Bourne Watching Order

This watching order is designed to give an outline of the Bourne movie and television franchise. It explains what order to watch the Bourne movies and looks at any connections between them. It also explains how the Treadstone TV series fits into the Bourne universe.

Bourne Trilogy Watching Order

The Bourne universe of films starts with the original Bourne Trilogy. This is the start of the franchise, so a Bourne Trilogy watching order does not require watching anything else first.

The Bourne trilogy proceeds in a very straightforward manner. The Bourne Identity is first, The Bourne Supremacy is second, and The Bourne Ultimatum is third. Each movie builds on the movie that came before it, creating a large narrative that stretches through the full trilogy. For this reason, we highly recommend starting with The Bourne Identity and going forward. We do not recommend watching The Bourne Supremacy or The Bourne Ultimatum without watching the preceding films first.

After the Bourne Trilogy

After the Bourne trilogy, the Bourne franchise becomes a little less straightforward.

This starts with the release of The Bourne Legacy in 2012. This film is distinct in that it does not star Jason Bourne and, instead, highlights a new character. However, The Bourne Legacy still references the exploits of Jason Bourne and has direct ties to The Bourne Ultimatum. For this reason, we suggest watching the Bourne Trilogy before watching The Bourne Legacy.

The next film in the franchise is Jason Bourne, released in 2016. This is a more direct followup to the original Bourne Trilogy that brings the focus back to Jason Bourne. Essentially, it continues Jason Bourne's story from the end of The Bourne Ultimatum. Despite being released after The Bourne Legacy, there are few ties between Jason Bourne and The Bourne Legacy. Because of this, viewers can easily watch Jason Bourne without watching The Bourne Legacy, but should still watch the Bourne Trilogy first.

The latest release in the franchise is the Treadstone television series, released in 2019. This series shifts the focus of the franchise, once again, away from Jason Bourne. Instead, it focuses on the government conspiracies surrounding "Operation Treadstone", which were introduced in the Bourne Trilogy. Because of this, we recommend watching the Bourne Trilogy before watching Treadstone.

All Watching Orders