Top 10 Spy Movies
Spy Movie, Films, Movies, Top 10, List, Countdown, Espionage, James Bond, Mission Impossible, Manchurian Candidate, Bourne, Identity, Ipcress File, North by Northwest, Alfred Hitchcock, Ian Fleming, 007,Top 10 Spy Movies
Pay attention, cause you know a twist is coming. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’ll be counting down the top 10 spy movies.
Just to be clear, we’re zeroing in on the spy films that are intelligent, iconic or otherwise elevated the genre. We’re also only singling out one entry per franchise, meaning one Bond flick and only one of Hitchcock’s many espionage classics. Plus, please be advised, the following contains major spoilers.
#10- Spy Game (2001)
Kicking off our list is Tony Scott’s thriller starring Robert Redford as a veteran CIA agent who discovers that the Chinese government captured his former pupil and friend, played by Brad Pitt. With only 24 hours until retirement, he decides to use his last remaining hours on the job to rescue his comrade from execution. The highpoint here are the flashbacks, which showcase an old school spy teaching a freshman the tricks of his trade.
#9- Mission Impossible (1996)
Set up as an action series, the original film adaptation dangled the genre in never before seen directions! Centering on Tom Cruise as a freshman member of an impossible mission task force, he finds himself framed for the death of his colleagues and branded a traitor. A true piece of riveting escapism, this one has it all, including the obligatory rubber masks and unexpected plot twists.
#8- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Based on the novel of the same name, this espionage film had Gary Oldman play a disgraced and retired British spy re-hired at the height of the cold war to unmask a soviet mole. This spy film doesn’t go for the usual high-octane action. It instead gave us a low-key and slow cooking narrative marinated in paranoia and anxiety.
#7- Three Days Of The Condor (1975)
Wow, younger Robert Redford was a beast! In this novel adaptation, he plays a CIA researcher who comes back from lunch to find all of his co-workers murdered. That’s why I never bring a sandwich to the office btw. He’s then forced outwit those to trying to kill him, while figuring out whom he can trust and getting to the bottom of it all. This leads to a satisfying character transformation, as he must evolved from an unprepared bookworm into a resourceful field agent.
#6- No Way Out (1987)
In this smoke and mirrors cold-war thriller, Kevin Costner plays a navy officer posted to the Pentagon. After unwittingly starting an affair with the mistress of the secretary of defense, played by Gene Hackman, she turns up dead. With the death pinned on a fictitious KGB mole, Costner is assigned to figure out what’s going on before the trail leads suspicions his way. This prompts a tense race against time with one heck of an unexpected twist.
#5- The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
In this landmark thriller based on the 1959 novel, the spy genre was turned upside down when the search for an assassin reveals that a former Korean POW has been brainwashed. Programmed by communists to conduct a political assassination from the inside, it made for one of the most influential and chilling spy tales ever. Sure, brainwashing is old hat now, but back in the 60s, it was something people truly came to fear, mostly thanks to this tale.
#4- The Bourne Identity (2002)
From the pages of Robert Ludlam is this spy tale that spawned this gritty action franchise. At the center is Jason Bourne, an ex soldier who volunteered for a top-secret CIA behavioral modification program to create the ultimate unquestioning agent, spy and assassin. With viewers as bewildered as the amnesiac protagonist from the onset, we were taken on one heck of a pulse-pounding quest to discover who he is, who is responsible, and why he was targeted as a liability with extreme prejudice.
#3- The Ipcress File (1965)
Michael Caine. Oh you need more? Okay, well, he stars here in this cold war novel adaptation as a British soldier out to locate a missing doctor, one of several that have gone missing, and soon uncovers a plot that could threaten the Free World. The result is a run time filled with deceit and double-dealing, one that has stood the test of time for being smart and bold at every turn.
#2- From Russia With Love (1964)
What would a spy film list be without an appearance by the world’s most famous not so secret agent? In this, the most low key and espionage heavy outing of the series, Bond assumes a false identity and uses a Russian turncoat to locate a Russian code breaking device, all while an assassin tracks his every move. Unlike the Bond films that followed, the focus here was on pacing and posturing over unbelievable action and gadgets.
#1- North by Northwest (1959)
Taking the top spot is the Alfred Hitchock spy thriller that has come to be considered “the” spy film. Besting his other offerings, it places its focus is an innocent man pursued across the US by an organization out to capture the secrets contained on a microfilm. Not just gripping and suspenseful, the shots and set pieces from this film have become legendary and have influence almost all the films in the genre to follow.
Do you agree with our list? Which spy film is your favorite? For more thrilling top 10s, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
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