Matt Damon has an odd tendency to find himself playing characters in dire need of an elaborate rescue, essentially creating an entire catalog of films where he needs saving. A recurring star of dramas, action movies, and award-season biopics alike, Matt Damon is a sweetheart star that few audiences have a negative opinion of. His likable charm makes him perfect for characters in dire need of some kind of extraction, and some of Matt Damon’s best movies feature him being saved somehow.

Saving Matt Damon movies tend to come in one of two flavors: military films and science fiction. That being said, it’s very possible that Matt Damon’s role in Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey adaptation will add a brand-new type of film to the Matt Damon rescue catalog, expanding the niche sub-genre into the sword and sandal arena. In any case, Matt Damon is usually great at portraying someone lovable enough that the U.S. government or anyone else would justify funneling billions of dollars into his escape from a dangerous situation.

8

Elysium

Strikes Matt Damon down with radiation poisoning

Directed by gritty science fiction visionary Neill Blomkamp of Chappie and District 9 fame, Elysium is the lesser-seen of his trio that re-imagines life on earth with his trademark pH๏τorealistic digital effects. In Elysium, the entirety of Earth has been turned into a mᴀssive slum thanks to ongoing ecocide and economic disaster, with the wealthy elites of the world escaping the planet’s surface to live abundantly with technology in the тιтular space station. Matt Damon plays a down-on-his-luck parolee who needs to smuggle himself in for treatment after being exposed to a lethal dose of radiation.

Elysium is a unique entry in the world of Saving Matt Damon movies due to the more existential nature of Matt Damon’s rescue here. This time, the hostile environment Damon needs extraction from is the Earth itself, with the terminal radiation poisoning providing a gripping ticking time bomb narrative that drives the slick sci-fi action laden with exoskeletons and spaceships. The film is also notable for having one of the more bittersweet endings to a Saving Matt Damon movie, leaving things on a hopeful but poignant note for humanity’s future.

7

тιтan A.E.

Allows Matt Damon to evacuate from a doomed earth

Animated by the legendary Don Bluth and stacked with a surprising cast bursting with star power, it’s amazing that тιтan A.E. isn’t more of a household name. The lovingly hand-drawn space opera posits Matt Damon as Cale, the son of a gifted scientist who makes a valuable scientific discovery that attracts the attention of a hostile alien race. Evacuated off the planet along with a mᴀssive swathe of the human population, Cale grows up to realize that the keepsake family heirloom his father gifted to him is actually a genetically-encoded holographic map that just might lead to humanity’s salvation.

This time around, Matt Damon’s character is lucky enough to be secured a valuable spot on one of the few life-vessels tasked with shipping the human species out among the stars in order to avoid the wrath of the evil Drej alien race. It makes sense that Cale is able to get such a valuable ticket to safety, but considering he’s the son of an esteemed scientist, it makes sense narratively. Matt Damon’s rescue may be resolved early on in the film, but he ends up stranded in the hostile space station New Bangkok one more time before the credits roll.

6

Courage Under Fire

Airlifts Matt Damon after his helicopter is sH๏τ down

The first of several military films involving a Matt Damon rescue, Courage Under Fire is a more traditional fare when it comes to the Saving Matt Damon subgenre. Damon only plays a minor supporting role in the film, being one of the many military personnel interviewed by Denzel Washington’s Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling, a guilt-ridden former soldier charged with reviewing the story of a potential posthumous Medal of Honor recipient. Damon’s character expresses high praise for the recipient in question, describing how she was able to rescue him.

In Courage Under Fire, Matt Damon has already been saved by the time the events of the film take place, his actual rescue being orchestrated via flashback. Damon’s Specialist Andrew Ilario is part of a Blackhawk crew who are sH๏τ down during the Gulf War, saved by the heroic Captain Karen Walden after her Medivac crew manages to fend off an enemy tank with clever ingenuity. Even when he isn’t the main character, Matt Damon still manages to find ways to be in need of critical aid in the movies he appears in.

5

Green Zone

Matt Damon is held captive by the Iraqi army

A very topical film, Green Zone examines the bogus hunt for weapons of mᴀss destruction in Iraq as ordered by George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11. Matt Damon plays chemical warfare specialist and Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, who becomes frustrated after supposed intelligence on the whereabouts of WMDs continuously leads him astray. Before long, Miller comes to the sickening realization that the supposed bombs the United States government was intent on finding in Iraq are of little consequence, and the whole operation is just an excuse to meddle in the region’s politics.

Considering Green Zone is based off of a true story, it’s amazing that the film still finds time to put Matt Damon in enough peril to necessitate a rescue. At one point, Miller is held hostage by Iraqi general Mohammed Al-Rawi, only bailed out by the very same special forces operatives he was previously clashing with over the nature of his mission. Green Zone might treat Matt Damon’s rescue as an afterthought in the shadow of the bigger picture, but it still technically counts as a movie that features him being saved from grave danger.

4

Good Will Hunting

Matt Damon needs saving from his own self-destructive tendencies

In being the only Saving Matt Damon movie in which the danger Damon’s character needs to be rescued from is his own self-destructive habits, Good Will Hunting stands alone. The film introduces Damon as Will Hunting, an ex-convict and janitor working at a MIT who is a secret math prodigy, anonymously solving infamously difficult math equations left on the blackboard of a professor as a standing challenge. When his talents are discovered, Will has to be rescued from his own insecurities and arduous personality.

Admittedly, Good Will Hunting is a bit of a stretch to qualify for a movie in which Matt Damon is rescued, as Will Hunting is never really in any immediate physical danger. But in a way, some form of solace or support from one’s own worst impulses is a far more relatable struggle for many audiences, and the film certainly qualifies as a story centered solely around the rehabilitation of Matt Damon’s character. If nothing else, Good Will Hunting proves that rescue can come in all kinds of forms.

3

Interstellar

Matt Damon is stranded on a time-warping planet

One of Christopher Nolan’s greatest films, Interstellar is a science fiction epic that weaponizes the time-honored tradition of a Matt Damon rescue in a unique way. The film centers on humanity’s search for a new home among the stars after a nonspecific disaster befalls the Earth, ruining agriculture across the planet. In their decade-spanning search for suitable new home planets, astronauts Coop and Amelia come across a variety of strange, hostile alien worlds, including one featuring Matt Damon.

A late-stage twist villain for Interstellar, Matt Damon’s Dr. Mann is revealed to have falsified his colonization data so that the planet he’s stranded on will appear valuable, ensuring him a ticket off. This is a hilarious use of the tried and true Matt Damon rescue, turning it into a dastardly plot that severely hampers Coop’s mission to find a new home for humanity. That being said, it’s unclear as to why Dr. Mann feels the need to kill his peers in order to ensure his escape, as if the crew would have abandoned him after arriving otherwise.

2

The Martian

Matt Damon is left to fend for himself on Mars

Another Matt Damon space rescue, The Martian is a much sunnier and more upbeat version of similar events to Dr. Mann’s escape in Interstellar. Matt Damon is Mark Whatey, a botanist astronaut in the near-future on one of the earliest manned missions to Mars. When a freak sand storm forces the crew of the mission to evacuate, Mark is presumed ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and left behind, only to later reveal that he managed to survive the disaster alone. Isolated for over a year, Mark has to find a way to survive on an inhospitable desert planet where nothing grows.

Matt Damon is so likable in The Martian that it isn’t difficult to believe that his crew would quickly defy orders from the U.S. government in order to take a dangerous chance on turning their spaceship around to retrieve him. It’s endlessly entertaining to watch the trials and tribulations of Whatey’s survival on the red planet, as Damon becomes a spacefaring version of MacGyver. As classic as a Saving Matt Damon movie gets, The Martian is close to being the crown jewel of the bizarre niche subgenre.

1

Saving Private Ryan

The foundation of the Saving Matt Damon genre

Of course, there would be no Saving Matt Damon movies without the success of Saving Private Ryan. Set amid the throes of World War II, Matt Damon stars as the тιтular soldier, the sole survivor of four brothers deployed to the infamously ᴅᴇᴀᴅly Omaha Beach landing during the Invasion of Normandy. In an effort to spare the family tree from being completely pruned, the U.S. Army goes to great lengths to save Private Ryan, ᴀssembling a detachment of soldiers for that sole purpose.

One of the greatest war epics of all time, Saving Private Ryan is a harrowing tale that exemplifies just how dehumanizing and morale-eroding modern warfare can be. It’s a nice touch that Matt Damon didn’t go through boot camp in Saving Private Ryan, unlike his co-stars, which ensured a certain level of behind-the-scenes animosity and exclusion would seep through into the main cast’s performance. A masterclass in filmmaking and tension, Saving Private Ryan established just how good Matt Damon is as a Damon-in-distress.