The name ‘Jason Bourne’ was inspired by the story of a man called Ansel Bourne, a sufferer of dissociative fugue. Ansel woke up one day and didn’t know who he was, so decided to move to Pennsylvania and began working as a stationer under the name A.J Brown. Several months later he remembered he was indeed Ansel Bourne but, in turn, had no recollection of his time as A.J Brown.
His story was extensively recorded and studied by the Society of Psychical Research.
The Bourne Identity is the only film in the series that bears any resemblance to the books on which it is based. The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum share their names with books in the series but are completely original screenplays.
The Bourne Ultimatum is the only film in the trilogy to be nominated for an Oscar. It won in each of the three categories it ran in.
The Bourne Supremacy was shot in reverse order, the scenes in Moscow were shot first and those in Goa last.
Before Matt Damon was cast, Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe. and (weirdly) Sylvester Stallone were all considered for the title role.
The writer of the books on which the films are based, Robert Ludlum, died while the first film was in post production. He never got to see his characters made life.
The Bourne Supremacy was supposed to be the final film in the series. When Ultimatum was given the go-ahead, the writers had to suddenly reopen storylines that had previously been concluded.
The beginning of Ultimatum is directly after the events of Supremacy, but Moscow was far too cold to film in, so they shot in Berlin using fake snow and disguised buildings.
In a weird trick of happenstance, there is only one explosion in each film of the series. In Identity, it’s a propane tank. In Supremacy, it’s a gas explosion. In Ultimatum, it’s a scooter.
Matt Damon undertook thousands of hours of gun training to prepare himself for the role.
The Bourne Identity scenes in Zurich were actually shot in freezing Prague. The costume designers didn’t take this into account and in many scenes you can visibly see Matt Damon slurring his lines and shivering.
Despite all the violence, the word ‘fuck’ is said only twice throughout all 3 films.
The US Embassy in the Bourne Identity was actually an abandoned bank in Prague. However, to add to the authenticity, real US Marine guards from Germany were used to shoot the scene.
The martial art that Bourne employs is called Kali, a technique centered around using an opponent’s strength against them.
The scene shot at Waterloo station in London for The Bourne Ultimatum had to be done in an only partially closed station, as director Paul Greengrass couldn’t convince the authorities to shut one of London’s busiest stations for the production. To stop members of the public from getting in his shots, Greengrass set up a fake shoot at the other end of the station and then secretly did the real shoot away from the gathering crowds.
Other than Matt Damon, Julia Stiles is the only other actor to appear in every film of the trilogy.
When Bourne is being interrogated by the CIA interrogator in Supremacy, he attacks his captor. Unfortunately, Matt Damon and Tim Griffin (who played the CIA man) had rehearsed their fight scene in a slightly larger room than the one they filmed in, leading to Damon accidentally breaking Griffin’s nose with a mistimed punch.
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