Summary

• Bourne's world blends implausible action with realism, sharp cynicism, and a focus on modern spy tech.
• Intelligent scripts and well-developed characters are essential for movies like Jason Bourne.
• The best movies like Jason Bourne blend intriguing characters with intense, gritty fight scenes.

While Matt Damon's action hero was able to establish himself as a unique protagonist in the spy genre, there are other movies like Jason Bourne movies that capture the same thrilling and intelligent feel. There have been four Jason Bourne movies, including a spinoff, The Bourne Legacy, and the short-lived TV show Treadstone. While these entries range in quality, the franchise's hallmarks have been established with a grounded and visceral examination of the modern spy world paired with intense action sequences courtesy of the titular hero whose strategic thinking is matched by his fighting skills.

Bourne’s world balanced the implausible with realism, its technology felt real, and its cynicism was sharp and intriguing. To be counted as Jason Bourne, a film needs more than just well-choreographed martial arts and must offer something for fans of espionage and engaging dialogue to chew on. Whether they're playing super spies or complex criminals, many actors have found ways to create intelligent and deadly characters who would work well with Jason Bourne or would be a formidable match for him.

15 Hanna (2011)

A Young Girl Fights For Her Freedom From the CIA

While Jason Bourne is a highly trained secret agent who saw his own country betray him, Hanna is a story about a young woman at the start of her training. Directed by Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice), Saoirse Ronan stars as Hanna Heller, a 15-year-old whose father lives with her in rural northern Finland. They are in hiding because the CIA wants her dad killed for leaving them, which makes his story very similar to that of Bourne. However, this is more than a country turning its back on its own agents.

David Farr created a Hanna spinoff series for Prime Video.

In Hanna, it is the daughter who takes up the fight. The CIA wants her as a new agent, and they won't take no for an answer. Just like in the Jason Bourne movies, Hanna has legitimate fighting skills and can eliminate hoards of other trained agents. Both also have some strong women in the roles of the government heads who want to bring them in (Joan Allen in Bourne and Cate Blanchett in Hanna). Hanna was positively reviewed by critics and also spawned a television show on Prime Video.

14 Shooter (2007)

A U.S. Marine Sniper Is Framed For Murder

Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) created his own action thriller based on a soldier that the American government turned on in Shooter. In this movie, Mark Wahlberg stars as Bob Lee Swagger, a former Marine sniper who retires from active duty after a mission goes wrong and results in the death of a CIA officer. However, when he is enlisted to help stop a potential presidential assassination attempt, things go wrong because it is a setup. Bob is framed for assassinating Ethiopian Archbishop Desmond Mutumbo.

Ryan Phillippe stars in a TV version of Shooter.

This leads the U.S. government to set up a manhunt to bring down the sniper. Like in the Jason Bourne movies, Bob Lee Swagger has a skill set that puts him on a level above his hunters, and he turns the tables quickly. It also plays the same game as the Bourne movies, with the sniper figuring out a way to put the men who betrayed him in a spot where he can exact his revenge and clear his name in the end.

13 Three Days Of The Condor

A CIA Analyst Survives A Massacre In His Department

The one thing that Jason Bourne had going for him was that he was a highly trained assassin, and that put him in a unique spot to defend himself and kill all the trained mercenaries sent after him. That was not what happened in Three Days of the Condor, although the stories remain similar. In this Sydney Pollack movie, Robert Redford stars as a CIA analyst who leaves to get lunch for his co-workers, only to come back and find that a group of armed men entered and killed everyone there.

Joe has to then run for his life, and when he calls the CIA for help, they show up and attempt to kill him. Joe realizes that the CIA ordered the assassination of one of their own offices, and then they frame Joe for the murders. When the CIA head who tried to kill him is assassinated, Joe realizes no one is safe. Three Days of the Condor is a blueprint for espionage movies, and having Joe as an analyst and not a trained killer makes it even scarier. However, the twists and turns are very reminiscent of the Bourne movies.

12 Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

Tom Clancy's Famous Spy Embarks On His First Mission In Russia

Chris Pine became the fourth actor to play Jack Ryan on the big screen in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Younger and even more inexperienced than previous iterations of the Tom Clancy hero, Pine's Jack Ryan certainly shares far more of Bourne's brains than he does his brawn, but that doesn't mean that Shadow Recruit shuns action set-pieces. Sent to Russia to spy on a ruthless villain (Kenneth Branagh), Ryan fights more with his words than his fists in the movie.

However, Pine's verbal sparring matches with Branagh, who also directed the film, are electrifying, and it all builds to an explosive finale. Ryan has always been a more human protagonist in the spy genre, and this origin story cements that. The movie shows that Jack Ryan is a lot like Jason Bourne, even if the two men take care of their problems differently. All the Jack Ryan movies compare well with Jason Bourne movies, though this one shares more similarities with The Bourne Identity​​​​​​.

11 Salt (2010)

A CIA Operative Is Accused Of Being A Russian Mole

Though it was originally envisaged as a Tom Cruise vehicle (via The Los Angeles Times), Angelina Jolie brought all of her star power to the lead role of Salt and made it her own. Like Matt Damon's performance in the Bourne movies, she injected a relatively conventional part of a mysterious superspy figure with an unconventional level of emotion mixed in with tenacious ingenuity.

The plot follows a CIA agent accused of being a hidden Russian sleeper agent. Up against all that law enforcement and the intelligence community can throw at her, Evelyn Salt has to think on her feet as Bourne does and proves herself a worthy comparison. Just like the Jason Bourne movies, Salt is on her own against the U.S. intelligence agencies, and just like Bourne, she can stand up to entire legions of agents and win any fight. Though plans for a Salt 2 fell through, the first movie remains an underrated gem.

10 Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Ethan Hunt And His Team Attempt To Stop A Nuclear Attack

The sixth installment in the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise sured its predecessors in many areas, the most famous of which was its use of stunts to make its impossibly action-packed world seem real. Facing the remaining villains left over from the rogue international spy ring that Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt and his team broke up in the previous movie, the "Impossible Mission Force" races to stop a doomsday plot involving stolen plutonium.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout adds Henry Cavill to the ever-expanding roster of super spies that the franchise has created and, like the Jason Bourne movies, has wowed critics alike with dazzling choreography and death-defying chases. The movies also share similarities when it comes to not trusting anyone, not even those who are working for the U.S. government. In this case, Ethan Hunt realizes that the CIA assassin sent to help him is working against his team, which was just the start of the United States turning on Hunt.

9 Atomic Blonde (2017)

An MI6 Agent Investigates The Murder Of A Fellow Agent In Cold War Berlin

Charlize Theron stars as an uncompromising spy in this Cold War action-thriller adapted from the graphic novel The Coldest City by director David Leitch, who was one of the creative forces behind the original John Wick movie starring Keanu Reeves. Theron's character, Lorraine Broughton, gives Bourne a run for his money with her bare-knuckle brutality and precision, making for some of the most entertaining fight sequences of recent years.

Atomic Blonde is as stylized on the screen as its origins on the page, but the brutalist architecture of the late Soviet era evokes the more grounded feel of the Jason Bourne movies. This isn't much like the Bourne movies regarding the story of the character's history. Instead, fans should watch this movie if they love the down-and-dirty fight scenes in the Bourne franchise because Atomic Blonde holds nothing back, and Charlize Theron proves to be a perfect action hero.

8 Breach (2007)

The True Spy Story Of An FBI Data Breach

Reality is rarely as appealing as fiction, but a few incredible true stories from the spy world make it into thriller movies. Breach dramatizes the figures and events at the heart of the biggest and most famous data breach in US intelligence history, where FBI agent Robert Hanssen sold secrets to Russia for decades before he was caught. Though Breach shares none of the Jason Bourne movies' focus on action, its unromantic and tangible view of the intelligence world feels similar to Bourne movies.

Leading the way is Chris Cooper's performance in the role of Hanssen. The actor also played Treadstone's original head, Alexander Conklin, in The Bourne Identity. Besides the shared actor from the movies, this is an excellent film for fans of espionage, mainly because there are very few people anyone can trust, even at the highest levels of the government. Jason Bourne realized the treachery went to the top of the chain, and that proves to be the case in Breach as well.

7 Body Of Lies (2008)

Leonardo DiCaprio Plays A CIA Operative Caught In A Complex Spy Game In Jordan

Adapted from David Ignatius's novel of the same name, Body of Lies is more of a political thriller than an action thriller like the Jason Bourne movies. Its story is mainly concerned with contemplating the United States’ relationship with the Middle East. The screenplay revolves around different approaches to stopping a terrorist as a CIA operative (Leonardo DiCaprio) is caught between his handler (Russell Crowe) and the local government intelligence in Jordan.

William Monohan's screenplay shares similarities to the Jason Bourne franchise's ionate critiques of modern counter-terrorist policies. At the same time, director Ridley Scott keeps short and sharp bursts of action that are gritty and grounded. While not as action packed, the two movies share a determined hero, with DiCaprio's Roger Ferris very similar to Jason Bourne as someone who won't stop until he discovers the truth and ends things, no matter who he finds at the top.

6 Jack Reacher (2012)

Tom Cruise Plays The Determined Military Cop Investigating A Conspiracy

Like James Bond, Jason Bourne was a popular literary hero before becoming a movie franchise. Another similar character from the world of thriller novels to recently make the jump to film and TV is Jack Reacher. The former soldier turned drifter and unlicensed investigator shares Bourne's military skills and devotion to living completely off the grid despite being a magnet for trouble.

The film is based on the Lee Child novel One Shot, which sees Reacher uncover a sinister organization operating from the shadows in Pittsburgh. While lead star Tom Cruise is physically different from how Reacher is described in the novels, he captures the character's intimidating nature. Like Bourne, Reacher is an endlessly determined hero with hard-hitting fighting skills and military savvy and can take down an entire legion of enemies with few problems. The fight scenes compare well between the two franchises.