| ā | You're never gonna find any peace. Not until you find out who you really are. | ā |
| ~ Robert Dewey |
Robert Dewey, better known as Director Dewey, is the main antagonist of the 2016 spy action thriller film Jason Bourne. He is the supreme deputy director of the CIA and the man who stands behind the death of Richard Webb using the CIA assassin known as The Asset, and now set out to eliminate Richard's son David Webb, who's popularly known as Jason Bourne.
Due to being such a massive villain who actually killed Richard and orchestrating many assassinations, Dewey serves as the true main antagonist of the entire Bourne series.
He was portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones, who also portrayed William Strannix in Under Siege, Ryan Gaerity in Blown Away and Two-Face in Batman Forever.
Biography
Pre-2016
Dewey was a CIA agent who had attempted to enlist David Webb into Treadstone, founded by Webb's father Richard. When Richard prohibited his son into Treadstone, he had an assassin, dubbed The Asset to kill Richard, staging it as a terrorist attack.
After the events of The Bourne Ultimatum, when David - under the name Jason Bourne - exposed Blackbriar, Dewey took over Ezra Kramer's position as CIA Director after his arrest. Sometime between 2004 and 2016, Dewey had created "Iron Hand", the codename for a CIA program intended to be a reboot of the Treadstone, Blackbriar, Outcome and LARX projects.
Present Day
Hunting Jason Bourne and Nicky Parsons
Dewey hunts down Bourne and Parsons
In 2016, Dewey and CIA Cyber-Ops Division Head Heather Lee were present when a CIA hacking orchestrated by Nicolette "Nicky" Parsons occurred. In the light of this, Dewey ordered a manhunt for Parsons, under the belief that she had contacted Bourne for a meeting at a civil riot in Syntagma Square. When CIA teams failed to apprehend and kill them, Dewey planted the Asset to assassinate them both: In the outcome, after a vehicular chase across Athens, Parsons was shot dead but Bourne escaped with the keys to a safe deposit box with CIA files and a hard drive Parsons chucked at him before she was killed.
Dewey with Lee.
In the aftermath of the Greece incident the following day, Dewey - while in a meeting with Edwin Russell, the Director of National Intelligence, Lee walked in and as explained her plan to Dewey: Contact Bourne under the belief that she could persuade him back into the CIA as an agent. Dewey seemingly accepts with glee and Lee leaves the room. Dewey and his right-hand man Craig Jeffers are the only two who remain in the room, leaving them to discuss their true intentions.
Alliance with Aaron Kalloor
Dewey negotiates with Aaron Kalloor.
At a cafƩ, Dewey arranged a meeting with Aaron Kalloor, a public face of corporate social responsibility in an attempt to ally with him for a public debate about privacy rights, but secretly plans to use his enterprise Deep Dream as a mass-surveillance program for Iron Hand: After a negotiation, Kalloor reluctantly accepts before he leaves the cafƩ.
Tracking Malcolm Smith
| ā | Jason, this is Robert Dewey. Do you remember me? Jason, your dad was a patriot, he could see the threats America was facing and like you, he chose to serve his country out of profound sense of duty. He would not want to see you harm the agency. You have to stop this, and you have to stop it now. | ā |
| ~ Dewey to Bourne. |
After killing Dewey's team and one of his top assassins, Dassault, Bourne uses the few leads that he gained in Berlin, Bourne tracks Malcolm Smith, a former Treadstone surveillance operative at London, England and arranges him to meet him at Paddington Plaza. During their meeting, Smith reveals Bourne that his father David had created the Treadstone program but actually attempted to prevent them to recruit Bourne himself.
He adds in his things, saying that Dewey ordered the Asset to kill Richard and staged his death as a terrorist attack to persuade Bourne to join into the Treadstone program. After the confrontation, the Asset assassinates Smith while Bourne escapes and finds Lee, whom she isn't feeling comfortable with Dewey's methods and directs him to a technology convection called EXOCON at Las Vegas, Nevada.
The EXOCON Convention Attack
Dewey orders The Asset to kill Kalloor and Lee
| ā | Son of a bitch is about to take us down. Take out Kalloor and the girl right now. | ā |
| ~ Robert Dewey to The Asset, demanding the assassinations of Aaron Kalloor and Heather Lee |
At the convection, Dewey is scheduled to attend the convection for a public debate on privacy rights with Kalloor which is the public face. He was secretly funded by Dewey who intends to carry out his true plan; use the Deep Dream for real-time worldwide massive surveillance systems alongside the reborn programs Treadstone, Outcome, Blackbriar and LARX, now collectively known as "Iron Hand". Suspecting that Kalloor will refuse to allow the CIA's access to Deep Dream, Dewey orders the Asset to take down Kalloor and Lee which he no longer trusts. Unfortunately for Dewey, Bourne stops the assassination by blinding the Asset, although he shoots Kalloor regardless.
Death
Jason Bourne interrogates Dewey, moments before his death
| ā | You didn't come here for revenge. You came because it's time to come in. Your father created the program. Didn't have what it takes to make it work. And you did. You always did. That's why you volunteered." "I volunteered because I thought our enemies killed my father. I volunteered because of a lie." "No. You volunteered because of who you are. You volunteered because you are Jason Bourne and not David Webb. 32 kills, Jason. Everyone of them made a difference. People all across this country are safer because of what you did. |
ā |
| ~ Dewey and Jason Bourne |
In the midst of the thwarted shooting, Jeffers insisted that Dewey escape in a vehicular escort, but Dewey chose to remain his ground on an upper floor. Bourne tracked him to his room and threatened him by pinning him against a wall: Knowing that his agents were closing in, Dewey stalled for time with Bourne, distracting him through a speech about patriotism.
Dewey is shot and killed by Heather Lee
All of a sudden, Jeffers barged into the room in an attempt to rescue Dewey and knocked down Bourne, but Bourne shot him dead. Dewey used the distraction to his advantage as he prepared his handgun to shoot Bourne. However, before he could deliver the finishing kill, Lee arrived and shot Dewey, causing him to stumble into a wall and die of his wounds.
Relationships
Allies
- The Asset ā - Main Henchman and Personal Assassin
- Craig Jeffers ā - Right-Hand Man
Enemies
- Richard Webb ā
- David Webb/Jason Bourne
- Heather Lee - Ally turned Enemy and Killer
- Nicky Parsons ā
- Aaron Kalloor - Ally turned Enemy
- Malcolm Smith ā
Trivia
- Dewey is similar to Kathryn from Gotham; they were responsible for the deaths of the parents of the main character, which drove them to become heroes (Dewey: Jason Bourne, Kathryn: Bruce Wayne). They also lead secret organizations.
- He is also similar to Judge Claude Frollo; they are elderly villains who made the protagonist an orphan by killing their parents, and they are also Complete Monsters.
- Dewey actually served as the true primary antagonist of the entire Bourne franchise because he killed Richard Webb, orchestrated many assassinations over the years even if there were many different CIA directors such as Alexander Conklin, Abbott, Noah Vosen and Eric Byer, Dewey led every single thing in order to carry out his plan to turn the program "Iron Hand" worldwide as surveillance systems. Thus, he is also considered to be Bourne's biggest nemesis because the man had killed his own father.
- Also for being the true central villain of the entire series, he is very similar to Ernst Stavro Blofeld:
- Both of them are the arch-enemies of the main protagonists (Dewey for Bourne, Blofeld for James Bond).
- Both of them led assassinations and killed the protagonist's fathers (Dewey killed Richard and Blofeld killed his own biological father Hannes who was Bond's guardian parent).
- Both of them led organizations (Dewey - the CIA and Blofeld - SPECTRE).
- Both of them are highly intelligent terrorist masterminds.
- Both of them served as the main antagonists of the whole franchises of the titular protagonists (Bourne and 007).
- Both of them staged their own deaths.
- Both of them had very different but similar evil master plans; Blofeld too wanted to turn a program into mass surveillance systems worldwide to be able to control it while Dewey wanted to turn the program worldwide surveillance system but did not want world domination.
- Both are Complete Monsters.