Who Did It Better? Comparing Chases In The Jason Bourne Films

Poor Jason Bourne. He has no idea who he is and no matter what country he travels to, assassin and police are always chasing him. Since the Bourne trilogy is basically one long story of a man on the lam, we have a wide array of chase scenes to look at. As we begin Speed Week in honor of the Fast Five premiere, let’s take a look at the chases from all three Bourne films and see which one does it right. 
There are only two chase scenes in The Bourne Identity, compared to the three in each of the following sequels. Probably a good idea, since we need a lot of exposition as to why the bad guys care so much about the man without a memory. 

First chase: This one is on foot, and can’t even really be called a chase by typical standards because Bourne is walking the entire time. He’s almost leisurely. However, it’s still pretty exciting. We get to see Bourne discover his instincts and lethal fighting skills. He cleverly steals a fire escape map to find the best route out of the embassy, walking all the while. The best part is when he renders a security guard unconscious by punching him in the nards, so that he can steal the guard’s earpiece. Brutal, but smart.
   

Second chase:  Pretty cool car chase. Bourne is rocking a mini cooper, though he's a few decades late since the original The Italian Job got there first in 1969. Also, see if you can spot the product placement when the shot zooms in on the mini's hubcap.  This is one of the few chases where Bourne has a passenger, and the dynamic between Jason and Marie makes the scene all the more exciting. I think the best part is when Bourne warns Marie that there's a bump coming up and the next shot is mini shooting down a huge flight of steps, while Marie screams in terror. There are very few instances of humor in the Bourne trilogy, and I think this may be one of the only funny lines Matt Damon has in the film. Despite how simple it is, the joke plus the awesome stunt makes for a sweet car chase.

 

The chase sequences get a lot more intricate and exciting in The Bourne Supremacy. There's also a chase-related death in the first ten minutes so the stakes are higher.

First chase: Like I said, this occurs in the first ten minutes of the film. Bourne and his girlfriend, Marie, have been discovered in India by a Russian assassin. Time to jump in the jeep and go! This is one of the few chases in the series in which Bourne is pursued by only one assailant. The chase is relatively short, and the only cool effect is when Bourne’s jeep is pushed over the edge of a bridge into the water below. Bourne manages to escape, but Marie (who was shot right before the car took a dive) dies.  

  

  

Second chase: Oh Bourne, what a sneak you are. This is my favorite in the film, and you’ll notice that I much prefer foot chases to car chases. We get to see how resourceful Bourne is once he realizes that he needs to find another mode of transport. Subway to barge  and back to subway? Pretty clever. Suck it, German police. On an anatomical note,to be able to jump from the tacks up onto the platform, Matt Damon or his stuntman either have calves the size of basketballs or they used a trampoline. What do you think?

  

  

Third chase: Everyone, even Jason Bourne, needs a drink from time to time. But is a shot right before a high-speed chase really a good idea? Good thing he's using most of it sterilize his gunshot wound. At six minutes, this is the longest chase in the Bourne franchise so far. What I do like about this chase is how out of control Jason is. You can see plainly that he's scared and in a lot of pain and doesn't really have any sort of a plan. Also, how much would it suck to be that poor little car that gets trapped between Bourne and the evil Russian? Overall, this one does last a little too long and begins the annoying trend that Jason Bourne is impervious to car wrecks, despite the fact that none of the cars have airbags.

When it comes to the chase scenes in The Bourne Ultimatum, the order is this: boring, awesome, ridiculous.

First chase: This picks up just seconds after where The Bourne Supremacy left off. Bourne is basically running away from the five cops left in Moscow who weren’t killed in the high-speed pursuit just moments ago. He manages to escape into a warehouse so that he can nurse his bullet wound and succumb to more flashbacks. Boooring.

Second chase: Next to the infamous pen-stabbing fight in The Bourne Identity, this is the most memorable scene in the Bourne trilogy. Not to be outdone by the car chase in the previous film, this chase clocks in at nearly ten minutes long. This time Bourne is the one doing the chasing as he pursues an assassin in Morocco who is chasing after Julia Stiles. The Moroccan police then show up and start chasing Bourne. There are so many pursuers and pursuees, you half expect the Benny Hill theme to start playing. However, the stunts in the chase are pretty badass. Bourne escapes the police by jumping his motorcycle up and over a four foot-high wall, then over a huge flight of stairs. He then jumps on foot from roof to roof, looking for the assassin. However, the best and most memorable stunt is when Bourne jumps from the top of a building into a window across the alley. He does this two more times, breaking through a pane of glass on his last jump. Awesome!

  

  

Third chase: Once again perpetuating the trend that Jason Bourne is immune to injuries sustained in horrific car crashes. What you don't see here is that before Bourne gets into the police cruiser, he hot-wires a car on a rooftop parking lot. However, one of the bad guys appears in a car ahead and Bourne must drive backwards to escape. Here’s the bad thing about rooftop parking lots. When you drive backwards, sometimes drive off the edge and plummet two stories down on top of more cars, flipping over a few more. Luckily, if you’re Jason Bourne, you can just climb out of the sunroof with nothing but a few scratches. After watching this, I can't be the only one wondering why the hell none of these cars have airbags. I mean, seriously, he rammed the back of his car into an SUV. Not exactly a fender bender. And of course, Bourne escapes with a few bruises while his pursuer lies paralyzed against the wheel, gushing blood. Ridiculous.

So out of three movies and eight car chases, which will be named the victor? I have to say it’s the motorcycle/foot chase in The Bourne Ultimatum. Despite its length, the chase stays interesting because of the changing modes of transportation and the difficulty of the stunts. The mini cooper chase from The Bourne Identity is a close second, with the foot chase in The Bourne Supremacy coming in third.