13 tech-related product placements in The Bourne Ultimatum

Last night, whilst all the ‘slebs were walking the red carpet in Leicester Square showing off their designer frocks for the premiere of The Bourne Ultimatum, a few of us lucky Shinies got to go to an advance screening with Motorola at the BAFTA down the road. No fancy dresses for us, we all wore jeans. And boy, were we impressed, and I don’t even LIKE Matt Damon. (Said in Team America-esque voice, obviously).

One thing you’ll notice minutes into the film is the blatant product placement – director Paul Greengrass didn’t even try to hide it. Like the good little Tech Digester that I am, I sat there with a pen and paper and scrawled down every techie product placement I saw in the film, whether used by Jason Bourne himself, CIA agents, hit-men, or just billboards seen in shots. If you noticed any more I’ve missed, definitely leave your comments in the field below. WARNING – anyone scared of spoilers better not read on below the jump!

1.) BT – a birds-eye shot of London focusses on the BT Tower for more than a second. BT, or British Telecom, is the country’s largest telecom provider and also has a finger in the ol’ broadband pie as well. Not quite sure if they’re suggesting Bourne himself has a BT subscription (I’m guessing probably not the friends and family package), or if the CIA uses it, but nonetheless, it’s there, and there for a second longer than is necessary, really.

2.) Guardian newspaper – a central part of the plot revolves around Simon Ross, the Security Correspondent for the newspaper. Scenes are shot in the offices, the Guardian editor is shown, and Bourne is even seen reading a copy of the newspaper and spies his own name in it. On Thursdays, the Guardian comes with a TechnologyGuardian supplement which is well worth checking out if you’re a techie. Which you are – you’re reading this blog, for instance!

3.) Motorola RAZR 2 – as aforementioned, Motorola are a huge sponsor of the film, so several of their mobile phones are used by characters, including Jason Bourne himself. He, plus many of the other characters, use MMS services to transfer photos to each other, including photos of Bourne and Nicky to hit-men for target purposes.

4.) Motorola SLVR – the second Motorola phone used in the film, it’s used by some of the CIA agents.

5.) 3 Music Store – the scenes shot in Waterloo station (how cool is it seeing Simon Ross duck into the Threshers store-room cupboard in this scene, knowing you’ve bought booze there to drink on the tube on your way to a pub. Classy) show a huge billboard advertising the 3 Music Store.

6.) The Carphone Warehouse – again, in the scenes shot in London Waterloo station, Bourne buys a cheap pay as you go phone from the Carphone Warehouse stall, and drops it into Simon Ross’s pocket without him knowing.

7.) BMW cars – not being a car expert, I can’t tell you what model BMW is used in the film, and a quick Google didn’t shed light either, so if anyone knows what Neal Daniels drives off in in a hurry, let me know!

8.) CTX computer monitors – apparently the CIA use CTX computers? Hey, at least it’s not as bad as the government using Apple Macs in the Transformers!

9.) Mercedes – one of the best scenes in the film occurred in New York, where Bourne was involved in his best car chase yet. Several Mercedes WERE harmed in the making of this film, lets just put it at that.

10.) Norton Antivirus – not only does the CIA use CTX computers, but their protection is supplied by Norton Antivirus. Right. I’m sure the CIA really relies on trustworthy Norton.

11.) Nokia N93 – so the good guys use Motorolas, and the bad guys use Nokias, specifically the N93. The CIA agents used the mobiles to transmit live footage back to CIA headquarters, which The Nokia Blog claims you can do by installing Comvu Pocketcaster on any NSeries, but will need a WiFi or 3G connection to do so.


12.) Volkswagen Touareg – another car used during the car chase, some of the lucky Crave at CNet folks got to drive the stunt-cars used in the film. They used technology described as Remote Driven Vehicle to control the cars without actually having a driver in the driving seat.


13.) Google – When in London, Jason escapes from the hit-men and dives into an internet cafe to research any information he gained from Simon Ross’s manbag he stole, using, as any sane person on earth, Google.

Obviously plenty more technology was used in the film, such as binoculars, headsets etc, so if anyone knows of anything I missed, definitely share in the comments box below!

The Bourne Ultimatum

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