Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner carries the torch lit by Oscar winner Matt Damon in The Bourne Legacy, the fourth installment in the blockbuster Bourne movie franchise that began in 2002 based on the thriller novels of the late Robert Ludlum.
Damon doesn’t appear as enigmatic super-soldier Jason Bourne, nor does Renner replace him as Bourne. Renner is super-soldier Aaron Cross, a genetically-enhanced warrior produced by Operation: Outcome, a clandestine successor to the original trilogy’s Operation: Blackbriar and the Treadstone Project, both of which produced Bourne.
The events of Legacy occur simultaneously and after the events of 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum, where Bourne and CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) publicly expose the unscrupulous masterminds of Treadstone: Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), CIA Director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn), and Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney). As a result, a senate sub-committee investigates the participants, including Landy, while Bourne escapes for parts unknown.
Desperate, Kramer turns to Mark Turso (Stacy Keach) and Eric Byer (Edward Norton). Byer – whom Norton portrays with a steely-eyed and steel-willed intensity – is in charge of the CIA’s off-books missions. He intends to shift the blame on Landy and cover the CIA’s tracks. By covering its tracks, he means killing all the super-soldiers produced by Outcome, Treadstone, and Blackbriar, as well as the scientists involved in their creation.
In the case of Cross, Byer only assumes he’s taken out after believing him to be dead in a botched assassination plot. From there, Cross rescues one of the Outcome physicians who treated him: Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz). Given Marta’s involvement in Outcome, she’s also targeted by the CIA. The two go on the lam together – all over the globe, no less, in that old-fashioned Bourne tradition – which is the franchise’s trademark. The CIA tracks them down in Manila, resulting in an exciting, nail-biting motorcycle chase through its narrow streets.
What’s good about The Bourne Legacy is it actually embraces the mythology of the past three films and builds upon it rather than ignore it (something not uncommon when the lead actor in a movie franchise changes). Bourne is mentioned several times throughout the film and photos of him are shown. Damon may be gone (for now), but he’s not forgotten.
The continuity is smooth as the franchise’s actors from the Damon days – Allen, Glenn, Strathairn, and Finney – appear. The screenplay was co-written by Tony Gilroy, who wrote or co-wrote all three movies in the original trilogy. With Legacy, he also directs.
In short, there’s still a story to be told, so don’t be too quick to call this “The Bourne Redundancy.” Further, Legacy sets things up for a fifth movie as Landy’s story arc isn’t resolved, leaving it open for Renner or Damon or both (the hope of many a fan) to return. If Damon doesn’t return, then Renner – who appeared in The Hurt Locker, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and The Avengers – can keep the franchise going strong as he’s proven in this film. He is indeed a worthy successor to The Bourne Legacy.

MOVIE: The Bourne Legacy

STARRING: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton

DIRECTOR: Tony Gilroy
RATED PG-13
GRADE: A–