Karl Urban as Kirill in The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Vitals
Karl Urban as Kirill, determined FSB assassin
Moscow, Winter 2004
Film: The Bourne Supremacy
Release Date: July 23, 2004
Director: Paul Greengrass
Costume Designer: Dinah Collin
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After Wednesday’s post about Ford v Ferrari, today features another Matt Damon movie… but instead focused on one of his co-stars. In the spirit of Friday the 13th, let’s check out the style of one of the unlucky assassins assigned with exterminating the elusive Jason Bourne.
The Bourne Identity was followed by The Bourne Supremacy, a sequel that borrowed the title of Robert Ludlum’s follow-up novel but scrapped mostly the entire plot in favor of following a new direction more in line with the cinematic narrative, aside from beginning with Bourne living relatively happily with Marie—whom he had met during the events of the prior installment—until he’s called back into action.
The movie brings Bourne back into the fray with Marie’s death, the victim of an assassination attempt meant to exterminate both of them. Her killer, Kirill (Karl Urban), is an operative of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who was independently hired by an oligarch to frame Bourne for an earlier attack and then take out the amnesiac agent himself. Once Kirill’s employer realizes the mission failed, Kirill is again ordered to hunt Bourne… a futile task, as a Paris safehouse full of dead CIA mooks can attest.
Naturally, Bourne gets the upper hand after an exciting pursuit through the streets of Moscow that results in the perhaps poetic catharsis of Kirill dying just as Marie did—in the driver’s seat of an SUV—though the slumped Kirill’s pained expression implies that he justifiably dies a slower, painful death than what he dealt to Marie.
Moscow Wind Up Bim Bam SmashWhat’d He Wear?
Like his target, Kirill dresses appropriately for the context of his missions, like a lightweight linen henley when hunting down Bourne and Marie in India. When chasing Bourne through the wintry streets of Moscow, he dresses in sleek, dark layers that enhance his lethal image.
Kirill’s Moscow look is anchored by a unique brown leather knee-length coat, every bit the prototypical “badass long coat” to compete with Bourne’s charcoal overcoat. The coat has four buttons extending from the neck to just below the waist, which is defined by a seam and covered by a full belt that Kirill lets hang loose throughout the sequence.
The two-button standing collar resembles that of a Harrington jacket, and the shoulders are each reinforced by a triangular piece of leather that flares out from the neck to the set-in sleeve tops. The sleeves are fastened with a long strap around each cuff that closes through a button, and the right sleeve has a flapped utility pocket on the forearm. There are four other flapped patch pockets on the front of the jacket: two over the chest, one on each hip.
Kirill in pursuit.
Kirill wears the same charcoal single-breasted sport jacket that he was likely wearing in the Moscow nightclub when Gretkov (Karel Roden) tracks him down again, the jacket providing an additional layer of concealment to cover the black shoulder rig holstering his Walther P99 under his left arm.
Under that, he wears a dark navy cotton zip-up hoodie, zipped up to mid-chest (and sometimes higher) and with the hood pulled out to lay flat over his coat collar.
Though he likely wears an undershirt, Kirill’s base layer is a brown V-neck sweater made from a soft-knit lightweight wool, likely merino.
Kirill wears very dark brown flat front trousers, conventionally styled and finished with plain-hemmed bottoms that break over the tops of his black calf leather derby-laced combat boots.
After wounding Bourne with a well-placed shot from his P99, Kirill follows Bourne’s trail of blood through a grocery store.
The Gun
Kirill carries a Walther P99, specifically a 1st generation model with a QPQ-finished steel slide that presents as a bright silver that contrasts with the black polymer frame. The recoil-operated P99 was introduced in 1997, featuring an internal striker rather than an external hammer, with a red-painted striker tip on the back of the slide indicating when the pistol is cocked. As a full-sized pistol, the P99 can carry high-capacity magazines with up to 17 rounds of 9x19mm Parabellum or 12 rounds of .40 S&W, though Walther offers expanded magazines that further increase the respective capacity.
Prior to the introduction of the 2nd generation variations in 2004, the same year that The Bourne Supremacy was released, the 1st generation P99 was exclusively a traditional double/single-action pistol with a decocker button on top of the slide, which would revert the pistol from single-action Anti-Stress mode back to a full double-action shot. This was reconfigured as the P99AS (Anti-Stress) with the development of the 2nd generation, which also included the new double-action only P99DAO and the Glock-style P99QA (Quick Action) variants.
The “QPQ” slide refers to Walther’s “quench, polish, quench” process that begins with a case-hardening nitrocarbonization, followed by polish, and finally an oxidization that results in a bright silver-finished slide.
Hardly inconspicuous but certainly determined, Kirill takes careful aim with his Walther P99 and hits Bourne in the shoulder, but the arrival of police—as happens when discharging firearms so publicly—disrupts his ability to score a fatal follow-up shot.
The Walther P99 was more prominently featured on screen at this time as James Bond’s favored handgun, beginning in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) when Pierce Brosnan’s 007 swapped out his aging and comparatively anemic .32-caliber Walther PPK for this innovative newcomer to the Walther lineup. This product placement continued through Daniel Craig’s double-O debut in Casino Royale (2006) until Quantum of Solace (2008), when Craig’s Bond evidently retired the P99 as he reverted to the more concealable and classic PPK.
Despite Bond always carrying all-black P99 pistols on screen, I remember a Bond-licensed airsoft pistol in the mid-2000s that was similarly designed, albeit with a duller gray plastic slide that hardly resembled the silver QPQ of a true P99.
Where to Get the Stuff
Karl Urban as Kirill in The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Kirill’s leather coat may be a bit long for anyone who isn’t cosplaying Carlito’s Way, but I still appreciate the sleek yet rugged street-ready sensibilities of his leather-over-hoodie layers.
- Brown leather knee-length coat with fully belted waist, 2-button standing collar, four-button front, four flapped pockets, right forearm sleeve utility pocket, set-in sleeves with button-strap cuffs, and single vent
- Charcoal wool single-breasted 2-button sport jacket
- Dark navy cotton zip-up hoodie
- Brown merino wool V-neck sweater
- Dark brown flat front trousers with plain-hemmed bottoms
- Black calf leather derby-laced combat boots
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
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