A classic action franchise is now free to stream in the UK (except its divisive revival)

Do you remember when action blockbusters used to be nail-biting thrillers full of normal people in dangerous situations, rather than forgettable CGI-filled explosion-fests populated by unrealistically-muscle-clad spandex-wearers? A new classic movie franchise will remind you, because it's just been made totally free to stream in the UK.

Tubi is one of the best free streaming services in the UK and it's announced its roster of new movies coming in May. Most of its new additions arrived on the first of the month including the ever-quotable Tom Cruise drama Jerry Maguire, Facebook origin story The Social Network and beloved fairy tale movie The Princess Bride, but perhaps the biggest upload came two days later on Saturday, May 3.

I am, as you can probably tell from the image at the top of this article, talking about the Bourne films. Not just one but four of them: 2002's The Bourne Identity, 2004's The Bourne Supremacy, 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum and 2012's The Bourne Legacy are all now free to watch for anyone in the UK via Tubi. They join the free streamer after leaving the certainly-not-free subscription Sky TV (as well as Now TV).

Live in the US? Identity is on MGM Plus and the other three movies are on Starz. Your Tubi additions this month include Interstellar, David Lynch's Dune and 28 Weeks Later.

If you've somehow never heard of the Bourne franchise, it's an adaptation of a series of books by Robert Ludlum. The first three movies starred Matt Damon as the titular character, a former CIA assassin suffering from amnesia, who ends up fighting his former handlers as he tries to work out who he is.

The trilogy ushered in a new era of gritty action movie and modernist conspiracy thriller, and they remain a classic of noughties action to this day. Doug Liman directed the first movie while Paul Greengrass helmed the latter two.

Movie four, Legacy, does away with Bourne and replaces him with Aaron Cross, played by Jeremy Renner, who is forced to be on the run after the events of Ultimatum oust him as a black ops operative. It's not as fondly remembered as the original trilogy but it has an impressive cast, and was directed by Tony Gilroy who's currently impressing viewers with his Star Wars TV show Andor.

Omitted from the upload list is 2016's Jason Bourne, which brought back Damon to play his iconic character. Despite it making money it wasn't well received, and most fans of the series try to forget it ever came out. This movie remains on Sky TV and Now.

It's been almost 10 years since we saw a Bourne film but that's not for a lack of trying. For years we heard of prospective new movies; All Quiet on the Western Front's Edward Berger was attached for a while, with names floating around like The Bourne Dilemma and Jason Bourne Exodus, however in March 2025 news broke that original owners Universal Pictures lost the rights to the series. The latest news is that a future production is being shopped around to various companies like Netflix, Apple and Paramount.