The Jason Bourne movies

People were bemused when guy-next-door Matt was cast as amnesic spy Jason in 2002 movie The Bourne Identity, but he proved them wrong. Sharp, strong, deadly, brutal, efficient. And that was before Bourne remembers that he’s a trained CIA operative.

The films follow a timeline (except for #4 The Bourne Legacy, which is a stand-alone with Jeremy Renner in the lead) and the more you watch, the more you realise that just about everyone wants Bourne dead because he has too much knowledge in his head – they don’t know that he’s got amnesia either.

The cast around Matt is rock solid – Julia Stiles is a mainstay as his CIA contact Nicky Parsons. The action is frantic. And what makes the franchise – which has grossed over $2 billion – better is that the stunt work is 95% real… no CGI.

It’s so successful that there’s a 2019 series spin-off called Treadstone – the same Black Ops program that Bourne was part of.

The Bourne Identity (2002): Matt Damon plays Jason Bourne, who wakes up in a fishing boat with bullet wounds and no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As he pieces together his past, he realises he is highly skilled.

The Bourne Supremacy (2004): Jason Bourne’s plans to lay low are thwarted when he is framed for a CIA operation gone wrong. He has no choice but to return to his life as a trained assassin.

The Bourne Legacy (2012): Taking the story beyond the trilogy penned by Robert Ludlum, this film introduces fans of the franchise to a new character, Aaron Cross. Aaron’s life-or-death stakes were triggered by the events of the first three films.

Jason Bourne (2016): The CIA’s most dangerous former operative comes out of hiding to uncover more explosive truths about his past.