The Bourne Legacy “Rooftop Rescue” Clip

One of the pleasures of espionage thrillers like the Bond and Bourne franchises is their penchant for traveling to pretty much every corner of the planet. By now, there aren’t very many places we haven’t seen depicted on the big screen. But the Philippines is one location very rarely used by Hollywood, let alone for spy flicks. “The Bourne Legacy” will change all that. Part of the film was shot in and is set in various parts of Manila.

Today, Universal Pictures debuted a clip featuring a chase through the city’s slums and over its rooftops, which kind of recalls the Tangiers sequence in “The Bourne Ultimatum”. Here, Aaron Cross is both trying to evade capture and rescue his accomplice, played by Rachel Weisz. Jeremy Renner looks convincing enough in the role, and I always like it when a character makes use of his environment to overcome adversaries. Like the rest of the franchise, shooting at the actual location with local talents also gives things a real raw, gritty feeling of authenticity that can never be replicated with stand-in locations. Good to see writer/director Tony Gilroy is maintaining the tone that Paul Greengrass struck, but is not aping his style. Oh, and can one of our Filipino readers tell us what the cops were saying?…

Here’s a brief rundown: “The narrative architect behind the “Bourne” film series, Tony Gilroy, takes the helm in the next chapter of the hugely popular espionage franchise that has earned almost $1 billion at the global box office: “The Bourne Legacy.” The writer/director expands the “Bourne” universe created by Robert Ludlum with an original story that introduces us to a new hero (Jeremy Renner) whose life-or-death stakes have been triggered by the events of the first three films.”

“The Bourne Legacy” also stars Edward Norton, Albert Finney, Joan Allen, Scott Glenn, Stacy Keach, and Oscar Isaac. It premieres 10th August.