Paris
A city of romance turned into a deadly chessboard for an assassin with no memory.
Paris is the main setting of The Bourne Identity (2002). Jason Bourne pays Marie Kreutz $20,000 to drive him from Zurich to an address in the city, and the film's climax takes place at the Treadstone safe house in Paris.
Quick Facts
- Primary location
- France
- First appearance
- The Bourne Identity (Novel & Film)
Lore & Background
At the Paris apartment, the Treadstone agent Castel ambushes Bourne and Marie; Bourne overpowers him, and Castel throws himself from a window rather than be interrogated. The two evade the police in Marie's car and spend the night in a Paris hotel. Alexander Conklin has a body identified as John Michael Kane planted in a Paris morgue. Later Bourne puts a tracking device on Conklin's car, follows it to the Treadstone safe house and holds Conklin and Nicky Parsons at gunpoint. In the film backstory, Bourne was stationed in Paris for three years as Treadstone's top agent, with Nicky Parsons as his handler.
Reader's Guide
Director Doug Liman insisted on shooting on location in Paris rather than in Montreal, the cheaper option. The car chase was filmed mainly by the second unit under Alexander Witt at various locations around the city, and Liman admitted that few of those locations actually connect to each other. In Ludlum's novel, Bourne and Marie St. Jacques also go to Paris, where Bourne learns that the leader of his attackers may be Carlos.
More in World & Setting
Elsewhere in The Bourne Identity
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