20 facts you might not know about 'The Bourne Identity'

In 1980, thriller writer Robert Ludlum wrote his first Bourne novel, The Bourne Identity. It was far from his first book, but it struck a chord, and he ended up writing two sequels to the book as well, one in 1986 and one in 1990. Ludlum died in 2001, but was still credited as an executive producer on 2002’s The Bourne Identity.

You would be forgiven for not remembering the first adaptation of The Bourne Identity. It’s a made-for-TV movie that aired on ABC in 1988. Richard Chamberlain played Jason Bourne, a different sort of casting. In 1988, Chamberlain was 54 years old.

Liman read The Bourne Identity in high school and really enjoyed it. When he was finishing production on his breakthrough movie Swingers, Liman set out to get the rights to the book. It took a couple years for him to get the rights, and then Tony Gilroy hopped on board to write the screenplay. Liman worked on the film Go in the interim before making The Bourne Identity his next project.

The Bourne Identity, the movie, is about a government assassin with amnesia, just like the book. Beyond the central premise, though, the film and the book don’t have a ton in common. Liman wanted to modernize the story, and the technology, and also to reflect his own personal politics.

How little does The Bourne Identity have to do with the novel its based off of? Well, when Liman brought Gilroy on board, he asked him to not read the book. Instead, Liman provided him with an outline and asked him to go off of that.

Liman’s father had been part of the investigation into the Iran-Contra Affair and had written a memoir about it. The director turned to the memoir for some inspiration for the movie. In particular, Chris Cooper’s character of Alexander Conklin is based on Oliver North.

Brad Pitt was offered the chance to play Jason Bourne. However, he turned down the opportunity. Oddly enough, he turned it down for another spy thriller, Spy Game. Perhaps Pitt just really wanted to work with Robert Redford.

Liman ran the gamut in terms of actors he considered, from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Tom Cruise to Russell Crowe. In the end, he chose Matt Damon, in part because Damon was just as interested in the plot as the action.

Originally, Marie’s last name was Purcell, and she was American. By the time the film was being shot, her name was changed to Kreutz and was German. Perhaps that’s because Franka Potente was hired for the role. For the record, in the book, her name is Marie St. Jacques, and she’s Canadian.

We said that Cooper’s character is named Alexander Conklin. Also, Brian Cox’s character is named Ward Abbott. You don’t pick that up watching the film, though. Their names are never spoken, and you learn them from the end credits.

When you see Clive Owen first show up in The Bourne Identity, you might think, “Hey! Clive Owen!” He also got fourth billing in the film. That being said, he’s barely in the film. His character “The Professor” has roughly three minutes of screentime and doesn’t speak until his final scene, which is 85 minutes into the movie.

That red bag that Bourne uses as a “go bag” when he clears out his safe deposit box in Zurich? It doesn’t just disappear. You may notice it at the end of the film, as Marie has repurposed it as a plant holder in her shop.

Damon really wanted to be ready to be an action star, as he had never taken on a role this intensive before. He and stunt coordinator Nick Powell worked for three months to get Damon trained in stunt work, martial arts, boxing, and weaponry. Ultimately, Damon did a lot of his own stunts, including the hand-to-hand combat.

The Bourne Identity is shot in a really frenetic, up-close-and-personal way. Liman can take some of the credit for that. He was often operating the camera himself instead of watching the action on the monitors so he could be more in the moment.

When Bourne is looking down a snow-covered street at night, it was supposed to be a perfect sheet of snow. Unfortunately, somebody had walked down the street, and the footsteps ended up being in the frame. Liman was presumably quite annoyed with the person who did that. That person also happened to be Liman, who likely didn’t think the footsteps were going to end up in his own shot.

Gilroy, the original screenwriter, was evidently sending in rewrites left and right throughout the filming. This was part of what was apparently a somewhat chaotic shoot. The movie ended up going $8 million over budget and was also delayed from a September 2001 release to a June 2002 release.

Much of the part of the movie that is set in Zurich was actually shot in Prague. Unfortunately for Damon, his character wasn’t dressed for a bitterly cold Prague winter. He was so cold that his lines ended up having to be dubbed over in post-production, as he had trouble speaking clearly because of how cold he was.

The studio was apparently not a fan of the relatively quiet farmhouse section of the film. In fact, they insisted on a rewrite that removed them. Liman and Damon, however, fought hard to keep that part in the film, arguing it was integral to the mood of the movie. There were many rewrites of the farmhouse stuff, but they were able to keep it in the movie.

Given the tragic and tumultuous landscape of September 2001, getting pushed to June 2002 may have helped the movie. The film made $27 million in its opening weekend, finishing second to Scooby-Doo. All in all, it finished with a worldwide gross of $214 million against a budget around $60 million. This, combined with its 83 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, speaks to a solid hit that started a franchise.

As we noted, Ludlum wrote three Bourne books. The sequels were The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Those are the names of the second and third films, respectively, in what was originally a trilogy. Then, in 2012, they decided to spin off the series with The Bourne Legacy. When that didn’t quite work, Damon returned in 2016 for Jason Bourne.