FAQ

While black ops operative number 5, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), is field training in Alaska, the CIA decides to shut down its Outcome Operation and eliminate all their genetically-enhanced assets. When they try to terminate Cross, he goes on the run, just like former CIA Treadstone agent Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) did two years previously. The problem is that Aaron needs meds to keep up his physical and mental acuity, so he seeks out Dr Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), who worked with him at the beginning. When someone also makes an attempt on Marta's life, she and Aaron both run to Manila in the Philippines where the pills are manufactured, with CIA assassins in hot pursuit.

Partly. Unlike the three previous Bourne films, The Bourne Identity (2002) (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) (2002), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) (2007), which were based on novels by American author Robert Ludlum [1927-2001], The Bourne Legacy, while using some characters and premises from the novels, is an original story based on a screenplay by American screenwriting brothers Tony and Dan Gilroy.

The film is a combination of a sequel and a parallel story (or "sidequel"), setup quite a lot like a spinoff. The film introduces and centers around a new assassin character, however the events during The Bourne Ultimatum are referenced and sometimes seen throughout in the beginning. The movie starts with Aaron Cross in training, while at the same time, Jason Bourne is resurfacing in London, and journalist Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) is assassinated. As Bourne makes his way to New York City, Cross survives several hits on his life when the CIA shuts down most of their secret agent programs. The events of the second half of the movie take place after The Bourne Ultimatum and is the sequel part.

Bourne's name features heavily throughout the movie as the story focuses on the intelligence community's response to his actions during The Bourne Ultimatum. During the first half of the movie, Bourne resurfaces in London and New York; after that, he goes missing. Apart from a photo, Bourne himself does not appear and his whereabouts are as yet unknown.

Now viraled off his blue pills as well as the greens, Aaron is forced to elude the Manila police when they raid the room where Marta has been treating him. Aaron escapes over the rooftops, closely pursued by Larx-#3 (Louis Ozawa), while Marta escapes on foot. They meet up in a narrow walkway where the police have cornered Marta, but Aaron is able to overpower them. He and Marta, still pursued by Larx, steal a motorcycle and, after a lengthy chase on the crowded streets of Manila and a bullet to Aaron's leg, manage to escape Larx when he crashes his stolen motorcycle into a pillar on the docks. Marta begs passage on the boat of a Filipino fisherman, paying him with Aaron's gold watch. Meanwhile, back in New York, Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) lies to the Senate, telling them that Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) committed treason by trying to sell Treadstone secrets to the press and by assisting the rogue operative Jason Bourne, the only reason why Blackbriar existed. In the final scene, Aaron and Marta relax on the boat, looking at a map and trying to decide where to go.

Yes. Matt Damon reprised his role in Jason Bourne (2016) (2016). Shortly after The Bourne Legacy's release, Universal Pictures confirmed at a media conference in Los Angeles, California, that they had plans to release more Bourne films, despite The Bourne Legacy being given mixed reviews by critics. In a December 2012 interview, Damon revealed that he and Paul Greengrass are interested in returning for the next film as Jason Bourne and the movie's director respectively. Damon was reported as saying that he had not seen Legacy yet, but intended to or would, because he is not only curious to see how it turned out, but because he had enjoyed Jeremy Renner in everything he had seen him. Damon did, however, believe that, if he would return for the next film, Renner would not likely be in it, and it would not have Bourne and Cross joining forces and working together, which indeed turned out to be the case.