While the original Bourne trilogy is a triumph of genre cinema. The spy thriller series melds real-life political commentary with intense action set-pieces, while still ensuring viewers care about the titular antihero. By the time Bourne learns the terrible truth about his memory loss during the third movie’s ending, the chilling implications of his backstory will resonate as much as the movie's many memorable fights and chases.
Although the franchise's astute commentary has stood the test of time well, Jason Bourne’s martial arts prowess and free-running skills have proven influential in their own right. The brutal physicality of the Bourne movies, alongside director Paul Greengrass’ trademark handheld camerawork, defined the aesthetic of action thrillers for the remainder of the 2000s. Although few franchises could recreate the impact of Bourne’s bruising fight scenes and mile-a-minute chases, this did not stop everything from Eon's James Bond movies to Mission: Impossible sequels attempting the same feat. Fortunately, this left Jason Bourne fans with plenty of follow-up viewing options.
8 Casino Royale
As the first post-Bourne James Bond movie, Daniel Craig’s 007 debut in Casino Royale is also the one that most blatantly borrows from the Matt Damon-led series. Bourne’s influence on Bond is evident from the fact that this dark, gritty reboot came from director Martin Campbell who, only a decade earlier, gave viewers the campy, self-aware Pierce Brosnan Bond movie GoldenEye. In Casino Royale, Bond is less smugly referential and more brooding, with Casino Royale putting the troubled antihero through one of his most traumatic screen adventures ever. Bourne forced Bond to take himself seriously, and Casino Royale proved 007 was up to the challenge.
7 The Parallax View
A huge influence on the political thriller genre and Matt Damon's Bourne movies in particular, the almost comically bleak The Parallax View is essential viewing. Where Casino Royale borrowed Bourne’s love of parkour and close-quarters combat, The Parallax View provided Bourne with its grim political commentary. In this taut thriller directed by All the President's Men director Alan Pakula, Warren Beatty plays an investigative reporter who becomes convinced that a recent assassination is the work of a shady corporation. Since this is a dark 1970s conspiracy thriller, the story of Beatty’s bitter antihero reaches a darker conclusion than The Bourne Ultimatum.
6 Spy Game
Released in 2001, Spy Game sees Robert Redford and Brad Pitt battle both international foes and the CIA itself in a lighter, goofier Bourne alternative. When Redford’s CIA veteran learns that the organization has no intention of saving his protégé, played by Pitt, from imprisonment in China, he takes it upon himself to use the agency’s intelligence against itself and free his friend. Funnier and sillier than the Bourne movies, Spy Game does still have some criticism to level at the CIA. Nevertheless, this is more of a fun 1990s thriller than a serious attempt at political commentary.
5 Enemy Of The State
Coming from the same director as Spy Game, Tony Scott, 1998’s Enemy of the State is a wildly prescient and fun paranoid political thriller. Enemy of the State pairs up Will Smith and Gene Hackman as, respectively, a lawyer dragged into a murderous conspiracy involving the NSA and the taciturn retired NSA agent who helps him clear his name. Thanks to Top Gun director and action legend Tony Scott, Enemy of the State is a dynamic, funny, and thrilling spy movie that has aged well, while the movie’s critique of NSA overreach proved shockingly prophetic when whistleblower Edward Snowden uncovered the organization's secret civilian surveillance program years later.
4 The Three Days of the Condor
Another Robert Redford movie, The Three Days of the Condor is a 1970s spy thriller that acted as an early roap for the Bourne franchise's "one spy vs the CIA" storyline. While The Three Days of the Condor is ittedly less action-forward than Bourne’s story, the spy movie is just as tense and thrilling. Redford oozes pure charisma as a CIA researcher who must outwit his employers when his colleagues show up dead, and The Three Days of the Condor offers a marginally more optimistic ending than The Parallax View’s similarly paranoid story.
3 Green Zone
The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass and series star Matt Damon reunited for a solid Iraq war thriller with 2010’s Green Zone. Not quite the anti-war movie that fans of the duo might have hoped for, Green Zone does at least gesture toward criticism of the war with its story of Damon’s Chief Officer Miller, who learns too late that evidence of weapons of mass destruction, which had formed the basis of Iraq's invasion, was greatly exaggerated. While not as radical as it could be, Green Zone is a great thriller and a propulsive, involving watch.
2 Atomic Blonde
Unabashedly sillier than the Bourne movies, 2017’s Atomic Blonde is still a thrill ride from start to finish, featuring intense action set-pieces that can rival anything seen in the Bourne series. Following an unstoppable spy’s European adventure, Atomic Blonde’s 1980s-set plot involves a list of double agents and a lot of double-crossing in Berlin before the fall of the wall. However, all of this is mostly an excuse to let Charlize Theron flex her action movie credentials after a breakout role in Mad Max: Fury Road. Theron does not disappoint in a string of stylish, balletic fight scenes and chase sequences.
1 The Manchurian Candidate
The earliest inspiration for the Bourne movies, The Manchurian Candidate remains the high watermark of political thrillers. Somehow still as creepy, paranoid, and darkly hilarious as it was upon release, The Manchurian Candidate tells the tale of a Korean War veteran who runs for office, only for his former colleague to suspect that something is seriously amiss beneath his cheery exterior. Endlessly influential for good reason, The Manchurian Candidate features an excellent script and standout performances from Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, and Janet Leigh. However, it is the late, great Angela Lansbury who steals the show, making The Manchurian Candidate one of the Jason Bourne franchise's most enjoyable influences.
