presence in a
hypermasculine environment. If Bourne
is fighting the odds against an organiza-
tion with vastly superior resources in
terms of infrastructure and manpower,
Landy has to negotiate on a daily basis
the jibes of male colleagues. As Deputy
Director Ward Abbot reminds her on
various occasions: You are operating
above your pay grade and You are in
a big puddle of shit. Vosen, in the fi-
nal film, condemns Landy for being an
armchair operative after a fatal shoot-
ing at Londons Waterloo Station even
though in the prior film it is apparent
that she has operational experience. To
survive in this testosterone-filled envi-
ronment, Landy has to take command,
and at one stage in The Bourne Ulti-
matum she urges her staff to strap in women in a nightclub somewhere in
and turn on their machines so that they
can begin to track and monitor Bournes
movements.
In her encounters with Abbot and
Vosen, Landy is shown battling senior
men seemingly obsessed with results
at any cost and a moral indifference to
what Abbot terms collateral damage.
Both men invoke national security to
justify their often violent actions (in-
cluding, in Abbots case, the murder of
a junior CIA officer) regardless of ap-
parent cost to others, including innocent
victims. What distinguishes them is that
Abbot is motivated ultimately by finan-
cial greed whereas Vosen is a vigilante
patriot. Apart from Bourne, the only
people shown to be capable of temper-
ing the use of violence are women. In
the case of the CIA, it is Landy who
is critical in persuading her colleagues
to at least consider the possibility that
Bourne might be motivated by a desire
for information about his past life. If he
is angry, she suggests, it is because he
has been hurt by the death of his girl-
friend. In Bournes case, he spares the
life of an asset because that would have
been what Marie wanted. It is Vosen
who fires the last shot in the third film
as he attempts to kill Bourne on top of
the CIA operations building in New
York City.
Location shooting in places such as
New York City, Moscow, London, Zu-
rich, Paris, Tangier, Berlin, and Goa
provide evocative backdrops to the ma-
terialization of different masculinities.
Bournes interactions with his fellow
assassins are important here. In the first
encounter in Paris, the asset tries to kill
Bourne and Marie, and when he fails to
do so simply plunges off the balcony. He
would rather kill himself than be taken
alive. The others based in Spain, Mo-
rocco, and Germany offer only limited
information to Bourne about their activ-
ities. They are single-minded men who
while capable, in the case of another
Spanish-based asset, of being involved
in a familial relationship are nonetheless
willing and able to drop everything to
complete their mission. The asset sent
to kill Bourne in Goa and Moscow does
not speak to Bourne and when relax-
ing is shown to be in the company of
Moscow. Unlike Bourne, he has neither
a girlfriend nor family life. Desh, the as-
set based in Morocco and North Africa,
never speaks but simply performs his
murderous duties. The subaltern in this
case simply stares at his victims.

The Bourne Supremacy (2004). Shown: the climactic chase scene with Jason Bourne driving a yellow cab. Photo courtesy of Photofest.
If there is another type of masculin-
ity on display it is perhaps most obvi-
ously manifested by the British news-
paper journalist Simon Ross in the final
film. Physically smaller than Bourne
and frequently represented as fright-
ened and out of his depth, he provides
a counterpoint to Bournes ruggedness
and coolness under pressure. Ross is
met by Bourne at Londons Water-
loo Stationand surreptitiously given
Jason Bourne 29
a mobile phone. While he is listening
to Bourne for instructions in terms of
avoidance strategies, he is frequently
seen and heard expressing concern and
anxiety about his situation. Lacking in
confidence, Ross leaves an area against
Bournes clear advice and is shot by the
assassin. He loses his life because he
did not hold his nerve and panicked.
If Marie was simply in the wrong place,
Ross is shown to be out of place. He
was, so it seems, better at writing about
intelligence and intrigue rather than
experiencing the effect of surveillance
and the possibility of being picked up
by a snatch team. When it comes to
the use of weapons and threat manage-
ment, it is only real men with training
and expertise who hold their nerve but
also at the same time shoot and stab oth-
ers. Although Marie and Parsons might
help Bourne in a violent encounter with
30 JPF&TJournal of Popular Film and Television
would-be assassins, they do not have
the opportunity to pull the trigger and
plunge the knife.
The Bourne films, arguably, both re-
inforce and yet at times challenge he-
gemonic types of masculinity and gen-
der roles. The embodied interchanges
between Bourne and a range of male
and female characters are clearly im-
portant in both shaping personal rela-
tionships and advancing the narrative.
It is through the conversations between
Landy and Abbot, Abbot and Conklin,
and Landy and Vosen that audiences are
able to learn more about the different
strategies being pursued against Bourne
and his female accomplices. The of-
fice and the field environment both
enable and constrain these encounters,
and both Vosen and Bourne seek to con-
strain their female accomplices and col-
leagues. Office protocol, for example,
ensures that when Landy and Vosen dis-
agree in public about how to apprehend
Bourne, Landy decides to continue the
conversation with Vosen in his private
office (not hers). In the field, Parsons
is told by Bourne to change her appear-
ance and then board a bus and keep out
of sight. We do not see her again until
the end of the filmthis time sipping a
cocktail in a hotel bar.
The Little Things
Those kinds of aforementioned con-
versations and gendered encounters be-
tween Vosen and Landy in The Bourne
Ultimatum revolve not only around
competing conceptions of security and
proportionality but also apparently lit-
tle things (Thrift 380). Vosens use of
we, for instance, when he explains
to Landy his strategy for dealing with
threats is particularly noteworthy. His
linguistic colonization of the word we
transforms the power relations between
the two senior managers. After Landy
asks him where the policy of killing
Bourne and Parsons will lead, he retorts
that it will end when we win. Vosen
and his teams use of electronic surveil-
lance, covert dealings, and assassins all
become justifiable in the name of the
plural personal pronoun we. Assas-
sins around the world are ordered to tar-
get Bourne, with no due regard to the le-
gal systems of France, India, Morocco,
and Russia.
If Bourne is able to avoid capture and
death and/or circumvent surveillance,
it is in part because he is highly mobile
and possesses multiple forms of docu-
mentation. For most citizens, those attri-
butes are less readily available: Bourne
is a trained agent and does not have an
apparent network of family and social
relations and, like James Bond, he has
an officially sanctioned license to kill.
As established in The Bourne Identity,
he has a number of passports that estab-
lish he might have Brazilian, Canadian,
Russian, and U.S. citizenship, to name
but a few. Indeed, he only meets Marie
in the U.S. consulate in Zurich, in part,
because she cannot get a visa to travel to
the United States. Frustrated, she leaves
the consulate while Bourne, on the other
hand, simply picks and chooses his
passport and, because of his facility to
speak a multitude of languages includ-
ing French, Italian, and Russian, can
glide across international boundaries
at will. For the British spy James Bond
in From Russia With Love, however,
things are slightly different. Armed
only with a British passport and a cover
story involving Universal Exports, he
is also able to enter and exit scores of
countries. Unlike Bourne, however, his
entry points are more often than not co-
vert. Bourne, in all three films, travels
via major air and seaports and resists
Vosens manly power by adopting alter-
native citizenships.
Small items such as the microfilm
and camera were, as James Bond dem-
onstrated, part and parcel of Cold War
material culture and the spy-thriller.
These objects were not only a means
of transmission of secret information
but also objects that engendered con-
siderable anxiety. James Bond was
frequently sent to recover lost objects
such as tracking devices, secret plans,
and microchips. As Alan Nadel has re-
corded with reference to containment
culture, there was considerable fear in
the United States that the Soviets and
their spies might penetrate the Ameri-
can body politic, aided and abetted by
double agents and defectors. While
American spy planes and agents sought
to extract information from their Soviet
rivals, agencies such as the CIA and
their domestic counterparts in the FBI
were charged with ensuring that secret
information did not escape the confines
of the official archive or operating room.
With the Cold War over, the Bourne se-
ries, among others, is setting espionage
in a different, more fluid geopolitical
context where American and Russian
rogue agents and businessmen conduct
illicit business and where assassins (of
all potential nationalities) are available
for secret operations.
Landy is the only character in the
Bourne series prepared to delve into
the archive. In The Bourne Supremacy
and again The Bourne Ultimatum, it is
she who works her way through the pa-
pers and photographs contained within
highly confidential files. She is able to
do so because she has the highest level
clearance. The files are shown to be
not only vital to piecing together the
story of secret programs and Bournes
involvement but also a counterpoint to
the paperless operations (all the more
important in a context in which freedom
of information rights exist) deliberately
encouraged by Abbot. Indeed, she is
forced to look at the files because of
his obfuscation about Bourne and the
Treadstone program. His irritation with
Landy is provoked by her insistence
on checking the content of files, which
have survived in the basement of the
CIA. The secret files are what ultimately
provide clues about Bournes identity
and the location of the training center.
The same files are also what facilitate
the downfall of senior staff at the end of
the third film. Landy tells Vosen that he
had better get a good lawyer because
the files would be judged to be incrimi-
nating. If one knows what one is doing,
the file can be superior to the gun.
The files are an important plot device,
as is the existence of recording devices,
which in two key moments (one involv-
ing Parsons and the other Abbot) help to
reveal crucial information about person-
alities and programs. As with the diary
that Bourne is trying to maintain with
the help of Marie, they offer an oppor-
tunity for both Bourne and the audience
to learn more about his troubled past,
including the assassination in Berlin.
They also, in the case of the Neski and

Treadstone files, are objects of intense
longing. Bourne and Landy both want
the Treadstone files in particular, and
Abbot and Vosen are keen to prevent
them access to either. Abbot retorts to
Landy that she wants his desk and ac-
cuses her of wanting to humiliate him.
Vosen locks his files in his private safe
and does not offer to share them with
Landy. The file is a powerful signifier
with explosive potential, therefore, in
terms of not only the plot but also gender
relations. As Abbot recognizes, the files
do not just signify career hierarchy but
also his very existence as a free citizen.
He interprets Landys determination to
discover the truth behind the secret pro-
grams as a direct threat that underscores
the fragility of his masculine power.
Again, as with Vosen, the paper traces
come to haunt him.
Understandably, Vosen is desperate
to retrieve the files once it has become
clear that Bourne has them in his pos-
session in the final part of The Bourne
Ultimatum. Bournes superior field craft
has enabled him to trick Vosen into leav-
ing his office unattended. Bourne later
hands them over to Landy outside the
training center. She then triggers a chain
of events via the fax machine that leads
to arrests and probable arrests and con-
victions for serious criminal offenses
including unlawful killing. It is women
in particular who are shown to be most
adept at marshalling written informa-
tion and using it, in the case of Landy,
to dramatic effect via the phone and fax
machine. And it is the file and the fax
machine that provide redemptive hope
not only for individuals such as Landy
but also for entire organizations such as
the CIA. As with other spy/conspiracy
thrillers such as The Recruit (2003),
blame is frequently attached to a small
group of individuals determined to per-
vert the constitutional constraints placed
on secret organizations.
The final object that assumes consid-
erable importance in the Bourne series
is a map. It is the GIS map, whether
in the form of a wall-mounted projec-
tion of Europe or street-level mapping
of London and Tangier, that enables the
viewer to comprehend the mapping and
surveillance capabilities of the CIA and
the global surveillance system ECH-
Jason Bourne 31
ELON. The map of Europe in the CIA ity of the CIA is exposed and shown to
operations center in Paris, for example, be critically lacking when it becomes
allows Conklin and his team to graphi- clear that Vosen cannot confirm that
cally represent their attempts to map Desh has completed his task of killing
and interpret the known movements Daniels, Parsons, and Bourne. Deshs
and contacts of Marie. It helps to ex- mobile phone has been taken by Bourne
plain their capacity to discover where following their violent confrontation in
Bourne might be hiding with Marie in a a house, and Vosen is forced, as a con-
remote farmhouse in France. Otherwise, sequence, to send some personnel from
it might be reasonably asked how it was the U.S. consulate in Tangier to check
possible for the CIA agents to know of the morgue to see whether their bodies
their location, given that no one fol- are there. It becomes clear that this is not
lowed them in their car. In the final film, the case, and Bourne and Parsons have
the map features in a different way; this escaped. The mobile phone not only
time it is used to show how assets are allowed Bourne to confuse the surveil-
tracking both Ross and Daniels in Lon- lance capacities of Vosen and his team
don and Tangier, respectively. The map but also, in the second film, provided
in this case fosters a sense of immediacy Bourne with vital clues about Landy and
and intimacy. Along with CCTV images CIA secret operations through a stolen
of Londons Waterloo Station, Vosen is SIM card.
able to track and oversee events over The little things within the Bourne se-
3,000 miles away from his office. ries turn out to be time and time again
In the case of Tangier, the tracking of absolutely critical. Mobile phones allow
the assassin via a street-level mapping Bourne to garner vital snippets of infor-
of the city is double edged. Vosen and mation. The sniper rifle with accompa-
his team are able to watch as a series of nying scope facilitates Bournes ability
colored points indicate the movements to spy on the very people responsible
of both Desh (the asset) and Daniels, but for the surveillance. The files facili-
they are not able to understand the so- tate Landys investigation of the Neski
called unscheduled deviation by Desh murders and the missing $20 million.
from his expected interception point They also incriminate senior members
with Daniels. For all the technological of the CIA. Seemingly mundane ob-
capabilities at his disposal, Vosen lacks jects (as opposed to multimillion dol-
human intelligence and appears unable lar satellites) not only save his life but
or unwilling to communicate with Desh also contest the manner in which geo-
directly. Unbeknown to Vosen, Bourne political power is put into practice. For
and Daniels have sent him slightly dif- all the bureaucratic, surveillance-based,
ferent instructions and told Desh to pick and information-storage resources at the
up a new mobile phone from a caf in disposal of senior managers, the humble
the city. Desh is still, nonetheless, able fax machine facilitates Vosens down-
to assassinate Daniels but, critically, fall. His hubris regarding national secu-
Bourne has been able to identify and rity and global surveillance is exposed
follow him. The global mapping capac- by Bourne, Landy, and Parsons, who
[A]lthough the performance of security
through objects, technologies, and displays
reproduces cultures of fear and suspicion,
the Bourne series perhaps provides a cultural
critique of sorts against those who would
invest faith in technological fixes.
32 JPF&TJournal of Popular Film and Television
are equipped with a few material ob-
jects and a bit of good fortune. As other
geographers have observed, although
the performance of security through
objects, technologies, and displays re-
produces cultures of fear and suspicion,
the Bourne series perhaps provides a
cultural critique of sorts against those
who would invest faith in technological
fixes. Global surveillance does not, as it
happens, offer any guarantees concern-
ing the tracking of subjects and the de-
livery of national security (see Cramp-
ton; Katz ).
Conclusion
As we reflect on the departed George
W. Bush administration, it is abundantly
clear that the election of President
Obama does not represent a panacea
in itself. If life really were like a Hol-
lywood movie then perhaps the order to
shut down the detention center in Guan-
tanamo Bay would be truly indicative
not only of a public rejection but also
an abandonment of the techniques and
practices associated with the war on
terror. Detention centers are only one
element in a global portfolio of sites
and territories implicated in the cam-
paign against terror. Further revelations
will no doubt appear in due course that
confirm the role of the American gov-
ernment and allies, including Britain,
in torture, illegal detention, and other
forms of violence against others deemed
threatening (Danchev).
Nonetheless, Judith Butler has noted
the significance of the public domain
of appearances, including popular rep-
resentations of the war on terror. The
invocation of national security, the for-
tification of the homeland, and the iden-
tification of the enemy have all been
critical to the Bush administrations
strengthening of the national security
state. The use of war was particularly
significant in projecting a need for loy-
alty to the commander in chief and a na-
tional unity in the face of threats to the
homeland. To be effective, people have
to believe that such threats are credit-
able and that exceptional measures are
needed to defeat the enemy, including
intrusions on their own civil liberties.
Hollywood and popular culture more
generally played an important part in not
just representing the war on terror but
also creating it in the first place. The de-
struction reaped on New York City and
Washington, D.C., in September 2001
provided a powerful visual and textual
resource for national security managers.
The marking of this date and associated
locations including New York City and
Washington, D.C., was the foundation
for much of what was to followthe
terror alerts, rendition, war, detention,
black operations, and so on.
The generic qualities of the action-
thriller fit well with the representational
logics of national security. Bourne and
Vosen represent different manifestations
of man-power. Both assume the role
of masculine protector. Both enjoy the
loyalty and support of others, in particu-
lar women. But Bournes masculinity is
more conflicted; he is concerned about
the welfare of others and even apolo-
gizes to the families of victims. Vosen
and other senior colleagues are commit-
ted to upholding rigid gender and pro-
fessional roles (they are both hostile and
suspicious of Landy and patronizing to-
ward Parsons); they are vengeful and ca-
pable of highly violent even murderous
reactions and are obsessed with secrecy,
power, and control. They are reaction-
ary and routinely invoke discourses of
national security and threat to justify
ever-more repressive actions. They are
swift to locate those dangers on the bod-
ies of others including Bourne, Daniels,
and Parsons. When Landy asks Vosen,
Where does it all stop? Vosen is em-
phatic that it ends when we have won.
It takes files (or at least reliable files as
opposed to dodgy dossiers), the fax
machine, and a willingness to act on in-
formation to bring the apparent madness
to an end. As the Bourne films remind
us, the ways in which individuals and in-
stitutions can make and enact decisions
have profound spatial consequences for
others, often far removed from centers
of calculation and decision making.
Acknowledgments
I offer my sincere thanks to Jason Ditt-
mer, Stuart Elden, Alan Ingram, and Cynthia
Weber for their kind comments on an earlier
version of this article. My thanks, finally,
to the organizers and participants at the
Gender, Violence, and the Cinematic Na-
tion workshop held at Cornell University in
March 2009. I also acknowledge the referees
attached to the Journal of Popular Film and
Television for their supportive comments.
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Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics
at Royal Holloway, University of London,
Egham, UK.
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