Matt Damon is an American actor and producer. He has received nominations for and won several honors, such; as three Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and an Emmy Award.
Matt Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 8, 1970. At Lesley University, his mother teaches early childhood education.
His father works working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an engineer (MIT). Matt is the youngest of three boys, with his brothers being named Kyle and Adam.
Matt Damon attended Harvard University, where he majored in English and drama.
He was a member of the improvisational comedy troupe Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) while he attended Harvard, which helped him to develop his talent for acting.
Here are the best Matt Damon movies that you must watch!
Good Will Hunting (1997)
The film begins with Will Hunting (Matt Damon) as a janitor at MIT. He’s a genius and is offered a scholarship to a prestigious university.
However, he chooses not to go to school to avoid being like his father.
Will is an orphan living with his only family, his Aunt Lorraine (Robin Williams). She tries to keep him in line, but he’s always getting into trouble.
One day, Will solves an equation left on the blackboard at MIT, and everyone wants him to come to work for them, but he refuses their offers.
When they both attend court-ordered anger management therapy sessions, he meets Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), a psychologist.
They become friends, and Sean helps Will understand himself better.
He tells him that people can have good qualities inside themselves that are masked by all the bad things they do, which is why people need to take responsibility for themselves.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) is a thriller directed by Anthony Minghella. It is based on an identical novel from 1955. name by Patricia Highsmith.
The story follows Tom Ripley, played by Matt Damon, who is a struggling young man in New York City who is persuaded to travel to Italy and convince Dickie Greenleaf, played by Jude Law, to return home from his travels abroad with Mr. Greenleaf’s girlfriend Marge Sherwood, played by Gwyneth Paltrow.
Tom persuades Dickie to take him on as his assistant, and they both return home to America for Tom to steal Dickie’s identity and take over his life so that he can live a luxurious life with all the benefits that come with it.
Stillwater (2021)
Stillwater (2021) is a sci-fi movie that follows the story of a group of friends in 2021.
The movie starts with a group of friends who are heading to school. They discuss their plans for the summer break and what they will do during it.
They arrive at school and go to their respective classes. One by one, they get messages from an unknown sender about what life would be like in 2021.
One of the friends, Sam, is told that he has been accepted into Stanford University and will have to leave his hometown and his family behind.
He has been offered an internship at NASA and can’t say no because it’s too good an opportunity for him to miss out on.
The other friend, Abby, gets a message from her boyfriend, who she breaks up with because they want different things in life – she wants to focus on her career while he wants to settle down with her.
The movie ends with all four friends receiving their goal.
Behind The Candelabra(2013)
Behind The Candelabra is a dramatized biographical movie based on the life of American entertainer Liberace.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh, it stars Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson.
The movie was written by Richard LaGravenese and based on Thorson’s book, “Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace.”
American drama Behind The Candelabra, which Steven Soderbergh directed in 2013, is a good example.
Richard LaGravenese wrote the screenplay, and the film is based on Théodore Robison’s 2009 biography of the same name.
The movie tells the story of Liberace’s relationship with his live-in lover, Scott Thorson, who later became his employee and heir.
True Grit (2010)
The 1968 Charles Portis novel of the same name inspired the 2010 American Western movie True Grit, Directed, produced, and co-written by the Coen brothers, it stars Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross and Jeff Bridges as Marshal Rooster Cogburn.
Cogburn is hired by Mattie to assist her in locating Tom Chaney, who murdered her father when she was 14.
The story is set in Arkansas in 1875 and begins with a voice-over narration from the adult Mattie Ross (portrayed by Kim Darby).
She relates how she first met Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), describing him as “a big man.” When he first came into Fort Smith to capture Chaney, he asked for a volunteer to accompany him.
The other men laughed at him until he said he would pay them $10 each for their time. The men agreed and later regretted it. The two made their way and nailed the movie.
Invictus (2009)
Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman starred in the South African biographical sports drama Invictus in 2009.
The film is based on the real-life account of Nelson Mandela’s speech at the 1995 Rugby World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The film focuses on how the event helped unite the nation after apartheid.
Clint Eastwood does a fantastic job of portraying Nelson Mandela in this film. He does not sugarcoat Mandela’s personality or make him into something he was not.
He also did a fantastic depiction of what it must have been like under apartheid rule and how hard it was for people to live under it.
The true moving story of how Francois Pienaar, the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, and Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) worked together to bring their nation together is depicted in this film.
In the wake of Apartheid, President Mandela, who was recently elected, is aware that his country is still ethnically and economically divided.
As South Africa’s rugby team prepares to play in the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match, Mandela rallies the team in the belief that he can unite his people via the universal language of sport.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American war drama movie written and directed by Steven Spielberg Robert Rodat.
The film depicts Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks), a United States Army Ranger, and his company’s attempt to find and bring home Private First Class James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon). During that time, he was missing in action Normandy Invasion.
Beginning on June 6, 1944, as the Allies invaded Normandy, soldiers from the 2nd Ranger Battalion under Cpt. Miller engaged in beachfront combat to establish a beachhead. Two brothers lose their lives in the fighting.
Another brother is killed earlier in New Guinea. All three grave telegrams are supposed to be delivered to Mrs. Ryan, their mother, on the same day.
The general’s chief of staff, George C. Marshall, US Army, hears that there is a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, and he decides to send out eight men (Captain Miller and a few members of the 2nd Rangers) to locate him and deliver him to his mother once more.
In Saving Private Ryan, the main characters are Capt. John Miller, Sgt. Horvath, Sgt. Reiben, Pvt. Mellish, Pvt. Jackson, Cpl. Upham and PFC James Francis “Jim” Ryan
The Martian (2015)
Ridley Scott and Matt Damon starred in the 2015 American fiction movie The Martian. The movie shows an astronaut who battles after being erroneously left behind on Mars and considered dead for survival.
It is based on the same-titled book by Andy Weir, published in 2011.
The Martian relates the tale of astronaut Mark Watney who was left for dead after his team assumed he was killed in a storm on Mars.
He must use his wits and scientific inventiveness to figure out how to let Earth know he was still alive.
The Martian is a solid movie with no significant flaws, but it doesn’t impress. If the different posters weren’t quite apparent enough, Matt Damon (Mark) is the Martian.
He is on Mars conducting research with his crew. Jessica Chastain (Melissa), Michael Anthony Pea (Martinez, yep, that name again), and Kate Mara are also on board as crew members (Beth).
They are compelled to leave early because of a sudden storm that attacks them.
The crew loses Mark, and when his comm fails to respond, they are forced to believe he is dead and depart. Well, Mark is still alive, as one might anticipate. On Mars, he is left alone only.
Dogma (1999)
Dogma is a 1999 film directed by Kevin Smith. It was the third film in his View Askewniverse series and the first of three films that form a trilogy with 1999’s Dogma and 2001’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
The story follows two fallen angels, Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) and Azrael (Ben Affleck), who have been sent to Earth to find someone who will prevent the coming apocalypse.
They are assisted by Rufus (Chris Rock), a human who knows all about the impending disaster but has been given a second chance at life because he was not born of a woman.
He has been given one year to live, but if he can find someone to take on his sins, he will be saved from death.
In Kevin Smith’s “Dogma,” the visible church is treated with humor while the inner faith is taken seriously. This irreverent modern Catholic worldview is a result of parochial schools.
It is not far-fetched for individuals in such traditions to picture two fallen angels finding a way to return to heaven.
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
It’s a thriller film featuring Matt Damon as the amnesic Jason Bourne, who believes himself to be a trained assassin.
The film continues the story of CIA assassin Jason Bourne, who has been in hiding for years after he was framed for murdering his girlfriend.
He is finally discovered by the CIA and has to fight out of Moscow, Russia.
2007’s American-German action film The Bourne Ultimatum thriller directed by Paul Greengrass and loosely based on the same-titled book by Robert Ludlum. Matt Damon plays Jason Bourne in the movie and Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons. Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, and George Nolfi wrote the script.
The film also stars Karl Urban, Paddy Considine, David Strathairn, Joan Allen, and Albert Finney.
The third Jason Bourne film series, preceded by “The Bourne Identity” (2002) and “The Bourne Supremacy” (2004), was directed by Paul Greengrass.
Courage Under Fire (1996)
Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan feature in the 1996 American war drama Courage Under Fire, directed by Edward Zwick.
Washington stars as Captain Willard, a career U.S. Army officer who commands an Apache helicopter gunship during the Gulf War of 1991.
Ryan plays Dr. Laura Schlessinger, a U.S. Army psychologist assigned to evaluate Willard’s mental health as he prepares to get an award for his service at Fort Bliss, Texas.
The story unfolds as Willard’s crew receives orders to search for Iraqi SCUD missile launchers in Baghdad after the conclusion of the air campaign against Iraq in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
Where to watch – Apple iTunes, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Redbox, AMC on Demand, Google Play Movies, YouTube, and DIRECTV
The Last Duel (2021)
A futuristic action thriller, The Last Duel (2021) is set in a world where the U.S. President is assassinated, and the Vice President takes over.
The V.P.’s son, a high school senior, has been kidnapped by a terrorist group. They demand the U.S. withdraw from all international treaties to get him back.
The story revolves around the protagonist, an 18-year-old girl named Maya, who works for the Vice President as his assistant.
She helps him solve this crisis and eventually falls in love with him.
Contagion(2011)
The movie is about a deadly virus transmitted via touch with body fluids like blood. It starts in Hong Kong and quickly spread to other countries.
The virus is treated like a pandemic, with the public being told to isolate themselves at home and shun social contact.
The film was released in 2011 and starred Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle, and Matt Damon.
Where to watch – Apple iTunes, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, Redbox, AMC on Demand, Google Play Movies, YouTube, DIRECTV, and Tubi TV
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
In the 2001 American heist movie Ocean’s Eleven, George Clooney, in the Steven Soderbergh-directed film, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck, and Scott Caan.
The film tells the story of Danny Ocean played by George Clooney, who plans to rob three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously.
Danny decides to invite Terry Benedict, a casino owner with a powerful chip. His right-hand man is Rusty Ryan. Rusty recruits two others he knows from his past: Frank Catton and Linus Caldwell.
The Rainmaker (1997)
The Rainmaker is a 1997 legal thriller by John Grisham. It tells the story of Rudy Baylor, a young lawyer who takes on the case of an old man dying of lung cancer caused by asbestos.
The story starts with Rudy Baylor, a law student at Memphis State, who is in a bar and gets offered $5,000 for his opinion about someone’s lawsuit.
He does not know anything about law, but he provides his view anyway, leading to him being offered a job at the prestigious firm in Memphis, where he will be given cases to work on. He accepts the offer and starts working there as an intern.
The first case he works on is for Lettie Quillen, an old woman who lives in West Virginia and has lung cancer because she had been exposed to asbestos from working at a shipyard.
Rudy goes to West Virginia to meet her; she informs him that she has no money and family members left alive, so she wants
The Informant! (2009)
The Informant is a 2009 American espionage thriller directed by Tony Gilroy and starring Matt Damon.
The film tells the story of an FBI agent who poses as another person to stop a Russian spy ring.The story takes place in Boston, Massachusetts.
FBI agent Robert Hanssen has infiltrated the KGB as a double agent for years and his handler, SVR officer Valery Olegovich Molov, is about to be promoted in Moscow. Hanssen’s handler for the FBI is John Sullivan.
For years, Hanssen has provided Molov with classified information from the United States military and intelligence community.
Margaret(2011)
Margaret is a 2011 British drama film directed by Kenneth Lonergan.
The movie portrays an expecting teenager who deals with her mother’s death and her impending marriage as she makes an effort to understand her life.
It stars Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, and Jodie Foster.
The story follows the life of 16-year-old Margaret (Anna Paquin) from Brooklyn, who becomes pregnant after being raped by an older boy at school.
She deals with this and other family problems, including her mother’s impending death (Jodie Foster) from cancer.
Featured Image Source: Variety