In-focus

Entertainment

'Bourne' writer-director taps real science

Dunya News

Tony Gilory spent countless hours immersed in military and intelligence research.

The Bourne Legacy is a work of fiction, but the scientific, political and corporate partnerships it depicts are very real.Tony Gilroy, a writer on the first three Bourne films and writer-director of this latest installment, spent countless hours immersed in military and intelligence research to tell the story of CIA assassin Jason Bourne.When tasked with expanding Bournes universe for Legacy, Gilroy again looked to reality: Hundreds if not thousands of secret government and quasi-government programs funded by millions and millions of dollars with little oversight, all designed to build better weapons and better soldiers.The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which performs research for the U.S. Department of Defense, is just one organization developing the kinds of programs that would fit perfectly into Bournes world: Not just high-tech weapons and robotic prostheses, but advances in neuroscience to help reduce battlefield stress, hasten learning, improve analytic capabilities and even engender trust.Bioethicist and University of Pennsylvania professor Jonathan Moreno explores the relationship between brain research and national defense in his book Mind Wars.The improvement of soldiers war-fighting ability, brain-machine interfaces and the use of drugs and other measures to confuse and disrupt the enemy are the sorts of approaches that are going to be developed over the next decades, driven by cutting-edge science, he writes.Such advancements are at the heart of The Bourne Legacy. Jeremy Renner plays Aaron Cross, a super agent who has benefited from the governments top-secret medical research; Rachel Weisz is the doctor who helped develop the science and Edward Norton acts as the kingpin, a sort of corporate-military-intelligence hybrid, who tries to control it all.