Are we missing one or two films that should be here? Probably. So with all that in mind, here are our favorite spy movies, which we are calling the best spy movies. It can take an ocean of effort to find an actor who would be able to dive into the stories of a famous person and amaze us with their talents once more. But what’s more challenging is to portray a real-life figure that almost everyone around the globe knows. These are the films with heightened stakes and crazy stunt work and car chases and hunters being hunted. To be an actor is to make the audience believe that the characters you play are as real as the audience is. Stories about human “assets” and “operatives,” not bred “assassins” and “spies.” Stories that accurately depict the incentives, the demands, and the consequences of international espionage.Īnd then we have the hyperrealism, the films that offer escapism, that make us want to be 10 years old again and go into our backyard and start doing dumb shit. On one hand, we’re looking at realism, the films that depict probable spy craft-films which feature real techniques and real stakes, if only slightly altered for dramatic purposes. Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn play boyhood friends who spy for the Soviet Union in the 1970s in a movie based on actual events.
What makes a spy movie a “spy movie”? Two categories. Which is all to say, we’re probably going to miss some of your favorites. We wanted those films that have stood the test of time and those contemporary efforts that, while maybe lacking in the plot department, broke through in other areas, like stunts and special effects and tone. We wanted a bit of reality and fantasy, seriousness and comedy. We wanted a mix of historical gems with action blockbusters. When we set out to write this list, we wanted a wide sampling of spy craft cinema. Now, obviously, we can’t please everybody. Wiretaps, state surveillance, assassins struck with amnesia, Armie Hammer’s Russian accent-we’re talking about spy movies, the best spy movies, the best spy movies ever.