(Photo by 20th Century Fox/ Courtesy Everett Collection. SPY.)
Spies! Secret agents! Intelligence officers! Undercover operatives! Moles! (Moley moley moley moley!) Some of our favorite characters in some of our favorite movies are adept at sneaking into where they don’t belong and either taking out enemies or gathering crucial information.
To celebrate the release of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the conclusion to the decades-in-the-making story arc that began with Mission: Impossible, we present our top Best Spy Movies, ranked by Tomatometer.
What counts as a spy movie, first of all? Our definition is that the movie has to have spy characters and a political, international, and/or high-government dressing. That’s a pretty broad definition, but it allows us to include a lot of great films. The list is also Certified Fresh movies alone.
#1
Critics Consensus: The Age of Shadows justifies its imposing length with a richly detailed period drama whose sprawling size is matched by strong acting, impressive craft, and narrative depth.
Synopsis: Korean resistance fighters smuggle explosives to destroy facilities controlled by Japanese forces.
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#2
Critics Consensus: Goldfinger is where James Bond as we know him comes into focus - it features one of 007's most famous lines ("A martini. Shaken, not stirred.") and a wide range of gadgets that would become the series' trademark.
Synopsis: Special agent 007 (Sean Connery) comes face to face with one of the most notorious villains of all time, and
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#3
Critics Consensus: Fast, sleek, and fun, Mission: Impossible - Fallout lives up to the "impossible" part of its name by setting yet another high mark for insane set pieces in a franchise full of them.
Synopsis: Ethan Hunt and the IMF team join forces with CIA assassin August Walker to prevent a disaster of epic proportions.
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#4
Critics Consensus: One of Alfred Hitchcock's last British films, this glamorous thriller provides an early glimpse of the director at his most stylishly entertaining.
Synopsis: On a train headed for England a group of travelers is delayed by an avalanche. Holed up in a hotel
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#5
Critics Consensus: Gripping, suspenseful, and visually iconic, this late-period Hitchcock classic laid the groundwork for countless action thrillers to follow.
Synopsis: This classic suspense film finds New York City ad executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) pursued by ruthless spy Phillip
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#6
Critics Consensus: Originally made in 1969, this recently reissued classic is a masterful examination of the inner workings of the World War II resistance efforts.
Synopsis: This adaptation of the book by Joseph Kessel paints an understated, unglamorous portrait of the French Resistance during World World
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#7
Critics Consensus: A classic blend of satire and political thriller that was uncomfortably prescient in its own time, The Manchurian Candidate remains distressingly relevant today.
Synopsis: Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the
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#8
Critics Consensus: The second James Bond film, From Russia with Love is a razor-sharp, briskly-paced Cold War thriller that features several electrifying action scenes.
Synopsis: Agent 007 (Sean Connery) is back in the second installment of the James Bond series, this time battling a secret
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#9
Critics Consensus: With world-threatening stakes and epic set pieces to match that massive title, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One proves this is still a franchise you should choose to accept.
Synopsis: In Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most
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#10
Critics Consensus: Tense, exciting, and often darkly comic, Argo recreates a historical event with vivid attention to detail and finely wrought characters.
Synopsis: On Nov. 4, 1979, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, taking 66 American hostages. Amid the chaos, six
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#11
Critics Consensus: Sleek in design and spiked with dry wit, Black Bag is an exemplary espionage caper that lets movie stars like Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender do what they do best -- light up the screen.
Synopsis: BLACK BAG is a gripping spy drama about legendary intelligence agents George Woodhouse and his beloved wife Kathryn. When she
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#12
Critics Consensus: Packed with twists and turns, this essential early Alfred Hitchcock feature hints at the dazzling heights he'd reach later in his career.
Synopsis: While on vacation in London, Canadian Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) becomes embroiled in an international spy ring related to the
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#13
Critics Consensus: Sublime direction from Hitchcock, and terrific central performances from Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant make this a bona-fide classic worthy of a re-visit.
Synopsis: In order to help bring Nazis to justice, U.S. government agent T.R. Devlin recruits Alicia Huberman, the American daughter of
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#14
Spy
(2015)
95%
78%
Critics Consensus: Simultaneously broad and progressive, Spy offers further proof that Melissa McCarthy and writer-director Paul Feig bring out the best in one another -- and delivers scores of belly laughs along the way.
Synopsis: Despite having solid field training, CIA analyst Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) has spent her entire career as a desk jockey,
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#15
Critics Consensus: Featuring plenty of the humor, action, and escapist thrills the series would become known for, Dr. No kicks off the Bond franchise in style.
Synopsis: In the film that launched the James Bond saga, Agent 007 (Sean Connery) battles mysterious Dr. No, a scientific genius
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#16
Critics Consensus: Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent features a winning combination of international intrigue, comic relief, and some of the legendary director's most memorable set pieces.
Synopsis: Crime reporter John Jones (Joel McCrea) is turning in nothing but dull copy. His editor, unhappy with his work, hopes
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#17
Critics Consensus: Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation continues the franchise's thrilling resurgence -- and proves that Tom Cruise remains an action star without equal.
Synopsis: With the IMF now disbanded and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) out in the cold, a new threat -- called the
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#18
Critics Consensus: Casino Royale disposes of the silliness and gadgetry that plagued recent James Bond outings, and Daniel Craig delivers what fans and critics have been waiting for: a caustic, haunted, intense reinvention of 007.
Synopsis: After receiving a license to kill, British Secret Service agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) heads to Madagascar, where he uncovers
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#19
Critics Consensus: Stylish, fast-paced, and loaded with gripping set pieces, the fourth Mission: Impossible is big-budget popcorn entertainment that really works.
Synopsis: Blamed for a terrorist attack on the Kremlin, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the entire IMF agency are disavowed by
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#20
Critics Consensus: This tense, paranoid thriller presents Francis Ford Coppola at his finest -- and makes some remarkably advanced arguments about technology's role in society that still resonate today.
Synopsis: Surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is hired by a mysterious client's brusque aide (Harrison Ford) to tail a young
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#21
Critics Consensus: A taut, solidly acted paean to the benefits of a free press and the dangers of unchecked power, made all the more effective by its origins in real-life events.
Synopsis: Two green reporters and rivals working for the Washington Post, Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), research
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#22
Critics Consensus: A globetrotting caper that prizes its idiosyncratic pieces over the general puzzle, Charade is a delightful romp with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn's sparkling chemistry at the center of some perfectly orchestrated mayhem.
Synopsis: After Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) falls for the dashing Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) on a skiing holiday in the French
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#23
Critics Consensus: It may occasionally be guilty of coasting on pure charm, but To Catch a Thief has it in spades -- as well as a pair of perfectly matched stars in Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.
Synopsis: Notorious cat burglar John Robie (Cary Grant) has long since retired to tend vineyards on the French Riviera. When a
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#24
Critics Consensus: Sam Mendes brings Bond surging back with a smart, sexy, riveting action thriller that qualifies as one of the best 007 films to date.
Synopsis: When James Bond's (Daniel Craig) latest assignment goes terribly wrong, it leads to a calamitous turn of events: Undercover agents
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#25
Critics Consensus: The Bourne Ultimatum is an intelligent, finely tuned non-stop thrill ride. Another strong performance from Matt Damon and sharp camerawork from Paul Greengrass make this the finest installment of the Bourne trilogy.
Synopsis: Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) continues his international quest to uncover his true identity. From Russia to Europe to northern Africa
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(Photo by Sony / Courtesy Everett Collection. CASINO ROYALE.)
You may notice that there are several spy movies conspicuous by their absence in this list. To explain why, a quick history of spy movies during the Cold War is necessary. Buckle up:
During the 1960s and ’70s, there was a constant fear throughout the Western world due to the Cold War. Nuclear attack could happen at any time and students practiced “duck and cover.” Paranoia about communism was rampant. Love of country was paramount, and anyone who dissented was automatically suspect. Spies could be everywhere!
This fear was channeled by filmmakers into some of the best spy movies ever made. They’re not listed here because they don’t meet our minimum review threshold for Certified Fresh: review websites, newspapers and blogs aren’t inclined to review old spy movies when there are new films to be concerned about. Still, it’s important to point out that movies like the British films The Ipcress File and The Quiller Memorandum, British / French film The Day of the Jackal and the later American movie The Falcon and the Snowman are excellent and well worth tracking down.
#26
Critics Consensus: A kinetic and fun movie that's sure to thrill children of all ages.
Synopsis: Two young kids become spies in attempt to save their parents, who are ex-spies, from an evil mastermind. Armed with
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#27
Critics Consensus: While Alphaville is by no means a conventional sci-fi film, Jean-Luc Godard creates a witty, noir-ish future all his own.
Synopsis: Government agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) is dispatched on a secret mission to Alphaville, a dystopian metropolis in a distant
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#28
Critics Consensus: Roger Donaldson's modern spin on the dense, stylish suspense films of the 1940s features fine work from Gene Hackman and Sean Young, as well as the career-making performance that made Kevin Costner a star.
Synopsis: Navy Lt. Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner) meets a young woman, Susan Atwell (Sean Young), and they share a passionate fling.
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#29
Critics Consensus: Bridge of Spies finds new life in Hollywood's classic Cold War espionage thriller formula, thanks to reliably outstanding work from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
Synopsis: During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane.
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#30
Critics Consensus: Gripping, suspenseful, and brilliantly crafted, Zero Dark Thirty dramatizes the hunt for Osama bin Laden with intelligence and an eye for detail.
Synopsis: Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden becomes one of the most-wanted men on the planet.
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#31
Critics Consensus: Suspenseful and politically astute, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a superior entry in the Avengers canon and is sure to thrill Marvel diehards.
Synopsis: After the cataclysmic events in New York with his fellow Avengers, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans), lives in
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#32
Critics Consensus: With an outstanding starring performance from Benedict Cumberbatch illuminating its fact-based story, The Imitation Game serves as an eminently well-made entry in the "prestige biopic" genre.
Synopsis: In 1939, newly created British intelligence agency MI6 recruits Cambridge mathematics alumnus Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to crack Nazi codes,
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#33
Critics Consensus: A finely calibrated WWII-era thriller, Wife of a Spy delicately balances the weight of national loyalty against our moral obligations to our fellow human beings.
Synopsis: The year is 1940 in Kobe, on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. Local merchant and amateur
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#34
Critics Consensus: A zany out-of-control thriller that gives lead Anne Parillaud a big character arc and plenty of emotional room to work within.
Synopsis: Convicted felon Nikita (Anne Parillaud), instead of going to jail, is given a new identity and trained to be a
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#35
Critics Consensus: Perfectly cast and packed with suspense, The Hunt for Red October is an old-fashioned submarine thriller with plenty of firepower to spare.
Synopsis: Based on the popular Tom Clancy novel, this suspenseful movie tracks Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) as he
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#36
Critics Consensus: Remaking his own 1934 film, Hitchcock imbues The Man Who Knew Too Much with picturesque locales and international intrigue, and is helped by a brilliantly befuddled performance from James Stewart.
Synopsis: Dr. Ben McKenna (James Stewart) is on vacation with his wife (Doris Day) and son in Morocco when a chance
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#37
Critics Consensus: Thoughtful and wonderfully acted, The Quiet American manages to capture the spirit of Green's novel.
Synopsis: From the classic novel by Graham Greene comes a murder mystery centered on a love triangle set against the French
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#38
Critics Consensus: This post-Watergate thriller captures the paranoid tenor of the times, thanks to Syndey Pollack's taut direction and excellent performances from Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway.
Synopsis: On a seemingly ordinary day, Joe Turner (Robert Redford), a quiet CIA codebreaker, walks into his workplace and finds that
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#39
Critics Consensus: The Parallax View blends deft direction from Alan J. Pakula and a charismatic Warren Beatty performance to create a paranoid political thriller that stands with the genre's best.
Synopsis: After a presidential candidate is assassinated, political reporter Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) begins to suspect that the mysterious Parallax Corporation
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#40
Critics Consensus: Smart, subtle, and steadily absorbing, A Most Wanted Man proves once again that John le Carre books make for sharp, thoughtful thrillers.
Synopsis: An escaped militant's (Grigoriy Dobrygin) attempt to claim an inheritance gives a German agent (Philip Seymour Hoffman) the chance to
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#41
Critics Consensus: The true story of the Danish resistance in WW2, though lengthy and sprawling, is gripping and competently made.
Synopsis: Copenhagen 1944. Denmark is occupied by Nazi Germany. While the Danish population hopes for a swift end to the war,
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#42
Critics Consensus: The Courier delivers a rousingly effective old-school spy adventure elevated by a thrilling fact-based story and Benedict Cumberbatch's nervy central performance.
Synopsis: THE COURIER is a true-life spy thriller, the story of an unassuming British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) recruited into
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#43
Critics Consensus: A tense, thought-provoking thriller, Shadow Dancer is bolstered by sensitive direction from James Marsh and a terrific performance from Andrea Riseborough.
Synopsis: Arrested after a failed bombing attempt, a single mother and IRA member (Andrea Riseborough) falls into the hands of a
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#44
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Russian intelligence operative (Emir Kusturica) passes classified documents to a French engineer (Guillaume Canet).
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#45
Critics Consensus: Lavishly rendered set pieces and Sean Connery's enduring charm make Thunderball a big, fun adventure, even if it doesn't quite measure up to the series' previous heights.
Synopsis: Led by one-eyed evil mastermind Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), the terrorist group SPECTRE hijacks two warheads from a NATO plane
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#46
Critics Consensus: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a dense puzzle of anxiety, paranoia, and espionage that director Tomas Alfredson pieces together with utmost skill.
Synopsis: In 1970s England the head of MI6, Control (John Hurt), dispatches an agent (Mark Strong) to meet with a Hungarian
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#47
Critics Consensus: Expertly blending genre formula with bursts of unexpected wit, The Bourne Identity is an action thriller that delivers -- and then some.
Synopsis: A man, salvaged, near death, from the ocean by an Italian fishing boat. When he recuperates, the man suffers from
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#48
Critics Consensus: Powered by Chris Cooper's masterful performance, Breach is a tense and engaging portrayal of the FBI's infamous turncoat.
Synopsis: Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe), a low-level surveillance expert with the FBI, believes he is accomplishing his dream of becoming a
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#49
Critics Consensus: Sharp direction and some outstanding performances make Munich: The Edge of War a gripping historical drama, even though the ending's no secret.
Synopsis: Based on the international bestseller by Robert Harris. It is Autumn 1938 and Europe stands on the brink of war.
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#50
JFK
(1991)
84%
88%
Critics Consensus: As history, Oliver Stone's JFK is dubious, but as filmmaking it's electric, cramming a ton of information and excitement into its three-hour runtime and making great use of its outstanding cast.
Synopsis: This acclaimed Oliver Stone drama presents the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans
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(Photo by Universal/ Courtesy Everett Collection. THE BOURNE IDENTITY.)
Spy films got a renaissance of sorts in the 1990s and 2000s, after the Berlin Wall fell. Technology developed to the point where high-tech spying was possible through computers and through phone lines. Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman, was a spiritual sequel of sorts to The Conversation from 1974. Another great spy film, Ronin, starred Robert De Niro in a series of spectacular car chases to retrieve a briefcase Macguffin. The ’90s was also the decade of wicked satire, so spoofs of spy films were everywhere, kicking off with the Austin Powers series, which mainly satirized British spy films that Mike Myers enjoyed in his youth, like Our Man Flint.
The 2000s brought an updated take on the 1980s Bourne novel spy series, with Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, a man with no memory, mysterious fighting and gun skills, and ties to a strange paramilitary organization.
#51
Critics Consensus: It isn't the sleekest or most daring 007 adventure, but No Time to Die concludes Daniel Craig's franchise tenure in satisfying style.
Synopsis: In No Time To Die, Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace
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#52
Critics Consensus: The Constant Gardener is a smart, gripping, and suspenseful thriller with rich performances from the leads.
Synopsis: Assigned to a new post, reserved British diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) relocates to Kenya with his lovely young wife,
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#53
Critics Consensus: Thirteen Days offers a compelling look at the Cuban Missile Crisis, and its talented cast deftly portrays the real-life people who were involved.
Synopsis: For thirteen extraordinary days in October of 1962, the world stood on the brink of an unthinkable catastrophe. Across the
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#54
Critics Consensus: If its fact-based story proves more fascinatingly outlandish than it's presented here, Operation Mincemeat remains an engaging and well-acted wartime drama.
Synopsis: It's 1943. The Allies are determined to break Hitler's grip on occupied Europe, and plan an all-out assault on Sicily;
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#55
Critics Consensus: Serving up a fresh round of over-the-top thrills while adding unexpected dramatic heft, Furious 7 keeps the franchise moving in more ways than one.
Synopsis: After defeating international terrorist Owen Shaw, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) and the rest of the crew
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#56
Critics Consensus: Charlie Wilson's War manages to entertain and inform audiences, thanks to its witty script and talented cast of power players.
Synopsis: In the 1980s U.S.Rep. Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), Texas socialite Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) and CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip
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#57
Critics Consensus: A well-made sequel that delivers the thrills.
Synopsis: Jason Bourne is living in India when he is framed by Russian agent Kirill for the theft of millions from
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#58
Critics Consensus: Official Secrets has a familiar structure and an obvious if worthy message, but rises on the strength of Keira Knightley's powerful performance.
Synopsis: One day in 2003, in the lead up to the Iraq War, British intelligence specialist Katharine Gun receives a memo
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#59
Critics Consensus: Though it hints at the absurdity to come in later installments, The Spy Who Loved Me's sleek style, menacing villains, and sly wit make it the best of the Roger Moore era.
Synopsis: In a globe-trotting assignment that has him skiing off the edges of cliffs and driving a car deep underwater, British
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#60
Critics Consensus: Marathon Man runs the gamut from patient mystery to pulse-pounding thriller, aided by Laurence Oliver's coldly terrifying performance and a brainy script by William Goldman.
Synopsis: Thomas "Babe" Levy (Dustin Hoffman) is a Columbia graduate student and long-distance runner who is oblivious to the fact that
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#61
Critics Consensus: George Lazenby's only appearance as 007 is a fine entry in the series, featuring one of the most intriguing Bond girls in Tracy di Vincenzo (Diana Rigg), breathtaking visuals, and some great ski chases.
Synopsis: Agent 007 (George Lazenby) and the adventurous Tracy Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg) join forces to battle the evil SPECTRE organization
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#62
Critics Consensus: Perfecting the formula established in earlier installments, Clear and Present Danger reunites its predecessor's creative core to solidly entertaining effect.
Synopsis: Agent Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) becomes acting deputy director of the CIA when Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed
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#63
Critics Consensus: Gargantuan in action, runtime, and scope, The Final Reckoning is a sentimental sendoff for Ethan Hunt that accomplishes its mission with a characteristic flair for the impossible.
Synopsis: Our lives are the sum of our choices. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
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#64
Critics Consensus: With plenty of pulpy action, a pleasantly retro vibe, and a handful of fine performances, Captain America is solidly old-fashioned blockbuster entertainment.
Synopsis: It is 1941 and the world is in the throes of war. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) wants to do his
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#65
Critics Consensus: MMA star and first-time actress Gina Carano displays ample action-movie chops in Haywire, a fast-paced thriller with a top-notch cast and outstanding direction from Steven Soderbergh.
Synopsis: Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is a highly trained operative for a government security contractor. Her missions take her to the
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#66
Critics Consensus: The first and best Pierce Brosnan Bond film, GoldenEye brings the series into a more modern context, and the result is a 007 entry that's high-tech, action-packed, and urbane.
Synopsis: When a powerful satellite system falls into the hands of Alec Trevelyan, AKA Agent 006 (Sean Bean), a former ally-turned-enemy,
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#67
Critics Consensus: Black Widow's deeper themes are drowned out in all the action, but it remains a solidly entertaining standalone adventure that's rounded out by a stellar supporting cast.
Synopsis: In Marvel Studios' action-packed spy thriller "Black Widow," Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger
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#68
Critics Consensus: Atomic Blonde gets enough mileage out of its stylish action sequences -- and ever-magnetic star -- to make up for a narrative that's somewhat less hard-hitting than its protagonist.
Synopsis: Sensual and savage, Lorraine Broughton is the most elite spy in MI6, an agent who's willing to use all of
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#69
Critics Consensus: Munich can't quite achieve its lofty goals, but this thrilling, politically even-handed look at the fallout from an intractable political conflict is still well worth watching.
Synopsis: After the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and their coach at the 1972 Olympics, the Israeli government secretly assigns Avner
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#70
Critics Consensus: While not the classic its predecessor is, this update is well-acted and conjures a chilling resonance.
Synopsis: Years after his squad was ambushed during the Gulf War, Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) finds himself having terrible nightmares.
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#71
Critics Consensus: Rockwell is spot-on as Barris, and Clooney directs with entertaining style and flair.
Synopsis: Game show television producer Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell) is at the height of his career. His creation, The Dating Game,
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#72
Critics Consensus: License to Kill is darker than many of the other Bond entries, with Timothy Dalton playing the character with intensity, but it still has some solid chases and fight scenes.
Synopsis: James Bond (Timothy Dalton) takes on his most-daring adventure after he turns renegade and tracks down one of the international
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#73
Critics Consensus: There isn't much to Sneakers' plot -- and that's more than made up for with the film's breezy panache and hi-tech lingo.
Synopsis: Computer hacker Martin (Robert Redford) heads a group of specialists who test the security of various San Francisco companies. Martin
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#74
Critics Consensus: With Burn After Reading, the Coen Brothers have crafted another clever comedy/thriller with an outlandish plot and memorable characters.
Synopsis: When a disc containing memoirs of a former CIA analyst (John Malkovich) falls into the hands of Linda Litzke (Frances
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#75
Critics Consensus: It struggles with the balance between fact-based biopic and taut political thriller, but Fair Game brims with righteous anger -- and benefits from superb performances by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.
Synopsis: Wife and mother Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) has a double life as a CIA operative, hiding her vocation from family
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Since spy movies are usually genre pictures, they generally don’t have much luck at the Academy Awards. Even Hitchcock only won one Best Picture (the non-spy film Rebecca) and one honorary Oscar in his day and never won for Best Director (though he was nominated five times for the latter), which seems mind-boggling today.
In fact, the only spy movie to win Best Picture was Argo in 2012, and no director has won Best Director for a spy movie. Argo, a dramatization of a true story features Ben Affleck (who also directed and produced) as a CIA officer who devises an elaborate plan to get six hostages out of Iran by creating an entire fake sci-fi movie from scratch, including concept art by Jack Kirby! The true story of what happened during what’s now called the Canadian Caper was classified until just recently, which allowed Affleck to make this movie.
Among other Academy Awards involving spy films, Mark Rylance won Best Supporting Actor as Rudolf Abel in Bridge of Spies, and Gary Oldman won Best Actor as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. Among women, Ingrid Bergman won Best Actress as Alicia Huberman in Hitchcock’s Notorious, so at least Hitchcock’s movies were still awarded at the time in some way.
#76
Critics Consensus: It struggles with the balance between fact-based biopic and taut political thriller, but Fair Game brims with righteous anger -- and benefits from superb performances by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.
Synopsis: Wife and mother Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) has a double life as a CIA operative, hiding her vocation from family
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#77
Critics Consensus: Fast-paced and filled with racial gags, Undercover Brother serves up plenty of laughs and sharp satire.
Synopsis: Blasted from the past and ready to take care of business, "Undercover Brother" is recruited to infiltrate a sinister underground
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#78
Critics Consensus: Its time-shifting narrative creates distracting casting problems, but ultimately, The Debt is a smart, well-acted entry in a genre that could use more like it.
Synopsis: In 1965, young Mossad agent Rachel Singer (Jessica Chastain) and two comrades (Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas) are involved in a
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#79
Critics Consensus: A furious mix of sex, violence, and moral relativism, Black Book is shamelessly entertaining melodrama.
Synopsis: After narrowly escaping death, young Rachel Rosenthal (Carice van Houten) becomes part of the Jewish resistance, assuming the name Ellis
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#80
Critics Consensus: Tense, thoughtful, and deftly paced, The East is a political thriller that never loses sight of the human element.
Synopsis: Sarah (Brit Marling), an undercover agent at a private intelligence firm, is hired to infiltrate the East, an ecoterrorism cell
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#81
Critics Consensus: It's froth, but stylish and giddily entertaining.
Synopsis: World War II has just begun, and it's clear that Paris will fall to the Germans. Actress Viviane (Isabelle Adjani)
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#82
Critics Consensus: Top Secret! finds the team of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker sending up everything from spy movies to Elvis musicals with reckless, loony abandon.
Synopsis: Popular and dashing American singer Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer) travels to East Germany to perform in a music festival. When
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#83
Critics Consensus: This clever spy spoof plays politics and movie conventions for laughs and features a great turn by Jen Dujardin as a smarmy-suave nouveau-Bond.
Synopsis: In this spy movie parody, French Office of Strategic Services agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath (Jean Dujardin) investigates the
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#84
Critics Consensus: Stylish, subversive, and above all fun, Kingsman: The Secret Service finds director Matthew Vaughn sending up the spy genre with gleeful abandon.
Synopsis: Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton), whose late father secretly worked for a spy organization, lives in a South London housing
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#85
Critics Consensus: The Tailor of Panama is a smart, darkly satirical thriller with exuberant performances from Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush.
Synopsis: Harry Pendel, a Cockney ex-con who has reinvented himself as a popular tailor to the rich and powerful of Panama,
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#86
Critics Consensus: Led by another appealing performance from Jean Dujardin, this sequel offers more absurdly fun action -- and more politically incorrect humor -- for fans of '60s spy films.
Synopsis: A French secret agent (Jean Dujardin) is sent to Brazil to retrieve a list of his countrymen who collaborated with
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#87
Critics Consensus: With exotic locales, impressive special effects, and a worthy central villain, You Only Live Twice overcomes a messy and implausible story to deliver another memorable early Bond flick.
Synopsis: During the Cold War, American and Russian spacecrafts go missing, leaving each superpower believing the other is to blame. As
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#88
Red
(2010)
72%
72%
Critics Consensus: It may not be the killer thrill ride you'd expect from an action movie with a cast of this caliber, but Red still thoroughly outshines most of its big-budget counterparts with its wit and style.
Synopsis: After surviving an assault from a squad of hit men, retired CIA agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) reassembles his old
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Critics Consensus: Newcomer Timothy Dalton plays James Bond with more seriousness than preceding installments, and the result is exciting and colorful but occasionally humorless.
Synopsis: British secret agent James Bond (Timothy Dalton) helps KGB officer Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé) defect during a symphony performance. During
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(Photo by Universal/ Courtesy Everett Collection. BLACK BAG.)
Though not showered with golden statues, spy movies tend to do very well at the box office, as filmgoers love to return time and again to movie theaters to see characters wear disguises, avoid capture, and find their targets under cover of darkness.
The biggest live-action spy movie of all time going by worldwide gross, and the only one to pass $300 million at the box office, is Skyfall, the third of five Daniel Craig James Bond movies and the one with the Home Alone-like estate-invasion theme. Skyfall is surpassed by Despicable Me 2, a family-oriented animated sequel with equal parts espionage and supervillain themes.
Others that have crested the $200 million mark are The Bourne Ultimatum, the second of the Bourne series and the highest rated; Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the sixth entry in the series and the second pairing writer-director Christopher McQuarrie with Tom Cruise; Mission: Impossible II, the strange second entry by director John Woo and the top-grossing movie of 2000; Austin Powers in Goldmember, the third and arguably best of this satirical series; Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the sequel to Fallout; Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, the highly anticipated followup to the surprise home video hit; and Spectre, the Bond movie after Skyfall that brought back the classic evil spy organization of the same name and its leader, Blofeld. (Steve Horton)
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