Best Spy/ Espionage/ Political Thrillers
by ChrisManuel | created - 02 Feb 2014 | updated - 11 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Inception (2010)
PG-13 | 148 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe
Votes: 2,549,441 | Gross: $292.58M
2. The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)
R | 129 min | Action, Crime, Drama
As computer hacker Lisbeth and journalist Mikael investigate a sex-trafficking ring, Lisbeth is accused of three murders, causing her to go on the run while Mikael works to clear her name.
Director: Daniel Alfredson | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Lena Endre, Peter Andersson
Votes: 98,488 | Gross: $9.08M
3. The Departed (2006)
R | 151 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
Votes: 1,421,632 | Gross: $132.38M
4. The Bourne Identity (2002)
PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
A man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and suffering from amnesia, before racing to elude assassins and attempting to regain his memory.
Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Franka Potente, Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen
Votes: 576,085 | Gross: $121.66M
5. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
PG-13 | 108 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
When Jason Bourne is framed for a CIA operation gone awry, he is forced to resume his former life as a trained assassin to survive.
Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Joan Allen, Brian Cox
Votes: 486,782 | Gross: $176.24M
6. Mission: Impossible (1996)
PG-13 | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
An American agent, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny
Votes: 470,121 | Gross: $180.98M
7. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
PG-13 | 115 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
Jason Bourne dodges a ruthless C.I.A. official and his Agents from a new assassination program while searching for the origins of his life as a trained killer.
Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: Matt Damon, Edgar Ramírez, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles
Votes: 658,089 | Gross: $227.47M
8. Body of Lies (2008)
R | 128 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A CIA agent on the ground in Jordan hunts down a powerful terrorist leader while being caught between the unclear intentions of his American supervisors and Jordan Intelligence.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani
Votes: 239,351 | Gross: $39.39M
9. North by Northwest (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
Votes: 346,003 | Gross: $13.28M
10. Munich (2005)
R | 164 min | Action, Drama, History
After the Black September capture and massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, five men are chosen to eliminate the people responsible for that fateful day.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Marie-Josée Croze, Ciarán Hinds
Votes: 238,223 | Gross: $47.40M
11. Ronin (1998)
R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A freelancing former U.S. Intelligence Agent tries to track down a mysterious package that is wanted by the Irish and the Russians.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 195,061 | Gross: $41.62M
12. Enemy of the State (1998)
R | 132 min | Action, Thriller
A lawyer becomes targeted by a corrupt politician and his N.S.A. goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a politically motivated crime.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet
Votes: 258,849 | Gross: $111.55M
13. Unknown (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
When a man awakens from a coma only to discover that someone has taken on his identity, he teams up with a young woman to prove who he is.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Aidan Quinn
Votes: 269,313 | Gross: $63.69M
14. Taken (I) (2008)
PG-13 | 90 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.
Director: Pierre Morel | Stars: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser
Votes: 634,285 | Gross: $145.00M
15. The International (I) (2009)
R | 118 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An Interpol agent attempts to expose a high-profile financial institution's role in an international arms dealing ring.
Director: Tom Tykwer | Stars: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen
Votes: 99,987 | Gross: $25.45M
16. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
R | 157 min | Drama, History, Thriller
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong
Votes: 318,836 | Gross: $95.72M
17. Traitor (2008)
PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama
When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn.
Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff | Stars: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Archie Panjabi, Saïd Taghmaoui
Votes: 59,095 | Gross: $23.53M
18. Quantum of Solace (2008)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
James Bond descends into mystery as he tries to stop a mysterious organisation from eliminating a country's most valuable resource.
Director: Marc Forster | Stars: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench
Votes: 470,660 | Gross: $168.37M
19. GoldenEye (1995)
PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Years after a friend and fellow 00 agent is killed on a joint mission, a secret space based weapons program known as "GoldenEye" is stolen. James Bond is assigned to stop a Russian crime syndicate from using the weapon.
Director: Martin Campbell | Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen
Votes: 270,166 | Gross: $106.60M
20. The World Is Not Enough (1999)
PG-13 | 128 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond uncovers a nuclear plot while protecting an oil heiress from her former kidnapper, an international terrorist who can't feel pain.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, Denise Richards
Votes: 209,936 | Gross: $126.94M
21. Casino Royale (2006)
PG-13 | 144 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
After earning 00 status and a licence to kill, secret agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007. Bond must defeat a private banker funding terrorists in a high-stakes game of poker at Casino Royale, Montenegro.
Director: Martin Campbell | Stars: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright
Votes: 694,365 | Gross: $167.45M
22. Skyfall (2012)
PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Judi Dench
Votes: 730,898 | Gross: $304.36M
23. Hanna (2011)
PG-13 | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A sixteen-year-old girl who was raised by her father to be the perfect assassin is dispatched on a mission across Europe, tracked by a ruthless intelligence agent and her operatives.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana, Vicky Krieps
Votes: 206,821 | Gross: $40.26M
24. Argo (2012)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.
Director: Ben Affleck | Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin
Votes: 638,935 | Gross: $136.03M
25. Max Manus: Man of War (2008)
Not Rated | 118 min | Action, Biography, Crime
The true story about one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II and his battle to overcome his inner demons.
Directors: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg | Stars: Aksel Hennie, Agnes Kittelsen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Ken Duken
Votes: 29,767
26. Léon: The Professional (1994)
R | 110 min | Action, Crime, Drama
12-year-old Mathilda is reluctantly taken in by Léon, a professional assassin, after her family is murdered. An unusual relationship forms as she becomes his protégée and learns the assassin's trade.
Director: Luc Besson | Stars: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, Danny Aiello
Votes: 1,245,151 | Gross: $19.50M
27. From Russia with Love (1963)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Director: Terence Young | Stars: Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya, Daniela Bianchi
Votes: 145,304 | Gross: $24.80M
28. The Interpreter (2005)
PG-13 | 128 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Political intrigue and deception unfold inside the United Nations, where a U.S. Secret Service agent is assigned to investigate an interpreter who overhears an assassination plot.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Jesper Christensen
Votes: 110,910 | Gross: $72.71M
29. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
R | 158 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for 40 years by young computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 494,661 | Gross: $102.52M
30. The Debt (I) (2010)
R | 113 min | Drama, Thriller
In 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.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain
Votes: 71,861 | Gross: $31.18M
31. The Da Vinci Code (2006)
PG-13 | 149 min | Mystery, Thriller
A murder inside the Louvre, and clues in Da Vinci paintings, lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years, which could shake the foundations of Christianity.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Ian McKellen
Votes: 458,675 | Gross: $217.54M
32. Angels & Demons (2009)
PG-13 | 138 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon works with a nuclear physicist to solve a murder and prevent a terrorist act against the Vatican during one of the significant events within the church.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 309,499 | Gross: $133.38M
33. The Lives of Others (2006)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 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.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 410,334 | Gross: $11.29M
34. Closed Circuit (2013)
R | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A high-profile terrorism case unexpectedly binds together two ex-lovers on the defense team - testing the limits of their loyalties and placing their lives in jeopardy.
Director: John Crowley | Stars: Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Jim Broadbent, Ciarán Hinds
Votes: 23,280 | Gross: $5.73M
35. Farewell (2009)
Not Rated | 113 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
The French intelligence service alerts the U.S. about a Soviet spy operation during the height of the Cold War, which sets off an unfortunate chain of events.
Director: Christian Carion | Stars: Guillaume Canet, Emir Kusturica, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ingeborga Dapkunaite
Votes: 6,981
36. Taken 3 (2014)
PG-13 | 108 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
Accused of a ruthless murder he never committed or witnessed, Bryan Mills goes on the run and brings out his particular set of skills to find the true killer and clear his name.
Director: Olivier Megaton | Stars: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen
Votes: 204,009 | Gross: $89.26M
37. In Order of Disappearance (2014)
R | 116 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
After his son is murdered by drug dealers, a snowplow driver starts seeking revenge.
Director: Hans Petter Moland | Stars: Stellan Skarsgård, Bruno Ganz, Pål Sverre Hagen, Jakob Oftebro
Votes: 29,133 | Gross: $0.05M
38. Unlocked (I) (2017)
R | 98 min | Action, Thriller
A CIA interrogator is lured into a ruse that puts London at risk of a biological attack.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, Toni Collette, John Malkovich
Votes: 38,649
39. 6 Days (I) (2017)
R | 94 min | Action, Drama, History
Based on the Iranian Embassy siege of 1980, this action-thriller dramatizes a six-day standoff between armed Iranian Arabs and SAS soldiers ready for a counterattack.
Director: Toa Fraser | Stars: Jamie Bell, Mark Strong, Abbie Cornish, Martin Shaw
Votes: 24,648
40. The Gunman (2015)
R | 115 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
A sniper on a mercenary assassination team kills the minister of mines of the Congo. Terrier's successful kill shot forces him into hiding. Returning to the Congo years later, he becomes the target of a hit squad himself.
Director: Pierre Morel | Stars: Sean Penn, Idris Elba, Jasmine Trinca, Javier Bardem
Votes: 43,380 | Gross: $10.64M
41. Red Sparrow (2018)
R | 140 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Ballerina Dominika Egorova is recruited to 'Sparrow School,' a Russian intelligence service where she is forced to use her body as a weapon. Her first mission, targeting a C.I.A. agent, threatens to unravel the security of both nations.
Director: Francis Lawrence | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling
Votes: 201,474 | Gross: $46.87M
42. Sicario (2015)
R | 121 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.
Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Jon Bernthal
Votes: 476,379 | Gross: $46.89M
43. Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)
R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border has escalated as the cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the US border. To fight the war, federal agent Matt Graver re-teams with the mercurial Alejandro.
Director: Stefano Sollima | Stars: Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Merced, Jeffrey Donovan
Votes: 166,873 | Gross: $50.07M
44. Atomic Blonde (2017)
R | 115 min | Action, Thriller
An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.
Director: David Leitch | Stars: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Eddie Marsan
Votes: 206,422 | Gross: $51.69M
45. AKA (2023)
TV-MA | 122 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A steely special ops agent finds his morality put to the test when he infiltrates a crime syndicate and unexpectedly bonds with the boss's young son.
Director: Morgan S. Dalibert | Stars: Alban Lenoir, Eric Cantona, Thibault de Montalembert, Sveva Alviti
Votes: 13,240
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