Films Where Someone Has To Go And Get Matt Damon
A whole squad dies retrieving him in 1998 and the industry never really stopped. Sometimes he is stranded, sometimes he is lost, sometimes he is simply somewhere expensive and has to be fetched. One of these is literally called The Odyssey.
Chosen by a person, not by a query — nothing in the catalogue knows what a plot is about at this resolution. Arguments about what counts are the point.
Saving Private RyanThe one that started it. Eight men are sent to retrieve one man, and the arithmetic is the whole film.
Titan A.E.Earth is gone, so home has to be built from scratch. He is the one who knows where it is.
The Bourne IdentityFished out of the sea with no idea who he is. Three films of trying to get back.
ElysiumNot stranded so much as locked out, which is the same problem from the other side.
InterstellarThey cross a galaxy to reach him. He is not worth it.
The MartianThe purest expression of the form: a planet, a potato, and an international rescue budget.
The Great WallNobody comes to get him. He is simply extremely far from home and surrounded.
StillwaterHe goes to fetch someone else for once, and finds out how hard it is.
The OdysseyThe three-thousand-year-old original, finally cast correctly.