The 20 most memorable Matt Damon roles

Damon had been in a few movies before Courage Under Fire, but this was a movie headlined by Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan. Not only that, Damon’s character plays a key role in the film. For many, it was their first time seeing the young actor, or at least the first time he made a significant impression.

After Courage Under Fire, Damon got to headline a film of his own, which was similar to his previous film. By that, we mean it’s a middle-of-the-road, solid drama for adults that they don’t really make anymore. This one is based on a John Grisham novel and was directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Damon’s career would never be the same after Good Will Hunting . He didn’t merely star in the movie. Damon also co-wrote the film with Ben Affleck. The two won a screenplay Oscar for their work and given their relatively young ages at the time, it looked like the sign of a promising career for both of them. Damon has primarily stayed in front of the camera, but he’ll always have his Oscar for a script that started as a play he wrote in college.

Rounders has become a bit of a cult favorite, mostly among dudes who love poker and gambling. Before the big poker boom of the 2000s — shout out to Chris Moneymaker — the game was a little more underground. Rounders is steeped in that world. Damon plays the main character, something of an audience surrogate. Of course, John Malkovich and his insane accent steal the show.

It’s not the biggest role, but it is the titular role. Damon plays the titular Private Ryan, who Tom Hanks and his crew are looking for. Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic is considered one of the best war movies. While Damon may not be involved in the big D-Day invasion scene, he makes his mark on the film.

Damon didn’t exactly make his name playing saints, but Thomas Ripley takes things to a new level. He’s a sociopathic social climber and a pathological liar. While Dickie Greenleaf may have been a rich jerk, it’s hard not to feel bad for him once Tom takes an interest in him.

Damon had been in a couple of Kevin Smith films before this one, though he was not as involved in the View Askewniverse as his good buddy Affleck. We’re going with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back because of his cameo as himself. The movie isn’t great, but Damon making an appearance shooting “Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season” is a bit of fun.

Movie stars. Glamorous locations. Fun, funny heist hijinks. That’s what the Ocean’s films are all about. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Robert, and many more stars pack these movies to the brim. Damon is among those stars, beginning the series as a bit of an outsider brought into the pack. While Steven Soderbergh’s films make up a trilogy, consider this entry representative of all three of them.

Here is another movie that represents all its sequels. Hey, we couldn’t make a list of 20 memorable roles and then have seven of them within two film series. The Bourne Identity legitimately changed action movies. It changed how James Bond operates. Damon began the first film as an amnesiac with a certain set of skills, starting a journey into espionage and action that churned out a ton of success. Also, that Jeremy Renner spinoff.

Weirdly, Damon’s cameo in EuroTrip gets mentioned an awful lot. It’s arguably the most memorable thing about the movie. He plays Donny, the frontman of a band that sings a song called “Scotty Doesn’t Know,” which happens to be about the main character’s girlfriend having an affair with Donny.

Damon goes back to his Boston accent work for the movie that finally won Martin Scorsese an Oscar. The Departed can be a little generic as a crime movie at times, but by and large, it’s a really good film and a gripping cops-and-criminals thriller. Damon gets out-Bostoned by Mark Wahlberg, but what man wouldn’t?

This is an underrated film in the Damon oeuvre. He reunited with Soderbergh for a movie much less glamorous than Ocean’s Eleven. No, this movie is about a seemingly humdrum man who blows the lid off a big but boring scandal. There’s much more to Damon’s Mark Whitacre than meets the eye. His instability raises questions about his reliability as an informant.

It felt for sure like Invictus would win an Oscar or two. Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela! It fell short on that front, but Freeman and Damon made an impact. We’ve heard that Damon’s South African accent is as accurate as you will find from somebody who doesn’t have roots in the area.

Jeff Bridges chews a ton of scenery in the Coen Brothers’ adaptation of True Grit. However, Damon (and Hailee Steinfeld) are able to make the most of the oxygen left in the room in their respective turns. Damon plays a bit of a buffoonish character, but he can provide that comic relief well.

This is a movie that a ton of people have watched in recent years for reasons that feel equally explicable and inexplicable. Contagion is something of an ensemble piece, but some members of that ensemble shine. Or, in Gwyneth Paltrow’s case, sweat. Damon is one of the biggest names, though, and has a sizable role in this disease disaster flick.

Cameron Crowe’s film is middling at best. And yet, it’s one of the more memorable films in Damon’s filmography. Is that because the movie is called We Bought a Zoo? Of course. That’s a memorable name for a movie. It ensures we will never forget when Damon played a character who bought a zoo.

Christopher Nolan is the rare director that manages to make big blockbusters not based on existing properties. He is the draw. Well, he and the actors he manages to get for his movies. Interstellar is a mind-bender of a space (and spacetime) adventure, but it made a ton of money and featured an (inter)stellar cast, including Damon.

Directors love to send Damon to outer space! In back-to-back years, he was in movies that featured space travel. As successful as Interstellar was, The Martian was even bigger. It was a blockbuster, critically adored, and got Oscar nominations. The Golden Globes were big fans, too, even if they somehow classified it as a comedy.

Damon is one of the rare movie stars today that hasn’t gotten roped into the superhero world. That is, except for a little fun cameo in Thor: Ragnarok. In an uncredited role, Damon plays an actor in Asgard playing Loki in a play. There’s no mistaking him for Damon, though. It’s a delightful moment in Marvel’s funniest movie.

Joke all you want. Call it the “ultimate dad movie.” Ford vs. Ferrari was a big hit. It got an Oscar nomination for best picture. Damon plays Carroll Shelby in this story of Ford trying to build a car that could beat Ferrari at Le Mans. He goes toe-to-toe with Christian Bale, and both do fine work in a solid, distinguished film.