Movie Smarts

The Bourne Identity Quiz: How Much Can You Recall?

The big scenes are easy to remember. How many of the little details stayed with you?

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

The Bourne Identity (2002). Watch the trailer.

The Bourne Identity: He Forgot His Name, Kept the Fighting Skills

A man wakes up with almost no memory and a disturbing talent for handling danger. The clues he finds suggest a life he does not remember choosing, while strangers keep trying to end it for him. A woman agrees to help and quickly discovers this is not a normal road trip. Finding out who he is becomes harder when everyone else seems to know, and nobody wants to explain nicely.

No passport required. Just bring whatever you remember.

1. Who plays Jason Bourne?
- Ben Affleck
- Mark Wahlberg
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Matt Damon
Damon trained in boxing and the Filipino stick-and-knife art Kali for months and does most of his own fighting on screen. Known until then for Good Will Hunting and dramas, he returned for three more Bourne films, skipping only The Bourne Legacy.
2. Who directed The Bourne Identity?
- Doug Liman
- Martin Campbell
- Tony Gilroy
- Paul Greengrass
Liman had made Swingers and Go and fought Universal over budget and schedule through a troubled shoot, after which Paul Greengrass took the next two films. Tony Gilroy wrote the screenplay and later directed The Bourne Legacy.
3. Who wrote the novel the film is based on?
- Tom Clancy
- Robert Ludlum
- Frederick Forsyth
- John le Carré
Ludlum's 1980 novel had already been filmed as a TV miniseries with Richard Chamberlain in 1988, and its villain, Carlos the Jackal, was dropped entirely for the film. Ludlum died in 2001, a year before it came out.
4. Who rescues Bourne from the sea?
- French coast guards
- A tourist yacht
- Italian fishermen
- A cargo crew
The crew pulls him out of the Mediterranean with two bullets in his back, and the boat's medic, played by Giancarlo Giannini, digs them out and finds the implant in his hip. He wakes with his skills intact and his memory gone.
5. What is hidden under the skin of his hip?
- A radio transmitter
- A tracking magnet
- A device displaying a bank account number
- A tiny key
It's a tiny laser projector that throws a Zurich bank account number onto a wall when switched on, and it's the only lead he has. The gadget was the film's invention; in Ludlum's novel the account information is on a piece of microfilm implanted the same way.
6. Which city contains the bank he visits?
- Geneva
- Brussels
- Vienna
- Zurich
The Gemeinschaft Bank's safe-deposit box holds cash in several currencies, a pistol and a stack of passports under different names, Jason Bourne among them. The Zurich scenes, including the park-bench fight with two policemen, were actually shot in Prague.
7. Who plays Marie Kreutz?
- Julia Stiles
- Rachel Weisz
- Diane Kruger
- Franka Potente
Potente was known from Run Lola Run, and Liman cast her as a drifter whose visa application has just been refused when Bourne finds her outside the consulate. She returned for the opening of The Bourne Supremacy; Julia Stiles is in the series too, as Nicky.
8. How much does Bourne pay Marie to drive him to Paris?
- $2,000
- $5,000
- $20,000
- $50,000
The money comes straight out of the Zurich box, and Marie, who has just been turned down for a visa and is broke, takes it after some argument. She drives him through the night to his Paris address, where the first assassin is waiting.
9. What kind of car does Marie drive?
- A Fiat 500
- A Volkswagen Beetle
- A Renault Clio
- A Mini
Marie's beaten-up red Mini carries the Paris chase, bouncing down stairways and the wrong way along the embankments while police cars and motorcycles come apart around it. Bourne drives, and the car is abandoned in a garage afterward.
10. What is the CIA program hunting Bourne called?
- Blackbriar
- LARX
- Treadstone
- Outcome
Treadstone is the CIA's black-ops program that built Bourne and the other assassins, and it is shut down by the end of the film. Blackbriar is the replacement Abbott pitches in the last scene, and Outcome and LARX are the programs of The Bourne Legacy.
11. Who runs Treadstone's pursuit of Bourne?
- Alexander Conklin
- Ward Abbott
- Pamela Landy
- Noah Vosen
Conklin, played by Chris Cooper, runs Treadstone from Paris and sends assassin after assassin, until his boss, Ward Abbott, decides the cleanest fix is to have Conklin himself shot in a Paris alley. Landy and Vosen don't appear until the sequels.
12. What does Bourne leave behind in the Zurich safe-deposit box?
- The cash
- A gun
- A passport
- A mobile phone
He takes the passports and the cash, picks up the pistol, considers it and puts it back, an early sign that the man is at war with whatever he used to be. He doesn't fire a gun until the Professor comes for him at the farmhouse.
13. Where does Bourne find Marie at the end of the film?
- Marseille
- Mykonos
- Zurich
- Paris
Marie is running a scooter rental on the Greek island, having been told to disappear, and the shot of him walking in as Moby's 'Extreme Ways' starts up became the template for every sequel's ending. Marseille is where he came out of the sea.
14. What everyday object does Bourne use while fighting Castel?
- A ballpoint pen
- A coffee spoon
- A toothbrush
- A belt buckle
Castel comes through the apartment window, and Bourne takes him apart with a ballpoint pen in a fight built on Kali, the Filipino knife art Damon had trained in. Castel then throws himself out of the window rather than be taken, and Marie sees what Bourne is.
15. Why did Bourne hesitate to kill Wombosi on the yacht?
- Wombosi's children were present
- His gun was unloaded
- He recognized his brother
- The boat was sinking
Working as John Michael Kane, Bourne had Wombosi in his sights on the yacht when the man's children appeared, and he couldn't do it; he was shot twice getting away and went into the sea. Wombosi is later killed in Paris by the Professor, played by Clive Owen.

All the answers

1. Who plays Jason Bourne?

Matt Damon

Damon trained in boxing and the Filipino stick-and-knife art Kali for months and does most of his own fighting on screen. Known until then for Good Will Hunting and dramas, he returned for three more Bourne films, skipping only The Bourne Legacy.
2. Who directed The Bourne Identity?

Doug Liman

Liman had made Swingers and Go and fought Universal over budget and schedule through a troubled shoot, after which Paul Greengrass took the next two films. Tony Gilroy wrote the screenplay and later directed The Bourne Legacy.
3. Who wrote the novel the film is based on?

Robert Ludlum

Ludlum's 1980 novel had already been filmed as a TV miniseries with Richard Chamberlain in 1988, and its villain, Carlos the Jackal, was dropped entirely for the film. Ludlum died in 2001, a year before it came out.
4. Who rescues Bourne from the sea?

Italian fishermen

The crew pulls him out of the Mediterranean with two bullets in his back, and the boat's medic, played by Giancarlo Giannini, digs them out and finds the implant in his hip. He wakes with his skills intact and his memory gone.
5. What is hidden under the skin of his hip?

A device displaying a bank account number

It's a tiny laser projector that throws a Zurich bank account number onto a wall when switched on, and it's the only lead he has. The gadget was the film's invention; in Ludlum's novel the account information is on a piece of microfilm implanted the same way.
6. Which city contains the bank he visits?

Zurich

The Gemeinschaft Bank's safe-deposit box holds cash in several currencies, a pistol and a stack of passports under different names, Jason Bourne among them. The Zurich scenes, including the park-bench fight with two policemen, were actually shot in Prague.
7. Who plays Marie Kreutz?

Franka Potente

Potente was known from Run Lola Run, and Liman cast her as a drifter whose visa application has just been refused when Bourne finds her outside the consulate. She returned for the opening of The Bourne Supremacy; Julia Stiles is in the series too, as Nicky.
8. How much does Bourne pay Marie to drive him to Paris?

$20,000

The money comes straight out of the Zurich box, and Marie, who has just been turned down for a visa and is broke, takes it after some argument. She drives him through the night to his Paris address, where the first assassin is waiting.
9. What kind of car does Marie drive?

A Mini

Marie's beaten-up red Mini carries the Paris chase, bouncing down stairways and the wrong way along the embankments while police cars and motorcycles come apart around it. Bourne drives, and the car is abandoned in a garage afterward.
10. What is the CIA program hunting Bourne called?

Treadstone

Treadstone is the CIA's black-ops program that built Bourne and the other assassins, and it is shut down by the end of the film. Blackbriar is the replacement Abbott pitches in the last scene, and Outcome and LARX are the programs of The Bourne Legacy.
11. Who runs Treadstone's pursuit of Bourne?

Alexander Conklin

Conklin, played by Chris Cooper, runs Treadstone from Paris and sends assassin after assassin, until his boss, Ward Abbott, decides the cleanest fix is to have Conklin himself shot in a Paris alley. Landy and Vosen don't appear until the sequels.
12. What does Bourne leave behind in the Zurich safe-deposit box?

A gun

He takes the passports and the cash, picks up the pistol, considers it and puts it back, an early sign that the man is at war with whatever he used to be. He doesn't fire a gun until the Professor comes for him at the farmhouse.
13. Where does Bourne find Marie at the end of the film?

Mykonos

Marie is running a scooter rental on the Greek island, having been told to disappear, and the shot of him walking in as Moby's 'Extreme Ways' starts up became the template for every sequel's ending. Marseille is where he came out of the sea.
14. What everyday object does Bourne use while fighting Castel?

A ballpoint pen

Castel comes through the apartment window, and Bourne takes him apart with a ballpoint pen in a fight built on Kali, the Filipino knife art Damon had trained in. Castel then throws himself out of the window rather than be taken, and Marie sees what Bourne is.
15. Why did Bourne hesitate to kill Wombosi on the yacht?

Wombosi's children were present

Working as John Michael Kane, Bourne had Wombosi in his sights on the yacht when the man's children appeared, and he couldn't do it; he was shot twice getting away and went into the sea. Wombosi is later killed in Paris by the Professor, played by Clive Owen.