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No spoilers, I promise. The Bourne movies have become the standard by which Hollywood spy action movies are measured; you see their influence on recent products such as last year’s Casino Royale. The Bourne Ultimatum directed by Paul Greengrass (Bourne Supremacy, United 93) has the speed, efficiency, and up-close dirty fighting of the previous movies, and it’s an altogether satisfying conclusion to the series. In fact it’s so good, I wouldn’t mind another sequel. Recent Hollywood movies have been bogged down by an excess of back story, as if dwelling on the hero’s toilet training and playground issues would turn shit into a real movie. For the finale of a trilogy about an amnesiac in search of his back story, this one is not only smart but refreshingly free of amateur psychotherapy.

As always Matt Damon is terrific as Jason Bourne, maintaining a preternatural calm while everything shatters around him. You won’t catch him acting: he’s a bottled-up meteorological event. (I like to think of Matt and his former writing partner/frequent co-star/(Are they still best friends?) Ben Assfleck as parts of an experiment that tries to answer the question: What is more important, intelligence and discretion, or traditional good looks and celebrity?) Challenging Damon in the calmness department is Julia Stiles, who returns as the CIA employee Nikki. Over the years the Bourne movies have provided employment to some of today’s finest character actors: Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Joan Allen, and now David Strathairn, Scott Glen, and (I’ll let you enjoy the surprise). Paddy Considine’s portrayal of a journalist is so dead accurate—that combination of clued-in and clueless—I’m convinced we know the same people.