It’s been nearly a decade since the last Jason Bourne movie hit theaters, and with recent rumours that Zendaya may be leading a reboot, we may have seen the last of Matt Damon as the franchise’s amnesiac super-spy. If that’s the case, at least we still have a handful of pretty solid spy-action thrillers to look back on.
The Bourne franchise was hugely influential, with its grounded, hard-hitting fights and shaky-cam intensity helping shape the next two decades of action cinema, including Daniel Craig’s James Bond movies, Liam Neeson’s Taken, and even the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But not every Bourne movie is created equal, so let’s look back at the franchise and see how they stack up when ranked from worst to best.
5. The Bourne Legacy (2012)
Can you make a Bourne movie without Bourne? The Bourne Legacy certainly tried.
Jeremy Renner stars as Aaron Cross, an operative from another covert program who finds himself marked for death in the fallout of Bourne’s actions in The Bourne Ultimatum. It’s not a bad setup, and Renner and Rachel Weisz are both quite good, but the movie can’t help but feel like a side quest in the Bourne universe — complete with appearances from a handful of returning actors from the previous films… just not Matt Damon.
To its credit, The Bourne Legacy does expand the world beyond Treadstone and Blackbriar, but it never fully escapes the shadow of the original trilogy. The biggest problem is that just when it finally feels like the movie is getting going, it ends. A sequel could have picked up those dangling threads, but it never arrived, leaving Legacy as the odd man out of the franchise. Despite Legacy‘s reputation, it’s really not too bad, but it’s definitely the one Bourne movie that feels more like an extended detour than a destination.
4. Jason Bourne (2016)
After sitting out The Bourne Legacy, Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass returned for Jason Bourne, and on paper, that sounds like exactly what the franchise needed. In practice, though, the movie never fully answers the big question: why are we doing this again?
To be fair, it’s not without its pleasures. Damon slips back into the role with ease, selling Bourne as a man still carrying the weight of everything that’s been done to him, and Greengrass can still stage the hell out of a chase, especially once the action tears through the Las Vegas Strip.
But Jason Bourne never comes close to recapturing the urgency of the original trilogy. The story is awfully thin, and the “actually, there’s one more secret from your past” angle feels pretty well tapped out by this point. It’s not a disaster, but it does feel like a movie made because someone wanted another Bourne movie, not because Bourne’s story had anywhere especially interesting left to go. I was really debating whether this one should have landed in the #5 slot, but having the actual Bourne in a Bourne movie pushed it over the edge. Who knew.
3. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
The Bourne Supremacy is a very worthy follow-up to The Bourne Identity, marking the franchise’s official graduation to blockbuster status. Paul Greengrass takes over from Doug Liman and brings a propulsive, almost breathless energy to the action, although for some — myself included — the shaky-cam in this one specifically can be a bit much.
Bourne is in full rage mode here, with the story taking a darker turn after a prominent character is killed off fairly early on, which rips away the one real bit of peace he had managed to find. The story may not be quite as satisfying for me as Identity or Ultimatum, but Supremacy is still a terrific middle chapter, anchored by a fantastic Moscow car chase (this whole franchise just has some awesome car chases) and a final scene with Neski’s daughter that gives the movie an emotional punch that still lands.
2. The Bourne Identity (2002)
The Bourne Identity still holds up beautifully. The film helped drag the spy genre into the 21st century — no tuxedos, gadgets, or innuendo-fueled quips here. Instead, it’s a lean, stylish, and surprisingly intimate action thriller about a man who has no idea why he’s so good at killing people.
Matt Damon was an inspired choice, although it’s easy to forget that he wasn’t exactly known as an action star back then. Director Doug Liman reportedly spoke with a number of other actors before realizing Damon was his man, including Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe, and even Sylvester Stallone. But Damon’s everyman quality is a huge part of why the movie works; Bourne feels dangerous, but never like a superhero.
The European locations give the film a great old-school spy-thriller flavour, while the action feels scrappy and grounded in a way Hollywood spent years trying to copy, for better or worse. The later movies may have pushed the franchise further, but this is where the formula snapped into place.
1. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
The original Bourne trilogy is hard to beat, and I wouldn’t argue with anyone who puts any of those films in the top spot, but for me, it has to be The Bourne Ultimatum. This is the franchise firing on all cylinders, taking everything that worked about the first two movies — the mystery, the paranoia, the bone-crunching action — and cranking it up without losing sight of Bourne’s emotional journey.
Everyone involved is at the top of their game here, delivering a movie that feels relentless. The Waterloo Station sequence alone is one of the best set pieces in the entire franchise, and the action only gets more intense from there.
By the time Bourne exposes the truth about Blackbriar and finally gets some real answers about who he is and what was done to him, the film feels like the natural endpoint of everything the trilogy had been building toward. It may leave a little on the table, but The Bourne Ultimatum still plays like the proper conclusion to Bourne’s journey. Honestly, it all should have ended here.
Wrapping It Up
The Bourne franchise may have stumbled a little once it tried to move beyond the original trilogy, but at its best, it remains one of the most influential action series of the last few decades. The fights were brutal, the chases were relentless, and Matt Damon became one of the defining action heroes of the 2000s.
Whether the franchise continues with a reboot, another legacy sequel, or never returns at all, those first three movies still make for one hell of a spy-thriller trilogy. But that’s just my ranking. How would you rank the Bourne movies? Is Ultimatum the clear winner, or do you prefer Identity or Supremacy? Hey, maybe someone out there is a huge Legacy fan. Let us know your own ranking in the comments below.
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