Jason Bourne is finding a new audience on streaming, and for Matt Damon, that probably feels pretty familiar.
Ten years after the movie brought Damon back to one of the roles most closely associated with his career, the entire Bourne movie collection has landed on Netflix. That gives longtime fans another excuse to go back and gives anyone who missed these movies the first time a pretty easy way to start from the beginning. And there is a lot to go back to.
The Bourne movies helped reshape the modern spy thriller, turned Damon into an unlikely action star and gave audiences a hero who could walk into a room, immediately figure out every exit and probably dismantle half the people standing between him and the door.
Jason Bourne brought Matt Damon back after nearly a decade
When Jason Bourne arrived in 2016, it had been nine years since Damon had last played the character in The Bourne Ultimatum.
The franchise had continued without him in 2012 with Jeremy Renner starring in The Bourne Legacy, but Damon eventually returned alongside director Paul Greengrass, who had also directed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.
The movie found Bourne living off the grid before circumstances once again pulled him into the world he had tried to leave behind. This time, his search for answers became more personal as he learned more about his father and the origins of the program that turned him into an assassin.
Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones, Vincent Cassel and Riz Ahmed joined the cast, while Julia Stiles returned as Nicky Parsons.
Audiences were clearly ready to see Bourne again.
Jason Bourne earned more than $415 million worldwide, including $162 million in North America.
The Bourne franchise changed Matt Damon’s career
It is easy now to think of Matt Damon as an action star.
That was not necessarily how people saw him when The Bourne Identity arrived in 2002.
He had already won an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting with Ben Affleck and had built a career filled with dramas and character-driven movies. Jason Bourne gave him something completely different.
And then it kept going.
The Bourne Supremacy followed in 2004 and The Bourne Ultimatum arrived in 2007. Damon stepped away while The Bourne Legacy expanded the world with Jeremy Renner, then returned for Jason Bourne in 2016.
Four appearances as the same character can leave a pretty big mark.
Damon knew it.
Matt Damon knew Jason Bourne would always follow him
Before Jason Bourne opened in theaters Damon spoke about what the character had meant to his career.
His answer went far beyond box office success. Bourne gave him a kind of career freedom. Because there was always the possibility of another big Bourne movie waiting somewhere down the road, Damon felt he could make other choices without constantly worrying about whether every project would become a commercial hit.
That allowed him to take chances. And after playing a character that many times, he also understood something else. No matter how many different roles came afterward, Jason Bourne was probably going to follow him around for a very long time. He was perfectly fine with that.
Click on the video below to hear Matt Damon, speaking before the release of Jason Bourne, talk about how the role changed his career, the freedom it gave him and why he doesn’t mind being followed around by Jason Bourne.
Jason Bourne may not be finished yet
For the moment, Jason Bourne remains Damon’s most recent appearance as the character.
But maybe not forever. Earlier this year, Damon said the people behind the franchise are still looking for the right way to bring Bourne back. More recently, he revealed that he has been talking with Edward Berger, director of All Quiet on the Western Front, as they try to nail down a story that feels worthy of another movie. And that is apparently the hard part.
Unlike James Bond, where a new mission can essentially start everything over again, Bourne’s movies have told a continuing story. Damon has said that makes another chapter trickier because it has to move the character forward while still giving audiences the things they loved about the earlier films.
So there is no guarantee another Bourne movie happens. But after all these years, Matt Damon still seems interested in finding out where Jason Bourne could go next.
The Bourne movies are getting another turn in the spotlight
For now, Netflix has made revisiting the whole story pretty easy.
The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Legacy and Jason Bourne all joined the service in October.
That means audiences can watch Bourne go from a man pulled out of the ocean with no idea who he is to someone who spends years trying to understand what was done to him and decide what comes next.
Twenty-four years after The Bourne Identity started it all, there is still something pretty satisfying about watching Jason Bourne walk into a bad situation and immediately become the most dangerous person in the room.
And if Damon and company eventually figure out one more story worth telling, maybe Jason Bourne will not be the end of that journey after all.
Jason Bourne and the rest of the Bourne movies are available on DVD/Blu-ray/4K, digital platforms like Amazon and are streaming on Netflix.
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