The Truth About Real Estate in The Bourne Ultimatum

As Jason Bourne rapidly closes in on discovering the full details of his past in The Bourne Ultimatum, CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy provides the elusive assassin with a seemingly inconsequential detail: his birthday.

However, nothing is as it seems in the third installment of the Bourne saga, and the date, 4/15/71, proves to be code for a crucial rendezvous point: 415 East 71^st Street (Landy, you are sly!).

In an attempt to satiate a slightly unhealthy obsession with the new action flick, we did a little research and discovered that, alas, 415 East 71^st Street is not the headquarters for Treadstone, the outfit that trained Bourne to be the ultimate spy/assassin. It is an apartment building over on First Avenue.

The building used for the scene was actually the Family Court building down at 60 Lafayette.

“We looked around a lot for the right place,” Ultimatum’s New York location manager Lauri Pitkus told The Observer. “Our first choice was the NYU Hospital, but there was no way we could stop operations there for the movie.”

Ms. Pitkus said that they chose 60 Lafayette because it had a similarly formidable look to that of the hospital. After smacking a “415” on the side, the courthouse was ready for its movie debut.

Ms. Pitkus, who is now working on a new Coen Brothers movie, did tell The Observer that the climactic scene at the end of the movie where Bourne leaps into the East River was filmed at the Hospital for Special Surgery at 535 East 70^th Street. So, at least the Upper East Side got some screen time.

Regardless, it sounds like some more investigating is in order. In other words, we’re going to need to see the movie again.