MovieChat Forums > The Bourne Identity (2002) Discussion > The laser device in Bourne's back

The laser device in Bourne's back

posted 13 years ago by baeksu
8 replies | jump to latest

...seems like kind of a fake notion.

So you've got agents who can memorize the license plate numbers of all six cars parked outside, yet they can't memorize a bank account number?

So why plant a device inside of their skin that projects the number on a wall? In case of the unbelievably unlikely event that the agent has amnesia and needs help figuring out who they are?

It's kind of a risk leaving a device in an agent's skin with a bank account and access to half a million dollars. For that kind of risk there must be a reason. What other reasonable explanation is there?

[–] Lucy9596 13 years ago

Nobody else could have get access of the things in that bank safe. Bourne had to give his hand print.
You have a point though. They didn't expect him to have amnesia.

It’s just so sad that the variety of the world should be used as a contentious issue.

[–] clark_gillies 13 years ago

My take on it is that its an insurance policy.

Remember, Wombosi and the boat salesman only knew Jason as John Michael Cane, as far as we are lead to believe, any trace of Jason Bourne (except for the appartment and landlady in Paris) was found inside that box.

The Wombosi mission was taking place far out at sea, so maybe Jason had doubts in his own ability about the mission being a success, or even getting back to land once he was off the boat.

Maybe it was just a fall back if something happened to him, he died, and the CIA were able to fish out his body from the sea (given they would be the only ones looking for him) and get to the box to empty it, before the French do enough digging, uncover that JMC was Jason Bourne, find the account in Zurich and get a trail back to Treadstone and the CIA.

Bourne is Black on Black, so there can be no paper trail to link the Wombosi mission to Treadstone and ultimatly, the CIA.

[–] Lucy9596 13 years ago

John Michael Kane, Kane with a K comes to mind. Remember when he calls the Hotel Regina? Sorry.

I'm not sure what you are on about. There should be no trail at all I think, not on paper and not on something else. Do you think he wants to protect himself from the CIA?

What bothered me all the time is that all the passports were there in the deposit box but the one of JMK was only the front page, the rest was gone. Why was that? Did anyone else see that too?

It’s just so sad that the variety of the world should be used as a contentious issue.

[–] sanddragon939 13 years ago

Well, the real reason the laser device was there in Bourne's hip in the film was because he had a microdot implanted in his hip in the novel. And the reason he had THAT was because he needed some clue as to his identity so as to move the plot forward!

Realistically though, I'm not really sure why he would have a bank account number in his hip. In the novel, they mention it as being 'insurance' of some sort, but I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean.

[–] clark_gillies 13 years ago

Like I said, maybe an isurance policy if something was to happen.

There should be no paper trail, granted.... but say the French Police or Wombosi were to investigate, first thing they would do is find out how Kane and Wombosi hooked up... that would go back to the boat seller, and ultimatly either get a CCTV picture of Jason (as Kane)... next thing they would do is put a photo out to the press and all it takes is Jasons land-lady to see the photo and say "his name is not Kane, its Jason Bourne".... this is where the trail should run cold as to who Jason Bourne really is, but they have tracked him back this far, surely they will look into his personal records.

Here they might find a lot of trips/phonecalls where made to Zurich in the run up to the Wombosi mession.... so they now have a bank account.

If somehow the French were able to get to the bank accout, they would then go to the CIA and ask them about this character called Jason Bourne if he is on their records and what was he doing in France.

We do not have much to go on why the device was there in the first place, but I still think it was an insurancy policy so everything could be cleaned up encase of an emergancy.... and where better to keep a number of a bank account than inside your hip?

[–] electronod 12 years ago

Access to half a million dollars and a GUN.

[–] Etherdave 11 years ago

In the event of Bourne's demise the implant might serve to identify the body. Conklin doesn't seem to know (or remember?) the implant exists, which is why the trip to the bank is not anticipated. In any case it seems to be a contradiction in terms, since it obviously exists as a remedy against memory loss. Perhaps Bourne put in the implant himself without telling anybody else, having already anticipated amnesia when Treadstone was still in its 'theoretical' stage. This might suggest that Conklin doesn't know everything about the program. THAT would suggest that somebody like, oh... say, Abbott, might know more about Treadstone than he's letting on. Could this be possible?

[–] markfilipak 9 years ago

Someone has already mentioned that in the book, it was microfilm.

I assume it's there so that the account will be known if Bourne is killed -- it would be found on Bourne's dead body. Certainly, it's not there for Bourne's benefit -- he would dig it out of his own hip? ... ah, NO.

No, if he didn't have amnesia, he would have known the account number (as proved by the fact that he was in that bank just before boarding the yacht) -- remember, he spent a week on the yacht, then 2 weeks on the fishing boat, and when he was at the bank, they told him he had last been there 3 weeks ago.

Nitpick: It was in his hip, not his back. And how do you know it was half a million dollars?
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