Four Timeline Banners for The Bourne Legacy

This Friday the fourth "Bourne" film, The Bourne Legacy, opens in US theaters and the studio is still rolling out promotional materials. Four timeline banners have been released (below; click for slightly larger images). They're called "Facebook banners" on the film's website, but we're not exactly sure what that means.

Twelve years ago, audiences were introduced to Jason Bourne when he was pulled unconscious from the Mediterranean. Over the course of three films, they followed his journey to survive and discover his identity. They watched his CIA handlers mount an increasingly desperate worldwide manhunt. They learned about the Treadstone program and Bourne's special skills and abilities, and at the trilogy's conclusion, they may have even felt the story was complete. The Bourne Legacy pulls back the curtain to expose a darker layer of intrigue, a deeper mythology, and a new hero who must battle to stay alive when his program suddenly becomes a liability.

Jeremy Renner stars as Aaron Cross, one of six agents in a program called Outcome. Unlike the CIA's Treadstone, Outcome agents have been developed and trained for use by the Department of Defense. More than assassins, Outcome agents are designed for use in isolated, high-risk, long-term intelligence assignments. The behavioral science that was suggested as the underpinning of the Treadstone agents has been upgraded and advanced, but it's the shared origins of these two programs that makes Outcome so vulnerable as Bourne's story becomes public knowledge.

(There's much more to the background of the film, which can be found in an interesting, if also lengthy, PDF document.)

Directed by Tony Gilroy from an original screenplay co-written with Dan Gilroy, and inspired by a character created by Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Legacy opens this Friday, August 10th.