Skull-Face Island Movie Podcast presented by Geeks Of Doom
Episode 03: Total Recall / Bourne Legacy

Hello! It’s Adam Frazier aka FamousMonster and welcome to Skull-Face Island! Last week we participated in the 20th Annual Skull-Face Island Olympic Games, where Team USA took the Gold in Ribbon Dancing, Pterodactyl Hang Gliding, and Freestyle Napping. As expected, the natives dominated in Interpretive Animal Sacrifice, Coconut Bowling, and of course, the 100m Velociraptor Dash.

Needless to say, David Allen, Tim Grant, and myself are exhausted. We’ve been replenishing our precious bodily fluids with copious amounts of fruit smoothies and frozen daiquiris thanks to Tim’s capacity for building state-of-the-art blending apparatuses out of scrap metal and tree bark.

If you missed our previous transmissions, let me explain how this works. In the year 1991, US Flight 1313 experienced a mysterious, magnetic anomaly somewhere over the South Pacific. Engines failed, pilots cursed and prayed to their Gods, and three boys (that’s us!) washed ashore on Skull-Face Island, which of course is an ISLAND in the SHAPE of a SKULL! How cool is that!?

The Bourne Legacy
Directed by Tony Gilroy
Written by Tony Gilroy, Dan Gilroy
Starring Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Albert Finney
Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13 | 135 minutes

“There was never just one.”

In the wake of Jason Bourne’s dismantling of Operation Blackbriar, the CIA decides to dispose of their other black ops programs and terminate their remaining field agents.

Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), a genetically-enhanced agent from Operation Outcome, escapes his execution and, with the reluctant help of Outcome scientist Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), sets out to expose the atrocities of his superiors.

Directed by Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), The Bourne Legacy is the fourth installment in the Bourne series, based on Robert Ludlum‘s spy-thriller novels. Gilroy’s film, however, is based off a 2004 novel by Eric Van Lustbader. With permission from the estate of Robert Ludlum, Lustbader picked up the Bourne series where Ludlum left off with 1990’s The Bourne Ultimatum. Since 2004, Lustbader has written seven additional Bourne novels – which means Universal Pictures has plenty of material to mine for future sequels.

The Bourne Legacy‘s plot begins about two-thirds of the way through The Bourne Ultimatum, intercutting non-Jason Bourne scenes from Ultimatum throughout the film to communicate that these events are happening simultaneously. When we first meet Cross, he’s on a training mission in the wilds of Alaska. The first act of the film feels like The Grey meets Cliffhanger, with Renner’s character traversing treacherous terrain, super-jumping chasms, and fist-fighting wolves.