GENDER, GEOPOLITICS, AND GEOSURVEILLANCE IN THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM

Generic action-thriller films, especially The Bourne Ultimatum, the last in a series of three films, provide a useful resource for examining the gendered nature of geopolitics, the specification of place, and the role of geosurveillance in post-9/11 national security. Using the dialogue of the film as key source material, I show how the private world of Jason Bourne, an assassin, is interwoven with the public sphere of international security, including covert operations: The personal is geopolitical. I conclude with some reflections on how we might use film as a critical pedagogical resource.