Bourne vs Bond: Who is the better spy?
With “Jason Bourne” opening in cinemas this week (28 July) and the hunt going on for the next James Bond, you’ve got to ask yourself, who would win in a spy versus spy fight? The British MI6 spy, or the rogue CIA operative?
Well, Yahoo Movies Singapore is here to break it down for you.
1) Gadgets
The Aston Martin DB10, seen in “Spectre”. (Photo: AFP)
Every spy needs an arsenal of high-tech accessories and other toys to do their job, but without a doubt, James Bond would have this round.
Fancy cars aside, Bond always seems to have the most sophisticated tech around, whether it’s a watch with a laser to cut through class or a clamshell phone that’s smarter than a smartphone.
Bourne, on the other hand, relies a lot more on what he has at hand - cheap mobile phones, a pen, his bare hands etc. Need to break a voice-activated safe? Bourne could do it for under $30 with a voice recorder. We’re not saying that doesn’t have its benefits, but this is about the gadgets, after all.
Winner: Bond, James Bond.
2) Style
Daniel Craig, who starred as James Bond in “Spectre” . (Photo: AFP)
Now that our spies have their toys out of the way, what about the manner in which they appear on screen?
Again, Bond runs away with this one. 007 is usually seen in his fitting suit, perfectly-placed tie, well-polished shoes, sipping a weaksauce martini and chatting up women who usually try to shoot him.
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. (Photo: Universal)
The closest we’ve seen Bourne in a suit is the wetsuit from the first show. He’s generally wearing hoodies or jackets or something that helps him to blend in. And he never orders anything fancy.
As this is the style category, Bond will probably win it, short of Colin Firth’s character from “Kingsmen” taking Jason Bourne to get a bespoke suit.
Winner: Bond, again.
3) Lethality
Matt Damon (right) and Tommy Lee Jones (left) in “Jason Bourne”. (Photo: AP)
A good spy usually tries not to get caught, but there are times when circumstances dictate that someone has to get killed.
This might be a hard one to call, but I’m leaning towards Bourne this time around. Sure, 007 has a licence to kill, but Jason Bourne is the black ops of the black ops. His sole purpose for several missions was to assassinate targets the US government couldn’t legally assassinate. In short, he doesn’t care if he has or needs a licence to kill.
Bond has a higher kill count per movie, for sure, but Bourne has killed four Treadstone assassins (basically, his peers in the black ops). Surely, a single Treadstone assassin is the equivalent of fifteen normal random people who get shot by Bond, right?
Winner: Matt Da… I mean, Jason Bourne.
4) Actual spy skills (excluding killing people)
Daniel Craig in “Spectre”. (Photo: AP)
We’ve seen how they compare in quite a few aspects, but what about being a spy? All that espionage stuff like blending in with their surroundings and not drawing attention to themselves.
James Bond has travelled around the world and gets himself into many different locations with ease, but you know his problem? He always introduces himself as “Bond. James Bond”. You’ve gotta think that that’s going to catch on with the bad guys after a while.
Bourne, on the other hand never introduces himself as Bourne unless he’s talking to the head of the CIA black ops programme he’s trying to entrap. He speaks different languages when needed, and it’s usually people who see him on cameras who go “**** it’s Jason Bourne!” rather than the other way around. I think Bourne takes this one.
Also, with Brexit, Bond is in a rather sticky situation in Europe. Just saying.
Winner: Bourne. You’ll never see him coming, while you’d probably smell Bond from half a mile away.
5) Leading ladies
Eva Green as Vesper Lynd in 2006′s “Casino Royale”. (Photo: MGM/Columbia Pictures)
Well, if this is a count for impressing the ladies, then Bond would be so far ahead our amnesiac assassin would never catch up. However, Bond’s loves never seem to stick around for very long (or survive very long, for that matter), which severely counts against the MI6 agent.
Bourne, on the other hand found true love, albeit briefly. Granted, Marie Kreutz didn’t last very long into the second Bourne film either, but there was a moment of peace and tranquility. Seems like a lifetime compared to Bond’s tendency to sleep with women who want to kill him one way or another.
Winner: Bourne.
So there you have it, folks. Jason Bourne is our unofficial winner in this nowhere near-scientific match-up of the Hollywood spies. His latest outing, “Jason Bourne”, is currently in cinemas.
