SerpApi.Org
Twenty-two years ago today, Universal released a sequel that quietly rewrote the rulebook for the modern blockbuster. The Bourne Supremacy hit U.S. theaters on July 23, 2004, and the way Hollywood shot fistfights and car chases would never be the same again. One sequence featured in the movie is still widely acclaimed as the best action scene ever filmed.
The setup did not exactly look like a recipe for success. Doug Liman had directed the 2002 sleeper hit The Bourne Identity, but he did not return. Universal handed over the sequel to Paul Greengrass, a British documentary filmmaker whose biggest credit was a hard-edged docudrama about the Troubles. Screenwriter Tony Gilroy came back, once again retaining Robert Ludlum's title and throwing out most of his plot.
Audiences did not seem concerned about any of that. Made for roughly $75 million, the film opened at No. 1 at the box office with $52.5 million, nearly double the debut of the first movie, and racked up $176.2 million domestically and $292.5 million worldwide.
The Style That Took Over Hollywood
Greengrass brought a handheld camera and a razor to the editing bay. By Collider's count, Supremacy has an average shot length of about 2.4 seconds. The effect was disorienting on purpose, allowing audiences to experience a fight the way an injured man experiences it: in fragments.
Every studio in town took notice. The Hollywood Reporter later predicted that the film would redefine the genre for nearly two decades, and the imitators quickly piled up, from Taken to Quantum of Solace to a long run of superhero pictures that traded gloss for grit.
The most famous convert was 007 himself. Critics have long argued that Bourne is the reason the Bond producers abandoned the gadget-heavy Pierce Brosnan formula and rebooted the character in 2006 with a bruised, close-quarters Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.
The Gamble Nobody Saw Coming
Supremacy also did something sequels almost never do. It killed off Franka Potente's Marie, the emotional anchor of the first film, inside the opening 20 minutes, stranding Bourne with nothing but guilt and a target on his back.
Then there was the Moscow chase, a battered taxi versus an armored sedan through tunnels and traffic, which SlashFilm has called the best action scene ever put on film. Critics gave the film an 81 percent Tomatometer score, with a 90 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Twenty-two years on, the shaky-cam wave it inspired has come and gone. The movie behind it still hits like a hammer.
