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My first experience with spy movies was watching Patriot Games, most likely on basic cable in the mid ’90s, my eyes glued to the screen, enthralled by the intrigue, the explosions, the action sequences, and Harrison Ford’s smirk. Mission: Impossible with Tom Cruise came after, and though I hadn’t fully comprehended the plot twist at the time, I was bewitched by all things espionage. I started to dive deep into the genre and, with my Blockbuster card, made my way through shelves of spy films.
I discovered that most spy movies follow one of two formulas. The first centers on a secret agent betrayed by his organization who must then clear his name while also trying to thwart the plans of a villain hell-bent on destroying something. The second involves an average joe in the wrong place at the wrong time, forced into a web of duplicity and murder, struggling to free himself. There are also names that’ll regularly appear in the spy category: Bond, Ryan, Hunt, and Bourne are the standouts.
Over the years, however, and with streaming services in abundance (RIP, Blockbuster), I realized that the best spy movies aren’t all action-adventures starring beautiful men. There are films that have beautiful women as the lead. There are films that are more dramatic, grounded in human emotions. There are comedies. There are even ones that involve aliens.
Indeed, there are near-endless lists of spy films, but if you’re looking for the top choices, the ones that will captivate your senses, that aren’t just background noise, check out the selects below.
Goldfinger (1965)
James Bond (Sean Connery) is a suave, smooth-talking secret agent for MI6 who has the knack for getting himself out of sticky situations. He is tasked with looking into the dealings of Auric Goldfinger, a bullion dealer who, as Bond discovers, plans on irradiating Fort Knox, thus making the gold supply worthless, causing economic turmoil. Privy to Bond’s knowledge of his scheme, which is called Operation Grand Slam, Goldfinger sends a motley crew of henchmen to kill British Intelligence’s most cunning spy.
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Charade (1963)
Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn), an elegant American interpreter living in Paris, outfitted in Givenchy, returns from a ski holiday to find her home ransacked. She also discovers that her husband Charles was murdered. At his funeral, Lampert sees three seedy men, all of whom, unbeknownst to her, served with her husband in World War II and are looking for the $250,000 that Charlie stole. Helping her with this precarious situation is Peter Joshua (Cary Grant), a charming man who she met on the ski trip, a man who has a few secrets of his own.
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Mission: Impossible (1996)
In Prague, Czech Republic, a group of IMF agents, an independent espionage agency employed by the U.S. government, is tasked with preventing rogue operative Alexander Golitsyn from stealing the CIA NOC list. The team is led by Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and a band consisting of specialists. The plan goes awry and the entire team is killed, save for Hunt, who is now the prime suspect. On the run, he enlists hacker Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and pilot Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) to help him sneak into a CIA building and get a computer file that will clear his name.
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Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Maya (Jessica Chastain) is a CIA intelligence analyst tasked with tracking the location of Osama bin Laden following the events of September 11. After two presidential administrations, years after the terrorist attack, the worldwide manhunt has tempered—but Maya remains steadfast in her mission. Combing through scattered leads, she discovers bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan and, during a meeting with CIA senior officers, advocates that Navy SEALs be sent to the compound.
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Men in Black (1997)
Extraterrestrials live on Earth, often wearing human shells to blend into society. And regulating their activity is the Men in Black, a covert agency founded in the ’60s. Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), one of the original members, recruits Agent J (Will Smith), a police officer, after his partner retires. Simultaneously, a visitor from an insect planet lands on Earth, plotting to assassinate ambassadors and cause a galactic war. It is up to K and J, still new to the gig, to prevent this from happening.
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The Bourne Identity (2002)
An unnamed man (Matt Damon) is pulled out of an Italian fishing boat, thought to be dead with two bullets in his back and small laser device in his hip. When the man regains consciousness, he has no recollection of his past. But he does possess incredible fighting skills, linguistic talents, and tactical knowledge. He travels to Zurich after tracing the number on the laser to a Swiss Bank account, and discovers his passport with the name Jason Bourne. After a bank employee tips Operation Treadstone, a CIA black ops program, of his whereabouts, agents are dispatched to bring him to headquarters. He also uncovers a former lover, Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente), and with her help, evades Treadstone operatives while trying to unearth his identity.
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The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
The most famous British secret agent returns, now with Roger Moore taking up the 007 mantle. On this adventure, James Bond joins forces with Russian agent Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach), assigned to stop shipping magnate Karl Stromberg’s (Curd Jürgens) attempt to destroy New York City with nuclear weapons.
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Salt (2010)
Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is an upstanding CIA spy, one of the agency’s best. But her loyalty is put through the ringer when a man claiming to be a Russian operative walks into CIA headquarters and claims that a mole named Salt plans on killing the Russian president in New York. Little does he know that the one interrogating him is in fact Salt herself. Understanding that her life and that of her husband’s is now in jeopardy, she makes a run for it.
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Casino Royale (2006)
James Bond makes another appearance on this list, this time played by Daniel Craig. In this reboot of the franchise, 007 retains his debonair qualities but is beefier, more swashbuckling. While running through the jungles of Uganda, assigned to spy on a terrorist cell, Bond discovers local ties to Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), the banker to terrorist organizations throughout the globe, and how he plans on holding a poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. The whole ordeal is high-stakes, with many factions literally at play, resulting in a shocking conclusion.
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Atomic Blonde (2017)
Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is MI6’s most lethal agent, possessing the skills and attitude to accomplish any mission. During the fall of the Berlin Wall, she is sent to Germany on an assignment to recover a microfilm that could expose the identity of every British spy. Of course, faced with countless KGB agents at every turn, she literally has to fight her way through Berlin.
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Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
A pastiche of ’60s spy films, Austin Powers sees the titular character (played by Mike Myers), a lovable lothario in velvet suit, defeat the dastardly deeds of his archenemy Dr. Evil (also Myers). At the start of the film, the villain escapes in a rocket and cryogenically freezes himself. Powers volunteers to do the same, and three decades later, the two meet again, now in a future that both hilariously are trying to adjust to.
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Spy Kids (2001)
Unbeknownst to Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara), their parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino), are former agents for the Organization of Super Spies (OSS). But when mom and dad are captured by the evil TV host Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming), the kids learn of their parent’s past and set out to rescue them.
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Skyfall (2012)
Skyfall might be a Bond flick, another (and the best!) starring Craig, but the real heart of the movie is M (Judi Dench), his handler and the head of MI6. At the start of the film, M’s authority is questioned after a hard drive containing details of undercover agents was stolen. The agency’s servers are also hacked and the headquarters are bombed. With no one else to trust, M reaches out to Bond, who is presumed dead at this point, to find the culprit.
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Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
Harry Hart (Colin Firth), also known as Galahad, is in search of a new agent for Kingsman, a private intelligence service established after World War I that, over the decades, has protected humanity at large. The Kingsman is made up of the British elite, founded on a code of ethics and manners. Galahad, instead, recruits Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton), a chav from South London, who is the son of a former Kingsman operative. Eggsy is then put through a test of trials to prove his capabilities. At the same time, Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), with the goal of ending global warming, embarks on a plan to rid the world of most of its population. Valentine manages to destroy most of the Kingsman, so it is up to Eggsy and two surviving other Kingsman to stop him.
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Hanna (2011)
Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is a girl living in a remote Finnish forest with her father Erik Heller (Eric Bana), an erstwhile CIA agent who raised her to be a lethal assassin. At 15 years old, she tells Heller that she’s ready, which prompts him to alert the CIA of their presence. The plan is to get Hanna captured and come face to face with Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a merciless operative who is the reason why Hanna and Heller had to go into hiding in the first place.
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The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) returns from the Korean War a hero, celebrated for rescuing the surviving members of his platoon, including Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) and Allan Melvin (James Edwards). The problem is that both Marco and Melvin have the same recurring nightmares and have no recollection of what their superiors said happened in Korea. Marco then begins to investigate Shaw, believing he is the key to unlocking the truth.
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Patriot Games (1992)
Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) is on vacation with his family in London where he sees a bomb explode outside Buckingham Palace, part of a scheme to kidnap the British Minister of State for Northern Ireland. Using his skills as a former CIA agent, Ryan kills one of the two operatives and captures the other. The assailants are brothers and Irish revolutionaries, and the surviving sibling, Sean Miller (Sean Bean), vows revenge. While being transported, Miller escapes and, with his gang, sets out after both Ryan and his family. Ryan then rejoins the CIA to capture the terrorists.
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North by Northwest (1959)
Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) is an advertising executive that is mistaken for government agent George Kaplan by Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), a foreign spy for an unspecified nefarious organization. Thornhill is kidnapped by Vandamm’s men, and while trying to escape, is framed for murder. On the run from both the henchman and the police, he meets industrial designer Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who helps him on his journey, but has ulterior motives for doing so.
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The 39 Steps (1935)
Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) is an ordinary man watching a show at a music hall where shots are suddenly fired. In a state of panic, he holds onto a frightened woman, Annabella Smith (Lucie Mannheim), who leads Hannay back to his apartment, where she admits to being a spy and how she discovered a scheme to steal British military information. Smith is then murdered and Hannay is framed for the crime and suspected of breaching national security. Now, he has to elude authorities while also trying to clear his name.
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Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
Ethan Hunt (Cruise again), in his sixth appearance on the silver screen (and the most thrilling one, so far), joins forces with the CIA, particularly agent August Walker (Henry Cavill), on a mission to stop a terrorist group called the Apostles and arms dealer John Lark (no spoilers) from simultaneously blowing up Mecca, Jerusalem, and the Vatican.
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Bridge of Spies (2015)
James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) is a New York lawyer enlisted by the CIA to defend a Russian spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), on trial. Abel is found guilty, but Donovan manages to avoid the death penalty, arguing how Abel could be used as a bargaining chip. Three years later, U.S. pilot Gary Powers is captured by the Russians, and Donovan is sent to East Germany to broker an exchange between Powers and Abel.
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
In ’70s England, the height of the Cold War, George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is a former MI6 spy, forced into retirement after his colleague Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) was shot. He’s brought back a year later by a Cabinet official (Simon McBurney) to uncover a mole at the British Secret Service. As Smiley digs deeper into his investigation, he discovers that the “Circus,” a colloquialism for the secret service, has been turned inside-out. It has become fully infiltrated by the Soviet Union.
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The Ipcress File (1965)
Harry Palmer (Michael Caine), is a British spy, a smart talker and dresser, who bucks authority, a thorn in the side of his superiors. He is investigating the kidnapping of scientists who mysteriously reappear brainwashed a few days later. Another agent on the case, Jock Carswell (Gordon Jackson), uncovers an audiotape labeled “IPCRESS,” which contains a set of instructions that forcibly indoctrinates someone to follow orders, the only clue to solving this mystery.
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Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Joe Turner (Robert Redford) is a CIA codebreaker and pencil pusher, who, on a seemingly normal day, finds his colleagues murdered in the New York office. He attempts to inform his superiors of the tragedy, but soon realizes that the CIA was involved. The higher-ups then send a hit man, Jourbert (Max von Sydow), to kill Turner, but Joubert just might be the only one that doesn’t want him dead.
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The Conversation (1974)
Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is a surveillance expert, a spy for hire, and a relative hermit, who is employed by an unknown client to track the movements of a young couple, Ann (Cindy Williams) and Mark (Frederic Forrest). After piecing their dialogue together, Caul suspects that there is a plot to have them murdered. He becomes obsessed with the revelation, leading him down a path of further isolation and paranoia.
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True Lies (1994)
Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a salesman to his neglected wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) and daughter, but he is really a spy living a double life, successfully keeping it under wraps. But things take a turn for the worst on a recent mission to track down nuclear rockets from jihadist Salim Abu Aziz (Art Malik), and his cover is blown when Helen ends up getting kidnapped by the terrorists.
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The Quiet American (2002)
Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) is an elderly British journalist living in ’50s Vietnam with his young mistress, Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen). He meets Pyle (Brendan Fraser), an American idealist who poses as an aid worker but is really a CIA agent. Pyle’s goal is to enforce U.S. policies on Vietnam, with his actions inevitably causing an all-out war. Fowler is on the side of the opposite faction, the Communist Party. At the same time, a love triangle develops between Phuong and both men, which leads to a thrilling climax.
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Notorious (1946) (1946)
Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), is the American daughter of a Nazi, enlisted by U.S. agent T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant), to spy on escaped war criminals and bring them to justice. She is tasked with getting close to a Nazi hiding in Brazil, Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains). Over the course of the film, her affections for both Devlin and Sebastian deepen, bringing her allegiance into question.
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Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014)
Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a World War II veteran charged with a superhuman serum and transplanted to the present-day Marvel Cinematic Universe, is trying to adjust to modern life. His code name is Captain America, and he is part of the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., entrusted with safeguarding the world from domestic and foreign invaders. But there is corruption in the ranks, resulting in the assassination of the organization’s director, Nick Fury, by the masked Winter Soldier. With enemies at every corner, it is up to Rogers to discover the face behind the mask, a face that’s tied to his past.
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The Constant Gardener (2005)
Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) is a British diplomat that has been assigned to a post in Kenya, bringing his wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz), a social justice activist. Tessa befriends a local doctor, Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Koundé), and with his help, writes a report connecting deaths to a new drug, Dypraxa. Soon after, Tessa is found murdered in the wilderness, with the prime suspect being Bluhm, who has gone missing. But when the bereft Justin looks further into Tessa’s death, he uncovers conspiracies that lead up to British Intelligence.
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