The Perfect Spy
A list of my favorite espionage films.
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- StarsSam NeillMichael BryantNorman RodwayA dramatization of the missions and adventures of the greatest spy in British history.
- StarsRay McAnallyRüdiger WeigangAlan HowardThe rise and fall of Magnus Pym and his career through intelligence. From chance meetings with people will be important to him in the future to a life in Czechoslovakia, Pym weaves his way through the complicated world of espionage.
- DirectorTomas AlfredsonStarsGary OldmanColin FirthTom HardyIn the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6.
- StarsAlec GuinnessMichael JaystonAnthony BateIn the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced out of semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons.
- DirectorJean-Pierre MelvilleStarsLino VenturaPaul MeurisseJean-Pierre CasselAn account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsUlrich MüheMartina GedeckSebastian KochIn 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
- DirectorRobert GuédiguianStarsSimon AbkarianVirginie LedoyenRobinson StéveninThe poet Missak Manouchian leads a mixed bag of youngsters and immigrants in a clandestine battle against the Nazi occupation. Twenty-two men and one woman fighting for an ideal and for freedom. News of their daring attacks, including the assassination of an SS general, eventually reaches Berlin.
- DirectorRobert De NiroStarsMatt DamonAngelina JolieRobert De NiroThe tumultuous early history of the Central Intelligence Agency is viewed through the prism of one man's life.
- DirectorJohn SchlesingerStarsIsabella RosselliniAnthony HopkinsCampbell ScottA British telecommunication expert comes to 1950s Berlin to help the Americans spy on the USSR. He meets a cute, mysterious local woman.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTom HanksMark RylanceAlan AldaDuring the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
- StarsChris O'DonnellAlfred MolinaMichael KeatonReal-life figures from the Cold War-era mix with a fictional story based on a group of C.I.A. operatives and their counterparts in the K.G.B., MI6, and the Mossad.
- DirectorOle Christian MadsenStarsThure LindhardtMads MikkelsenStine StengadeA drama centered on two fighters in the Holger Danske World War II resistance group.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsDougray ScottKate WinsletSaffron BurrowsA young genius frantically races against time to crack an enemy code and solve the mystery surrounding the woman he loves.
- DirectorStephen PoliakoffStarsRomola GaraiEddie RedmayneJuno TempleThe adopted daughter of a privileged British politician uncovers a family secret in the weeks leading up to World War II.
- DirectorJohn BoormanStarsPierce BrosnanGeoffrey RushJamie Lee CurtisA tailor living in Panama reluctantly becomes a spy for a British Agent.
- DirectorFernando MeirellesStarsRalph FiennesRachel WeiszDanny HustonA widower's transcontinental quest to find answers about his wife's death leads him to explosive secrets.
- DirectorPhillip NoyceStarsMichael CaineBrendan FraserDo Thi Hai YenAn old British reporter vies with a young U.S. doctor for the affections of a beautiful Vietnamese woman.
- DirectorMike NicholsStarsTom HanksJulia RobertsPhilip Seymour HoffmanA drama based on a Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects.
- StarsMaggie GyllenhaalStephen ReaLubna AzabalCenters on Nessa Stein, a woman who inherits her father's arms business and finds herself in an international maelstrom as she continues to promote the reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
- StarsAlec GuinnessEileen AtkinsBill PatersonThe murder of a Soviet defector forces his old handler, British spymaster George Smiley, out of retirement. His investigation leads to an old nemesis, the Soviet spymaster known only as "Karla". This will be their final dance.
- CreatorIan MacKintoshStarsRoy MarsdenRay LonnenJerome WillisThe missions of an elite British Intelligence covert operations unit.
- CreatorPatrick McGoohanStarsPatrick McGoohanAngelo MuscatPeter SwanwickAfter he resigns, a secret agent is abducted and taken to what looks like an idyllic village, but is actually a bizarre prison. He refuses to give his warders information while attempting to escape.
- DirectorNorman FosterOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenDolores Del RíoAn American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by German agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers that his pursuers are also on board.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsOrson WellesJoseph CottenAlida ValliPulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
- DirectorTony MaylamStarsMichael YorkJenny AgutterSimon MacCorkindaleIn 1901, two British yachtsmen visiting Germany's Frisian Islands accidentally discover a German plot to invade England.
- CreatorDavid FarrStarsTom HiddlestonHugh LaurieElizabeth DebickiThe night manager of a Cairo hotel is recruited to infiltrate an arms dealer's inner circle.
- DirectorRichard MarquandStarsDonald SutherlandKate NelliganStephen MacKennaA ruthless German spy, trying to get out of Britain with vital information about D-Day, must spend time with a young woman and her crippled husband.
- DirectorJohn MaddenStarsHelen MirrenSam WorthingtonTom WilkinsonIn 1965, three Mossad Agents cross into East Berlin to apprehend a notorious Nazi war criminal. Thirty years later, the secrets the Agents share come back to haunt them.
- DirectorStephen GaghanStarsGeorge ClooneyMatt DamonAmanda PeetA politically charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved in and affected by it.
- DirectorMartin RittStarsRichard BurtonOskar WernerClaire BloomInstead of coming in from the Cold War, British agent Alec Leamas chooses to face another mission.
- DirectorAnton CorbijnStarsGeorge ClooneyPaolo BonacelliViolante PlacidoAn assassin hides out in Italy for one last assignment.
- DirectorRoger DonaldsonStarsKevin CostnerGene HackmanSean YoungA coverup and witchhunt occur after a politician accidentally kills his mistress.
- StarsDavid TennantJanet MontgomeryMarcin DorocinskiA military attaché at the French embassy is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw.
- DirectorFred SchepisiStarsSean ConneryMichelle PfeifferRoy ScheiderA British publisher is sent a manuscript detailing Soviet Union nuclear missile capabilities. British Intelligence intercept it and recruit him to investigate the author's editor, a beautiful Russian woman he claims never to have met.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsGina CaranoEwan McGregorMichael FassbenderA black ops super soldier seeks payback after she is betrayed and set up during a mission.
- StarsAlex JenningsJoss AcklandIan BannenFour-part drama about a writer recruited into espionage work by British intelligence during the First World War. Based on the writings of Somerset Maugham.
- DirectorJean NegulescoStarsPeter LorreSydney GreenstreetZachary ScottMystery writer Cornelius Leyden becomes intrigued after the murdered body of a vicious career criminal washes up in the Bosphorus.
- CreatorTom Rob SmithStarsBen WhishawEdward HolcroftJim BroadbentA chance romance between two men from very different worlds, one from the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, the other from a world of clubbing and youthful excess, leads into mystery after one of them is found murdered.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsBrad PittMarion CotillardJared HarrisIn 1942, a Canadian intelligence officer in North Africa encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. When they reunite in London, their relationship is tested by the pressures of war.