Jason Bourne Series Movies In Order

[Lenora Rademacher]

Themovies primarily focus on Damon as Bourne, a CIA-controlled assassin who loses his memory and begins a journey to discover his identity, ultimately turning him against his handlers at the CIA. There's also a TV show, Treadstone, which rounds out the Jason Bourne Universe by delving into the background of the CIA program that trained assassins like Bourne. It only has one season.

There have been rumors of a new Bourne film, and now the director of All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger is in line to direct Matt Damon in a new film that's just beginning early development. To help you catch up on Bourne or experience the franchise, we recommend watching the Bourne films in order of release date, as the series is chronological. Here is the best way to watch every Bourne film in order.

When you first see Bourne (Matt Damon), you meet him as an anonymous man with two gunshot wounds in his back. He's been rescued by a fishing vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, and when he awakens, he has no recollection of who he is or his past. The only clue is a laser projector underneath his skin that projects the number of deposit boxes in Zurich. He then sets off and eventually learns he is part of a secret program training assassins for the CIA.

Two years after disappearing at the end of The Bourne Identity, Bourne and Marie Kreutz (played by Franka Potente) are now living a peaceful life in Goa, India. Meanwhile, the CIA deputy director is working on a deal, but the operation is ambushed by an unknown assailant, who kills everyone and leaves behind Jason Bourne's fingerprints to frame him for the murders. This same assassin then tries to find Bourne and Marie. Bourne, of course, assumes the CIA sent the assassin and that the CIA has renewed its efforts to find Bourne.

Tony Gilroy returned to write the screenplay after helping to write the first film. Paul Greengrass directed The Bourne Ultimatum, and it's once again based on a Robert Ludlum novel of the same name.

Watching the Jason Bourne movies in order reveals the larger story beyond the titular hero. The movie series begins with Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, a CIA assassin with amnesia, trying to uncover the truth about his past while on the run from his government. The original trilogy led to a spinoff with Jeremy Renner taking over the reins as Aaron Cross, a Department of Defense (DOD) operative who goes on the run because of Bourne. Although there are five films in the series, the chronological order of all the projects is very straightforward, making them easy to binge-watch.

The franchise began in 2002 when Universal Pictures adapted the first book of Robert Ludlum's Bourne series with The Bourne Identity, and the rest is history. The first movie was a massive triumph and paved the way for four sequels to varying degrees of success. The future of the franchise is unclear, but there have been rumblings of a sixth Bourne film, but it has been more than seven years since the last installment. Only time will tell if the series stops at five or if Damon reprises his role as Jason Bourne in a future project.

While Matt Damon wasn't the first Jason Bourne to appear on screen, the franchise that helped bring the character into the mainstream began in the early 2000s with The Bourne Identity. The movie was based on the novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum which was the introduction of this character. Universal Pictures quickly churned out two more movies inspired by Ludlum's other two books in his Bourne trilogy before the series took a five-year break.

The movie that started it all, The Bourne Identity premiered on June 14, 2002, and was directed by Doug Liman and written by Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron. The movie was a solid box office hit that helped show Matt Damon as an effective action hero. While the Paul Greengrasse-helmed sequels are seen as superior, there would be no franchise without Liman's excellent first movie.

The action thriller film began with fishermen discovering Jason Bourne floating in the Mediterranean Sea with gunshots in his back. Bourne had no recollection of who he was or who shot him, but he later learned his name when clues led him to a safe deposit box in Zurich with his passport inside. However, once Operation Treadstone, a CIA black ops program, got word about his reappearance, Bourne had to go on the run as they tried to track him down and kill him.

This is the movie that kicks off Jason Bourne's story, showing the moment he lost his memory as well as introducing audiences to the conspiracy of Treadstone. While there is a lot still to be revealed in the sequels, The Bourne Identity draws the audience in with the intrigue and journey of the main character. It is the moment Bourne meets Marie, someone who would become very important in his life.

Damon reprised his role as Jason Bourne in the 2004 sequel, The Bourne Supremacy, directed by Paul Greengrass and written by Tony Gilroy. Though Greengrass was known more for thrillers and dramas compared to the frenetic style of Doug Liman, he proved to be an excellent choice. The movie was a darker, grittier, and more intense exploration of Jason Bourne's origin story and his mission to find answers.

The second film picked up almost two years following the events of The Bourne Identity and began with Bourne living in Goa, India, still with amnesia and still on the run from the government. However, chaos reentered his life when the former CIA assassin was framed for the murder of a CIA operative. Kirill, a member of the Russian secret service, was behind the scheme and faced off against Bourne in the sequel. Along the way, Bourne uncovered more conspiracies within the CIA.

Along with Damon, the movie brings back some key supporting characters from The Bourne Identity. Marie is once again the shining symbol of hope in Bourne's life while Brian Cox also returns as Abbott, one of the men responsible for Treadstone. It also introduces the character of Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), who becomes a big figure in the hunt for Bourne.

The final film inspired by Robert Ludlum's Bourne trilogy was The Bourne Ultimatum, directed by Paul Greengrass and written by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, and George Nolfi. The movie continued the franchise's success with more rave reviews from critics who praised the grounded and visceral action of the series. It was also another blockbuster hit that helped solidify the Bourne movies as one of the great trilogies in film history.

The Bourne Ultimatum took place six weeks after the events of the second movie and featured Operation Blackbriar (an upgraded version of Operation Treadstone) targeting Jason Bourne, who was still in search of his true identity. As was always the case, Bourne went on the run again, but this time, he sought to learn the truth and end Operation Treadstone's exploits once and for all. It is also the first time Bourne's real name, David Webb, is revealed.

The timeline of the movie gets a little more complicated in the third act when it is revealed that there is some overlap between The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. The final scene in The Bourne Supremacy, when Bourne talks to Pamela Landy on the phone, is repeated in the third movie as it sets up its climax. However, the events of the movie largely take place after the third movie and end with Operation Blackbriar being exposed and Bourne getting another chance at peace when he is presumed dead.

The first and only film without Matt Damon as Jason Bourne was The Bourne Legacy, directed by Tony Gilroy and written by Tony Gilroy and Dan Gilroy. With the main Jason Bourne story thought to have been over, as both Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass suggested there was nowhere else to take the character, there was still hope to expand the franchise. The Bourne Legacy was a modest hit at the box office, but the critical reception was significantly worse than the acclaimed three original movies.

The spinoff movie highlights how close in the timeline The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum were as The Bourne Legacy covers the same time period as the second and third movies. While Damon does not return and Alex Cross is a new character introduced in this movie, there are some returning characters, including Pamela Landy. The movie also features Albert Finney as Dr. Albert Hirsch, David Strathairn as Noah Vosen, and Scott Glenn as CIA Director Ezra Kramer, all characters introduced in The Bourne Ultimatum and tied to Treadstone.

The final (as of now) film of the Jason Bourne franchise featured the return of Matt Damon directed by Paul Greengrass and written by Greengrass and Christopher Rouse. With The Bourne Legacy not receiving the same warm reception as the previous Bourne movies, the franchise sought to go back to its roots. However, even with both Damon and Greengrass having returned, Jason Bourne has a mixed critical response and a lackluster box office performance compared to the previous movies.

The last time viewers saw Bourne, he was going into hiding after exposing Blackbriar. Jason Bourne picks up 12 years after The Bourne Ultimatum with Bourne now having regained all of his memory and living as a street fighter in Greece. However, he is once again pulled back into the fray when more secrets about his past are exposed and a new CIA director mounts a new mission to hunt him down.

Aside from Damon back as Bourne, the only other returning cast member is Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, a former CIA operative who was in all of the first three movies and was even Bourne's love interest in the third movie. Jason Bourne also explores the truth about Bourne/David Webb's father for the first time and reveals his role in Treadstone.

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