Jason Bourne is a fictional character in a series of novels by Robert Ludlum and later Eric Van Lustbader, who picks up where Ludlum left off. He first appeared in The Bourne Identity (1980). This novel was adapted for both television in 1988 and a film by the same name in 2002 – see The Bourne Identity (film). The character, currently, has since been in three more novels and one other film

Real Name: David Webb

Aliases: Delta One, Jason Bourne, Cain, John Michael Kane, Charles Briggs, George P. Washburn

Jason Bourne has a long and mysterious past which continues to torture him throughout his lifetime. His real name is David Webb, a career foreign service officer and a specialist in Far Eastern affairs. Before the events in Identity, Webb had a wife named Dao and two children named Joshua and Alyssa in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. During the Vietnam War, an aircraft strayed into Cambodia dropping two bombs and strafed a spot near the Mekong River, unintentionally killing Webb's wife and two children. Due to Cambodia's neutrality in the war, every nation disclaimed the plane, since no one wanted to be responsible for the incident. Having nothing left, Webb went to Saigon and trained for a special, top secret unit called Medusa (many years later the unit and its actions would still remain top secret.) At this point, Webb was known as Delta, his codename within the unit.

In the films, the character of Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon) is a much more simplified character as opposed to the one portrayed in the novels. He was a CIA assassin working on a job when he had a sudden attack of conscience, failed his mission, and was shot multiple times in the back attempting to escape. Similar to the novel, he was left for dead in the Mediterranean Sea and woke up with no memory. Near the end of The Bourne Supremacy, Bourne learns that his real name is actually David Webb and that he was born 1971-04-15 in Nixa, Missouri. In the films, he speaks fluent French, Russian, Dutch, German, Italian, and English rather than French and "Eastern dialects," as in the novels. However, the movies make no mention of Carlos the Jackal - the real Carlos was in prison by the time the films were made.