Much of the time, DVD extras are of interest only to die-hard fans of the movies under the magnifying glass. Not so for the features on The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal, $29.98). The sixth-top-grossing film of the year comes to DVD next week with a bevy of bonuses that should fascinate anyone interested in how films — particularly high-budget action thrillers like "Bourne" — are made.
"Man on the Move: Jason Bourne" follows Robert Ludlum's creation as he moves through five cities around the world in search of his past. We hear from star Matt Damon, director Paul Greengrass and a couple of producers on what it was like filming in Paris, London, Madrid, Tangier and Berlin. That last city substituted for Moscow, where Bourne finds himself as "Ultimatum" starts just minutes after the second movie in the franchise, "The Bourne Supremacy," ends.
"We decided not to go back because it was the end of January," producer Patrick Crowley says of the move from Moscow to Berlin. "Fortunately for us, East Berlin was re-created by Stalin and looked a great deal like Moscow."
In London, filming at Waterloo Station offered filmmakers some free footage: CCTV shots from the station were incorporated into the film.
Mr. Damon jokes at one point of Mr. Greengrass, "One Oscar nomination, and he turned into Stanley Kubrick." (He got the nod for directing "United 93" last year.)
But it's clearly adrenaline that fuels Mr. Greengrass' work on the "Bourne" films. (He directed the second two in the series after Doug Liman directed the first, 2002's "The Bourne Identity.") "Once you start the chasing, that's what a Bourne movie is all about," Mr. Greengrass says excitedly.
Perhaps the best chase is captured in the feature "Rooftop Pursuit," which shows how the crew filmed Mr. Damon jumping across rooftops in Tangier, Morocco. A camera slides down a cable to follow the actor as he makes his way hopping across the buildings. Bourne eventually jumps from a roof into a pretty small window in the next building.
To capture the moment, second-unit director Dan Bradley had a stuntman hold a camera and follow the other stuntman as he made the jump. It's pretty heady stuff, and it explains why the "Bourne" movies directed by Mr. Greengrass — with some key contributions from his assistant directors — have a style all their own.
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