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24 Years Later, Matt Damon’s Career-Defining Spy Thriller Is Conquering Streaming

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Is there a major filmmaker of the last couple of decades who is synonymous with a franchise that they didn’t help create? A few come to mind. David Yates is known for his work in the Harry Potter series — he directed the final four films and all three Fantastic Beasts spin-offs — but he wasn’t involved at the beginning. Francis Lawrence has made the Hunger Games series his own, but the first film was directed by Gary Ross. Similarly, the Jason Bourne series would be inconceivable without Paul Greengrass‘ hand-held aesthetic, but the blockbuster action franchise’s first installment was directed by Doug Liman. His work on that movie changed the action genre forever and had a particular influence on the James Bond franchise.

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You must remember that back then, the 007 series was perceived to have jumped the shark. Meanwhile, The Bourne Identity presented a more realistic version of international espionage. The Bond producers took note, and when the franchise was rebooted after Pierce Brosnan‘s tenure, it seemed to have more in common with the Bourne movies than its own predecessors. Daniel Craig‘s first Bond film, Casino Royale, borrowed the Bourne franchise’s emotional heft and grounded style. This continued throughout the course of Craig’s five-movie run.































































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Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz
Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner?

Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt

Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.

🎖️Rambo

🍸James Bond

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🏺Indiana Jones

🔧John McClane

🎭Ethan Hunt

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01

You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner?
The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.





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02

You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel?
How you get there is half the mission.





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03

You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do?
This is when you find out what someone is really made of.





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04

The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest?
Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.





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05

How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission?
Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.





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06

Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them?
The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.





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07

Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do?
Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.





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08

What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace?
A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.





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09

Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with?
No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.





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10

It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now?
The last question is the most honest one.





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Your Partner Has Been Assigned
Your Perfect Partner Is…

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

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Rambo

Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.

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James Bond

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Indiana Jones

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Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

John McClane

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

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Ethan Hunt

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

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Matt Damon’s Blockbuster Has a Terrific Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes

The first movie made Matt Damon a star and was followed by Greengrass’ two sequels — The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Universal tried to create a spin-off series with Jeremy Renner at the center and Tony Gilroy at the helm, but audiences weren’t ready to accept a version of the franchise without Damon. And Damon wasn’t prepared to return without Greengrass. Eventually, the two agreed to make a fourth installment — Jason Bourne. While commercially successful, it wasn’t as acclaimed as its predecessors. The franchise, however, is still as popular as ever.

According to FlixPatrol, The Bourne Identity saw a surge in viewership this week, securing a spot on the global HBO Max chart. Released in 2002, the film grossed nearly $215 million worldwide against a reported budget of $60 million. It holds a “Certified Fresh” 84% critics’ score and a 93% audience score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Expertly blending genre formula with bursts of unexpected wit, The Bourne Identity is an action thriller that delivers — and then some.” Liman and Damon most recently collaborated on the 2024 Apple TV original film The Instigators. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.


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Release Date

June 14, 2002

Runtime

119 minutes

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Director

Doug Liman

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Writers

Tony Gilroy, William Blake Herron, Robert Ludlum

Producers
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Patrick Crowley

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