Pamela Landy

Pamela Landy
Pamela Landy in The Bourne Supremacy.
General Information
Nickname	Pam
Location	New York City, Berlin
Affiliation	CIA
Birth	August 11, 1962
Weapon	Glock 17 or Glock 19
Real World Information
Appearance	The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Legacy
Portrayed By	Joan Allen

Deputy Director Pamela Landy is a task chief officer in the CIA and a major character in the Jason Bourne cinematographic franchise, serving as the deuteragonist in both the 2004 film The Bourne Supremacy and the 2007 film The Bourne Ultimatum before return as a supporting antagonist in the 2012 film The Bourne Legacy. She was portrayed by American actress Joan Allen.

History

The Bourne Supremacy

In Berlin, CIA officers under Deputy Director Pamela Landy are paying $3 million for the "Neski files," documents about the theft of $20 million seven years earlier. Kirill, a hired assassin, plants Jason Bourne's fingerprints, with intentions of framing him, and proceeds to kill the agent and the source, stealing the files and money and giving them to Russian oil magnate Yuri Gretkov.

In Berlin, Landy finds the planted fingerprints and goes to CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia to find out whose they are. She discovers that they belong to Bourne and asks Abbott about Treadstone. He admits that he had Conklin killed after a failed mission and has no idea where Bourne is. Landy tells Abbott that the CIA agent who stole the $20 million was named in the stolen files. A Russian politician, Vladimir Neski, was about to identify the thief when he was murdered by his wife in a Berlin hotel. Landy believes that Bourne and Conklin were involved, and, based on the prints, Bourne was the assassin in Berlin. Both Abbott and Landy go to Berlin to find Bourne and take him down.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Pamela Landy is asked to help capture Bourne. With Landy's help, Noah Vosen and his team realize that Neil Daniels is Ross' source. They decide to send a team to Daniels' office in Madrid, but Bourne arrives first, attacking the CIA team while they secure the office. While Bourne finishes his attack, Nicky Parsons enters the office. Nicky tells him that Daniels fled to Tangier and helps Bourne to escape the CIA reinforcements by telling Vosen that Bourne had already left the office. Bourne calls the police to report the sound of gunfire; they arrive just as the second CIA team piles out of their vehicles, guns drawn, in front of the office. When Bourne asks Nicky why she is helping him, Nicky only hints vaguely at something before Bourne's amnesia. While in Tangier, they realize the CIA has sent assassin Desh Bouksani for Daniels. Nicky uses her official clearance access to send Desh a message, telling him to meet her for a new phone. This allows Bourne to follow Desh to his target. When Vosen realizes Nicky's deceit he orders Desh to kill Nicky and Bourne after terminating Daniels. Landy is outraged at Vosen's willingness to kill CIA personnel, even ones who have sabotaged their mission, and could be considered traitors, like Nicky, and quits the operation.

Back at the substation, Vosen's team realizes Landy gave Bourne an address in code when Landy told Bourne of his date of birth. Just outside the address, Landy meets with Bourne, who explains that her life is in jeopardy, which she dismisses and warns him of Vosen's team arriving soon. When Bourne questions her actions and motives, Landy truthfully answers that Blackbriar and the hardships that [Bourne] had to endure go against her moral ideals and her beliefs on what the CIA should be. Bourne, satisfied with her answer, provides her with the classified Blackbriar files and tells her to act upon them by exposing them to the public. As he turns to leave, Landy addresses Bourne by his real name (in an unusual form of respect) and offers to help him directly, but Bourne refuses, claiming he has to do it on his own, before heading inside. Landy turns to leave, but just then, Vosen's team arrives. Realizing that she is now a target, Landy rushes inside the building, sneaks into an empty office and faxes Vosen's Blackbriar files.for safety. Vosen finds her just as all the files are sent away. She coldly gazes upon an incredulous Vosen, before flatly responding to him that he needs to find a good lawyer.

Sometimes later, she is shown testifying on a Senate hearing about her actions and exposing Treadstone and Blackbriar programs in full.length in front of the investigative committee.

The Bourne Legacy

In the film, she is only featured briefly: Mark Turso, discussing about the exposure of the Blackbriar program to NRAG leader Eric Byer about her testimony, reveals that he and CIA Director Ezra Kramer covertly surveiled her from the moment she was given access to Treadstone files, revealing that she will be framed as a scapegoat for both Treadstone and Blackbriar in order to shield Kramer and Blackbriar director Noah Vosen from impending fallout, and also to prevent exposure of the reamining Beta program projects, jeopardized by the exposure of Blackbriar. Turso reasons that this is done out of neccessity, reasoning that her exposure of the CIA operations and aiding Bourne makes her a national traitor. Her fate remains unknown.

Personality

Landy is a somewhat cold, pragmatic, but ultimately considered a "good" character in the series. While she is unafraid of making compromising and unorthodox decisions to achieve success, she has a clear sense of principles and morality, which puts her at odds against her colleagues, such as Ward Abbott or Noah Vosen, who ilegally run active assassination programs with a dubious explanation of "saving American lives" (even though the programs targeted American citizens).

Her morality and principles are often challenged by others, with which she usually replies with a witty or a sarcastic remark. She also has a high degree of concern for personnel under her direct command, first shown in Supremacy, when she was reluctant to send Nicky Parsons to meet with Bourne, even when the possibility to capture him was very high (and even Nicky was willing to go if it meant capturing or eliminating him), and was also accused by Abbott of being unable to move on from the fact that she lost two men in her previous operation. Unlike her colleagues and superiors, who focus more on solving situations and using brute force, she focuses on trying to find rational reasonings for situations and tends to question the circumstances and motives of every scenario happening around her, as shown in Ultimatum; When Nicky jeopardized the assassination of Neil Daniels by assigning a phone to Desh, Vosen ordered her assassination, to which Landy strongly objected, stating that the circumstances of Nicky's betrayal are unknown, and when Vosen rejected her claims, she stormed out and quit the operation in protest.

Her relationship with Bourne can be considered complicated. While she considered assassinating Bourne, she nonetheless preffered the idea of capturing Bourne. However, by researching his background and realizing his goals, she became more conflicted between aiding him and completing her duty, and tended to question her superiors about Bourne's motives for his actions. Ultimately, she chose the former, providing him with his real name and giving him a false birthday (4/15/71, which in reality is an address of the training facility where "everything started for him"). In return, Bourne provided her with the classified information on Blackbriar from Vosen's safe to expose the programs. When Bourne asked her motives on aiding his goals, she stated that Treadstone, Blackbiar and the torture he was put into to be molded into an assassin goes against her principles and beliefs of what the Agency should be, satisfying Bourne, who decides to provide her with the classified files he stole from Vosen, realizing her actions as genuine, and she, in an unusual form of respect, addresses him by his real name and offers to aid him directly, but he refuses and requests her to use the files to expose the programs.

Ultimately, Landy, by jeopardizing her life and professional career in order to aid Bourne and expose Blackbriar, shows her strength of character and placing her principles and ideals above her career, comfort and personal safety.