CinemaNerdz

Revisiting the Jason Bourne Franchise

Scott Davis
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne

Jason Bourne is returning to action in the appropriately titled Jason Bourne. This will be the fourth time Matt Damon plays the highly trained assassin with a memory problem, but it’s the first time since 2007 he’s headlined a Bourne flick.

If you have amnesia when it comes to the Bourne series, don’t worry, we are here to help. Here are mission briefs (with some spoilers) on the previous installments of the Jason Bourne franchise to get you ready for Friday’s release of Jason Bourne.

 

The Bourne Identity

Year of Mission: 2002
Mission Cost: $60 million
Recouped Budget (Box office): $214 million worldwide

Mission Recap: In Jason Bourne’s first big screen adventure, Bourne is found in middle of the Mediterranean Sea with no memory of who is. After learning about a safe deposit box in Germany, he finds numerous passports, a large amount of money, and a gun. He discovers that he is Jason Bourne, a special CIA assassin part of Operation Treadstone. The CIA has been looking for Bourne since he fell off the grid during a mission, but when they learn of his whereabouts, they send other agents to take him down (including a young Clive Owen).

Bourne meets Marie, who agrees to drive him for $20,000 to a Paris address he found in the safety deposit box. The two have to escape the assassins, but Bourne is much more skilled than any of the other agents. Bourne eventually learns the location of one of the Treadstone safe houses, breaks into one of them, and meets Nicky (played by Julia Stiles, who will become a series regular). He starts to have flashbacks and learns that he was on a mission to kill an African dictator, but could not do it in front of his children. Agents descend on the house, but Bourne escapes and claims that he is done with Treadstone.

Mission Review and Grade: The least action packed Matt Damon Bourne flick, The Bourne Identity has plenty of mystery and suspense that keeps things interesting over the two-hour runtime. Director Doug Limon has said that he sees this movie as a drama with bursts of action, which is a good way to describe it. The Bourne Identity establishes Damon’s Bourne and the franchise up very well. Grade: B+

 

The Bourne Supremacy

Year of Mission: 2004
Mission Cost: $75 million
Recouped Budget (Box office): $288 million worldwide

Mission Recap: After Bourne and Marie successfully escape the CIA hunting them down, they flee to Goa, India where they have been living peacefully for two years. When Bourne spots an agent looking for them (played by a young Karl Urban), he tells Marie they have to leave but she is killed by the assassin, who believes he also killed Bourne in the process.

Meanwhile in Germany, a CIA operation where they are trying to secure secret files goes bad when the Russian Federal Security Service kills everyone involved and steals the files. Bourne’s fingerprints are planted at the scene of the crime, which causes CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) to go after Bourne.

Bourne believes that Treadstone is still running and does not know anything about the files, but quickly learns he has been set up. Bourne runs into Nicky (Julia Stiles again!) and asks about a mission in Berlin he has been having flashbacks about. She tells him that according to his files, he was never in Berlin and Bourne realizes that a man on the inside, Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), set him up to make it look like Bourne was finishing what he started. Bourne exposes everything and then travels to Moscow to apologize to the daughter of the husband and wife he was tasked with killing in Berlin.

Mission Review and Grade: Besides the somewhat convoluted plot, The Bourne Supremacy is a whole lot of fun. The action is more intense, it has a much quicker pace, Damon is as comfortable as ever as Jason Bourne, and Paul Greengrass has better eye for thrillers than Limon does. This is not only a great Jason Bourne movie; this is one of the great action movies of the early 2000s. Grade: A-

 

The Bourne Ultimatum

Year of Mission: 2007
Mission Cost: $110 million
Recouped Budget (Box office): $442 million worldwide

Mission Recap: When a journalist claims he knows about Jason Bourne and Operation Blackbriar, an operation ran by Treadstone, Bourne hunts him down to see what he knows. The CIA also wants to keep a lid on things, so CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen (played by the wonderful David Straithairn) sends a hitman to take him out. Bourne tries to save the journalist, but is unsuccessful, although he gathers all of the reporter’s notes.

Bourne learns that the journalist’s source was Neal Daniels (Colin Stinton), so he heads to his office in Madrid. There he runs into Nicky (Julia Stiles, once again!) who informs him that Daniels has fled to Tangier. The two of them head to Tangier, but learn that the CIA sent a Blackbriar asset after Daniels in Tangier, who is successful in killing Daniels but Bourne kills him after. Bourne learns that the deep-cover CIA bureau, Blackbrair, is located in New York City, so he heads there.

He finds the operation’s base and remembers being initiated into the program. He is able to steal Blackbriar files and give them to Landy (Joan Allen again), who exposes the CIA’s dirty secrets to the public. Feeling satisfied in remembering who he is, Bourne flees to the roof but is shot by Vosen and falls into the East River. News reports say that Bourne is dead, although his body was not found and he is shown swimming away as credits roll.

Mission Review and Grade: The most beloved installment in the franchise, The Bourne Ultimatum is the most action packed and thrilling Jason Bourne adventure by far. The editing is tight, the action is brilliantly choreographed (don’t get me started on that car chase), and it offers a satisfying conclusion to the Bourne trilogy. It follows many of the same beats and plot structure that Greengrass and company used in Supremacy for me to call it the best installment, but a great flick nonetheless. Grade: A-

 

The Bourne Legacy

Year of Mission: 2012
Mission Cost: $125 million
Recouped Budget (Box office): $276 million worldwide

Mission Recap: A member of another CIA operation called Operation Outcome, black ops agent Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is training in Alaska when the events of The Bourne Ultimatum occur. The CIA wants to shut down all of its secret operations, so they kill all of their agents, but Cross escapes.

Operation Outcome’s agents are genetically enhanced with medicine boosting their physical and mental states. Cross must obtain pills for him to keep his intelligence, so he tracks down Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz).. The two head to Manila in the Philippines, where the pills are manufactured, but the CIA tracks them and sends agents after them. Cross and Dr. Shearing are able to get the pills and kill the agents, and then go on a stranger’s boat riding off in the Filipino sea.

Mission Review and Grade: The plot is admittedly silly compared to the first three films, but there is something about The Bourne Legacy that is still fun. No, Jeremy Renner is no Matt Damon, but he still brings his own style and fun to the character. The action is not as frenetic here, and the film is a little long, but if you are willing to go along with the ride, there are a couple things to enjoy with Legacy. Grade: B-

Scott Davis

Scott Davis is a recent graduate of Oakland University where he earned a degree in journalism. He worked for the student newspaper on campus, The Oakland Post, where he became the paper's managing editor. He also earned a minor in Cinema Studies at OU. Scott enjoys all things film and TV related, especially the blockbuster kind. He might be the biggest Christopher Nolan fan you know.
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