Matt Damon and amnesiac CIA assassin Jason Bourne, né David Webb — the tightly coiled, pit-bull seeker at the heart of the hard-charging Bourne trilogy.

Damon isn’t short, per se, but his compact frame hardly gives off the air of someone who’s a professional killer. What Damon does have is a swallowed intensity and intellectual awareness of his surroundings, and he impresses these traits upon Bourne, hardening his close-set eyes to match a clenched jaw of resoluteness. With Damon, you see the whirring inner motor of Jason Bourne, as he absorbs information at a high rate of speed and then translates that into both rapid analysis and breathless action. Despite any and all story points, he is the jockey driving this series, exhorting it forward in inexorable fashion. The utterly absorbing The Bourne Ultimatum, then, finally delivers some redemption for Bourne, even if it’s chiefly of the cold-comfort variety. For the review of the film, click here.