Of all the many, many, many one-on-one fight scenes throughout the Bourne trilogy, this is arguably the best of the lot.
Thanks to Lucozade Energy, we’re counting down our favourite action film scenes. Number 3 on the list is The Bourne Ultimatum.
It hasn’t been the same since Matt Damon left, but as far as the first three films are concerned at least, rarely has an action hero delivered awesome ass-kickings as consistently as the incredibly hard to pin down Jason Bourne.
Trying to pick one’s favourite Bourne butt-kicking is as hard as trying to pick your favourite movie from the Bourne series but seeing as The Bourne Ultimatum is our favourite, it should come as little surprise that our favourite fight scene happens to come from the last time Bourne’s shoes were filled by Damon himself.
Trying to protect Nicky Parson (Julia Stiles) from the man tasked with killing her – Blackbriar asset Desh Bouksani – in Tangiers while trying to evade the attention of the police at the same time, Bourne takes a path through the rooftops and living rooms of a number of houses in the city before eventually meeting Desh for a showdown just as he was on the verge of finishing Nicky off for good.
Like the best action film scenes, this one requires the viewer to suspend reality for a brief moment and to abandon all scepticism and justifiable concerns about the legitimacy of what is happening to increase their enjoyment of the whole thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLt7lXDCHQ0
If we were being cynical, for example, we could suggest that the angle from which Bourne leapt from the roof towards the window might be likelier to result in him falling to either his death or a very bad injury below rather than smashing through the glass.
And, let’s be honest about it, a normal person would spend a considerable amount of time after falling through the window picking glass off their skin and trying to stem the blood flow rather than being immediately ready to trade punches with a guy almost as skilled in the art of combat as themselves and who had sustained no injuries before the fight even started.
But Jason Bourne, of course, is not a normal person and instead of licking his wounds, he engages in a two-minute joust with Desh in which both men showcase no little skill, strength, technique and innovation and is so dripping with tension that you’ll have no teeth left once you reach the finish line. In fact, by the end of it, you’ll feel as if you’ve gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson, it really is that exhausting.
As with all of Bourne’s indoor fights, it is obligatory for him to use household objects for violent purposes and having used a pen – yes, a pen – in a battle in one of the previous movies, Bourne utilises a book and a towel before going for a more old-fashioned approach when choking Desh to death.
Director Paul Greengrass, who directed the second and third movies in the Bourne series, is a fan of that close-up, shaky kind of a shot that makes the viewer feel as if they’re right there watching it and though it can make for uncomfortable viewing at times, it works a treat here; don’t try and pretend that you didn’t attempt to dodge at least one of the punches flying between the two protagonists.
The scene was the culmination of a great actor (Damon) doing some of his best work under a great director (Greengrass) in probably the greatest episode of all in a great series; it's just a pity we're not likely to see them reprise the partnership under the Bourne banner again.
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