Everything You Need to Know Going Into 'Jason Bourne'

Roughly a decennium after disappearing in the East River , Jason Bourne is finally resurfacing at a cineplex near you . The fifth instalment of the Matt Damon - dominated serial boasts more complicated backstory , new characters , timely cybersecurity and concealment plot elements , a 170 - fomite chasesequence , and , if the sound at the end of thistraileris for real , something like brass - knuckle implant , baby !

Do n’t expectBourneto net Ol' Metal Mitts anotherGolden Globefor well melodious , but do expect its high - octane place pieces to elicit a few exclamation of " unbalanced , dude ! ' " , and to lend to the franchise ’s already - fat $ 1.2 billion global box role purse . Since it ’s been awhile since the lastBourne , we made a cheat shroud detail everything that has happened beforehand of the a la mode subsequence , out Friday .

( Warning : solid spoilers forThe Bourne Identity , Supremacy , Ultimatum , andLegacy– Damon ’s first , 2d , and third films , plus the Jeremy Renner - led spin - off , severally – follow . )

jason bourne

Universal Pictures

The basics

Jason Bourne is really David Webb , a former U.S. Army Delta Force police captain - turned - covert private investigator . Around 1999 , Webb volunteer for " Operation Treadstone , " a CIA black ops political platform that generate and managed a cadre of sleeper agents stationed around the world . ( Robert Ludlum ’s originalstorylinks part of Webb ’s motivations to the tragic death of his married woman and tike ; the picture show have yet to be as forthright . )

" Bourne " was one of many alias Webb could take over on Treadstone assignments , typically hush or elaborately staged hit jobs on high - visibility aim . As an activated asset , Bourne functioned as a $ 30 million government weapon with fluency in almost a dozen languages , heightened intelligence quotient and senses , nonpareil combat science , and mad intuition . He ’s supposed to be a flawless , robotic , cold - full-blooded killer .

The Bourne Identity(2002)

The Bourne Supremacy(2004)

The Bourne Ultimatum(2007)

The Bourne Legacy(2012)

Ugh .

OK , Legacymight not be deserving remembering . It has very little to do within the context ofJason Bourne , in part because it existed in a netherworld during and afterUltimatum , but also because it introduced some weirdHaha , whoa , I ’m pretty intoxicated but this seems like a good idea - sort of chemical element – namely these pills , called " chems , " that raise the strong-arm and genial components of asset . ( ThinkLimitless - meets - Bourne.)Legacydoes , however , offer up one very noteworthy plot distributor point for background : Treadstone and Blackbriar were beta program that inspired a mountain of other superscript ones , including Outcome , the one Renner belonged to , and its transposition , LARX .