Idle thoughts

[ksmith]

Watching Bourne Ultimatum.

If Nicky Parsons had donned a head scarf as soon as she realized Desh was following her, she could have, I think, lost him fairly easily. She was the only woman I could see in the crowds with a bare head. And streaks. Wide, blonde streaks. She gets to show some resourcefulness during the extended chase scene, and yes, I know Bourne has to be the Hero. But still. Head scarf.

And shouldn't she have been armed?

I know. Then the whole chase scene would have gone out the window.

I still like this movie.

Comments

[threeoutside.livejournal.com]

I love the Bourne movies because they're just blatant Wish Fulfillment stories. God, how I wish I had lightning reflexes and superhuman flexibility and energy and I knew everything about every kind of weapon (including bare hands and feet) and every kind of vehicle! All those movies one has agonized through because the hero was just frakking SLOW AND STUPID just to build up suspense? Not Bourne. He does *exactly* what you wish YOU could do under similar circumstances. I think the fact it's Matt Damon makes all the difference. If it was someone without his affable persona, it'd just be silly and I wouldn't give a hoot.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Yeah. A James Bond smoothie wouldn't work.

[cepetit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

One could just as easily argue that Nicky's failure to improvise while on the run is what separates "logistics" people (her job, as discussed in Supremacy) and analysts from true covert operatives. It's easy to see this in a third-person POV... but when fight-or-flight reflex takes over, there's a disturbing tendency toward tunnel vision.

Not to mention that ideally, she should have had on a headscarf at the first meeting with Desh (when dropping off the cellphone), then immediately switched it for a different headscarf and different outerwear as soon as he was out of sight as a precaution... and moved to a different location where she could observe the drop point but not be seen so easily. And then not act like a rabbit caught in the open and moved like a Westerner with something to hide. On the other hand, that kind of forethought would have been less realistic!

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Not to stretch this too far, but maybe it would have been a nice turn if Bourne had advised her in that regard. But again, that would have done us all out of a nasty fight scene.

Do you mean less realistic in that someone like Nicky wouldn't have had that type of training and wouldn't have known what to do?

In the Smiley books, watchers are always changing clothes. They make a mistake when they fail to change their *shoes*.

Those books raised the bar. I think people forget about them because Smiley wasn't dashing/Bondian/shoot 'em up, but well, Cornwall was a spook.

I need a Smiley icon...

[cepetit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

Less realistic in that:
(1) Bourne assumes that Nicky will understand — as would a fully trained field operative — the need to get away from the drop point and change appearance. Nicky assumes that Bourne will tell her what she needs to know, as would any fully trained logistics-and-support specialist. Thus, if Bourne tells Nicky what to do, they'd both be acting against their training.

(2) Even more so, it's about ability to improvise and deal with the unexpected in the context of life-threatening situations. There is no substitute for experience; it's really easy to botch, and usually fatal. Nicky had an "exceptional outcome": She survived.

(3) If changing shoes is the issue, maybe they needed Carrie Bradshaw (S&TC) along as a "consultant." After all, they set the last of those movies in another Arabic country, so it must be comparable. (Do I really need to point out the sarcasm?)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Speaking to:

Point 1: Bourne knows that Nicky is not a fully-trained field operative. He knew she was logistics, and he damn near broke her in the subway in Movie #2. He knows she's not a peer. Nicky also knew *some* things--some fighting, some safety maneuvers, such as breaking up her phone to not be tracked/leave a trail for Bourne. I'm not saying that she should have been as competent as Bourne--that wouldn't have been realistic, and would have wiped out the op for the nasty fight scene. I take your point about fear making idiots of us all unless the training is there to fall back on. I didn't expect Nicky to turn into La Femme Nikita. But there are things you pick up from the people you work with. She knew Desh knew what she looked like. I think just the head covering would have at least made things interesting. I mean, Bourne later turns her loose to live undercover. That implies knowledge of micro and macro avoidance techniques, at least to me. But I'm probably pushing a point that isn't worth pushing, which leads to...

Point 2: Taken

Point 3: Bad explaining on my part. I was referring to the chase scene through the Czech city (Brno?) in Tinker Tailor. Jim Prideaux knew he was being followed because while his watchers changed clothes, they didn't change their shoes, and he knew to look. I wonder if Desh would know to look at shoes? Possibly.