# The Bourne Identity: Can someone explain the ending to me, please? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709 "2004-11-26T04:34:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/1 "2004-11-26T04:34:11Z")
I watched The Bourne Identity on DVD tonight after stuffing myself, and something about the ending has always bugged me. I don’t get why the final assassin shot the CIA director, or pretty much anything thereafter. What WAS the Treadstone project? Agents mechanized to kill? If any of this is explained in the sequel (which I doubt I’ll ever get around to watching), feel free to spoil it for me, because I haven’t understood the ending of this movie since it came out. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/2 "2004-11-26T08:53:47Z")
> [@caphis](#): > > I watched The Bourne Identity on DVD tonight after stuffing myself, and something about the ending has always bugged me. I don’t get why the final assassin shot the CIA director, or pretty much anything thereafter. What WAS the Treadstone project? Agents mechanized to kill? > > If any of this is explained in the sequel (which I doubt I’ll ever get around to watching), feel free to spoil it for me, because I haven’t understood the ending of this movie since it came out. You fast forwarded through the movie, huh!! Treadstone was a project to train an elite force of assassins. The guy who ordered the assassinations ordered the man who trained them assassinated. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/3 "2004-11-26T08:56:24Z")
Everything went swimmingly, until it all went wrong. The man responsible for it going wrong had to be eliminated. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/4 "2004-11-26T09:35:00Z")
The project was not officially condoned. The director had turned a blind eye to it as long as his subordinate had it under control. He obviously didn’t have under control anymore and the project and the subordinate, were now a liablility and needed to be eliminated. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/5 "2004-11-26T15:06:04Z")
Apropos of the thread but still a highjack (sorry **caphis** ) the final scene in the Bourne Identity takes place in seaside town which may or may not be Mykonos … It just sits on the lip of the sea and is so pretty and picturesque it almost seems like it might be either computer generated or enhanced. Does anyone know? (Yes I have asked before) [sorry](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=125307&highlight=bourne+identity) ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/6 "2004-11-26T16:23:39Z")
> [@jimmmy](#): > > The final scene in the Bourne Identity takes place in seaside town which may or may not be Mykonos … It just sits on the lip of the sea and is so pretty and picturesque it almost seems like it might be either computer generated or enhanced. Does anyone know? It’s definitely Mykonos. If you have the DVD, there is fluffy feaurette called _On the Move with Jason Bourne_ which explains where and why all the exteriors were shot on location. ---
**Author:** ![JXJohns](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jxjohns/32/469_2.png) [@JXJohns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JXJohns)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/7 "2004-11-26T19:24:47Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > The project was not officially condoned. The director had turned a blind eye to it as long as his subordinate had it under control. He obviously didn’t have under control anymore and the project and the subordinate, were now a liablility and needed to be eliminated. Agree 100% ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/8 "2004-11-26T20:06:10Z")
Wow, I’m an idiot. Thanks guys 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/9 "2004-11-26T23:22:13Z")
> [@Tapioca Dextrin](#): > > It’s definitely Mykonos. So why did _Supremacy_ start out in India? Yeah, yeah… the bad guys were on to them, they had to move… Or not. The bad guys were not on to them. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/10 "2004-11-26T23:29:28Z")
> [@The Gaspode](#): > > So why did _Supremacy_ start out in India? > Yeah, yeah… the bad guys were on to them, they had to move… Or not. The bad guys were not on to them. Why not? They had to go somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/11 "2004-11-26T23:38:13Z")
Sure. But the thing is. No one was after them. So why move? I know it was to have cool India locations at the beggining of the movie, but the internal logic is wrong. And it bugged me through big parts of the 2nd movie. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/12 "2004-11-26T23:45:45Z")
What, the only reason to travel is if somebody is after you? In any case, Jason is always alert and paranoid about someone finding him again, which it turns out he was right to be, so it’s in his nature to never stand still. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2004, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bourne-identity-can-someone-explain-the-ending-to-me-please/276709/13 "2004-11-27T01:41:15Z")
I wonder if the do make a third movie, will the Jackal make it into the story line?