‘The Bourne Legacy’ clip: Jeremy Renner takes to the rooftops

Move over Jason Bourne! There's a new elite super agent in town and his name is Aaron Cross. Debuting online yesterday, the first clip from "The Bourne Legacy" shows new franchise hero Cross (Jeremy Renner) executing a daring escape and rescue on the claustrophobic slums of Manila.

Though the clip is barely a minute long, Renner definitely gives viewers a taste of the action, scaling walls, leaping across rooftops, and getting the drop (literally) on two unsuspecting police officers who have his companion, Marta (Rachel Weisz), cornered. It's a to-the-point tease for the film, one that proves that director Tony Gilroy (who wrote the first three "Bourne" movies) is trying to keep "The Bourne Legacy" close to the spirit of the previous movies.

Watch Aaron Cross in action below:

Gilroy's "The Bourne Legacy" isn't so much a sequel to the other "Bourne" films as it is a side story that takes place during the events of the other movies. While Renner's Aaron Cross is beating up cops in the Philippines, Matt Damon's Jason Bourne is presumably off pummeling law enforcement, soldiers, or intelligence agents somewhere else in the world. How exactly Damon's character fits into this fourth film in the series isn't entirely clear yet, but the actor will likely have a cameo of some kind in the movie.

See also: Learn more about Jeremy Renner

When director Paul Greengrass ("The Bourne Supremacy," "The Bourne Ultimatum") dropped out of the "The Bourne Legacy," so too did Damon, saying that he would not do another movie unless Greengrass was involved. In a recent interview with E! Online, Damon did say he'd be open to a fifth "Bourne" movie, but added that if "Legacy" is a success, he expects the franchise to move on without him. That's probably for the best at this point. Damon didn't have many kind things to say about "Legacy" director Gilroy's work on the previous films in a January interview with GQ, calling his script for the last "Bourne" movie "terrible," "embarrassing," and "a career-ender." Yikes.

See more: Jeremy Renner earns $5 million for 'Bourne'

Damon clearly has a bit of a beef with the director, but whatever the actor thought of Gilroy's script work on the "Bourne" franchise to date, Gilroy's previous directorial efforts — most notably the award winning "Michael Clayton" — speak for themselves. It's a safe bet that "The Bourne Legacy" is in good hands, at least in the action department, and now this clip goes a long way towards proving that.

See also: Matt Damon: Why I quit playing 'Bourne'

The film co-stars Edward Norton, Joan Allen, David Straithairn, and Albert Finney. "The Bourne Legacy" arrives in theatres on Aug. 10th.