Jason Bourne reads The Guardian
There’s a terrific bit of product placement for our client The Guardian in the summer’s big action movie, The Bourne Ultimatum. (Nothing to do with us and looks to be driven by plot requirements rather than a commercial deal.) Former CIA ‘black ops’ agent Jason Bourne, on the run from his former employers, is relaxing on the train reading The Guardian when he spots an article exposing a leak about himself and the organisation he used to work for. He’s on a mission to track down the men who stole his past and turned him into a ruthless killing machine so he sets up a meeting with The Guardian journalist to find the source of the story. This leads to a thrilling and brilliantly staged sequence in Waterloo Station, as CIA hit-men try to kill the journalist before Bourne can get to him. It’s all extremely exciting and, along the way, portrays the Guardian and its staff as being exponents of cutting-edge investigative liberal journalism. Unfortunately, it all ends badly for the journalist when he panics and fails to take Bourne’s advice.
There’s a little in-joke where the journalist, played by Paddy Considine, meets with his editor about the story. The actor playing the editor bears a striking resemblance to Alan Rusbridger, the paper’s real-life editor.
By the way, it’s a terrifically exciting movie executed with astonishing craft skills in the direction and editing. But you’re so swept along by the visceral thrill of the action that you almost don’t notice this at the time. A real ‘white knuckle ride’, as they say.
