Why is it that, in the universe of The Bourne Identity and sequels, Jason Bourne's girlfriends need to cut and dye their hair in order to go on the lam, but he makes no effort to disguise his appearance? He just wanders around looking like Matt Damon, and nobody notices him at all.
Is it double-blind reverse psychology? "The last thing they would expect is for me to go around without any disguise at all, so that's just what I'll do!"
Or is he using the Matt Damon thing to his advantage? Is the CIA of that world too busy waterboarding Ben Affleck to notice that there are two guys who look like that?
Or does he just kick so much ass that he doesn't actually care if they find him?
- Log in to post comments
If you were to hire men to go spy for you, they would take your money, yes, and they would go on missions, yes, but while they were supposed to be looking for Jason Bourne, they would actually be girlwatching. Their reports would never reflect this, but in the real world spies pretty much just have fun goofing off on your dime.
So, yes, it makes sense for the girl to disguise herself. She'd be the one they'd notice.
Spy agencies are made of people who are completely untrustworthy. They spy not by spying themselves, but by corrupting other people into committing treason for them. Given that the agency is run by people who are inherently treacherous, and they hire only people like them, what else would you expect?
Napoleon said never attribute to conspiracy what can easily be explained by incompetence.
Well obviously Bourne is so good at what he does he does not need a disguise. He sees his pursuers before they see him. He is invisible on surveillance cameras. Or it good be the Clark Kent effect. Noone recognizes Superman when he wears glasses.
"Got to be good looking
'cause he's so hard to see."
[Beatles]
This is one of my issues with the movie series. The books are so much better and in them, he does wear disguises. In fact, most of the plot and characters were changed from the novels for the movies. The character of Jason Bourne himself is radically changed. The second book is completely different from the second movie (the book takes place almost the entire time in Hong Kong and China and deals extensively with Bournes past. The movies are better than average action movies... but have none of the depth and craftsmanship that the books have. Read the books, they are worth it.
He was obviously cutting class with James Bond the day they taught disguise at spy school.
Bourne isn't hiding. He wants them to know he's on the move. It sets off a chain of events that he hopes to take advantage of and it is a challenge that they can't really do anything to stop him.
Or he just looks so normal that nobody notices him. It's the George Smiley thing.