The Bourne Identity

"He was the perfect weapon until he became the target."

2002 1h 59m EN

👍

7.5

SOLID

🍅

84%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.8

IMDB

★7.5TMDB · 10,447🍅84%Rotten Tomatoes●68Metacritic★7.8IMDB · 609,951

ActionMysteryThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Wounded to the brink of death and suffering from amnesia, Jason Bourne is rescued at sea by a fisherman. With nothing to go on but a Swiss bank account number, he starts to reconstruct his life, but finds that many people he encounters want him dead. However, Bourne realizes that he has the combat and mental skills of a world-class spy—but who does he work for?

“He was the perfect weapon until he became the target.”

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Cast

Matt Damon
Jason Bourne
Franka Potente
Marie Helena Kreutz
Chris Cooper
Alexander Conklin
Clive Owen
The Professor
Brian Cox
Ward Abbott
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Nykwana Wombosi
Gabriel Mann
Danny Zorn
Julia Stiles
Nicky Parsons

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Doug Liman
Writers: William Blake Herron, Tony Gilroy, Warren Drummond
Languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Italian
Countries: United States of America, Germany, Czech Republic

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $60M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.6× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 24 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 5 languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Italian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: United States of America, Germany, Czech Republic.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Bourne Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

255+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Doug Liman, shot by Oliver Wood. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Doug Liman directs. Oliver Wood behind the camera. John Powell scores. Saar Klein cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America, Germany, Czech Republic. Dialogue in English, French, German, Dutch, Italian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $60M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Made its money back 3.6× over at the box office.
3Released 24 years ago.
4Dialogue crosses 5 languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Italian.
5International production across 3 countries: United States of America, Germany, Czech Republic.
6Part of the "The Bourne Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
7255+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
8Directed by Doug Liman, shot by Oliver Wood. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
9Original score by John Powell. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
10Editor Saar Klein shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
11Matt Damon and Franka Potente and Chris Cooper carry the top of the cast.
12Marketing tagline: "He was the perfect weapon until he became the target.".
13IMDB entry: tt0258463 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1410,447 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
15Classified under 28 themes, including "assassin", "amnesia", "paris, france", "based on novel or book".
16Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Oliver Wood
Original score: John Powell
Editing: Saar Klein
Production design: Dan Weil
Costume design: Pierre-Yves Gayraud
Makeup / hair: Kay Georgiou
VFX supervisor: Peter Donen
Sound: Bob Beemer
Stunt coordinator: Jean-Claude Lagniez
Runtime: 119 min · 1h 59m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $60,000,000
Box office: $214,034,224
Return: 357% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Bourne Identity (2002)
Rotten Tomatoes: 84% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 68/100
IMDB rating: 7.8/10 · 609,951 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

3 wins & 6 nominations total

Part of

The Bourne Collection

The Bourne films are a series of action thriller movies based on the character Jason Bourne, a CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss who must figure out who he is. The character is based on novels by Robert Ludlum. The fourth film in the series introduces Aaron Cross, a Department of Defense operative who runs for his life because of Bourne's actions.

Also by

Doug Liman

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

JPV8522020-10-22
★ 8/10
Lost count the number of times I've watched The Bourne Identity but it's still a fantastic action-thriller with Matt Damon perfectly cast in the lead which if I recall at the time he was only known for dramas. Some issues with how the sequels were handled, mainly (in TBU) the suggestion Bourne and Nicki (Julia Stiles) had some sort past relationship when it's pretty clear he was just another black ops agent. In any case, still works almost 20 years later and I'm sure I'll revisit this one again. 4.0/5
The Movie Mob2022-10-21
★ 9/10
The Bourne Identity returns the spy genre to hard-hitting realism with face-paced hand-to-hand combat, clever espionage, and a great lead. In the early 2000s, when James Bond was surfing on laser-melted glaciers and fighting diamond-crusted henchmen and Ethan Hunt was dual-weird diving through a flock of doves, The Bourne Identity charted a new path. Doug Liman took Good Will Hunting’s Matt Damon, whose biggest action role to this point had been watching Tom Hanks die to save him in Saving Private Ryan and turn him into a hardcore action hero. But unlike Bond and Mission Impossible, Bourne was a grounded and gritty spy that used skill and ingenuity to overcome the duplicitous intelligence agencies that wanted him dead. The action is more realistic and brutal, with the punches landing harder and pens stabbing deep. The Bourne Identity reinvented the spy genre.
CinemaSerf2023-09-03
★ 7/10
Matt Damon ("Jason Bourne") is fished out off the sea by a passing fishing boat and after having had bullets removed from his back, determines to find out just what happened to him. One slight snag - he has absolutely no idea who he is! Luckily, his rescuer has some skill with a scalpel and aside from the bullets, he removes a small gadget that contains details of a Swiss bank account that ultimately gives him a name, but asks far more questions than it answers. He goes to the US embassy, but that doesn't quite go to plan and in escaping picks up the feisty "Marie" (Franka Potente) and the two have to evade chasing police and would-be assassins as they try to discover the mystery of "Treadstone". It's a gripping, end-to-end spy thriller with short, refined, fight scenes that genuinely engenders suspense and peril. Robert Ludlum's story survives largely intact and Damon, alongside a suitably duplicitous performance from Brian Cox, deliver well.