James Bond and Mission Impossible were the spy genre until the Bourne franchise hit the big screen in 2002. Jason Bourne became part of pop culture and an action blockbuster hit that focused on fighting sequences rather than CGI. The movies were based on Robert Ludlum’s novels of the same name that center around a man who was found at sea and almost dead. When the man is finally awake, he does not remember what his name is and how he got there, but had an extraordinary talent in fighting, language, and self-defense. He has a passport with the name Jason Bourne, and sets out to discover who Jason is and why he’s being pursued by assassins.
Ludlum wrote three Bourne novels that were turned into films and starred Matt Damon as Bourne himself. The series included The Bourne Identity. The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. A fourth movie was made and set in the same universe, but starred Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross who was experimented on much like Jason Bourne. A fifth and final movie hit theaters in 2016, with Damon returning to his iconic role of Jason Bourne. Bourne might not have as many movies as James Bond or Mission Impossible, but as a fan of the spy thriller genre, it’s hard not to fall in love with a rogue agent who aims to take down a corrupt CIA. Here’s a character breakdown of the Bourne franchise.
Vincent Cassel as The Asset
Vincent Cassel plays the Blackbriar assassin known as The Asset in Jason Bourne. The Asset works for the Iron Hand program until he was captured in Syria and tortured due to what Bourne had done in exposing Treadstone. He harbors a grudge against Bourne and will do anything to get his revenge on him.
Alicia Vikander as Heather Lee
Heather Lee is the Head of Cyber Ops in the CIA in Jason Bourne, and played by Alicia Vikander. Vikander tells Film Ink that her character leads the hunt for former CIA operative Jason Bourne and his handler Nicky Parsons. Heather was hoping to bring Bourne back to the agency and use him as an operative but was prepared to kill him if he refused his offer.
Tommy Lee Jones as Robert Dewey
Tommy Lee Jones plays the corrupt Director of the CIA, Robert Dewey, in Jason Bourne. Dewey had been serving the agency for many years and has a connection to Bourne since 1999. He was the one responsible for ordering a hit on Bourne's father becoming the reason Bourne joins Treadstone. Dewey was also created the surveillance program "Iron Hand."
Edward Norton as Colonel Eric Byer
Edward Norton becomes Colonel Eric Byer in the spin-off The Bourne Legacy. Byer is the Director of National Research Assay Group, which is a research and development branch for the D.O.D. where operatives have been created for government agencies. Byer's programs were going to be exposed as Treadstone continued to be investigated, so he attempted to kill all of his genetically altered black operatives.
Rachel Weisz as Dr. Marta Shearing
Rachel Weisz plays Dr. Marta Shearing who's a biochemist for the Outcome project. Weisz tells Collider that her character is very real as she's just a scientist and not superhuman. She is left alive after a failed assassination attempt by Eric Byer. Cross saves the doctor to help him get medication to stop his mind from degrading.
Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross
Private First Class Kenneth James Kitsom, also known as Aaron Cross, is played by Jeremy Renner. Cross is an operative for the Department of Defense program Operation Outcome where participants have been genetically altered to be better killers. He goes to Dr. Shearing hoping she can help him from losing his intellect due to his participation in Operation Outcome.
Scott Glenn as Ezra Kramer
Scott Glenn plays USN Admiral Ezra Kramer in The Bourne Ultimatum. Kramer is the director of the CIA and planned to pin everything on Pamela Landy. Landy is able to get the upper hand on him by faxing documents about Operation Blackbriar and Treadstone to Washington and proving that Kramer, Hirsch, and Vosen were using government assets for their own agenda.
David Strathairn as Noah Vosen
Noah Vosen is a former USAF Lieutenant General and the Deputy Director played by David Strathairn in The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Legacy. He is also the Head of Operation Blackbriar and orders an asset to kill a journalist who's about to blow his whole operation. Vosen also finds out that the journalist is meeting Bourne which becomes a bigger problem for him.
Karl Urban as Kirill
Karl Urban becomes the Russian Secret Service assassin, Kirill, in The Bourney Supremacy. He works for the Russian oil tycoon Yuri Gretkov. Kirill is sent by Yuri to take out Bourne since he used Bourne's fingerprints for a frame job. The job was to steal the "Neski Files" and the $3 million that Pamela Landy was going to pay for it.
Tom Gallop as Tom Cronin
Tom Gallop plays Tom Cronin, who is Pamela Landy's loyal assistant in The Bourney Surpemacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. He is skeptical about Bourne and assumes that he is a killer like everyone is saying. However, Cronin sticks by Landy even when she senses that there is something more going on with Bourne that what the agency is telling her.
Gabriel Mann as Danny Zorn
Danny Zorn is played by Gabriel Mann in The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. He was first seen as Alexander Conklin's Treadstone assistant. Conklin is then murdered by Ward Abbott, and Zorn becomes Abbott's assistant.
Joan Allen as Pamela Landy
Joan Allen is Deputy Director Pamela Landy within the Bourne franchise. She is a task chief officer in the CIA who becomes involved in the Bourne case when he is framed for stealing documents she was paying for. Landy quickly becomes suspicious of her co-workers and starts to see Bourne as more of a friend than the enemy.
Brian Cox as Ward Abbott
Brian Cox played Ward Abbott in The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy. Abbott is the CIA section chief who was Alexander Conklin's superior for Operation Treadstone. He tries to get the CIA seed money back in The Bourne Supremacy by using Yuri Gretkov and using Jason Bourne as a patsy.
Chris Cooper as Alexander Conklin
Chris Cooper plays Alexander Conklin in The Bourne Identity. He was a corrupt Special Activities Division Coordinator and Chief of Operations in Europe. Conklin directly oversaw the operatives who ran special ops for Operation Treadstone during the time that Bourne had amnesia and disappeared.
Franka Potente as Marie Kreutz
Franka Potente portrays Marie Kreutz in The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy, who becomes an accomplice to Bourne. Kreutz first gets involved with Bourne when he offers her cash to drive him to Paris. She quickly gets enveloped in his world of espionage and slowly starts to fall for him. Kreutz, in the second film, is killed by Kirill during his attempt to get Bourne.
Julia Stiles Nicolette “Nicky” Parsons
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Nicky Parsons is played by Julia Stiles throughout the Bourne franchise. Parsons is first seen as the handler for the operatives in the Treadstone project. She was recruited by the CIA after college and now poses as a student in Paris to coordinate logistics for field agents and monitor their mental health.
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne
Matt Damon is Jason Bourne. Bourne is a former CIA assassin of a black ops group called Operation Treadstone. He defects after being unable to kill an African dictator in front of children. The CIA saw this as a betrayal and attempted to kill him. After being shot in the back twice, Bourne wakes up with no memory of who he is and goes on a mission to get it back.
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