“I volunteered because of a lie. “
A fresh installment in the Bourne movie franchise hasn’t been released in theaters since the Jeremy Renner-headlined spinoff The Bourne Legacy hit the scene four years ago. However, the series is poised to return to the big screen with (fingers crossed) a bang on Jason Bourne, Universal Pictures’ fast-approaching Bourne Identity sequel that sees Matt Damon return as the franchise’s namesake and Bourne Supremacy/Legacy director Paul Greengrass back calling the shots from a script that he co-wrote (and Damon helped develop).
Where the first three Bourne movies deal with the political atmosphere of the post-9/11 world during the 2000s, Jason Bourne examines the state of CIA operations in 2016 in the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s leaking of classified U.S. government information. Previously-released Jason Bournetrailers have explicitly called attention to this element of the film, as one character can be heard saying that the fallout from the (still under-wraps) event that sets the movie’s plot in motion “could be worse than Snowden.”
Among the secrets that are unveiled during what sounds like a government intel leak in Jason Bourne is a detail that concerns the very reason that Damon’s character entered the Treadstone assassin program in the first place. So much is suggested in the newest Jason Bourne TV spot (watch it above) – a preview that also indicates Tommy Lee Jones’ character (a seasoned member of the CIA who possibly knows more about Bourne’s past than even Bourne does) may function as an antagonist in the film’s narrative.
All of the aforementioned Jason Bourne plot points and characters appear to serve the same larger purpose: to bring a real sense of closure to Jason Bourne’s story once and for all, maybe even in ways that the critically-acclaimed Bourne Ultimatum didn’t quite manage to do. That’s consistent withwhat Damon has said about the film’s narrative in the past, though odds are that Universal is hoping this fifth Bourne installment does well enough both critically and commercially to justify continuing the franchise in the future – maybe even with a crossover that pairs Bourne with Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross from Bourne Legacy.
“Jason Bourne” opens in Philippine cinemas July 27, 2016 from United International Pictures, locally distributed by Columbia Pictures.