Matt Damon on the run in The Bourne Ultimatum

ALMOST five years since his lifeless, bullet-riddled body was hauled out of the Mediterranean by a fishing boat, secret agent Jason Bournefinally learns the harrowing truth about his past in The Bourne Ultimatum.

The third episode of the edge-of-seat spy caper, starring Matt Damon, is every bit as fiercely intelligent and breathlessly thrilling as its predecessors.

With Paul Greengrass back at the helm, the latest film boasts spectacular action sequences, nerve-racking chases and a tangled web of political intrigue that extends from the icy streets of Moscow to Paris, Madrid, London, Tangier and New York.

Technically, this is another tour de force, melding Christopher Rouse's frenetic, adrenaline-pumping editing with John Powell's strident score and Oliver Wood's moody cinematography.

Damon answers all of the physical and emotional demands of the role with brooding intensity.

Like a coiled spring, he explodes into action in the blink of an eye, emerging from bone-crunching car crashes with barely a scratch, relentlessly pursuing the shadowy government figures who would rather terminate him than acknowledge their collusion in a global conspiracy of silence.

After events in Moscow, Bourne continues to search for answers, while back in New York, high-ranking CIA agents David Strathairn and Joan Allen employ every piece of technical wizardry and surveillance device at their disposal to hunt down their rogue operative.

Bourne's first stop is London and a rendezvous with Guardian journalist Paddy Considine, who has unwittingly uncovered details of a top secret operation called Blackbriar, the forerunner to Treadstone.

Unfortunately, various assassins have been dispatched to track Bourne, with explicit orders to kill on sight.

Following the trail of carefully hidden evidence, Bourne crosses paths once again with intelligence expert Julia Stiles, who knows secrets that make her a liability to the administration.

The Bourne Ultimatum surpasses the first two films for jaw-dropping action and suspense, moving seamlessly from a brilliantly orchestrated game of CCTV cat and mouse in Waterloo station to a dizzying rooftop pursuit across northern Morocco.

Breakneck motorcycle and car chases on different continents are every bit as exhilarating as signature sequences in The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy.

Stiles offers strong support to Damon's maverick agent and Strathairn is mesmerising as the task force chief willing to except any amount of collateral damage and bloodshed to conceal his guilt.

He spars marvellously with Allen's impassioned fellow CIA operative, the latter forced to choose sides when it becomes clear she is not party to all of the information.

The kinetic energy of Greengrass's direction is relentless and it's only when the film draws to a rousing close, to the familiar strains of Moby's Extreme Ways, that we finally loosen our white knuckle grip on the chair arms and dare to catch our breath.

1:32pm Tuesday 14th August 2007

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