The ending of performance-enhancing pills called “chems”.
The Bourne Legacy is directed by Tony Gilroy, who served as the primary screenwriter for the first three Bourne movies. The 2012 action-thriller boasts a stellar cast, including Oscar nominees Jeremy Renner and Edward Norton and Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz, but it was still met with mixed reviews compared to its predecessors (via Rotten Tomatoes). Damon’s absence is felt, even if he appears in photographs and is repeatedly mentioned by name. Still, in the end, The Bourne Legacy works as an intriguing companion piece to The Bourne Ultimatum and doubles as an opportunity for Renner to showcase his action-hero persona.
How Is Aaron Cross Alive?
In the entirety of The Bourne Legacy, Aaron Cross is struggling to survive, as Colonel Eric Byer (Norton) oversees an effort to wipe out all Operation Outcome agents. With government drones on his back and his supply of chems depleting, Cross’s ally, Dr. Martha Shearing (Weisz), suggests flying to Manila where he can find a life-saving virus. It is this virus that will permanently lock in the mental enhancements in his body. So, once the genetically enhanced operative gets access to this virus, he will no longer be requiring the chems. But obtaining this virus becomes challenging, with LARX#3 (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a brainwashed super-soldier, pursuing him.
Moments before the climactic motorcycle chase of The Bourne Legacy's ending, Cross manages to infect himself with the live virus. But given that the virus takes time to acquaint itself with Cross’s system, it is understandable that he will be in a weakened state. This is what happens despite his best efforts to evade the LARX agent and the local police in Manila. Even though he’s shot and loses consciousness, Shearing manages to kill off LARX#3. Cross still survives the entire ordeal as he only received flesh wounds in his leg and shoulder.
What Do The Words “No More” Mean?
As Cross and Shearing escape safely to start a new life at the end of The Bourne Legacy, Byer’s team visits the Manila apartment where the duo was hiding. Byer catches a glimpse of a mirror on which the words “No More” have been scribbled by a marker. Hanging next to the mirror are Cross’s dog tags, indicating that he no longer requires the chems to stay alive. It is obvious that either Cross or Shearing scribbled this as a way of asking the CIA to not bother them anymore. The words show the frustration that a man on the run like Cross would feel.
Was Killing Jason Bourne The Only Goal Of Operation Blackbriar?
The Bourne Legacy ending finds the CIA conveniently covering up their tumultuous past regarding covert operations like Treadstone and Blackbriar. The narrative is connected with The Bourne Ultimatum’s arc around former CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Allen). Blackbriar supervisor Noah Vosen (Strathairn) goes on record at the Senate to declare that Blackbriar’s sole motive was to just hunt down rogue agent Jason Bourne. Meanwhile, Landy is declared guilty of treason for leaking classified Treadstone files to the press. While this move prevents any actions to be taken against Vosen and Byer, the truth is that Blackbriar goes beyond just tracking Bourne.
The first movie, The Bourne Identity, established that Operation Treadstone was intended to train super spies like Bourne to perform top-secret tasks around the world, with some missions involving toppling international governments and killing civilians. When Bourne exposed Treadstone, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum covered Treadstone’s upgraded successor, Blackbriar, which similarly involved sending off physically enhanced agents to do the CIA's bidding. Bourne’s rampage prompted Blackbriar operatives to go after him, but even if they did take him down, the final cover-up in The Bourne Legacy makes it clear that Blackbriar would have still continued for other classified missions.
Was There Potential For A Sequel?
Before The Bourne Legacy, fans of the franchise only knew about the operations Treadstone and Blackbriar. However, Cross’s background with Operation Outcome revealed that the CIA had many other missions regarding super soldiers trained as covert operatives and loyal assassins. While Byer seems to give up at the end of The Bourne Legacy, earlier scenes in his control room point to what the Bourne Legacy sequel that never happened could've been.
As Byer asks his team to connect him with “all the beta programs” and a certain operation called “Emerald Lake," it is possible that The Bourne Legacy 2 would have explored these other programs and their respective agents. The final battle in The Bourne Legacy also involves a chemically brainwashed operative named LARX#3, implying that LARX is yet another CIA program that involves genetic modification for agents.
The sequel would have featured a more powerful Cross, as he no longer depends on his chems and is enhanced with the live virus. While Cross and Shearing’s future travels are left open to interpretation at the end of The Bourne Legacy, a sequel could have also fleshed out their partnership further.
The Real Meaning Of The Bourne Legacy’s Ending
In a number of ways, The Bourne Legacy mirrors the style of The Bourne Identity. Much like Jason Bourne, Aaron Cross is hunted by the very agency that he once served loyally. Cover-ups and manhunt operations play equally significant roles in both cases.
However, The Bourne Legacy's ending makes the Tony Gilroy movie a convenient spinoff. There is enough potential for a sequel, but it still manages to wrap up Cross’s character arcs, with The Bourne Legacy working as a standalone canonical adventure. The fact that it ends with Moby’s haunting track “Extreme Ways” — a song synonymous with all the Bourne movies — keeps Bourne’s legacy alive even if the main series' hero never shows up.
