Bourne Identity: The Myth

Last night, I saw for the first time the movie "The Bourne Identity," which is the first in a trilogy.  I began to recognize some of the myths we learned about in class that were evident in the film's plot line.  In fact, the plot is sort of a hybrid between the myth "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" and "presence of a conspiracy."

I think the film borrows bits of the "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" because the main character, Jason Bourne, has to work alone for most of the film.  Although he has a companion, Marie, Bourne doesn't even know who he is at the beginning of the film (the result of his being shot and nearly drowning in the ocean).  In attempts to ascertain his own identity, Bourne traces his own footsteps into the past so he might find the truth about who he is and what his life was before he lost his memory.  Because he works predominantly alone, I think the storyline fits the myth well.  However, the myth typically has the individual pull everyone else around him up with him, but this is not true in this film (although he is beneficial to his lone companion).

The movie intertwines this myth with the "presence of a conspiracy" myth, which dominates the story.  Bourne finds out that he was (is) an assassin who had been hired and trained by a secretive American government agency.  This agency is made up of powerful men who try to undermine the government by hiring assassins and working their will in international affairs behind the government's back.  Although the assassins themselves obviously know the secret of the agency, Bourne is the only one who is a threat to expose it.  Thus, Bourne and the agency line up with the "one man knows the dark secret of the powerful men" pattern that is true of the myth.