In the past, when someone wanted to watch a spy film that could rock their senses, they had only the 007 franchise to satisfy their wishes. But in the early 2000s, Matt Damon brought something new to the secret operative genre with the first film of the now iconic Bourne series. Directed by Doug Liman, The Bourne Identity became an overnight success.
Where once, popular opinions stated that there may never be a film that can rival a franchise as iconic as 007, Damon’s character of Jason Bourne single-handedly challenged James Bond to rethink his approach. But when Universal Studios wanted to make the ending of the film even more grand by making the lead actor fight hundreds of assailants, Liman stepped up and said they can screw themselves, because that wasn’t happening.
Doug Liman Denied Studios’ Suggestion For The End Of The Bourne Identity
Somehow, when nobody else thought there would come a day when we would see a serious, grittier version of James Bond on the big screen, Doug Liman jumped into the genre with The Bourne Identity. And what Matt Damon managed to achieve with the help of the titular character has immortalized his legacy in the industry.
But when it comes to the ending of the first film, that classic stealth face-off and beatdown could all have been replaced with a non-genuine show of power if the director had listened to Universal Studios.
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In a past interview with SlashFilm, the American Made director talked about his then-upcoming film Locked Down. Here, the interviewer also asked him about his masterpiece, which was The Bourne Identity. They said that they wished more films would have expert killing machines like the titular character facing only a couple of adversaries that create a lasting impact.
Liman revealed that Universal wanted Damon to fight almost 200 people in the ending scenes of the film, which they said would be a great conclusion for the film. But he wasn’t going to let that happen. He said:
“Yeah. Universal, actually, had wanted Bourne fighting like 200 people. Still one of my favorite mementos from my career is, Universal telling me that they thought the ending was weak, unsatisfying. They wanted Jason Bourne to fight 200 people. And I told the two executives to go eff-themselves. Unfortunately, one of those executives now runs Netflix, but I’m still proud of having sent that memo.”
If the director had gone down the suggested route, then the entire film could’ve felt superfluous and unreal, which wasn’t something that he was going for.
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How Jason Bourne Rivaled James Bond?
When we look at all the films in the 007 franchise that came before the release of the first Bourne film, we can see most of them being nothing more than a humourous and campy version of what they could potentially be.
But The Bourne Identity was just ruthless, serious, and absolutely action-packed to the ceiling from the get-go. This version of a secret operative with enhanced senses and the ability to take down anyone in his path was something that James Bond couldn’t compete with, which is why the franchise cast Daniel Craig in the next iterations of Agent 007, someone who was exactly as lethal as Bourne.
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The Bourne Identity, streaming on Prime Video.
