Ultimatum

Robert Ludlum, what a man: a theatre actor, producer and playwright until forty years of age, he just decided, there and then, that he wasn’t satisfied and he wanted to write incredible novels which would kick the butt of pretty much anything at the time (he was, for some time, the number one best-selling author in the world). So that was what he did—and with avengeance. Ludlum wrote over twenty best-selling novels, and it all started at the beginning with the one and only The Bourne Identity. The film that finally breathed some much needed air into a rapidly tiring genre–

I wasn’t expecting to have to make this decision when I awoke this morning; David Spaulding from The Rhinemann Exchange or Jason Bourne from Identity–

What’s funny is that most people, in my experience, tend to associate with Jason Bourne, when he’s certainly the stranger of the two men: for example, Bourne doesn’t know his own name, whether he likes jam or marmite for breakfast, but he can beat the living daylights out of anyone without a second thought, and with both hands tied behind his back. How many of your friends fit that description?

And here’s another one: Jason Bourne or James Bond? That’s a tough one: gadget wise it’s an unfair fight, since Bond’s upper class and Jason Bourne’s practically a gadget pauper, but fight wise I think Bourne would have it.

Now for a huge question: who will be the next secret agent to step up to this elite level? What with Bourne having covered the amnesiac angle and Bond the techno equation, what else is there left?

Whatever it may be, I’m betting that Ludlum’s already written it. Who knows...maybe it’ll be a woman next time, and that would make a nice change.