I did not care for Masquerade and Cover Up at all. I liked Knight Rider until they went to that ridiculous Super Pursuit Mode; Airwolf was cool and after awhile it's lost its charm. Foxfire was okay, Joanna Cassidy kind of got me in but I got busy with work and among other things and by time I got curious what happen with Foxfire ... the show was off the air. Another show that you missed was Street Hawk starring Rex Smith and it was a short live television show like T.R. Sloane about a soap-up Motorcycle that was used to solve crimes. That show was even more ridiculous than Knight Rider and I watched 2-3 of them and I was done with.

Callan is great drama, with terrific acting and writing. It is studio bound, which gives it more of a stagey feeling.

Knight Rider was aimed squarely at kids and young adults: cool car, lots of action, lighthearted style. Airwolf was aimed at a bit older audience, at first. It was fairly serious stuff; but, it got watered down as it went along. The USA version isn't even worth sampling, though papa Dick Van Dyke did play a villain, in one of Barry's episodes.

I skipped Street Hawk because it was A)terrible, B) Knight Rider on a motorcycle, and C) more of a police/superhero show. Really, so was Knight Rider; but, I kind of felt it overlapped more with the spy genre and was a decent enough series, for what it was. Blue Thunder was also out there, though it was a police show. The film was a conspiracy thriller with a high tech gunship, which helped inspire Airwolf (with a way cooler helicopter). Really, of the techno-adventure shows, only Airwolf fit into the spy category.

I'm also skipping the other Knight Rider knockoffs, like Viper, Super Force and the god-awful Thunder in Paradise.

Really, I think Knight Rider is best summed up by the Simpsons...

I loved the EQUALIZER Show ... I missed it the first time go around due to work and finally caught it in syndication and its really had a style of its own. Edward Woodward as Robert McCall was born to play it.

By the mid-80s, technothrillers were replacing spy novels as popcorn reads. You still got a few espionage thrillers; but, as technology changed how real intel was gathered, so too did fiction change to reflect this. the biggest name to evolve out of this was Tom Clancy. Clancy was a former insurance agent who never actually served in the military or the intelligence community; but, read a lot of Jane's Defense and applied the technical material found in their publications to the espionage genre. the end result was The Hunt for Red October.



Now, the novel wasn't exactly published by a major publishing house. Clancy was a student of naval history and technology and had written an article on the MX missile for the Naval Institute Press, which published non-fiction works about naval history and naval affairs. Clancy submitted a first draft manuscript to them and an editor sent back a request to cut down on technical details, then bought it as their first novel, convincing the publishers that it would be a bestseller. That prediction proved true and it became a favorite among airport travellers and military people. It gained a fan in Ronald reagan, who spoke glowing of it. Clancy becamea media darling and followed up the novel with Red Storm rising, Patriot Games, Cardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears, Without Remorse, Debt of Honor, Executive Orders, The Bear and the Dragon, Red Rabbitt and The Teeth of the Tiger; plus, a plethora of series with his name on them, written by work-for-hire authors, as well as a series of military reference books with military experts. Clancy was able to convince the emdia he was a military expert, despite never having served (he was rejected due to eyesight) and doing nothing more than reading histories and defense publications. However, he could tell a story, which meant more in the media world. As a writer, he's a mixed bag, for my tastes. hunt for red October is far an away his best novel, with a tight plot and a gripping story. After that, he gets into fantasy worlds, pads his novels, overdoes technical areas, under-develops characters, uses offensive stereotypes and fills things with his deeply conservative political views. For my money, his books got worse with each new one, until I quit reading after Clear & Present Danger. That book demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge about infantry tactics and special warfare operations, something also present in the earlier Red Storm Rising. Also, first-hand experience taught me that his wonder technology mostly didn't work or didn't work properly for very long. In my job, as a supply officer, I spent a lot of time trying to get parts to fix his wonder weapons. Also, as a veteran, I took exception to him draping himself in military regalia, without having earned the honor. Granted, many were gifts from military commands and organizations; but, he wore them in author photos like he was a veteran, which he was not. he was not in the 1st Cavalry Division, did not serve on the USS Iowa and was not a pilot...



Anyway..........

Hunt for Red October is a tight, well written thriller, that is somewhat plausible, in the timeframe. The novel was partially inspired by a real mutiny on a Soviet frigate, the Storozhevoy, in 1975. However, that mutiny was led by the zampolit, or, political officer. Clancy's novel as a legendary soviet submarine commander, with a hand-picked crew, take out the newest Soviet ballistic missile submarine (modelled on the Typhoon class sub)...



This submarine is special; it hasa new propulsion system, a "caterpillar drive." which creates near-silent propulsion, making it nearly undetectable. It has channels, like jet engine intakes, which funnel water to impellers, pushing the vessel forward, as the water leaves the chambers, eliminating the cavitation noise of a traditional propeller, as it pushes into the water. Passive sonar could detect propeller noise and vessels could be identified by the turn count of the prop. Here, there is so little noise that they are almost invisible to sonar. Almost, as we will see. Upon opening the sealed orders, the captain, a Lithuanian, Marko Ramius, murders the zampolit then takes his vessel towards the United States, with the intent of defecting and revealing it to the West, in revenge for the death of his wife, due to cancer, made worse by the state medical system. Ramius is a Hero of the Soviet Union and considered a party stalwart; but, his mind had been opened to the failure of Communism. he cultivated a following of young officers, who make up his crew. In the Soviet navy, sailors were conscripts and the officers did most of the technical work and seamanship. Thus, the captain is able to make the crew think all is normal, while the officers plot to betray their homeland's technology. the sub exists to be a First Strike weapon, which goes against their belief that they are to protect the motherland from outsiders, not create wars for conquest.

Soviet naval activity skyrockets and the fleet scrambles to try to find the sub, after Ramius sends a letter to his wife's uncle, a Fleet admiral, about his intent. The CIA notices the activity and calls in former analyst Jack Ryan, a Soviet naval expert and an expert on ramius, in particular, to consult. After speaking with an old friend, who works for the Nay's engineering branch, he learns of the caterpillar drive research and the possibility that the Red October is a working prototype. meanwhile, a US attack submarine, the USS Dallas, has caught a whiff of the sub and is attempting to track her. What follows is a race to get to the sub and open communications, before the Soviets, including a former pupil of Ramius, who commands another Soviet sub, to find it and destroy it.

Jack Ryan, the hero, is a former Marine Option midshipman, at the US Naval Academy, who was badly injured in a helicopter accident. he finished his senior year from a hospital bed and then left the Navy/Marine Corps behind, due to being medically disqualified from active service. He worked as a stock broker and then CIA analyst, specializing in the Soviet navy. he left the CIA and teaches at Annapolis and gained some fame in interceding in a terrorist attack on the Royal Family of England (expanded in the prequel, Patriot Games). He has also written a history of Adm. Halsey. Ryan is sent into the field to try to establish contact with Ramius, efore the Soviets catch him.

The book was #1 on the NY Times Bestseller list for months, selling 4.3 million copies in paperback. Clancy's subsequent books also became perennial bestsellers, though for decreasing duration, by the late 90s. Praise was high from book reviewers and from the military, especially with the portrayal of tough, hardworking professionals, rather than mindless drones or war mongers, as seen in post-Vietnam media portrayals. Success had Hollywood come calling and the novel and subsequent books were optioned by producer Mace Neufeld, while still in galley format. Neufeld pitched the novel to studios; but ran up against opposition, until, after a year and a half, Paramount agreed to develop a fim. One thing that helped sell both the studio and the Navy was the success of the film Top Gun and the subsequent boost in naval enlistments. the Navy offered deep cooperation, including use of the USS Enterprise and reuben James, as well as photographing non-classified sections of Los Angeles-class attack submarines for creation of the Dallas sets. Large models were created for the red October and Dallas, for filming. Alec Baldwin was cast as Jack Ryan and Sean Connery was tapped to portray Ramius.



Baldwin is a bit younger than the Ryan of the novel, but is quite good in the role. Connery had one of his best later era roles. Sam Neil plays the XO of the Red October, while Scott Glen is the captain of the USS Dallas. Former Nixon speechwriter and future US Senator Fred Thompson is the admiral in charge of the American contingent searching for the sub. james Earl Jones is Ryan's old mento and boss at the CIA, a naval admiral. Jeffrey Jones is Skip tyler, Ryan's old friend who identifies the caterpillar drive. Joss Ackland is the Soviet ambassador and Richard Jordan is the National Security Advisor. Tim Curry is the doctor on board the Red October, while Stellan Skarsgard is the commander of the Konovalov, an Alfa-class attack sub hunt the Red October. Peter Firth (who started as a child actor in Here Come the Double Deckers tv series and was later a co-star in the Brish spy series MI-F, aka Spooks) is the murdered political officer and Gates mcFadden has a cameo as Mrs Ryan. Courtney ance is Sonar Tech (2nd) Ronald "Jonesy" Jones, who first catches a whiff of the Red October.

The film is directed by John McTiernan, who directed Die Hard and Predator and was a hot property in Hollywood. he keeps things moving along and the sets claustrophobic, especially when Ryan goes hunting a KGB agent secreted within the Soviet crew, who is trying to sabotage the vessel. The Navy cooperation is obvious and naval recruiters were present in theater lobbies when the film was in wide release. It did well at the box office and was popular on home video. The acting is great across the board (apart from Thompson, who is a tad wooden, bit came across authentic as an authority figure) and it is a gripping film. The film trimmed down the plot to the essentials, cutting out some of the material from the book. It also had to deal with changes in the Soviet political situation, as the Soviet government failed, after the attempted hardliner coup, necessitating that the film be set during the period where Konstantin Chernenko was the Soviet General Secretary and leader (following the death of Yuri Andropov), placing the time frame of the film between February 1984 and March 1985.

The film accomplished what Neufeld set out to do and the Navy hoped, as far as enlistments, though not at the levels of Top Gun (which suckered fools into believing that enlisting in the Navy could make them fighter pilots, ignoring that only officers could be pilots). Subsequent films were greenlit to adapt the later novels of Clancy. however, Baldwin had only been signed for one film and he would not return for the sequel.

Next was Patriot Games, which was actually a prequel to the Hunt For Red October. THFRO made mention of Jack Ryan having helped stop a terrorist attack on the Royal Family. in the novel, a militant offshoot of the Provisional Irish republican Army attempts to kidnap Prince Charles and Princess Diana, from a motorcade. Ryan is there as a tourist, while his wife, a surgeon, attends a conference. Ryan is wounded in the attack, but recovers. the IRA targets Ryan and his family, as well as the Prince & Princess of Wales, when they learn that they will make a visit to the Ryan's, in America. The novel has Ryan defending his family, tracking the splinter group, and fighting an attack on his home.

The film does some smart revisions, from the start. they dump the idea of Charles and Diana as the targets and make it a cousin of the Royal family, who is in a government post, relating to Northern Ireland. This eliminates Clancy's ignorance about the Royal security detail, which is made up of former/current SAS personnel, rather than the less responsive group he depicted. It also makes it more plausible that the target might visit the private home of the Ryan's, rather than be making a state visit at a government location, with Secret Service detail. They also cast a new Ryan, who was closer in age: Harrison Ford.



This film is depicted as taking place after THFRO, with Ryan still at Annapolis. The opening portions continue much as in the book. Anne Archer is Ryan's wife, Thora Birch is daughter Sally. Jones returns as Adm. Greer and Samuel L Jackson has an early upper tier role as a fellow instructor at the Naval Academy. Patrick Bergen is the leader of the Provo splinter cell and Sean Bean portrays Sean miller, out for revenge for the death of his younger brother in the motorcade assault that Ryan disrupts. This was Sean bean's debut in American film, with the Yorkshireman adopting an Irish accent (not quite convincing as a Belfast accent). This being an American film, you can guess his fate. At this point, Bean had gained acclaim for an adaptation of Lady Chatterly's Lover and would follow this with the Sharpe series, on ITV (shown in the US on PBS).

The film makes changes that improve the logic of the story and pare down some of the plot. It still has Ryan come back to the CIA to hunt for the terrorists, leading to an assault on a training camp, in Libya, by the SAS, which misses Miller. We see this through satellite relay, which would become a common framing device in future thrillers. Ford handles the action well and the drama. he gets to be the family man, heroic CIA man, and action hero, at the same time. He uses his brains to find and fight the terrorists, issuing in a new age of a more cerebral spy, rather than a Bond-style assassin. The fillm deals in the nuts and bolts of modern intelligence work, with computers and satellite imagery, to human intelligence and surveillance. It deals in the politics of Ulster and included a montage scene of tv footage, set to Clannad's "Theme from Harry's Gam," originally done for a drama on the "Troubles."



Australian director Philip Noyce helmed the film and he does some fantastic visual work and gathers a great cast of actors on both sides, as the British/Irish cast also includes James Fox (Greystoke, Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner, brother of Edward Fox), as the target official, Alun Armstrong (Get Carter, Krull, New Tricks tv series), Richard Harris as an IRA fundraiser, Hugh Fraser (Wellington, in the Sharpe series) and david Threlfall as Inspector Highland, a Belfast-born police inspector. Filming was done at the Naval Academy, in the US and UK.

The film is excellent and did well at the box office, securing the future of a Jack Ryan franchise.

Next, out of sequence, came Clear and Present Danger, where the murder of a friend and business associate of the President sends Jack and the CIA on a collision course with a Columbian drug cartel.



The President's friend is murdered and a connection to Colombian drug cartels is exposed. the President sanctions a black op to hunt down and assassinate the cartel members, through secret strikes, not authorized by Congress. Jack Ryan is now acting Deputy Director of Intelligence, as James Greer is dying of pancreatic cancer. National Security Advisor James Cutter gives Deputy Director (Operations) Bob ritter authority to conduct the clandestine war on the Cartel. Willem Dafoe is John Clark, a former Navy SEAL and operator for the CIA, who acts as coordinator for the special operations team conducting a deep penetration recon of the cartel stronghold. The Cartel isn't without resources and have a former Cuban intelligence officer on the payroll, who has cultivated a romance with the secretary of the Director of the FBI, gaining intel through her.

Ryan stumbles across the secret mission, after nearly being killed and works to bring out the survivors, after they have been abandoned, under Ritter's orders, and provide evidence to Congress of the illegal war.

Benjamin Bratt and Raymond Cruz play special forces soldiers who are part of the recon team. Once again, the filmmakers fix plot holes from the novel and streamline the story to the essential plot. They also did better research into special operations, as the book has Cruz's character come from a Light Infantry unit, rather than Special Forces, under the logic that the team isn't assembled from one unit and secrecy would be maintained. Special Forces operates in secrecy and would have already had operators with language skills and experience in the region (Special Forces have acted as advisors in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia, Panama, and other Latin American countries). SF units come and go with routine and no one would be the wiser of an operation. However, guys being recruited from other units for a secret mission would send all kinds of rumors throughout units, drawing attention to the operation. Also, there would be the training factor. Like I said, Clancy knew Richard about spec ops.

The film is also a bit more balanced in its politics. the basic plot is inspired by illegal operations carried out in Nicaragua, which were uncovered in the Iran-Contra Scandal, where the CIA was conducting a secret war in Nicaragua, against the Sandinista government, funding it with illegal arms sales to Iran (and drug running, with a pipeline that led to the US). Ritter's actions were based on Col Oliver North, Adm John Poindexter and Nationa Security Advisor Robert McFarland.

Again, the film did quite well, though Clancy was highly critical of it (and Patriot Games) for diverging from his story. He preferred a script from conservative screenwriter and director John Milius. The filmmakers made it more Ryan-centric and also softened some of Clancy's politics.

Cardinal of the Kremlin was optioned but determined to be too difficult to adapt, even though William Shatner had been set to co-star in a film adaptation. Instead, they optioned Sum of All Fears, with Ben Affleck taking over the role of Jack Ryan, with the time frame changed from the 90s to 2002. This was to be a reboot of the franchise, after Ford moved on.



During the Yom Kippur War, an Israeli fighter, armed with a nuclear missile, goes down over the Golan Heights. Years later, the bomb is discovered and is acquired by a South African. CIA analyst Jack ryan is tasked to accompany Director William cabot to Russia as part of an arms limitation deal, to inspect a nuclear facility. They learn that 3 scientists are missing. John Clark is tasked to find them and Ryan ends up caught up in the operation, which involves neo-Nazis trying to orchestrate a war between the East and West, to gain control of Europe. Morgan Freeman is Cabot and Liev Schreiber is Clark, Sandra Bullock is Ryan's girlfriend and Michael Byrne is the advisor to the Russian president. Ciaran Hinds is one of the Nazi terrorists and James Cromwell is the President.

The novel featured Arab nationalists as the villains and the change to nazis led to criticisms that this was due to 9/11, though the film began production in June of 2001. Director Phil Aulden Robinson claimed the change was due to story elements that seemed implausible for an Arab terrorist cell, though there had been a campaign mounted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations to eliminate Muslim villains in films, including this one. Whatever the reason, neo-Nazis seemed very 1960s spy world. The original novel had Palestinian terrorists locating the bomb and working with a disaffected ex-East german scientist to develop a nuclear device for a nuclear attack on the Super Bowl.

The film was released in May of 2002, but 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan overshadowed it. Robinson claimed the film was always intended for 2002 release, though speculation dogged it that it was delayed by 9/11 and the subsequent war. Regardless, with active combat occuring and the horror of the 9/11 attacks stil; fresh in people's minds, the film did a moderately successful box office, with mixed critical reviews. Affleck's performance was given middling grades, while Freeman was praised. On the whole, though, it was the wrong film at the wrong time and most considered it a step down from the efforts of McTiernan and Noyce. It did not lead to a revived franchise. At the same time, the bloom was well off the rose of Clancy's novels, as over-saturation of series by other writers, under his direction, had watered down his brand. Subsequent novels weren't reviewed as well as earlier pieces and sales steadily dropped on Clancy's work. The books were often choked with excessive technical detail and implausible plot points and were pale shadows of his earlier, more tightly plotted works. Also, Clancy's politics pushed away some readers, especially during the George W Bush years. Clancy's last couple of novels, Red Rabbitt and teeth of the Tiger (with Jack Ryan Jr replacing his father) were both poorly reviewed and disappeared quickly from bestseller lists, after initial launch. Both were heavily remaindered in my store, as had the previous Clancy novels, going back to Without Remorse, which centered on John Clark, in Vietnam. Clancy's death, by heart attack, seemed to put an end to Jack Ryan. That is, until Amazon came calling.



This new series features The office's John Krasinski as a new generation Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst who gets pulled into field work, while tracking an Islamic Extremist terrorist cell. I haven't seen the series; but, it's hard to see Krasinski in something so serious and not expect him to be pulling faces for a camera, or pulling pranks on Dwight. However, the first season was successful for Amazon and drew decent praise, though there are plenty of mixed and negative reviews. There is more character-based drama than the films, but, there is also some broader elements and much use of CGI explosions and gun battles. I can't really comment on it, other than I have had little desire to watch it, both for subject matter (which I find tiresome) and the lead, Krasinski, who I can't take seriously in the role. That's my prejudice; but, I just don't find this kind of thing entertaining after nearly 20 years of conflict and a personal history with the first Gulf War. Your mileage may vary.

The original Jack Ryan trilogy is great cinema and the films are exciting thrillers. the earliest Clancy novels are, by far his best and only The Hunt For Red October is near flawless, in my opinion (but I am just one mind). I highly recommend these films. As for later works, you'll have to judge for yourselves, as I have little interest in watching them. I'm not a fan of techno-thrillers, as too much experience with technology in the real world has taught me the flaws with dependence on technology in decision making. Le Carre is about using the human mind and seeing beyond the political veils that cloud espionage work, while techno-thrillers revel in wonder weapons and conservative politics or fanciful plots and thin characters. Give me a good pulp adventure any day over that stuff.

Next up, we look at the other big spy movie of the 90s (aside from Bond) as we look at the French film and international box office smash La Femme Nikita, it's adaptations and rip-offs. Join in as we look at Luc Besson's romantic, stylish and quirky character study, and how each attempt to redo it watered it down even further.

Good breakdown of what made the Besson film so good. I don't think I've seen any of the later versions, with the possible exception of Black Cat - that title sure does sound familiar, and I was watching a lot of HK stuff in the 90s and early 2000s. I never saw Besson's movie when it came out but years later on VHS, so it's possible I saw Black Cat earlier without realising it was based on La Femme Nikita.

I do remember the Peta Wilson tv show - again, it was on before I had gotten round to watching the original - and at the moment can't recall why I never got into it, as I liked the general premise and remember thinking the lead actress looked really good. Might have to seek it out one of these days. Heard about the 2010 one but never tried it, for whatever reason.

In 1980, thriller writer Robert Ludlum introduced the world to amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne and air travellers around the world ate it up (thrillers are mainstays of airport newsstands and bookshops, a key reporting agent in the NYT Bestseller list). A man is fished out of the Mediterranean, by fishermen, after a boat explosion. The only clue to his identity is a microfilm, imbedded in his hip, with information to access a Swiss bank account. A trip to Switzerland yields a bank account with $5 million in it, aname, Jason Bourne, and a company he supposedly worked for, Treadstone 71 Corporation. Bourne heads to paris and people try to kill him, included the notorious Carlos the Jackal.

Ludlum hit upon a gold mine, mixing his usual paranoia and conspiracy themes, with international terrorism and espionage. It was ripe for a movie and the novel was optioned and turned into a film....



...starring Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith! It was a tv movie, produced by Warner Television and broadcast on ABC, over two nights (total run time is 3 hours and 5 min.) It follows the plot of the book, but simplifies some of the mystery, as Bourne hunts Carlos without the smokescreen of a cover name, Cain, as in the novel. It uses a mostly European cast, with Anthony Quayle, Denholm Elliot, Wolf Kahler, Phillip Madoc, and Shane Rimmer (a Canadian actor who worked extensively in the UK, as in the Bond films, the Gerry Anderson shows, and other features) and English-born, but US working actor Donald Moffat (Right Stuff, Logan's Run tv series and Clear & Present Danger, as the president). It's a bit bigger on the paranoia than the action, compared to what most people know, when you say Jason Bourne.

Three of Ludlum's previous novels had already appeared, with The Rhinemann Exchange, The Osterman Weekend and The Holcroft Covenant. The first was a tv mini-series, with Stephen Collins, the second was the last film of Sam Peckinpah and the third was directed by John Frankenheimer and starred Michael Caine. None fared well and the Bourne Identity continued the trend, leaving Ludlum as tv movie fodder (and his books are the literary equivalent, really; popcorn stuff that is entertaining while you are reading).

All things come to those who wait and when Hollywood is scouting for franchises. Ludlum had expanded Bourne into a trilogy and it was optioned for new films, leading to 2002's Bourne Identity remake, with Matt Damon...



The film stars Matt Damon and Franka Potente (Run, Lola, Run), as well as Chris Cooper, Brian Cox and Julia Stiles. It plays up modern surveillance systems and web-based computer links, as well as the whole security culture that is pervasive in Western society. Bourne is also humanized more when it is revealed that he was assigned to assassinate an African dictator, but halts his mission when he sees the man's son, sleeping on his chest, which leads to the gun battle that wounds Bourne. The film became noted for its stylistic transitions, using computer screens to show agents being activated to go after Bourne, frequent shots of CTV footage, audio captures from phones and microphones and the like. Fight choreography was innovative, using Filipino kali and other close-combat fighting styles (krav maga/combat ju jitsu, etc). The film thunders along, with rare downtime, as the seemingly endless assets of Treadstone are always close at hand. This keeps you from focusing too long on plot holes, which was a step up from previous Ludlum endeavors. Damon worked out heavily to get in shape for the role and was heavily involved in developing scenes with the director, to the point of arguing with the studio over some of the quieter scenes.

The film was a hit and was soon followed by a sequel...



Pretty much the same film, though with Paul Greengrass adding some more personal flare, Karl urban as a new Treadstone killer, and Joan Allen as a CIA Deputy Director, who is caught between Bourne and Brian Cox's Ward Abbott, former head of Treadstone. Potente is killed off quickly and the fight leads directly to the CIA, for shots of them realizing Bourne is watching them.

It made huge money, so we got the third installment...



...also directed by Greengrass, with David Strathairn added to the bad guy side and Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, and Albert Finney. More of the same, though at the end of Supremacy, Bourne learned his real name. Here, he regains the memories of his training.

Once you have seen one of these films, you have really seen the lot. Damon is on the run, employs special skills without conscious thought, lots of surveillance and people asking if they have acquired the target and Bourne slipping away, then catching them with their pants around their ankles, by the end. They aren't very deep, though the acting is well done and the story keeps things moving and no one is to be taken at face value. It is paranoia and conspiracy for an age where little seems real or makes sense. Paranoid film for paranoid times, especially in a Post-9/11 world.

The Hollywood Machine needed to be fed, which gave us another sequel, without Damon, and one with...



Legacy features a different agent, played by Jeremy renner, and was from a non-Ludlum-based script. It did well at the box office but fared less well with critics and fans. Damon & Greengrass returned for Jason Bourne...



Tommy Lee Jones is along, as are Alicia Vikander and Vincent Cassel, as an assassin. Bourne has his memory, and Stiles is part of a "hacktivist" group that taps CIA files to expose them. She is targeted and Bourne rescues her and learns more about his past and Treadstone, including involvement of his father, Richard Webb. This gets into social media companies and use of subscriber data, international politics and data security and privacy.

In the end, the films are big on explosions, crashes and punching, and slight on big topics of modern socio-political concerns. There is dialogue about the subjects, but it is mostly background noise to set up the next fight or chase. They try to be more intelligent than the average action spectacular; and, in an age of Fast & Furious fFilms, succeed (relatively); but, they lack the depth to really explore the topics beyond a popcorn level. Still, they are damn good popcorn films and at least have some food for the brain, compared to something like Transformers and more real world concerns than the Marvel films (taken as a whole).

I hesitate to call these spy films; but, espionage agencies are at the heart of things.

Meanwhile, Ludlum's novel inspired a Franco-Belgian comic series, XIII, by William Vance and Jean Van Hamme. A mysterious and wounded man washes up on a beach, with the Roman numeral XIII tattooed on his chest. A discredited doctor saves his life and he searches for his true identity, while the authorities hunt him as the assassin who killed the President of the United States. It leads to a secret conspiracy to stage a coup, involving a special operations force secretly built within the military. That series was a big hit in Europe and was translated in English and led to a tv movie adaptation and short-lived tv series...



The success of the Bourne series is largely responsible for the revamping of the Bond films for the Daniel Craig era, right down to the action scenes. In the end, the best summation of the Bourne series is this...