History Film / TheBourneLegacy

''The Bourne Legacy'' is the fourth entry in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'', directed and co-written by Creator/TonyGilroy and released on August 10, 2012. It is notable for being the only ''Bourne'' film without Jason Bourne, which resulted from Bourne's actor Creator/MattDamon refusing to make another installment unless Creator/PaulGreengrass (director of ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'' and ''[[Film/TheBourneUltimatum Ultimatum]]'') was involved, and Greengrass insisting that he hadn't found a story good enough to merit a continuation of the franchise.

''The Bourne Legacy'' is the fourth entry in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'', directed and co-written by Creator/TonyGilroy and released on August 10, 2012. It is notable for being the only ''Bourne'' film without Jason Bourne, which resulted from Creator/MattDamon (who plays Bourne) refusing to make another installment unless Creator/PaulGreengrass (director of ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'' and ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'') was involved, and Greengrass insisting that he hadn't found a story good enough to merit a continuation of the franchise.

Gilroy, the film's director, also co-wrote the first three entries of the series, and in his involvement with this film, he sought to continue the story of the series without changing key events.

Gilroy, the film's director, had also co-written the first three entries of the series, and sought to continue its story without changing key events.

The one without Jason Bourne, ''The Bourne Legacy'' (2012) is the fourth entry in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'', which was released on August 10th, 2012.

Creator/MattDamon refused to make another installment unless Creator/PaulGreengrass (director of ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'' and ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'') was involved, and Greengrass insisted that he hadn't found a story good enough to merit a continuation of the franchise. As a result, the studio created the new character Aaron Cross, played by Creator/JeremyRenner, and this SpinOff movie was directed and written by Creator/TonyGilroy, the scriptwriter of the first three movies. Cross is a trained operative much like Bourne and has to deal with the fallout as the government [[ThePurge eliminates any programs linked to Blackbriar]], eventually joining up with a female scientist from the same program. Creator/EdwardNorton plays an official involved with the deeper aspects of the program trying to cover up the fine details. The movie takes place immediately after the events of ''Supremacy'' and ''Ultimatum.''

* HotScientist: Dr Marta Shearing, as played by Creator/RachelWeisz.

Creator/MattDamon refused to make another installment unless Creator/PaulGreengrass (director of ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'' and ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'') was involved, and Greengrass insisted that he hadn't found a story good enough to merit a continuation of the franchise. As a result, the studio created the new character Aaron Cross, played by Creator/JeremyRenner, and this SpinOff movie was directed and written by Tony Gilroy, the scriptwriter of the first three movies. Cross is a trained operative much like Bourne and has to deal with the fallout as the government [[ThePurge eliminates any programs linked to Blackbriar]], eventually joining up with a female scientist from the same program. Creator/EdwardNorton plays an official involved with the deeper aspects of the program trying to cover up the fine details. The movie takes place immediately after the events of ''Supremacy'' and ''Ultimatum.''

** In a deleted scene, when making the trip to Maryland Aaron is pulled over by a cop suspiciously (he was going the proper speed limit). The cop started asking him specific questions and Aaron had a detailed response about being a divorcee going to see his kid play in a soccer game. When asked to look at his trunk he had a variety of sporting equipment.

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. [[spoiler: By the time Byer contacts the factory in Manila, security have already caught on to Cross' BavarianFireDrill, and the manager is simply deciding who to call about it. Unfortunately, the manager ''also'' sent guards down to detain Cross and Shearing, because he only knows who Shearing is, and he had no way of knowing that the man with her is a SuperSoldier. Things quickly get out of control]].

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. [[spoiler: By the time Byer contacts the factory in Manila, security have already caught on to Cross' BravarianFireDrill, and the manager is simply deciding who to call about it. Unfortunately, the manager ''also'' sent guards down to detain Cross and Shearing, because he only knows who Shearing is, and he had no way of knowing that the man with her is a SuperSoldier. Things quickly get out of control]].

** Marta tells Cross that there are six active Outcome agents but only five (including Aaron) are shown during ThePurge. It is unknown whether Outcome-2 was considered valuable enough to be absorbed by another CIA project, survived and went on the run like Cross (although Cross seems to be the only one who Byer shows concern about after his assassinations) and left in the field, or was simply KilledOffscreen.

** In the efforts to kill the Blackbriar and Outcome Agents it's unclear if Paz from the third movie was another offscreen victim, was spared or (based on his final scene with Bourne) might have gone on the run during the TImeSkip himself.

* InNameOnly: The titular Jason Bourne doesn't appear in the film in person, except as a picture in a news report. His role is instead filled by Aarron Cross.

** No airline flies from New York to the Philipines;

''The Bourne Legacy'' (2012) is the fourth entry in ''Film/TheBourneSeries'', which was released on August 10th, 2012.

* InNameOnly: The titular Jason Bourne doesn't appear in the film in person, except as a picture in a news report. His role is instead filled by Alex Cross.

* InNameOnly: The titular Jason Bourne doesn't appear at all in the film, his role instead being filled by Alex Cross.

* BigDamnHeroes: Aaron does this a few times.

* BioAugmentation: Through retroviral engineering to enhance human mental and physical abilities.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: When Operation Blackbriar and the Treadstone Project are exposed to the public, Byer engineers the deaths of the Outcome scientists by chemically brainwashing one of them into killing the rest of his colleagues and then himself. However, they didn't account for the one survivor. The implacable Larx agent, Larx-03, could also count as this. Shearing implies that the stuff she was working with involved the capacity for brainwashing at a chemical level, tied in with the education and training of new agents. Exactly how this works is not explained, but it could be implied that it allows brainwashing at an accelerated level over a more normal way.
* CantStopTheSignal: Aaron tells Marta that if she leaves him, her only chance for survival is to go public. [[spoiler:As Landy found out, this doesn't work so well against the government]].

* HeroStoleMyBike: Cross does this with a plane in Alaska and a motorcycle in Manila. The Larx agent also steals two motorcycles, though his methods involve violently removing the current rider.

* TrackingDevice: All Outcome agents have one planted into their body, which is regulated by body temperature. The BigBad uses it to kill one agent with a drone strike. Aaron manages to escape by extracting his and planting it on a wolf.

* WoundedHeroWeakerHelper: Aaron Cross. While sick from the retrovirus, he can't hide himself (let alone Dr. Marta Shearing) from Treadstone/Blackbriar/Outcome so she had to be the brains for a while.
* YouAreNumberSix: The Scientists in charge sees the outcome agents as only numbers. Dr Shearing had known Aaron Cross for four years as only "five". He doesn't take this well.

* {{Irony}}: Cross using Filipino Martial Arts to beat up non-martial artsy Filipino security guards and police officers.

* KarmaHoudini: Eric Byer and all his associates get off scot-free in the end.

* SequelHook: [
** [spoiler:The senate hearing Bourne got going in ''Ultimatum'' isn't going well for Landy, and there is a new program already in play that ''very'' few are aware of]].

* TheScapegoat: [[spoiler:Pamela Landy is shown to be taking the heat for Jason Bourne still being at large, deemed as guilty of treason for aiding and abetting a wanted felon.]]
* SequelHook: [[spoiler:The senate hearing Bourne got going in ''Ultimatum'' isn't going well for Landy, and there is a new program already in play that ''very'' few are aware of]].

* {{Adorkable}}: The brainwashed scientist has one scene before he gets brainwashed, in which he asks Marta for approval on a study and she agrees. His giddy reaction to said approval helps demonstrate just how robotic the brainwashing has made him.

* ArtisticLicense: It is almost impossible to have a car chase throughout Manila, especially in broad daylight, due to the simple fact that Manila's traffic is a contender for the worst in the world.

* NecessaryEvil: Byer describes both himself and Cross as this in a flashback, explaining to the latter that it's their job to do these distasteful things so everyone else can keep their hands clean.

* TheUnfought: Unlike the previous films, where Bourne ended up confronting at least some of his pursuers, there is only one scene featuring both Cross and Byer, and it's in a flashback where Byer lectures him on being a NecessaryEvil. In the present, it's debatable if Cross is even ''aware'' Byer is the one running the show.