Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Ultimatum Jasin Boland/Courtesy of Universal Studios

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The question was inevitable. After all, audiences like their franchises in neat packages of three — once you step beyond that, people are (often correctly) skeptical. You could argue that we don't need an Indiana Jones 4, and you'd meet no argument whatsoever if you said we'd have been better off without an additional Lethal Weapon. So after Bourne Ultimatum, the third go-round in the shoes of amnesiac former assassin Jason Bourne (or is it David Webb?), is Matt Damon finished?

"The story of this guy's search for his identity is over, because he's got all the answers. So there's no way we can trot out the same character, when so much of what makes him interesting is that internal struggle," says Damon, explaining his hesitance to look ahead. "So if there was to be another one, it would have to be a complete reconfiguration. Where do you go from there? If we came out with a fourth one and suddenly I got bonked on the head, you guys would be like, 'Are you kidding me?'"

In Ultimatum, Jason Bourne's fragile memory starts to come into focus right around the time he meets a journalist (franchise newcomer Paddy Considine) who has gotten a little too close to the infamous Treadstone covert ops department. Finally, Bourne (and the audience) is getting some real answers, but, luckily for us, he still has to crash a few cars, crack a few necks, and pay a few visits to some exotic locales before all is said and done. Because, in the end, according to director Paul Greengrass (who returns after helming The Bourne Supremacy), those elements and not the political subtext are what truly make a Bourne movie.

"When you're coming to a Bourne movie, you're coming to have some fun. It's a Saturday night movie," he explains. "Now, the Bourne world is the world that's right outside our door. You've got to believe that whatever story Bourne's engaged in could be happening. But I don't come to a Bourne movie to make any kind of statement. It's not a private soapbox for me or for anyone. I wouldn't want to go out on a Saturday night and see Dick Cheney."