The Bourne Identity

Major Gordon Webb arrives in Manhattan, New York, from Zurich with a briefcase. He travels to the Treadstone headquarters, an unassuming brownstone. Inside, he meets Abbott and Elliott Stevens, the closest adviser to the president.

The three men discuss Bourne. Webb and Abbott brief Stevens on what is happening so that he can tell the president. Abbott calls Bourne “the most carefully constructed deception” in history (332). He is not an assassin but a ruse created by the government to find and track Carlos. They believed that if Carlos thought he had competition, he would eventually try to stop Bourne, making himself vulnerable in the process.

The men express their concern over Carlos having figured out Bourne’s identity. They are certain that he got it from the Medusa records, which would only have been possible if Carlos had informants at the top of the US intelligence community.

Webb explains that they fabricated the story in the newspapers about the bank robbery to try to send a message to Bourne. Carlos published Marie’s name and her involvement so that the police and public would help find her. They have no photo of Bourne, so they used her instead. Webb hopes that Bourne will contact Treadstone in response.

Outside the brownstone, Alfred Gillette meets with a European man. They discuss Bourne, speculating that he has turned against Treadstone. Just before Abbott leaves the headquarters, the European leaves Gillette alone in the car.

When Abbott walks by the car, Gillette pulls him inside. He tells Abbott that he has learned everything about Treadstone and Bourne. Gillette is initially surprised and then angry, insisting that Gillette has jeopardized the entire operation. However, Gillette expresses his anger that Abbott never included the intelligence community, instead wasting valuable resources on a single man.

Their conversation is interrupted by the return of the European man. To Gillette’s surprise, the European man pulls out his gun and shoots him. Abbott asks the man how he identified Bourne. The man points out that there are records of Medusa’s personnel that still exist in Hanoi from the Vietnam War. These records show that Jason Bourne was killed on March 25, 1968, in Tam Quan. Despite this, he is listed as having survived the war, meaning that someone took his identity. The man then shoots Abbott.

The European man leaves his car. He finds his partner waiting nearby, and the two go up to the brownstone. As Stevens comes out, they kill him and then enter the headquarters. They destroy the security cameras and alarms. When Webb comes into the room, they kill him, too.

The European man brings all the bodies into the same room. He uses tape to place Bourne’s fingerprints on a drinking glass and then drops and breaks it. He considers this the final step in “isolating” Bourne.

Marie and Bourne quickly leave the hotel and travel to a new one on the outskirts of Paris. They argue about what to do next, with Marie insisting that they have to figure out who sent them the message. She is certain that it is the Canadian Embassy. Bourne relents, allowing her to call Dennis. She gives him their location, and he agrees to send a car.

Bourne is still not convinced that the embassy is going to help them, so he sets up a trap. He rents a second room in the name that Marie gave Dennis, and then he and Marie wait in their room and watch. Two men move quietly up the stairs and through the hall. Bourne recognizes one as the man who attacked him in his room in Steppdeckstrasse. The men enter the false room, shooting as they do so, and then express their anger when they realize that Bourne and Marie are not inside.

Distraught, Marie insists that her instinct could not have been wrong. She begs Bourne to call the embassy himself. When he does, he learns that Dennis was killed—shot in the neck—shortly after he spoke on the phone with Marie.

In Washington, DC, the remaining four members of Treadstone meet in a hotel room to discuss what to do next. They are a senator from Colorado; Navy Brigadier General I. A. Crawford; and Alexander Conklin, a man from the CIA who was part of Medusa.

Conklin and Crawford explain what happened in Manhattan. Bourne’s prints were found on a glass. They believe that Webb brought him in to speak with Treadstone, not realizing that Bourne planned to kill them all. Their only explanation for Bourne’s turn is his propensity for anger and disregard for command—as was shown during his time with Medusa. Conklin reminds them of what happened to Bourne during the Vietnam War: His wife and two children were killed, causing him to join Medusa for revenge.

Crawford tells the men that they are going to send out Bourne’s photograph for the first time. They plan to kill him rather than bring him in. The congressman argues that they cannot be certain that Bourne has turned, but Crawford shuts him down. He points out that Bourne has become “Cain,” fulfilling the myth that they created. He reminds them that Gordon Webb was Bourne’s brother.