With Jason Bourne hitting cinemas and iTunes pushing The Complete Bourne 4 Movie Collection (snappy title), perhaps now would be a good time to reflect on the huge influence The Bourne Identity and its sequels have had on the action genre.
From brutally unflinching hand-to-hand combat to a naturalistic shooting style in muted European settings, and right down to conspiracy-laden themes that reflect the political concerns of the time, traces of the Bourne series can be seen in most modern action films.
Here are six films that have quite clearly been influenced by Matt Damon's iconic amnesiac assassin.
Image: United Artists Corporation
Daniel Craig's first stint as 007 was seen as a radical reinvention of Bond at the time. After the ridiculously empty Pierce Brosnan years, it needed to be. One of the key points of inspiration for this new direction was evidently the early Bourne films. It can be seen in Casino Royale's gritty, more grounded style and its unflinching fight scenes - as well as in the portrayal of a more grizzled, emotionally stunted 007.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Image: Marvel Studios
Even the superhero genre hasn't escaped Bourne's influence. Many people have drawn parallels between Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the classic conspiracy thrillers of the '70s, but we can spot a far more modern source of inspiration. The Marvel film's more muted palette (relatively speaking), lashings of up-close hand-to-hand combat, and story of a supremely capable hero turning on his government paymasters to expose a conspiracy, are pure Bourne.
Image: Paramount Pictures
This reboot of the popular Tom Clancy character formerly played by Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck, and Harrison Ford wears its post-Bourne credentials on its sleeve. From the film's younger, more physically capable hero (played by Chris 'Kirk' Pine) to its grounded story and plausible threat, the film's director and arch-villain Kenneth Branagh is clearly a Bourne fan.
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Liam Neeson's popular action movie - no not that one, the other one - owes a large debt to Bourne. We have the grittily shot European setting (Berlin), the wince-inducing violence from an almost superhumanly capable yet vulnerable protagonist, breathlessly choreographed chase sequences, and at its core a story of an amnesiac man desperately trying to figure out what in blazes is going on.
Image: Focus Features
Troubled hyper-ninja assassin protagonist? Check. Moody European setting? Check. Downbeat, naturalistic cinematography? Check. Hyper-violent hand-to-hand combat? Oh, check-a-plenty. Yep, Hanna is pretty much your prototypical Bourne-influenced action film. It's just that rather than watching a man in his prime dispatching various shady government types, here you get to watch a young girl doing the thwacking and the snapping and the oh-boy-that-really-hurts.
Image: Columbia Pictures
This Angela Jolie vehicle didn't quite prove to be the franchise launcher that it clearly wanted to be. Originally intended for Tom Cruise, Salt tells the tale of an elite CIA agent (Jolie) who ends up on the run from her own government, trying to clear her name. It's got intrigue, it's got fisticuffs, it's got brainwashed super-agents with murky pasts. It's another Bourne-indebted film.
