The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Forgetful former-CIA assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon, pictured) continues his quest to fill in those pesky memory gaps in this third entry in the amnesiac spy canon. When a Guardian reporter, Simon Ross (Paddy Considine), stumbles onto his trail, Bourne spies his chance to blow the Blackbriar black-ops brigade wide open. But with some very powerful people intent on keeping their skeletons buried, he is in more danger than ever before, as his former paymasters send a series of elite killers after their reformed ex-colleague.

Straying from the doomed path of most Hollywood trilogies, Bourne's swansong is the best of the bunch. Delivering breakneck thrills in a series of action set pieces that make the pyrotechnics of lesser action flicks look like Acme cartoons, Ultimatum's exhilarating, white-knuckle adventure will leave viewers gasping for breath. But Bourne is by no means a bland action hero. He may be a killing machine able to transform even a hardback book into a deadly weapon, but Damon infuses him with a sense of vulnerability. In a refreshingly different breed of action thriller, director Paul Greengrass manages to intertwine the resplendent thrills and spills with an intense and intelligent story.