The Hitchcockian “wrong man” hero never goes out of style, and it came back in a big way in 2002 with the release of The Bourne Identity. Starring Matt Damon as a seemingly amnesiac spy, found at sea with bullets in his back and a set of superior combat skills, the pulse-pounding action film was a huge success.
Inevitably, it’s sparked a series of sequels, a reboot with Jeremy Renner as a new operative with a target on his back, and a return to Damon’s assassin-in-hiding in 2016. But streaming audiences in Aotearoa might have trouble accessing those entries, sadly: the first two films in the Bourne franchise are on Netflix, and the rest are only available to rent or buy on demand.
Damon first got hunted down while trying to uncover his own past in The Bourne Identity. Just two years later The Bourne Supremacy won audiences over too, continuing director Paul Greengrass’ trademark shaky-cam style: it’s available on all the same platforms as the first film.
Both of these films can be watched on Netflix New Zealand, or rented and bought via the Google Play and Apple TV stores. Neat.
Trilogy closer The Bourne Ultimatum pleased action fans, too, witnessing Damon’s (then-) final rush to evade a new generation of government operatives across Moscow, Paris, Madrid, London, Tangier and New York City (racked up some frequent flyer miles, we hope).
Five years later, Avenger Jeremy Renner took over as hero Aaron Cross in The Bourne Legacy, a film which I must admit I fell asleep during in cinemas. With a 55% Rotten Tomatoes score, the soft reboot/sequel wasn’t as beloved as its predecessors,
Then just four years later, Damon wanted another piece of the spy pie, starring in the simply-titled Jason Bourne opposite Alicia Vikander. Somewhat forgotten, this final chapter is unavailable to stream for free anywhere, only available on demand on Google Play and the Apple TV store—same as Ultimatum and Legacy. You’ll wish you could be like the wise man who once said, “Jesus Christ, that’s Jason Bourne.”
