The Correct Order To Watch The Jason Bourne Movies
Hollywood loves a franchise. Soon, our nostalgia obsessed monoculture will be treated to a "Harry Potter" reboot series and a definitely necessary "Twilight" revival. Now, we've learned that a new Jason Bourne movie is on the way from "All Quiet on the Western Front" director Edward Berger. As it stands, Berger is the only one attached to the project and it's still very early days. But the news of a potential new Bourne movie should be exciting for fans of the franchise and action movies in general. Either that, or they'll be dismayed that Universal is churning out yet another installment after 2016's disappointing "Jason Bourne" and 2012's exquisitely forgettable "The Bourne Legacy."
The Bourne movies are a great example of a studio squeezing every bit of life out of a franchise it possibly can. After "The Bourne Identity" successfully adapted Robert Ludlum's novels to the big screen, we got two excellent sequels in "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum." But Universal wasn't done with the property, and gave us the aforementioned spin-off and sequel, as well as a TV show that was canceled after 10 episodes.
As such, you might be a tad confused by the timeline and in need of some help delving into the series. Not every Jason Bourne movie is created equal, so aside from the chronological confusion, there's also the issue of which films are actually worth watching. With that in mind, allows us to be your guide to the correct order in which to watch the Bourne films.
The correct order to watch the Jason Bourne movies
With all the timeline jumping and separate storylines, the Bourne series doesn't necessarily lend itself to newcomers. As such, we've put the movies in their production order below, for those just wanting to watch the installments in the official order in which they were released. To be clear, everything should make sense watching the films in this order, which follows Jason Bourne's original three-film odyssey before branching off into the spin-off that was "The Bourne Legacy" and ultimately rejoining Jason Bourne in the 2016 film of the same name. Here's the films in the order they were released:
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"The Bourne Identity" (2002)
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"The Bourne Supremacy" (2004)
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"The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007)
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"The Bourne Legacy" (2012)
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"Jason Bourne" (2016)
As you can see, Universal was keen to capitalize on the franchise's success and pushed ahead with a fourth film in 2012, sans Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (who'd worked together on the previous two entries). In 2016, the studio did manage to get Damon and Greengrass back on board for "Jason Bourne" but the film was dire and about as essential as the entirely unnecessary "Bourne Legacy" from 2012.
It's also worth noting that there are two other Bourne-related projects that aren't included in this list: the 2019 TV show "Treadstone" and the 1988 made-for-TV movie "The Bourne Identity." The latter isn't canonical to the main Jason Bourne timeline, while the former certainly is. But the fact that you don't need to see "Treadstone" in order to enjoy or even understand the movies is perhaps a testament to how unnecessary the short-lived USA Network series was.
The trilogy's all you need
Some might make an argument for skipping "The Bourne Legacy" and going straight from "Ultimatum" to "Jason Bourne" in order to complete the titular agent's quadrilogy. Which ... fair enough. But in reality, neither "Legacy" nor the 2016 follow-up are essential viewing. With the original three movies you have what is arguably a perfect trilogy, beginning with a truly novel and hugely-influential actioner followed by two movies that managed to ratchet up the action and intensity to exhilarating effect and wrap things up with a satisfying finale.
Once "Identity" hit, Hollywood started churning out all manner of grounded and gritty action-thrillers. Without the first movie and its two sequels, we arguably wouldn't have "Casino Royale," the greatest James Bond movie ever made, or maybe even "Batman Begins." The original Bourne trilogy is seminal for this reason, and really all you need to see. Not only do the original three movies tell an engaging story, watching the trilogy is like going to the source of action filmmaking for the last couple of decades. The influence of these movies can't be overstated and it's worth revisiting the trilogy just to see how director Doug Liman introduced a whole new action style with "Identity" and how Paul Greengrass built on that style with his two follow-ups. The rest of the Bourne-related projects are really just for completionists.
For the completionists
If you simply have to complete the Bourne story, by all means delve into the numerous attempts to capitalize on the original trilogy's success. It might help to understand the timeline, though, if only so you can figure out your own ideal order in which to imbibe the entire franchise. As an aside, 1988's "The Bourne Identity" is entirely a standalone thing that you can watch whenever.
If you're wondering where the TV show, "Treadstone," slots into the timeline, it basically functions as both a prequel and a sequel to the movies, with a storyline set in 1973 and the present day. As such, it's probably worth watching last if only to understand the latter-day segments. The 1973 stuff is absolutely not required viewing in order to understand the original "Bourne" trilogy.
Meanwhile, "The Bourne Legacy" unfolds concurrently with the events of "Ultimatum." The narrative does extend slightly beyond the Matt Damon-starring third film, which technically makes "Legacy" a sequel to "Ultimatum," but also not really. As such, it's probably worth watching this Jeremy Renner-led spin-off after the original trilogy but whether you slot it between "Ultimatum" and "Jason Bourne" or save it for last doesn't really matter.
Which just leaves "Jason Bourne." Once again, as long as you watch this one after the original trilogy, it'll make sense. Otherwise, feel free to watch it before "Legacy," after "Legacy," between episodes of "Treadstione," or maybe even not at all? You're better off checking out some other films like "The Bourne Identity," anyway.