• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Non-COVID Topic - Julia Stiles in the Bourne Ultimatum and the power of silence.

T_R_Oglodyte

TUG Lifetime Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
16,116
Reaction score
8,064
Points
1,048
Location
Belly-View, WA
Watching again the Bourne Ultimatum. I was struck by the scene between Jason (Matt Damon) and Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) from 1:12:39 - 1:13:39. It's almost exactly one minute long, and Stiles doesn't say a single word. But her silence coneys so much more than she could have conveyed verbally.

I tried to find a clip of this scene to link to, but I couldn't. So if you're interested and you have the CD or streaming access, you can view the scene. It's a key scene in the movie, in which Bourne is coming to grips with his past and what he has been.

The scene brought back memories of some UC-Berekely extension classes I took at the direction of my boss. Those classes were remedial for me, and one big take-home for me was how non-verbal communication can be much more powerful than words. It's often counter-intuitive, but usually you can say more by speaking less.

This is echoed again at the end of the movie, where Nicky is seeing the news report about how Bourne's body has not been found, and she simply smiles.
 

spirits

TUG Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2007
Messages
1,071
Reaction score
296
Points
293
Location
Edmonton
Resorts Owned
Banff Rocky Mountain Resort
I have always liked Julia Stiles....she was great in 10 Things I Hate About You a modern adaption of Taming of the Shrew. I will pay attention to that scene the next time I watch the movie. Thanks for posting
 

amycurl

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Messages
3,071
Reaction score
3,117
Points
449
Location
Greensboro, NC
Those original Bourne movies were so much better than they had any right to be. And, I agree, have loved Julia Stiles since 10 Things.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

TUG Lifetime Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
16,116
Reaction score
8,064
Points
1,048
Location
Belly-View, WA
An interesting detail about the second and third movies. Originally the second movie supposed to end after the apartment scene with Neski's daughter, when Bourne tells her that he killed her parents. In test screening that came across too bleak, so the added the ending scene where Bourne calls Pamela Lundy in her office and tells her to get some rest.

They then worked that scene marvelously into the third film, near the middle, so that the first half of the third movie fills in the time gap between when Bourne leaves the apartment in Moscow and when he makes it to New York City and places the call to Lundy.

That reshot ending improved both of the movies.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

TUG Lifetime Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
16,116
Reaction score
8,064
Points
1,048
Location
Belly-View, WA
Watching this again, and unpacking more.

One of the reveals in this movie is that prior to the events of the first movie, there was a relationship between Parsons and Bourne. But the memory of that has been erased in Bourne's mind - all of that is in their diner conversation that starts at 0:46:28. At the start, 0:46:33, she clasps his hand, and he responds almost indifferently.

At the end she realizes he doesn't remember. That's the lead-in to the "no-words" scene at the start.

Much ensues after that scene, but in a recall of the first movie, Bourne and a female accomplice are in a hotel room together on the run, and the female is changing her hair. In the first movie, Bourne is doing the redye and the cutting.

In the Ultimatum (1:14:17), Nikki is doing that herself. The difference in emotional involvement by Bourne is clear. At 1:14:36 he has appeared and his detachment is clear - inviting direct contrast with the Paris Hotel scene with Marie in the first moves. And there is the series of glances between them, another scene in which Nikki never says a word - everything she says is in her face. But she also never looks at him directly - all of her views are of him in a mirror and not face to face - the mirror is a classic way of sharing emotion while maintaining distance.

And again her face is so expressive - he is detached, but she clearly isn't and is keeping her feelings under control. and presumably processing.

This is followed quickly by the farewell scene, starting at 1:15:03. Another scene where Stiles doesn't say a word. At 1:15:04 she turns and looks back at him and he looks away. Then he looks back at her, but with some confusion in his face, almost as if he is on the verge of remembering something.

At 1:15:08 Nikki looks as if she is on the verge of saying something - her lips start to move, but she stops. And then she turns away, with an expression on her face that strikes me as the look of a person who knows they are ending a chapter in their live. Bourne tells her "It gets easier, and she gives him a stoic backwards glance over her shoulder.

Not to mention her wordless smirk at 1:55:48.

***************

The movie overall has it's issues, but this movie was the one that really extended the Nikki Parsons character. I'm sure the writers plotted that out, but Julia Stiles did a masterful job of turning that script into a character of depth and nuance - by actually doing less instead of more.
 
Last edited:

T_R_Oglodyte

TUG Lifetime Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
16,116
Reaction score
8,064
Points
1,048
Location
Belly-View, WA
Also a continuity error I noted.

At 1:16:00 Bourne recovers a charred scrap that indicates a covert CIA office at 105 40th Street, NYC. But at 0:11:06. the CIA office is shown as 104 W. 40/
 
Top