It's the question spy flick aficionados will ponder once again as "The Bourne Ultimatum," the third movie based on Robert Ludlum's best-selling books, blasts into theatres on August 3.
Bond is a relic?
For Matt Damon and "Bourne Ultimatum"/"Bourne Supremacy" (2004) director Peter Greengrass, the Martini-swigging, gadget-loving, lady-juggling sophisto that is universally revered as Bond is a relic from the '60s.
It's the inimitable question: who would win in a fight? Bond or Bourne? From brains to brawn to the body, check out our side-by-side analysis gallery.
Bond fans -- especially those impressed by Daniel Craig's gritty reinvention of 007 in "Casino Royale" (2006) -- say this relic still rocks.
"Bond probably enjoys life a little more than Jason Bourne," Damon, 36, joked recently with 'eTalk.' "He's had hundreds of women. Bourne is the opposite of that. He's like a serial monogamist. He's in love with this woman who is dead. He doesn't even look at another woman."
While Damon praises British actor Craig, 39, and his 007 performance, the fundamental differences between author Ian Fleming's suave British spy and the paranoid, anti-establishment, amnesiac assassin are ones he can't ignore.
"I don't really see them see them as a competitive thing," says Damon. "Bond is an imperialist kind of a misogynist and very much a character of the '60s. I don't think you can fundamentally change who he is."
Both are mad and bad
Certainly as spies go Bond and Bourne are both mad, bad and dangerous to know, especially when you've nicked that Aston Martin DBS or given a loving wife a one-way ticket to kingdom come. But as director Greengrass says, "Bourne is a real man. He's not running around in a cartoon. It's a real world and all of us can relate to the character."
"The world of espionage is just a great place to put action adventure," says Greengrass. As for its spies, "What I do know is that we need these people and we need them to be good."
That's what makes a resourceful, questioning, spy-on-the-run like Ludlum's hero so modern and so relevant.
In this third instalment, Damon's penitent killer goes back to his roots to uncover how he became such a perfect weapon and who was responsible. With the CIA still hunting him, rogue agent Bourne is lured out of hiding to contact a journalist who can help piece together his life's maddening puzzle. The action-packed, nail-biting sequences, Damon promises, won't disappoint as his alter ego Bourne rumbles with the deadliest group of assassins yet, outsmarting every one who stands between him, his past and finding his inner peace.
"What I really love the most about the character is the fact that he's struggling towards the light," says Greengrass. "The fact he's trying to overcome his past and renewed himself -- the fact that he's on the run and people are after him. I think it's a character who can live in many different ways, just like us."
So, who would win in a fight?
Bourne and Bond may be very different and their drive to survive not entirely the same. Who would win in a fight? "It's tough," Damon says. "I wouldn't bet against Bourne. Bond had all those gadgets, though."
Who do you think would win? And why?
