what a waste of clive owen

Agreed. The one scene where he actualy spoke was the best of the movie. They shoudn't have killed him off, he would've been a great foil for Bourne Throughout the trilogy.

Bob Barr for President in 08!!!

I totally agree. I'm a Clive Owen fan and I, too, wish they had kept him on a lot longer than they did. That's an excellent point. That's probably one of the only screwups of this movie.
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Sic vis pacem para bellum.

I wouldn't call his character irrelevent by any means. The Professor was my favorite part of the movie, and his death has a profound impact on Bourne, which is extremely evident in one of the last scenes of The Bourne Ultimatum.

Clive really did a tremendous job with his one scene of dialogue; great performance, awesome character.

Do you really think so? I hadn't realised, until I saw him in this film, that Owen is at his best when he doesn't have to talk... / elisabet

[includes spoilers] I thought the same thing at first, but the more one watches his scenes, the more one realizes just how much he brings to that small role.

Think back to his death scene, for example. When asked who else is with him, he tells Bourne something along the lines of "I work alone, like you." The way he delivers that line (and the fact that it's Clive Owen) suggests that everything we had just seen with Bourne (the action, the suspense) has happened to Clive Owen as well. (It reminds me of the moment in Synechdoche, New York when someone remarks that all the supporting actors and bit players play the main role in their own story).

So, because Clive Owen was cast, his death has a much greater impact on the audience than the death of the first assassin (the blonde guy who hilariously falls out of the window).

It's the only movie where I like Clive Owen.

Also, aside from multiple people up above me here saying Clive knocked this small role out of the park.. which I do agree with..

This was pretty much his first big budget motion picture.. He wasn't the top billing actor [that he is today] at that time. Hell, this was in the midst of all those Beemer shorts he was doing.

How did a nitwit like you get so tasteful?
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On the one hand I agree that I would like to know/see him more. Then again that's true for the other Treadstone agents as well. The professor just gets the same treatment that every other gets when he finds Bourne. And in a way I like it. Especially since each time Bourne kills one of them, he gets some information that is part of the puzzle. If the Professor would have survived and gotten away, he could tell Bourne too much. It's important for the storyline that the other agents die without much further interaction with Bourne.

I wish the upcoming 4th Bourne movie would be one taking place BEFORE Identity, when Treadstone was intact. We could see the other assets in action and get to know more about them.