Enjoy the Long Weekend: CIA Officers Reveal Their Top Spy Movies

SPYSCAPE asked real-life CIA officers to pick their all-time favorite spy movies and we’ve got the low-down on 15 of the most realistic and entertaining films of the espionage genre. 

Here are the SPYEX team’s favorite flicks, chosen especially for SPYSCAPE readers! more

1. A Most Wanted Man (2014)

2. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

3. Red Joan (2018)

4. The Little Drummer Girl (1984)‍

5. Argo (2012)

6. Syriana (2005)

7. The Good Shepherd (2006)

8. The Hunt for Red October (1990)

9. Spy (2015)‍

10. Three Days of the Condor (1975)

11. North by Northwest (1959)

12. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965)‍

13. The Amateur (1982)

14. Ill Met By Moonlight, aka Night Ambush (1957)

15. The Third Man (1949)

10 High-Octane Spy Movies That Can Compete With James Bond

Skip the Hallmark Channel this season with this hit list...

10
The Bourne Identity (2002)
The James Bond Franchise's American Twin

9 

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
A Timeless Film With Quieter Thrills

8 

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
Everything That's Great About James Bond Cranked Up To 11

7 

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Ethan Hunt Is A Great James Bond Rival

6 

Atomic Blonde (2017)
A Unique Spy Movie That Stands On Its Own Against Hits Like James Bond

5 

Sicario (2015)
Trades The Glamor Of James Bond For A Grim Spy Story

4 

Tenet (2020)
Bond For Physics Enthusiasts

3 

Argo (2012)

2 

Bridge of Spies (2015)

1 

The Hunt for Red October (1990)

Then,  for stress relief...

Top Secret! (1984)

Matt Damon’s Funniest Comedy Flips the Spy Genre on Its Head

By Liam Gaughan

Published 2 days ago

Damon gave the single greatest comedic performance of his career in Steven Soderbergh’s dark comedy The Informant!

The Informant! was released during a time in Damon’s career in which he could certainly afford to be a little bit more experimental...

While it’s understandable why he may have wanted to step outside his comfort zone and try something new, The Informant! is a brilliant deconstruction of espionage thrillers that examines the complexity of American masculinity. more trailer

...and it is a true story!

30 Spy Movies That Will Make You Want to Be a Secret Agent

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... more

Can You Name the Movie

1. A suave, smooth-talking secret agent and a a bullion dealer.
2. An elegant American interpreter living in Paris, outfitted in Givenchy.
3. In Prague, Czech Republic, a group of IMF agents.
4. A CIA intelligence analyst tracking the location of Osama bin Laden.
5. Extraterrestrials live on Earth, often wearing human shells blend into society.
6. An unnamed man is pulled out of an Italian fishing boat.
7. Joins forces with Russian agent Anya Amasova.
8. Russian operative claims that a mole named Salt plans on killing...
9. Running through the jungles of Uganda, assigned to spy on a terrorist cell.
10. During the fall of the Berlin Wall, sent to Germany to recover microfilm.
11. At the start, the villain escapes in a rocket and cryogenically freezes himself.
12. Captured by the evil TV host Fegan Floop.
13. A hard drive containing details of undercover agents was stolen.
14. Galahad, is in search of a new agent.
15. A girl living in a remote Finnish forest who is raised to be a lethal assassin.
16. They have no recollection of what their superiors said happened in Korea.
17. On vacation in London. Sees a bomb explode outside Buckingham Palace.
18. An advertising executive that is mistaken for government agent.
19. An ordinary man, at a music hall where shots are suddenly fired.
20. A mission to stop a terrorist group called the Apostles.
21. A New York lawyer enlisted by the CIA to defend a Russian spy.
22. He’s brought back to uncover a mole at the British Secret Service.
23. He is investigating the kidnapping of scientists who reappear brainwashed.
24. CIA codebreaker finds his colleagues murdered in the New York office.
25. A surveillance expert who is employed track a young couple.
26. A spy living a double life tracks nuclear rockets from jihadist Salim Abu Aziz.
27. CIA agent posing as an aid worker. Goal: enforce U.S. policies on Vietnam.
28. American daughter of a Nazi, enlisted to spy on escaped war criminals.
29. A World War II veteran charged with a superhuman serum.
30. Connects deaths to a new drug, Dypraxa. Uncovers British Intelligence.

Pierce Brosnan Returns: In "A Spy's Guide to Survival"

If you love the modern James Bond-style spy movies, you can thank Pierce Brosnan that Hollywood keeps making them. If it weren't for the "Remington Steele" star's turn as 007 in the beloved 1995 film "GoldenEye," the Bond franchise might have ended up dead... 

Brosnan is returning to the spy game (at least, the on-screen spy game) in a new film from the creator of Netflix's "Warrior Nun" and "Ghost Wars." In "A Spy's Guide to Survival," 

Brosnan will play a retired undercover agent who tries to keep a low profile but is brought out of his reclusive life by a strange new neighbor with secrets of his own... 

"A Spy's Guide to Survival" does not yet have an official release date. Until then, viewers can and should catch "GoldenEye," streaming on Amazon. more

A Bad Week for Spys

• Beijing accused of using spying, threats and blackmail against Tibetan exiles more

• Turkey says 4 suspects confess to spying on behalf of Mossad more

• Everything wrong with South Africa’s new spying law more

• The body of a former advisor to El Salvador's president showed signs of torture after he died this week while in custody on spying charges. more

• Ireland Refuses New Visa for Russian Diplomats Over Espionage Concerns more

• Accused Russian spy worked for U.K. intelligence, met with prime ministers and princes more

• US Worried About Chinese Smart Cars Spying On Americans more

• Russia jails Ukrainian woman for 10 years for spying more

• A woman who had a six-year relationship with the man of her dreams eventually discovered he was actually an undercover cop spying on her. more

• Lebanese resistance destroys spying equipment in Israeli garrison more

...and in spy movie news... 

• Argylle: A spy martini that's shaken, stirred and somehow still flat. more

• “Argylle” is still out snooping the competition. The spy action comedy remained in first place, raking in $1.96 million on Friday, its second in theaters... So far, the flick, which cost $200 million to make, hasn’t been performing as expected. more

Well, the trailer was fun.

“The Conversation” to be Remade as a TV Series

Francis Ford Coppola‘s 1974 masterpiece “The Conversation” will be remade as a TV series, with “Margin Call” and “All Is Lost” filmmaker J.C. Chandor attached to both write and direct the series, IndieWire has confirmed.

Chandor will direct via his CounterNarrative Films banner alongside Temple Hill, producer Adam Fishbach, and executive produced by Coppola’s American Zoetrope. Erin Levy, known for her work on “Mad Men” and “Mindhunter,” will be the showrunner on “The Conversation” remake. 

MRC is the studio behind the series, and the company optioned the TV remake rights directly from the Coppola estate. more

...and for old times' sake...

The Future of AI that Never Was (from 2012)

Enjoy the weekend!

The first 1:54 is all you need...

BlackBerry - The Best Movie Of 2023?

The True Story Thriller That’s Being Called The Best Movie Of The Year... Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry, managed to make a small but noticeable splash at the box office, resulting in a stunning 98 percent certified fresh critic score from Rotten Tomatoes...

Though the film’s premise may not immediately strike you as rife with thrilling storytelling potential, BlackBerry manages to take the high-intensity world of tech development, corporate espionage, and the true tale of one corporation’s rise and incredible fall to its absolute limits.

Those who lived through the era of BlackBerry phones being the must-have product on the market will look back at the moment in history with a newfound sense of awe after seeing the film, while those too young to recall the ubiquity of the full-keyboard phone will be shocked and appalled by the underhanded business practices which brought mobile internet to the next level. more

14 Hilarious Moments from Spy Spoofs and Comedies

There are few film genres as reliable in modern times as spy films, shows and even video games. 

James Bond led the way to Remington Steele to Ethan Hunt to Solid Snake to Austin Powers. But the somber seriousness of the espionage game makes it a prime target for comedians and comedy writers to mine some humor out of all the profession’s sternness, violence and ludicrous clandestine nature.

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to enjoy these funniest moments from or about the spy genre in pop culture. more

White House Plumbers...

...A Delightfully Funny Retelling of the Watergate Scandal

The Watergate scandal is not exactly new territory for screenwriters. From the 1976 classic All the President’s Men to, just last year, the excellent Gaslit, the story of the bungled covert operations that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974 has been raked over time and time again.

So White House Plumbers, created by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck – two writers who have previously worked on Veep and David Letterman’s 90s Late Show – needed to be pretty good to justify its existence. Thankfully, it was.

The five-episode comedy drama focuses on E Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), ex CIA and FBI agents respectively, who were hired by Nixon’s White House to run a dirty tricks unit. more

The White House Plumbers, or The Buttcrack Buggers

This five-part limited series imagines the behind-the-scenes story of how Nixon’s political saboteurs, E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they were zealously trying to protect… and their families along with it. 

Chronicling actions on the ground, this satirical drama begins in 1971 when the White House hires Hunt and Liddy, former CIA and FBI, respectively, to investigate the Pentagon Papers leak. After failing upward, the unlikely pair lands on the Committee to Re-Elect the President, plotting several unbelievable covert ops – including bugging the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex. Proving that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction, White House Plumbers sheds light on the lesser-known series of events that led to one of the greatest political scandals in American history.

From the producers of Succession and Veep...White House Plumbers comes to HBO Max on May 1, 2023. more

'Rabbit Hole' Clip Shows Kiefer Sutherland as a Mastermind of Corporate Espionage

A lengthy new clip has been released for Paramount+'s upcoming spy thriller series, Rabbit Hole...

Rabbit Hole stars Kiefer Sutherland as John Weir, a master manipulator who helps corrupt corporate businesses...

This scene shows how the series will be a diabolical foray into corporate espionage. more

New Spy Show Is An Experimental TV First

The Russo brothers have developed an international spy show called Citadel, and the series is expected to be a first-of-its-kind, world-building endeavor. 

Backed by Amazon Studios, the seven-episode saga features Priyanka Chopra Jonas and former Game of Thrones star Richard Madden alongside veteran actor Stanley Tucci. 

Citadel has been in the works for several years, but the series' release date has yet to be announced... The plot is also being kept under close guard. more

Here's the Thing - Wednesday - Nov. 23rd

Wednesday Addams catches Thing spying on her...

Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) is not a fan of being spied on ... particularly when her parents are the ones doing the spying. 

During Netflix's TUDUM fan event on Saturday, the streamer released a new clip from the upcoming Addams family series, Wednesday, which follows a teenage Wednesday as she attends Nevermore Academy — the school where her parents once met — and discovers a supernatural mystery might be afoot. more

Surveillance Documentary: Theo Anthony on All Light, Everywhere

Anthony follows the bliss of two hawkers of cutting-edge surveillance technology. 

In Scottsdale, Arizona, taking corporate assertions of transparency at their word, he is given a PR-guided tour of the headquarters of Axon Enterprise, Inc, formerly known as Taser, manufacturer of electroshock weapons and now runaway leader in the deployment of police body cameras. He tests the tech (and its limits) in a mall, captures the police’s internal rationale for body cameras in a training session, and – with the Axon PR now in overdrive – stages a multi-cam Axon-branded arrest scenario in the desert.

Back home in Baltimore, Anthony also attends to the efforts of Ross McNutt, president of Persistent Surveillance Systems, to sell citizens on his “God’s-eye view” plane-mounted live-feed spy cams – somewhat belatedly, since the tech had previously been deployed in 2016 without disclosure even to the mayor. Now he presents a genial face in community liaison meetings, offering blandishments about providing an “unbiased witness” in “troubled cities”. As Anthony’s voiceover says over an Axon promotional video, “It feels like watching a corporation dream out loud”: the claim is objectivity, the dream is omniscience, the end game is power. One thinks of Jeremy Bentham’s all-seeing panopticon, but also of Naomi Klein’s insights in No Logo into corporate aspirations of weightless, unburdened power. more

50 Spy Movies That’ll Keep You On The Edge Of Your Seat

As kids, all of us loved play-pretend games, and though there's a myriad of variations, one theme that was by far the most thrilling of them all - playing spies on a secret mission. 

Such secrecy and importance sure seemed thrilling, and emulating the super cool tricks we saw on the cinema screens felt like the best thing in the world. Naturally, most of us grew out of these play-pretend frolics, but the infatuation with everything spies hasn't gone anywhere. And what's a better way to relive these thrilling fantasies than by watching some of the best spy movies ever made? 

So, here we are with our list that'll cater to even the pickiest spy movie connoisseur and give you some pretty decent choices for your next adventurous viewing... more

The Ultimate Spy, or Better Learn How to Say "Yes, Master"

 via Sundance...

This fascinating and visually stimulating documentary examines simulation theory—the idea that this world we live in might not be entirely real. The theory is as old as Plato's Republic and as current as Elon Musk's Twitter feed and A Glitch in the Matrix traces its genesis over the years, from philosophical engagements by the ancient Greeks to modern explorations by Philip K. Dick, the Wachowskis, and game theorists.

A new trailer for the upcoming documentary A Glitch in the Matrix gives a haunting look at the theory that we are all living in a giant simulation. The title alludes to the Wachowskis’ popular Matrix franchise, which is perhaps the most significant cultural exploration of the trippy thought experiment.

A Glitch in the Matrix will premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in the Midnight Section line-up. After Sundance, A Glitch in the Matrix will be in theaters and on demand on February 5, 2021.

100 Best Spy Movies of all Time

Stacker compiled data on all spy movies to come up with a Stacker score—a weighted index split evenly between IMDb and Metacritic scores. Here are the best spy movies of all time... more

#5 - Duck Soup

 

Your Weekend Movie – “A Call to Spy” Now Streaming

“A Call to Spy” is now available to watch via streaming services and in select theaters across the United States and United Kingdom...

Premiering on June 21st, 2019 -- the 75th anniversary of D-Day -- at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the film has gone on to win numerous awards...

In the beginning of WWII, with Britain becoming desperate, Churchill orders his new spy agency—the Special Operations Executive (SOE)—to recruit and train women as spies. 

Their daunting mission: conduct sabotage and build a resistance. SOE's "spymistress," Vera Atkins (Stana Katic), recruits two unusual candidates: Virginia Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas), an ambitious American with a wooden leg, and Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Apte), an Indian Muslim pacifist. Together, these women help to undermine the Nazi regime in France, leaving an unmistakable legacy in their wake. Inspired by true stories. more