Does Anarchy Have a New Super Hero?
Uber assassin turned conscientious objector Jason Bourne is the hero of the week.
Or is he?
I finally got some spare time to see Jason Bourne in the theater and have to say I was entertained. The action-packed gun play and car chase sequences stayed true to the franchise. And what’s more, I even felt a mild sense of amazement because it looked to me like Hollywood came on board with a strong stance against the statists.
In this latest installment, Bourne’s mission isn’t so much a fight against an immoral government wet-works program, as much as the more subtle and ubiquitous intrusion on individual privacy. Writer/director Paul Greengrass seems to tap into the growing public sentiment against big intrusive government. It almost looks like Jason Bourne has become a true defender of freedom.
But I say not so fast.
[**SPOILER ALERT**]
The main character’s previous struggles have been about recovering his memories and exposing the heinous black ops programs of the U.S. Government. Namely, he uncovers their covert assassination programs Treadstone and Blackbriar. The programs are undeniably immoral. For three movies, Bourne undertakes a quest to recover his past and fight against what he had become – a cold-blooded killer. The writers even hint that he was coerced into adopting the persona of Jason Bourne, an idea the current film tries to expand. But is this really true?
Bourne already has his privacy. His special training enables him to live permanently off the grid and outside the reach of the CIA’s new Iron Hand program. He makes a living as a prize fighter. However, that life is cut short when his former associate Nicky Parsons locates him.
Unlike Bourne, Nicky chose the more noble path to fight against the government’s oppressive surveillance program. But when she approaches Bourne with a plea for help he is reluctant to get involved, preferring to maintain his own privacy.
The only way she can get him to even think of helping is by making it personal. She suggests there is more to his history with Treadstone than he knows. Apparently, government operatives were tracking him long before his recruitment and also had something to do with his father’s murder. But as Bourne tries to rescue Nicky from riot-torn Athens, the CIA’s nameless Asset shoots Nicky in the back.
As she lay dying, just out of Bourne’s reach, her final act is to pass Bourne a key, a movement which prompts the Asset to finish her off. Her sacrifice keeps Bourne out of the sniper’s view and thus saves his life.
The scene jumps to Silicon Valley and the young business genius Aaron Kalloor, the fictitious Zuckerberg of the Bourne world. Kalloor made a deal with the devil. He let the CIA bully him into exposing customer data for use in shadowy government operations. What’s worse, his next big project involves a complete integration of all citizens’ personal lives into a single giant computer operating system. It’s CIA Director Dewey’s wet dream. But Kalloor is a conscientious member of the hacker culture, and decides to push back against the government’s plans. Unamused, Director Dewey initiates a bogus legal action against Kalloor. But Kalloor, being the genius he is, understands how the game is played. He refuses to take it lying down.
Back with Bourne we find the reluctant hero systematically retracing the past to learn about his father’s involvement with Treadstone and unmask Nicky’s killer. He tracks Christian Dassault, the leader of the anarchist/hacker organization Nicky worked with, to his home in Berlin. Bourne breaks in and presses Dassault for help decoding Nicky’s encrypted files.
Dassault, knowing who and what Bourne is, asks him to join their cause to fight the tyranny of the CIA. With a long contemptuous stare Bourne states bluntly, “I’m not on your side.” The rejection causes Dassault to become wary of Bourne’s intentions, and as Bourne is an intruder, Dassault attacks him. Bourne trounces him handily and leaves him for pickup by the CIA team that by now is just two minutes away.
As we’re led through the storyline, it becomes clear that the mysterious Asset not only has a personal beef with Bourne for ratting out Treadstone, but is also the assassin responsible for killing his father. Bourne’s mission takes on an even more personal edge. Now he seeks justice (revenge?) for both Nicky’s and his father’s murder. We soon learn Bourne’s original reason for joining the CIA was to fight against what he believed to be a terrorist attack on his family, but was actually a CIA hit.
The ensuing action sequence following Bourne’s departure from Dassault’s flat brings him together with an unlikely ally. Heather Lee, the CIA team leader under Director Dewey, wants Borne to return to active duty with the Agency. She is surprisingly competent in understanding Bourne’s psyche and pushes against Director Dewey’s plan to put Borne in a box.
In a brief moment alone in London, Lee tells Bourne that they both want Dewey out of the picture, but for different reasons. We’re left believing the duo are planning a partnership to serve the greater good.
Soon after, Kalloor is preparing to unveil a surprise announcement at ExoCon, a technology conference in Las Vegas. As he takes the stage with his CIA associates ostensibly to extol the benefits of mass surveillance, we find the Asset has made his way back to the States. On Dewey’s orders, he is taking up a hidden sniper position to take Kalloor out. The order also includes killing Bourne’s new “love interest” Heather Lee.
As Kalloor is about to reveal the secret government agenda to the crowd, Borne charges in just in time and distracts the Asset. The sniper's shot misses its mark leaving Kalloor with a wounded shoulder. He survives, but his announcement is stopped.
Bourne proceeds to track Dewey to his hotel room. But Dewey is ready for him. Instead of fighting, he tries to convince the wayward operative to return to the CIA. Bourne appears to struggle with a genuine inner conflict as he considers the offer. He realizes his only real arguments against the black ops programs are sentimental.
His thoughts are cut short, however, when another agent arrives and shoots him in the arm. Although Borne wins the gunfight, Dewey is able to gain the upper hand and Bourne finds himself with his back against the wall. Just as his final moments are upon him, Agent Lee slides in the back door and puts a bullet in Dewey’s heart.
With the program’s director dead, and the CEO of Deep Dream Corporation injured but recovering, it seems everything turned out well. But the motivations of the soon to be new director Heather Lee are still unclear. In a secret conversation between Agent Lee and the Director of National Intelligence Edwin Russell, we learn that she planned Dewey’s demise all along in order to gain the position of Director for herself. She tells Russell that she plans to either bring Borne in, or execute him.
Soon after we find Lee walking in a park when she is unexpectedly approached by Bourne. She once again tries to persuade him to return to the fold, but he asks for time to think about it. When she returns to her car, she is angered to find a recording of her conversation with Director Russell left by Bourne himself. And then Bourne fades away into the crowd.
So let’s recap…
Jason Bourne is a man who values his privacy for the sake of personal survival. He also possesses insider knowledge of how to maintain that privacy. Nicky Parsons shares some of that knowledge, but uses it instead to fight for the common man at great personal risk. She is only able to convince Bourne to help her by appealing to his own personal interests.
Then there’s Dassault who fights along side Nicky. Bourne breaks into his home and forces him to provide a service, but then flatly refuses to answer his call to fight against the tyranny of government.
The big business CEO, Aaron Kalloor then openly speaks out to the public against the same tyrannical government programs, fully aware of the personal risk he faces. He is promptly and violently silenced.
Finally we see Heather Lee, an even more dangerous version of her predecessor, rise to power in a violent internal Agency coup.
In the end the Agency survives, and the government becomes more powerful. Jason Bourne never manages to expose the statist surveillance program, nor even expresses a real concern about it. Big business remains firmly in the government’s pocket, and all the true patriots are either murdered or captured.
But I guess we should be thankful that the Asset was finally killed. At least we can take comfort that as Jason Bourne fades back into his life of privacy and obscurity he was at least able to get his revenge. It turns out he’s just a highly-skilled tool, and the rest of us will have to deal with Deep Dream on our own.