MovieChat Forums > The Bourne Supremacy (2004) Discussion > The literary version of Bourne could kic...

The literary version of Bourne could kick the...


...beep out of Damon's version. In th book he goes into the jungle of China to rescue an old friend armed with only a pen light and fishing wire so as to silently kill enemies. The guy is an f-n bad a$$.

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My only problem with Bourne in the Supremacy book is when he suddenly developed the skills of a ninja warrior.... given the book was written about 1986-ish, Ludlum clearly took far to much influence from the Kung Fu movies of the 1980's.

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There was no 'sudden development' if you really think about it though.

We're told that in the year or so between the events of Identity and Supremacy (retconned to about eight years in Ultimatum, oddly enough!), Bourne recovered a large portion of his memories, which in turn unlocked a vast pool of talents his amnesia had temporarily deprived him off.

The Jason Bourne in Supremacy is thus Bourne at his peak once more...100% the killing machine trained by Medusa.

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I am not meaning in terms of Bourne, I am meaning in terms of Robert Ludlum putting it in the story.

Ages since I last read the book, but my memory of it is Bourne is getting beaten up and suddenly Ludlum starts writing about Jason losing control and suddenly using moves that he never knew he had in him.

It was never part of the original story, its just something Ludlum added in to go with the whole Asia/China theme of the book that Bourne suddenly remembered he knew Karate

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Um, actually that part is from early in The Bourne Identity...Bourne (though he doesn't know his name yet), is working on a fishing boat when some thugs start a fight with him and he ends up taking them down with martial arts moves he never knew he had in him.

Bourne ALWAYS had 'ninja' and martial arts skills (as you put it), even in the first book...its just that by the time of The Bourne Supremacy, he remembers his training a LOT better!

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in real life an amnesiac person would never lose their martial skills. those are engraved into peoples mind and body to the point that even if you had a mind wipe you could still use every ounce of skill

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even if someone had amnesia they would not magically lose the ability to fight

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that sounds retarded. I'm glad the movies are the way they are.

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Eh, the books and movies are extremely different. By the time you're halfway into the first book everything is significantly different. Conklin, Abbot, and Marie are all pretty different and have very different paths, and the Treadstone program exists for a very specific, very different purpose in the books. Supremacy and Ultimatum pretty much share nothing in common except for the movies using the same titles for the trilogy.

I really enjoy both the books and the movies. It's pretty fascinating to be able to read what's actually going through Jason's mind when he's fighting or when he needs to blend into a crowd or needs to scope something out in the books, and you understand just how badass he is reading all of that.

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the book bourne uses hong kong fuey *beep*

the movie bourne uses real martial arts that actually works

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