Hindi Ka Lang Pang-Akademya, Pang-Aksyon Pa!

“While motorists and commuters may still have to brace for heavy traffic in Manila’s Sta. Mesa due to the filming of the upcoming spy thriller “The Bourne Legacy” on Monday, much of the filming for the day will take place inside a state university.

In a radio interview Sunday, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino said much of Monday’s schedule will be in the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) campus.

“There will still be shooting on Monday, but most of the scenes will be shot inside the PUP campus so we don’t expect too much heavy traffic,” he said on dzBB radio.” – report from GMA network.

Who would ever think that our beloved Polytechnic University of the Philippines will be chosen as one of the shooting place of the international movie, Bourne Legacy.  It is true that PUP is not just a place for active students but can also be considered by location managers to be a good place for filming. Join me as I present to you this story of mine as part of the 109^th founding anniversary of our University.

Almost half of the movie was shot in Philippines and fortunately, PUP was one of the many outstanding locations they used for this film. Here’s a report from Balitanghali where some of my fellow Iskolars got interviewed regarding the shooting.

The Bourne films are a series of action/thriller spy films based on the character Jason Bourne, a CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss, created by author Robert Ludlum.

All three of Ludlum's novels were adapted for the screen, featuring Matt Damon as the titular character in each.  Damon chose not to return for the fourth film. The character of Jason Bourne does not appear in Legacy, but mention of his name and pictures of Damon as Bourne are shown throughout the film.

Now, Jeremy Renner

Before, Matt Damon

This fourth installment of Bourne now starred Jeremy Renner as the lead actor.

 Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is a member of Operation Outcome, a United States Department of Defense black ops program which enhances the physical and mental abilities of field operatives through pills referred to as "chems". Cross is deployed to Alaska for a training assignment, crosses rugged terrain to reach a cabin operated by an exiled Outcome operative.

Official Trailer

 The Blackbriar and Treadstone programs are publicly exposed, leading the FBI and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to investigate those involved. Retired Air Force Colonel Eric Byer (Edward Norton), who is responsible for overseeing the CIA's clandestine operations, decides to end Outcome and kill its agents. Cross manages to survive several attempts on his life and seeks a way to get more chems, as his have run out. Cross eventually comes upon Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), his last link to gain more chems. He discovers she has no pills but that his physical enhancements have actually "viraled-out" and are now genetically permanent, so he no longer needs those. He reveals to her that without the help of the mental enhancements, he possesses an unfortunately well below-average IQ. 

Eric Byer As Edward Norton

Rachel Weisz as Dr. Marta Shearing

To avoid this mental regression, and the hunting CIA operatives, the two travel to a factory in Manila and with Shearing's help, Cross survives the possible mortal process of "viraling-out" of his dependency of the remaining mental enhancing pills. They evade additional attempts on their lives and successfully escape from the Philippines on a Junk.

Here's an amazing behind the scenes footage of Bourne Legacy where they featured all the locations they used in the whole movie. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_Ci2JgtSmY

Indeed, PUP continues to produce not only globally competitive students, hardworking graduates, but also, a good place where international film could shoot their incredible stunts and actions. Most of the times, PUP campus only featured in TV news if there were rallies going on or if the students would burn chairs, but this time, we were featured in news because we, PUPians starred on the big screen. Happy 109^th Anniversary PUP!

I would like to acknowledge the following websites that i used as a reference for my entry: Wikipedia.com, Youtube.com, GMAnetwork.com and, Google images. Thank you so much!

By: Robert B. Dinopol