You're a malfunctioning $30 million weapon. You're a total goddamn catastrophe, and by God, if it kills me, you're going to tell me how this happened.
No 365 - The Bourne Identity Director - Doug Liman The concept of an unreliable protagonist, one with amnesia, is nothing new . It runs the risk of feeling a bit like a lazy plot development in order to hide things from the viewer. However, when done well it allows the film to explore themes of identity, of self and of ethics. Which sounds pretty deep for a bash people up action film. When we meet Bourne he is left for dead and has no memory of who or what he is. And so the film sets a wonderful little mystery as Bourne tries to figure out his name and his identity through a series of clues and chases. Throughout this we have a dodgy secret agency run by Brian Cox's Ward Abbott but mainly managed by Chris Cooper's Conklin . They believe that Bourne knows everything and is trying to punish them for their past misdeeds (past misdeeds which remain hidden from us and from Bourne ). They believe Bourne must be killed. We also have Bourne's former quarry, Adewale Akinnouye...