Wood then served as director of photography on Doug Liman’s “The Bourne Identity,” and returned to shoot the other two movies in the original trilogy: “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum.” Directed by Paul Greengrass, the latter two films’ use of handheld “shaky-cam” to create frantic and dynamic action scenes has been imitated (often poorly) ever since.
Speaking to Female First in 2005, star Matt Damon recalled how much Wood loved filming in Berlin for “The Bourne Supremacy,” expressing a true cinematographer’s enthusiasm for the perpetually overcast skies:
“[Wood] was absolutely in love with the light because it stayed steady. It was overcast every day. But we’d lose it about 3:15 or 3:30 p.m. and every day he had this gleeful look on his face and he’d just go ‘I love it here! I love it here!’ Everyone else was missing the sunshine!”
After working with Wood on “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and “Step Brothers,” director Adam McKay was excited to bring some expertise from the “Bourne” movies to his buddy cop action spoof “The Other Guys.” Together, McKay and Wood gave us one of the most memorable leaps from the top of a building in movie history. The film also featured Wood in a cameo role (above, far left) as Captain Salty, one of the eponymous “boys” in the tightly-knit group of friends known as Dirty Mike and the Boys.
Having Wood on hand to make the action half of the action-comedy look good was “actually fantastic,” McKay told MovieWeb in 2010. “You can literally say, ‘How would you do this in ‘The Bourne?'”
With a career that spanned more than 50 years, Oliver Wood leaves behind a visual legacy that will continue to influence filmmakers for many more years to come.