In a long-ish article on recent developments at Universal Studios, Variety lets slip the news that Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass have agreed to make a fourth Bourne movie. But what kind of story could they possibly tell?
The whole premise of the series is that “Jason Bourne” is the alias of a rogue secret agent who has no memory of his earlier life — but by the end of the third film, both Bourne and the world at large have learned too much about his earlier life to keep that gimmick working. Indeed, he kind of knew too much about his earlier life already by the end of the second film, which is why the first two-thirds of the third film take place before the end of the second film. In a nutshell, he isn’t really “Jason Bourne” any more.
What’s more, all the corrupt government officials who went after Jason Bourne in the first three films have already been vanquished. Indeed, the filmmakers had to invent a brand new set of evil government agents in the third film because there was no one left to chase him by the end of the second one.
So … what kind of story could they possibly tell now?
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