Hasitha Fernando on the story behind The Bourne Supremacy as the spy action sequel turns 20…
Following in the heels of The Bourne Identity’s success indie filmmaker Paul Greengrass and action star Matt Damon teamed up to deliver one helluva sequel thrill ride with The Bourne Supremacy. As the thought provoking, hard hitting actioner hits 20 we look back at what went on behind-the-scenes during the making of the movie…
An indie flick paved the way for director Paul Greengrass
The making of The Bourne Identity was something of a chaotic affair, chiefly due to the on-set problems which erupted between director Doug Liman and the film’s producers who disagreed with his creative process. But in spite of the troubled production The Bourne Identity went on to become a critical and commercial success, garnering high-praise and acclaim for its engaging narrative, visceral action and compelling performances. Naturally the studio wanted to fast track a sequel and strike while the iron was hot but they had a particular pebble in their shoes – Doug Liman.
The producers didn’t want the filmmaker anywhere near their sequel so they sought a replacement and found their guy ideal pick in Paul Greengrass, who was coming off the 2002 film Bloody Sunday. Now, up to that point Greengrass had been involved primarily with the indie and documentary scene so he was unfamiliar with studio filmmaking and helming big budget actioners. But producers Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley liked the chap’s visual style of involving the camera as a participatory viewer and decided Greengrass could inject some novelty to the tried-and-tested action genre and hired him.
Tony Gilroy read Robert Ludlum’s book this time around
Tony Gilroy has been penning scripts for movies since the 1990s with engrossing efforts like Dolores Claiborne and The Devil’s Advocate. But it was with Michael Bay’s box-office decimating disaster-flick Armageddon released in 1998 that Gilroy received the career boost he needed despite being one of five writers who contributed to its script. The screenwriter got his next big break when he was chosen to adapt Robert Ludlum’s spy fiction thriller The Bourne Identity, which is the first novel in the original Bourne series by the author. Gilroy, however, never read the source material when he penned the script for the first Bourne installment. He deviated from this strategy when he was taking a crack at The Bourne Supremacy script by actually reading the book and working key elements of it into his screenplay, though he replaced the novel’s Carlos The Jackal-esque villain with Karl Urban’s Kirill who is a corrupt Russian assassin.
Multiple variations of the script were used interchangeably
Although Tony Gilroy received a solo ‘screenplay by’ credit at the conclusion of the shoot, Oscar winning scribe Brian Helgeland contributed in an uncredited capacity to revamp Gilroy’s script at the very outset of production. During a 2012 BAFTA screenwriter’s lecture, Helgeland revealed that he was brought on by the producers five days before prior to production kick off to polish the existing script. Helgeland elaborated that part of Gilroy’s initial draft was set in the USSR, despite the Soviet Union’s collapse over a decade prior. Although the studio ended up rejecting Helgeland’s new script Greengrass utilized it throughout production, swapping it interchangeably between Gilroy’s original script.
The movie was intentionally given a gritty, documentary-style look
The grounded and gritty, documentary-esque appearance of The Bourne Supremacy was something of a first in action cinema. Up to that particular point in time the camera work in actioners could be easily comprehended by audiences due to the fact that they were either fixed wide shots or long shots which followed the action taking place with a few well-placed edits in between. However, the approach followed by director Paul Greengrass was far different.
The filmmaker opted to use mostly handheld cameras and a muted color palette to give the effort a more visceral feel. Greengrass also eschewed the use of CGI in the action set pieces as much as possible preferring to achieve all stunts in camera. The shooting of the movie took place in reverse chronological order; so the opening scenes in Goa, India were shot last while the frenzied car chase and the movie’s ending were shot at the very beginning.
Matt Damon accidentally knocked out an actor while shooting a fight sequence
Matt Damon is an actor who requires no introduction. His critically lauded performance in Good Will Hunting as well as the screenplay he crafted for it along with his buddy Ben Affleck shot him to super stardom. He received further acclaim for his contributions to movies like Saving Private Ryan, Rounders, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Ocean’s Eleven. However, it’s through his role as amnesiac super spy Jason Bourne in the Bourne trilogy that the talented performer cemented his status as a bona fide action star.
Being someone who takes his roles seriously Damon underwent an intense physical training regimen before filming began and mastered an ancient Philippine martial art called Escrima along with some Jeet Kun Do with his stunt coordinator. In one particular scene where Bourne punches two men at the Naples airport Damon accidentally connected with actor Tim Griffin who was playing Agent Nevins, knocking him out cold. When the actor came to the first thing he asked the cameraman was if he ‘caught it on camera’.
Karl Urban was just the man for the job
Hailing from a predominantly small-screen background with productions like Xena: Warrior Princess at the early stage of his career, New Zealand actor Karl Urban eventually got his big break playing Éomer in Peter Jackson’s sprawling fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings. Following the success of his breakout role Urban then went on to star as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in the J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot, Judge Dredd in the dystopian actioner Dredd and the anti-hero Skurge in the MCU’s Thor: Ragnarök. When casting the role of corrupt Russian agent Kirill the producers sought a charismatic and compelling performer that could fill the character’s shoes and their choice was none other than – Karl Urban.
The crew paid off police officials to shoot the car chase sequence
A large portion of the electrifying car chase sequence in The Bourne Supremacy was shot on location in Moscow with certain portions being shot in Berlin. But the best part was this was not done through official means. For some reason production was unable to secure a permit to film in Moscow so what ended up happening was some very maverick type filmmaking where local cops were paid off to shut down streets and roads around Moscow whilst the stunt team and camera crew were whizzing around trying to capture the action by illegal means. Regardless, the end product was truly something spectacular to behold and all due props should go to the professionals who were involved in the process.
Box office success, rave critic reviews & a legacy
Produced on a production budget of $75 million The Bourne Supremacy went on to make a respectable $290.6 million at the worldwide box office. The second Bourne outing also proved to be a hit with critics and as of writing boasts a solid 82% on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert in particular liked what he saw in The Bourne Supremacy giving the effort 3 out of 4 stars and writing that it, “treats the material with gravity and uses good actors in well-written supporting roles [that] elevates the movie above its genre, but not quite out of it.”
At the 2005 Taurus World Stunt Awards, veteran Russian stunt coordinator Viktor Ivanov and Scottish stunt driver Gillie McKenzie won the “Best Vehicle” award for their daring contribution to the pulse-pounding Moscow car chase sequence. Dan Bradley, the film’s second unit director won the overall award for stunt coordinator.
For better or for worse the movie left a lasting legacy by temporarily transforming the style and aesthetics of the action genre. Following the overwhelming popularity of The Bourne Supremacy many filmmakers tried to replicate that rapid-fire-edited, shaky cam visual language in their movies in an effort to inject energy to their action sequences resulting in less than savoury outcomes. Nevertheless, from the mid-2000s onwards to a decade countless action movies like Taken, Quantum of Solace, The Hunger Games, World War Z and Man of Steel all infused the shaky cam camerawork in some shape or form and slowly but surely audiences grew weary of it.
The reason why the technique worked in the Paul Greengrass Bourne movies was because it wasn’t just some superficial, aesthetic driven gimmick for the filmmaker. It was a visual language he used to add a sense of gritty realism and to augment the participatory experience of the audience. Sadly in a creatively bankrupt place like Hollywood the innovation pioneered in The Bourne Supremacy soon got reduced to something of a joke and has now become all but forgotten.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
