Time and technology marches on, even for super spies like Jason Bourne and their alter-egos, like Matt Damon. Deco’s chief anti-aging and counter intelligence correspondent Chris Van Vliet is here with details.
When Matt Damon first became Jason Bourne, he was 29 years old. Now he’s 45, and a lot has changed since then. I flew to Las Vegas to find out why now was the right time to bring back Jason Bourne in “Jason Bourne.”
Matt Damon (as Jason Bourne): “This is Jason Bourne. I need to talk.”
It’s been nine years since we last saw Jason Bourne, and that movie ended with Bourne going off the grid.
Ato Essandoh (as Craig Jeffers): “Jesus Christ, that’s Jason Bourne.”
Tommy Lee Jones (as Robert Dewey): “Why would he come back now?”
That is a fantastic question, Tommy Lee Jones! So fantastic, in fact, that I asked it to Matt Damon.
Chris Van Vliet: “After the last movie that you did, you said you weren’t interested in playing Jason Bourne again. What’s changed?”
Matt Damon: “Just people coming up over the years and asking earnestly if we were making another one, and that was humbling, and after a while we went, ‘It’s a big deal to have a loyal fan base. Let’s make the movie that they want to see.'”
Matt Damon (as Jason Bourne): “I’m not on your side.”
In this, Damon’s fourth time playing Jason Bourne, he is lured out of the shadows by a CIA technology whiz, played by Alicia Vikander, who’s been tracking him and always seems to be one step ahead.
Alicia Vikander (as Heather Lee): “What if he’s not coming for us. What if it’s something else?”
Chris Van Vliet: “So I recently re-watched the original movie, and it was amazing to me.”
Matt Damon: “The one with Richard Chamberlain?” (laughs)
Chris Van Vliet: “Your original movie. Amazing to me to see how much technology had changed in the last 14 years. Like, people barely used cellphones in 2002, so I want to know, with the advancements in technology, does it make being ‘Jason Bourne’ easier or harder?”
Matt Damon: “Well, that was one of the things we wanted to touch on, so we wanted to give a nod to the fact that he is a little bit of a dinosaur and this world is kind of moving past him.”
Matt Damon (as Jason Bourne): “They tracked you. We gotta move.”
Jason Bourne may be older, but he’s still the rogue killing machine that we’ve come to know.
Chris Van Vliet: “Jason Bourne’s skill set is so impressive. What’s even more impressive is the fact that you learned to do most of these things. So yes or no, could you still do some stunt car driving?”
Matt Damon: “Sure, yeah. I mean, yeah, they let me do a little bit of it, but when it gets real, that’s a guy named Martin who’s doubled me in the last three movies.”
Chris Van Vliet: “What about the shooting? The gun work?”
Matt Damon: “Yeah, I trained like crazy for the first one. Hundreds and hundreds of hours.”
Chris Van Vliet: “What about the hand-to-hand combat?”
Matt Damon: “I fell in love with boxing, and I’ve been doing it for 16 years now. So I can still box, which helps me in fake movie fighting. I don’t know if it would help me in a real fight.”
Chris Van Vliet: “That one punch though in the movie!”
Matt Damon: “We kind of realized that the left hook is really good cinema punch. I don’t know if I’d start a boxing match with a lead left hook, but Jason Bourne would.”
The movie opens in theaters on Friday. It’s Matt Damon’s fourth time as Jason Bourne, but there was “The Bourne Legacy,” that one movie where Jeremy Renner played the lead. So does that mean this is Bourne 4 or Bourne 5? Does the Jeremy Renner one count?
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