Best Espionage Movies Of all TimePin
Best Espionage Movies Of all Time

Best Espionage Movies Of all Time [Top 20]

So you like watching movies with spies. Well, you’re not alone. I also enjoy watching the best espionage movies, mainly if they are based on real events.

That’s why I’ve put together a collection of what we believe are the 15 best spy movies of all time. The movies we listed here are in no particular order, but I tried to cover the most sound examples within the genre.

You can find more espionage movies on one of the 18 best websites to watch movies online.

From big-budget explosion-driven action thrillers to far more subdued slow-burn cold-war era suspense flicks, I’m sure you can find a few tales of espionage here worth watching.

#20 Syriana (2005)

Syriana is a 2005  film produced by George Clooney, who also stars in the movie.

The screenplay is adapted from ex CIA operative Robert Baer’s memoir See No Evil.

The film focuses on petroleum politics and the global influence of the oil industry, whose political, economic, legal, and social effects are experienced by a Central Intelligence Agency operative (George Clooney), an energy analyst (Matt Damon) in an Arab state in the Persian Gulf.

Best Espionage Movies List - SyrianaPin
Best Espionage Movies List – Syriana

#19 Bridge of spies (2015)

Bridge of spiesPin
Bridge of spies

Bridge of spies it’s Tom Hanks’ Best performances ever as he plays the lawyer, James B Donovan who defends an alleged KGB spy, Rudolf Abel, in the US courts.

Being hated by people for doing this, he does not lose faith in doing his job, and later He is eventually called upon to negotiate an exchange of Rudolf with a US pilot, Francis Powers, who was caught in the USSR.

#18 Red Sparrow

Red SparrowPin
Red Sparrow

Red Sparrow stars Jennifer Lawrence in the lead who plays a Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova that faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career.

Soon she has no choice but to turn to the secret government program called Sparrows. She turns into a Sparrow, learns to get things done by any means necessary and right when you expect nothing better could happen, the movie hits you with an insane twist that will blow your brains away!

#17 The Tailor of Panama (2001)

British intelligence recruits a well-connected tailor to serve as their man in Panama: he finds his life destroyed when he unwittingly endangers his friends, family and adopted country when his fabricated intelligence leads to a U.S. invasion.

#16 The Catcher was a spy (2018)

The Catcher Was A SpyPin
The Catcher Was A Spy

“Catcher” stars Paul Rudd as real-life pro baseball player Moe Berg, whose sporting career was perhaps overshadowed by his bizarre overqualifications: He graduated Princeton, Magna Cum Laude, and was fluent in multiple languages. He made regular guest appearances on highfalutin trivia shows. And to top it all off, he was a spy for the U.S. government during World War II.

#15 The Debt (2010)

The Debt is a 2010 remake of the 2007 Israeli thriller film Ha-Hov. In 1965, three Mossad agents crossed into East Berlin to apprehend a notorious Nazi war criminal. Thirty years later, the secrets the agents share come back to haunt them.

#14 The Quiller Memorandum (1966)

After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller (George Segal) is sent to Berlin to investigate. There, he begins an affair with Inge Lindt (Senta Berger), a beautiful young teacher. However, their lives are put in danger after Quiller is kidnapped and taken to Phoenix’s headquarters, where he meets Oktober (Max von Sydow), the mysterious leader of the group.

#13 Spy Game (2001)

Spy Game appeared in 2001 with Brad Pitt and Robert Redfort. We see how a CIA agent learns, before retiring from activity, that his protégist is in difficulty. He’s proposing to save him after he’s been imprisoned in a foreign prison. This one has only 24 hours to live.

#12 Ronin (1998)

Starring Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Sean Bean, and more – this flick covers what we believe is an underrepresented group amongst spy movie characters. We mean, of course, high-level mercenaries (not gangsters).  It has one of the best chase sequences of any movie not primarily considered a car flick.

#11 Beirut (2018)

Beirut’s action set in 1982 during the Lebanese Civil War, the film stars Jon Hamm as a former U.S. diplomat who returns to service in Beirut to save a colleague from the group responsible for the death of his family.

#10 The Life Of Others (2006)

An East German security officer receives the mission to spy on a playwright suspected of subversive plans against the communist regime. It does not last long until the security becomes fascinated by the world that is discovered by the microphones placed in the writer’s house.

#9 Breach (2007)

“Breach” is an American spy thriller film directed by Billy Ray. Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe), a low-level surveillance expert with the FBI, believes he is accomplishing his dream of becoming a full-fledged agent, with his unexpected promotion and assignment to work with renowned agent Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper). However, he soon learns the reason for his promotion is to gain Hanssen’s trust and find proof that he is a traitor to the country.

The Department of Justice described Robert Hanssen’s espionage as “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.

#8 Body of lies (2008)

Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the best man U.S. Intelligence has on the ground, in places where human life is worth no more than the information it can get you. In operations that take him around the globe, Ferris’ next breath often depends on the voice at the other end of a secure phone.

#7 The angel (2018)

Best Spy Movies - The angelPin
Best Spy Movies – The angel

The Angel, directed by Ariel Vromen, is the true story of Ashraf Marwan, who was Egyptian President Nasser’s son-in-law, and special advisor and confidant to his successor Anwar Sadat, while simultaneously one of Israeli Intelligence‘s most precious assets of the 20th century.

#6 Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

The Americans were relieved when they found out that the most wanted terrorist in the world, Osama Bin Laden, was eliminated. The film comes to make light on this ultra-secret mission, which led to the capture of the leader of Qaeda.

#5 Argo (2012)

Based on real events, the dramatic thriller Argo presents an undercover, life-and-death operation to rescue six Americans. The actions took place during the Iranian attack soldier with hostage-taking, the film focusing on the lesser-known role that the CIA and Hollywood played, declassified information many years after the event.

Does this story get your attention? You should check the Discovery Channel’s documentary: Argo – the inside story. The reporters had access to official documents and talked with people involved in the operation. Here you can watch it:

#4 Bourne (2002 – 2016, film series)

On a personal note, the Bourne series is my favourite. If you don’t know it, the Bourne films are a series of American action thriller films based on the character Jason Bourne, a CIA assassin suffering from dissociative amnesia who must figure out who he is.

The story begins with the salvation from the sea of a man who has only a few bullets stuck in the back and an account number tattooed on balance.

Disoriented and cautious, he tries to discover who he is and why his life has taken such a twist. When she meets Marie Kreutz, Bourne offers 10000 dollars to take him to Paris. The woman accepts the money and begins a journey that will change her life forever.

Here are the movies from the series: The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), The Bourne Legacy (2012), Jason Bourne (2016).

In April 2018, USA Network ordered a pilot for a series titled Treadstone. The series will explore the origins of the Treadstone program and its sleeper agents associated with the agency. According to IMDB, the show will be first aired on Oct 15, 2019.

#3 Thinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the screening of John Le Carré’s namesake novel. The book appearing in 1974 represents the author’s prospect of real events, consisting of the unmasking of five KGB moths from British intelligence services – Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt, John Cairncross, and Kim Philby – in the years 1950-1960.

For his artistic performance, the film received three Oscar nominations.

The action takes more on strategy, backstage games and patience than on the usual chases with luxury cars and spectacular weapons that could print a fast-paced, pleasing to the general public. The jargon in the sphere of espionage that abundantly spices up the dialogues, the multitude of characters, challenging to preserve in the viewer’s memory, and the fragmentation of the action, in which events are intersecting from different spaces and moments, such Parts of a puzzle, make Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy a movie that calls public intellect more than average Hollywood production.

#2 James Bond movies

The James Bond film series is a British series of spy films based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond, “007”, who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming.

Notable titles:  From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), License to Kill (1989), GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Casino Royale (2006), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015).

James Bond - No time to Die PosterPin
James Bond – No time to Die Poster

There is a new upcoming bond movie that will be released in 2021 after was postponed several times due the pandemic. It’s called “No time to Die” and features Daniel Craig as the Bondman.

Watch below a title teaser of Bond 25 – No time to Die:

#1. The Good Shepherd (2006)

Best Spy Movies - The Good ShepherdPin
Best Spy Movies – The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd (2006) is claimed to be a realistic story, although romanced, about the establishment and evolution of the American Central Intelligence Agency and its precursor, the OSS (Office for Strategic Studies) and is considered to be one of the best espionage movies.

The plot of the film centres around the descent of Americans from the Cuban Gulf of pigs, specifically on the famous operations dubbed The Brilliant Disaster (Jim Rasenberger in the eponymous volume),  the CIA’s failure to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba.

The film was able to stir even a public response from the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA assesses that, overall, the film brings services to the pioneers of the agency, who do not deserve such treatment. They were true patriots (…); Mistakes were made during this period, but there were also successes (…), and the film does not even suggest them.

Conclusion on best espionage movies

So there you have it: our top 20 best espionage movies list. It’s your time now. Vote for your favourite spy movie.

Your absolutely best espionage movie it’s not on the list? Let me know in the comments. I’m always looking for adding great movies with spies on my list.

About teninfo

TEN.info (The Educational Network) combines the pursuit of interesting and intriguing facts with the innate human desire to rank and list things. From its humble beginnings in 2006 up until now, TEN.info has served millions of hungry minds.

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