8 Near-Perfect Spy Thrillers For Fans Of Jack Ryan & Jason Bourne
Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.
Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."
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Jack Ryan and Jason Bourne fans better get ready for these eight spy thriller movies that are near-perfect for different reasons and merit a watch. Over the past few years, the Jack Ryan franchise has had a surge in popularity. That comes from the John Krasinski chapter of the spy franchise, with The Office alum playing the Tom Clancy character on Prime Video.
First, Krasinski led Prime Video's Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series for four seasons. Earlier in 2026, he brought his iteration of the character back, with Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War being the first movie in the Jack Ryan franchise to star the actor. Given its success on Prime Video's streaming charts, there is a good chance that Krasinski will return for more Jack Ryan movies.
As for the Jason Bourne franchise, its last movie was 2016's Jason Bourne, which saw Matt Damon return to the title role after a detour with Jeremy Renner in the 2012 spin-off The Bourne Legacy. Since then, the franchise has been dormant, though Damon has stated in 2026 that he is still working on starring in another movie as Jason Bourne.
Central Intelligence Agency · Analyst Assessment Jack Ryan “The world is gray, Jack. Not black and white.”
Eight questions spanning all four seasons of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Prime Video. Every wrong answer is designed to look right — you’ll need real analyst-level knowledge to go eight for eight.
SR CIA Analyst Assessment Division 8 questions · 3 min read
🎯OpsBoots on ground
🔍IntelFollow the money
🎭CastKey players
💣ThreatsGlobal danger
📖LegacyTom Clancy canon
01
In the first season of Jack Ryan, analyst Ryan discovers a pattern of suspicious financial transfers that leads him to track down a dangerous Islamic terrorist. What is the antagonist’s name?
✓ Correct! Mousa bin Suleiman (played by Ali Suliman) is the Season 1 antagonist. A former resistance fighter radicalized by tragedy, he orchestrates a massive terrorist attack that Jack must stop from his desk at T-FAD.
✗ Incorrect. The answer is Mousa bin Suleiman. Played by Ali Suliman, Suleiman is a complex villain whose radicalization is traced back to the loss of his family — making him one of the show’s most compelling antagonists.
02
Before becoming a CIA analyst, Jack Ryan served in the U.S. military and survived a traumatic helicopter crash in Afghanistan. In which branch did he serve?
✓ Correct! Jack Ryan was a U.S. Marine — consistent with both the Prime Video series and Tom Clancy’s original novels. His helicopter crash in Afghanistan left him with a severe back injury and PTSD, driving him to intelligence work.
✗ Incorrect. The answer is the U.S. Marine Corps. In both the show and the novels, Jack Ryan is a former Marine whose combat experience and devastating helicopter crash in Afghanistan shaped his transition to the CIA.
03
Season 2 takes Jack Ryan to a politically unstable South American nation embroiled in corruption, an election crisis, and a potential nuclear weapons conspiracy. Which country?
✓ Correct! Season 2 is set primarily in Venezuela, where Jack uncovers evidence of illegal arms shipments and a potential nuclear threat linked to President Nicolás Reyes. The season tackles political instability and electoral corruption.
✗ Incorrect. The answer is Venezuela. Jack Ryan discovers satellite imagery of illegal weapons shipments in the Venezuelan jungle, pulling him into a conspiracy involving the country’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Reyes.
04
Wendell Pierce plays Jack Ryan’s CIA colleague, mentor, and eventual close friend throughout the series. What is his character’s name?
✓ Correct! James Greer (Wendell Pierce) starts as Jack’s skeptical boss at T-FAD and becomes his most trusted ally. The show reimagines the character from the novels — originally a white admiral — as a Black Muslim CIA officer with a complex past.
✗ Incorrect. The answer is James Greer. Wendell Pierce’s portrayal reimagines the classic Tom Clancy character as a Muslim CIA officer with deep field experience, creating one of the show’s most important dynamics with Jack.
05
In Season 3, Jack Ryan goes on the run across Europe after being framed. The conspiracy he uncovers is connected to a secret Cold War–era Russian project. What is it called?
✓ Correct! The Sokol Project (“sokol” meaning “falcon” in Russian) is a secret plan to destabilize the West and restore Russian dominance. Jack goes rogue across Europe to expose the conspiracy before it triggers a global crisis.
✗ Incorrect. The answer is the Sokol Project. Named after the Russian word for “falcon,” Sokol is a Cold War–era plan to undermine Western alliances from within — and Season 3’s main conspiracy that forces Jack to go on the run.
06
At the beginning of the series, Jack Ryan is a desk analyst at the CIA specializing in a specific field. What is his area of expertise?
✓ Correct! Jack works in T-FAD — the Terror Finance and Arms Division — tracking money flows to identify terrorist networks. It’s his financial analysis skills that first flag Suleiman’s suspicious transfers in the series premiere.
✗ Incorrect. The answer is terror finance and economics. Jack works in T-FAD (Terror Finance and Arms Division), where his ability to trace financial patterns is what originally uncovers the Suleiman threat in Season 1.
07
In the final season, Jack Ryan confronts a rogue CIA faction and a drug cartel while investigating a criminal network stretching from Nigeria to which Southeast Asian country?
✓ Correct! Season 4 follows Jack from Nigeria to Myanmar, where he uncovers a massive drug trafficking operation intertwined with a corrupt faction within the CIA itself. The final season brings the series to a thrilling, globe-spanning conclusion.
✗ Incorrect. The answer is Myanmar (Burma). The final season sends Jack from the streets of Lagos, Nigeria, to the jungles of Myanmar, where he must dismantle a drug empire and root out corruption within his own agency.
08
In Tom Clancy’s original novels — which inspired the Prime Video series — Jack Ryan eventually rises through the government to hold the highest possible office. Which position does he ultimately reach?
✓ Correct! In the novels, Jack Ryan becomes President of the United States after a catastrophic attack on the Capitol during a joint session of Congress. He serves as a reluctant but principled leader across several books in the series.
✗ Incorrect. The answer is President of the United States. In Clancy’s “Executive Orders,” Ryan ascends to the presidency after a devastating attack. He does also serve as CIA Deputy Director and National Security Advisor along the way.
Assessment Complete Your CIA Analyst Clearance Score
🕵️
/ 8
This briefing has been filed. The Agency thanks you for your service, analyst.
As both of those spy thriller franchises take a leave of absence while they work out where and how to return, fans of the genre have a few movies to help make the wait easier. These include other major spy franchises, standalone releases, and all kinds of movie stars. For Jason Bourne and Jack Ryan fans, these eight near-perfect spy thriller movies are the perfect match.
8 Zero Dark Thirty
The entries on the list are in no specific order. That said, Zero Dark Thirty is a perfect movie to start with. The film focuses on the intense investigation that went on over nearly a decade to find and kill Osama bin Laden after the harrowing 9/11 attacks. Jessica Chastain stars as Maya, the CIA analyst at the center of it all.
In that sense, Zero Dark Thirty connects to Jack Ryan for fans of that franchise. After all, before he got to go on the field, Jack Ryan was a CIA analyst. Zero Dark Thirty holds a stellar 91% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. The political thriller received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay.
7 Skyfall
Skyfall is one of the biggest spy movies to date and perhaps the most memorable of Daniel Craig's tenure as James Bond. Given the character's role as the greatest spy in all fiction, Bond's highest-grossing movie, with $1.1 billion worldwide, just had to be present. Skyfall boasts a fantastic 92% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, the 2nd highest for Craig's 007.
Skyfall truly has it all. From a star-studded ensemble with names like Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes to perhaps the James Bond franchise's most iconic song to explosive set pieces, and more. Craig perfectly explored a complex and layered Bond, with Skyfall's emotional beats hitting as hard as its large-scale action sequences, of which there are many. The movie has Bond look into attacks on MI6.
6 Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor stars one of the most iconic leading men Hollywood has ever had. The spy thriller followed Robert Redford as Joe Turner, a CIA analyst who goes by the codename Condor. While not exactly a field operative, Condor is thrust into action when he comes into work one day to find his entire team murdered.
Jack Ryan fans will once again find a connection with that hit franchise in the form of Redford's frenetic Three Days of the Condor, which also features actors like Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow, Faye Dunaway, and more. Based on the 1974 novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady, Redford's Three Days of the Condor has a high 88% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes.
5 Spy Game
What better to follow Three Days of the Condor than another Redford spy thriller? In 2001's Spy Game, the legendary actor joins none other than Brad Pitt as CIA operatives running against time. Redford's Nathan Muir is on his last day before retirement, when his former mentee, Pitt's Tom Bishop, is captured for espionage in China and sentenced to die in 24 hours.
To protect the United States' relationship with China, the CIA has no problem letting Bishop take the fall, but Redford's character has something to say about it. This is a movie with electric performances from its leads that explores the comings and goings of their dynamic. Spy Game is much better than its 64% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests.
4 The Amateur
The Amateur is the most recent release on the list. It is another story of a character who starts the film with a desk job and goes on to become a true action thriller legend. In The Amateur's case, things take a dark turn when Charlie Heller's wife is murdered. That sends Rami Malek's character down a path of revenge.
The CIA cryptographer then proceeds to blackmail Holt McCallany's Director Alex Moore with incriminating info. As a result, he gets his wish, being given the resources and training to go after the men who killed his wife alone. The Amateur is a gritty and star-studded spy thriller, with actors like Jon Bernthal, Rachel Brosnahan, Laurence Fishburne, and Caitríona Balfe. The Amateur has a high 87% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
3 Black Bag
Black Bag was also released in 2025, the same year as The Amateur. The spy thriller was directed by Steven Soderbergh and focuses on Michael Fassbender's George T. Woodhouse. The British intelligence officer is given his hardest mission yet, as he must not only go through a list of possible traitors, but also investigate his wife, who is among them.
Playing that key character is Cate Blanchett, with George's wife, Kathryn St. Jean, being their organization's Head of Signals Operations. Black Bag is a spy thriller masterpiece as Fassbender and Blanchett put up a suspenseful, dramatic, and sharp game of cat-and-mouse as the married couple. Black Bag boasts a near-perfect 96% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes.
2 Casino Royale
The last James Bond movie on the list is Craig's Casino Royale. Much like how Denis Villeneuve's upcoming Bond movie needs to reinvent the franchise, Casino Royale had to start a bold new era. It passed the test with flying colors, as Craig debuted a Bond who was more gritty, but at the same time vulnerable, than the ones before him.
Casino Royale stands at a magnificent 94% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, with audiences giving the spy thriller movie a 90% to go with that. Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre made for a villain who was grounded and menacing, leaving behind some of the goofier chapters of the Bond franchise. For Jason Bourne fans, Casino Royale changed course for the 007 franchise after The Bourne Identity defined the spy thriller tone of the era as darker and more mature.
1 Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Finally, Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible franchise could not be absent, and it is represented here by its best movie, Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible – Fallout. The spy thriller is as close to perfection in the genre as one will ever find. Its action sequences are mesmerizing, with Cruise attempting some truly shocking stunts as the set pieces keep one-upping each other.
Fallout's cast was the franchise firing on all cylinders, including names like Henry Cavill, who was perfectly bounced off Cruise in the film as the imposing August Walker, and Vanessa Kirby, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and more. Fallout also has great emotional depth, with the return of Michelle Monaghan's Julia being key to Ethan Hunt's growth. It is the ideal spy thriller to end the list, and a fitting choice for Jack Ryan and Jason Bourne fans.
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Jack Ryan
- Created by
- Tom Clancy
- First Film
- The Hunt for Red October
- Latest Film
- Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
- First TV Show
- Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan
- Latest TV Show
- Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan
- First Episode Air Date
- August 31, 2018
The Jack Ryan franchise is a series of political action-thriller films and a television series based on the character created by Tom Clancy. Jack Ryan is a CIA analyst who often finds himself thrust into dangerous field assignments, dealing with geopolitical threats and international espionage. The franchise is known for its portrayal of complex global conflicts and has seen multiple actors take on the role of Jack Ryan, making it one of the most enduring and adaptable series in the spy genre.
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- Movie(s)
- The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Legacy, Jason Bourne
- TV Show(s)
- Treadstone
- First Film
- The Bourne Identity
- Genres
- Action, Thriller, Drama
- Cast
- Matt Damon, Jeremy Renner, Franka Potente, Julia Stiles, Brian Cox, Gabriel Mann, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Rachel Weisz, Joan Allen, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Jeremy Irvine
- Character(s)
- Jason Bourne, Aaron Cross, Marie Helena Kreutz, Nicky Parsons, Ward Abbott, Danny Zorn, Alexander Conklin, The Professor, Nykwanna Wombosi, Dr. Marta Shearing, Pamela Landy, CIA Director Robert Dewey, Heather Lee, John Randolph
The Bourne Franchise is an action-thriller series conceived by Robert Ludlum in the novel series. Film adaptations began with The Bourne Identity in 2002, with Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, a man who, after regaining his memories, learns that he was a top CIA assassin, with his former employer trying to kill him to tie up loose ends.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.