Heather Lee Ph.D is the Head of the Cyber Ops Division of the CIA.
In 2016, she led the operation to track down former CIA operatives Jason Bourne and Nicky Parsons. Lee also wanted to bring Bourne back to the agency but was prepared to kill him if he refused, leaving her true intentions uncertain. She opposed CIA Director Robert Dewey's methods, since he was willing to eliminate those even within the agency who threatened his agenda. She eventually kills Dewey after a technology convention in Las Vegas, and presents herself as a potential successor as CIA Director to Edwin Russell, the Director of National Intelligence
She was the anti-heroic deuteragonist in the 2016 action/thriller film Jason Bourne and was portrayed by Academy winning actress Alicia Vikander.
History[]
Background[]
Lee studied at the Stanford University alongside future billionaire Aaron Kalloor, graduating with a Ph.D in Computer Science in 2009. She went on to found a security AI research firm called Prometheus.
In 2011 , Lee gave a talk at a BlackHat computer science conference and demonstrated successful hypervisor side channel attacks. This brought her to the attention of the US intelligence community.
Lee was then recruited to military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, working on several government projects. She later served as Director of Research and Development for In-Q-Tel, an investment firm associated with assisting the intelligence community. She joined the CIA as Head of the Cyber Ops Division in April 2016, during the events of the fifth film.
Jason Bourne[]
Heather Lee first appears when former CIA operative Nicky Parsons hacks into the agency's with the help of a hacktivist group led by Christian Dassault in order to steal dozen of dossier containing Beta program from operations Treadstone into the new one called operations Iron Hand. She briefs CIA deputy director Robert Dewey and Director of National Intelligence Edwin Russell about the result caused by the hacking after discovered that Parsons was responsible of this and demands to lead the operation to track down Parsons and Jason Bourne. After a manhunt for Parsons in Athens, an unnamed assassin know as the Asset kills her after she meets Bourne, leaving him the keys to a safe deposit box with CIA files and a hard drive.
In the aftermath of the Greece incident the following day, Lee explains to Dewey her plan to contact Bourne under the belief that she could persuade him back into the CIA as an agent, an initiative to Dewey seemingly accepts with glee. Meanwhile, Bourne locates Dassault in Berlin and uses his computer to decrypt Parsons' files, discovering that his father was involved in the creation of the Treadstone program. A malware program implanted by Lee in the files during Parsons' hacking allows the CIA to localise Bourne but believing that he can be persuaded to return to the agency, Lee alerts Bourne to the arrival of Dewey's team and the latter escapes after incapacitated Dassault, who was attacking him. While Lee persuades Russell to allow her to contact Bourne in person to attempt to bring him back, Dewey secretly authorizes the Asset to eliminate her team as Bourne arranges a meeting with Malcolm Smith, a former Treadstone surveillance operative, at Paddington Plaza, London. After discovered the truth about his father's death, Bourne finds Lee, whom she isn't feeling comfortable with Dewey's methods and directs him to a technology convection called EXOCON with Aaron Kalloor at Las Vegas.
When Kalloor try the uses a public debate on privacy rights there to expose Dewey's plans, that being to use his platform to spy on everyone and more effectively implement Iron Hand, the CIA director orders the Asset to eliminate him alongside Lee, having deducted her conspiracy with Bourne. However, Bourne thwarts the assassinations and confronts Dewey in his suite. As he is about to be killed by the corrupt director, Lee kills Dewey by shooting him in the neck, saving Bourne in the process.
After Bourne killed the Asset after hunting him down through Las Vegas, Lee meets with Russell in a car and tell him that Dewey is actually insane and thus his tactics were unwise and outdated. She then convince Russell to appoint her as Dewey successor as CIA director and promised him that she will become Russell's eyes and ears within the CIA. When Russell questions Lee about her plan for Bourne, she tells that she will use Bourne's trust towards her to bring him back to the agency and will prepared to kill Bourne if he went out of control again, leaving Russell to reluctantly agrees with Lee's plan. Lee finally meets with Bourne in a park and appeals to Bourne's sense of patriotism by offering a job, but Bourne walks away, leaving Lee to learn he recorded the conversation where she highlighted the option of killing him. Her fate is unknown.
Trivia[]
- Lee share similarities with Pamela Landy and Nicky Parsons herself but she was not actually a hero like them because she was disposed to kill Bourne as depicted in the last sequence.