Watch Matt Damon Recap the Original ‘Bourne’ Trilogy in 90 Seconds
If you’re like me, even after all these years, you can still remember everything that happened in The Bourne Identity pretty clearly. It’s when you get to The Bourne Supremacy that things start to get a little fuzzy. I remember an early scene in the second film where Matt Damon’s Bourne and Franka Potente’s Marie are ambushed by Karl Urban’s Treadstone assassin, and then some sort of car chase in an Eastern European city, but that’s about the last major plot point I can keep straight in my head. Was Brian Cox in the second film? Didn’t the third film have some sort of investigative journalist? Did Bourne actually ever get his memory back in the three films? Does The Bourne Legacy even matter at all?
Thankfully, Matt Damon has you covered. Earlier this afternoon, Universal Pictures released the above video of the actor walking you through everything you need to know before seeing Jason Bourne in theaters this weekend. And while the video might just be an attempt to cash in on the current trend of fast-talking YouTube movie narration, I have to admit, I found the whole thing to be surprisingly helpful.
Even with the dots reconnected, most people who see Jason Bourne in theaters this weekend probably won’t get too worked up if the film doesn’t answer all of our questions about Bourne and Black Briar. That was never really the point of the movies. We watch Jason Bourne films for three very simple reasons. One, to see some of the best fight choreography in the business; two, to enjoy grizzled old character actors do shadowy CIA things; and three, to marvel at one of the few remaining franchises that still knows how to give us a good car chase. But do you want to know the real kicker in all of this? If recent reports of Matt Damon only having about 25 lines of dialogue in Jason Bourne are true, then Damon probably just spoke more in a trailer recap than he will in the entire film. Talk about working smarter, not harder.
Jason Bourne pits franchise regulars Matt Damon and Julia Stiles against Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, and Vincent Cassell. It opens in theaters everywhere on Friday.