Summary

• Spy movies no longer just feature debonair agents; diverse origins & characters bring new twists to the genre.
• Spy movies range from psychological thrillers to zany comedies, with innovative plots that keep viewers on edge.
• The tension, gadgets, and top-notch performances in spy movies like Bond, Salt, & Bourne make them stand out.

The best spy movies invite audiences into a world of intrigue, danger, and action. James Bond is undoubtedly the first character to spring to mind when the genre is discussed, and while Ian Fleming's 007 surely helped to raise its popularity and inspire imitators, the spy movie was around long before Bond. The genre has branched out considerably since then. Spy movies no longer only feature dashing, debonair secret agents. Spies can be from anywhere, but secret agent movies still maintain cat-and-mouse elements that made the genre so beloved.

Spy movies range from psychological thrillers to zany comedies. The stories take place across nations or just between one confused department. They involve real-world figures or fabricated organizations. What is important is a sense of tension in the plot, a legitimate feeling the hero could be on their last mission if even one mistake is made. Gadgets, secret enemies, and HQs filled with sometimes helpful and sometimes bungling team fill the best spy movies, but the tension and plotting make the best stand out.

30 Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind (2002)

Sam Rockwell Stars As Gong Show Host Chuck Barris

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind might be one of the most unusual secret agent movies because it tells the often disputed tale of Chuck Barris. While most of the world knows Barris as a TV game show host (The Gong Show), he wrote an "unauthorized biography" where Barris claims he worked as a CIA assassin at the same time as he was a television host.

The movie plays as a dark comedy but has everything spy movie fans could want.

In Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Sam Rockwell plays Barris while George Clooney directs and Julia Roberts has a key role as well. The movie plays as a dark comedy but has everything spy movie fans could want. It was also a critical success. Rockwell won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival, and the movie showed that Clooney was a director on the rise.

29 Spy Game (2001)

Robert Redford & Brad Pitt In An Espionage Thriller

When CIA agent Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) is arrested for espionage, his mentor Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) gets pulled from the edge of a long-awaited retirement as he sets out to free his old friend. Spy Game delves into the partnership between the two agents, going back to the Vietnam War and stretching into the modern spy world. Director Tony Scott's high-energy filmmaking mixed with an intelligent script makes for a great "race against the clock" entry in the spy movies genre.

Seeing two generations of Hollywood leading men of this caliber sharing the screen is exciting, and their partnership is used wonderfully, making for a great mentor-student relationship. The movie did well at the box office, but barely made back its large $115 million budget, thanks to competition that included Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Pixar's Monsters, Inc.

The film received mixed reviews from critics, who mostly praised Pitt and Redford in the lead roles.

28 Salt (2010)

Angelina Jolie Stars As A Russian Sleeper Agent

In Salt, the usual formula for spy movies is flipped when the protagonist is revealed to be a Russian sleeper agent. Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is a sleeper cell who is compelled to start a nuclear holocaust but fights to override her programming. Like any of the best secret agent movies, Salt keeps information hidden until it's revealed in the finale. Director Phillip Noyce is no stranger to the espionage genre, previously directing both of the Jack Ryan movies with Harrison Ford in the lead. Here, he had a chance to create a new female action hero.

The film is grounded by the committed performance of Jolie and its practical stunts. Salt offers a much wilder and more explosive experience than similar spy movies, and there's still demand for Salt 2 a decade later. The movie was a huge box office success and received positive reviews, while also picking up an Oscar nomination for Best Sound Mixing. With that said, it is puzzling that Jolie never returned to the role once again.

27 Tenet (2021)

A Time-Travel Spy Movie

Adding a time travel element to spy movies is an interesting approach in Tenet that fits with Christopher Nolan's style perfectly. John David Washington stars as an unnamed agent who is tasked with stopping an arms dealer from using time travel to ignite world chaos. The rules of the world are more than a little confusing, and it might take viewers more than one watch to understand it all. However, Nolan's talent for putting on exciting set pieces with a practical filmmaking approach is easy to see.

The movie was nominated for two Oscars, and won one for Best Visual Effects. Unfortunately, the film came out during the pandemic, and while it was a box office success, making $359 million, it still wasn't as big of an earner thanks to its $205 million budget. There are many people who missed out on seeing the movie because of the fear of theaters at the time, and it has slowly built up a cult following as fans began to discover it little by little on streaming services in the years since its initial release.

26 Spy (2015)

A Spy Comedy Starring Melissa McCarthy

Spy makes its world and stakes authentic while filling them with hilarious and absurd characters that deliver the laughs.

Adding comedy into spy movies without becoming an all-out parody is difficult, but it was pulled off wonderfully in 2015's Spy. Melissa McCarthy stars as Susan Cooper, a desk worker at a spy agency who is forced to go into the field when her friend and fellow agent (Jude Law) is killed. Spy makes its world and stakes authentic while filling them with hilarious and absurd characters that deliver the laughs.

McCarthy is her usual hilarious self but might surprise many viewers during the action sequences in Spy. However, the funniest performance of the movie goes to Jason Statham playing against his tough guy character type as an overly confident but completely bumbling secret agent. The against-type acting of Statham and a very funny performance by McCarthy helped the movie earn over $235 million at the box office while also picking up two Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture and Best Actress.

25 Ronin (1998)

Robert De Niro As A Mercenary

Ronin is one of the most unappreciated spy movies in the genre, but its cult following is undeniable. Robert De Niro plays ex-U.S. intelligence agent Sam, who s a ragtag band of mercenaries to recover a mysterious case from international bad guys. The movie blends two key elements of secret agent movies: the spectacular action and the paranoia. There are a lot of shady characters and backstabbing at hand, but when it comes to Ronin's reputation, it's best known for one of the greatest movie car chases of all time, rivaling even Bullitt.

What this movie really has going for it is the combination of director John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate), screenwriter David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross, and Al Pacino while he was still at the top of his game. Together, they created a minor masterpiece that stands up with the best spy movies of any generation, even though it took a few years for it to finally gain widespread appreciation.

24 Enemy Of The State (1998)

A Tony Scott Spy Conspiracy Thriller

Enemy of the State is an overlooked film worthy of another chance. Smith plays a family man and lawyer who finds himself targeted by a rogue spy operation that believes he possesses a sensitive videotape. One of many spy movies by Tony Scott, it is a kinetic and fast-paced ride that examines privacy issues in the modern era. It is refreshing to see Smith as a less capable hero and Gene Hackman recreating his character from the spy classic The Conversation as an old-school intelligence officer aiding Smith.

This was a Tony Scott movie in every definition of the word. The movie focuses on the danger of government oversight and corruption at the highest levels of the country. It also speaks on the dangers of surveillance, and how those aspects of society can even be manipulated to accomplish anything a corrupt NSA could want. The movie was a huge success, making $250 million on a $90 million budget while critics gave it mostly positive reviews.

23 Hanna (2011)

The Movie That Inspired The Prime Video Series

In Hanna, the titular young girl has been trained from birth by her guardian, Erik, to be an assassin. When the pair are separated by a vengeful CIA agent, Hanna uses every skill she’s learned to evade her pursuers and find out the truth about her mysterious birth. The tone and setting are a departure from most spy movies, taking place in Finland and Morocco and having a tone that most closely resembles a dark fairy tale. That also makes sense considering the director Joe Wright, who also directed Pride & Prejudice and Anna Karenina.

Ronan is fantastic in her role as the child assassin, capable of pulling off dead-eyed action and affecting emotional scenes equally. The movie earned wide critical praise, landing on several critics groups' "best of" lists. It also spawned a Prime Video TV series that ran for three seasons, with Esme Creed-Miles starring as Hanna and Joel Kinnaman taking on the Eric Bana role of Erik, her father figure in the movie version.

22 Burn After Reading (2008)

The Coen Brothers Slapstick Spy Movie

The Coen Brothers' comedies are often as memorable as their dramas and one of their best is the absurd spy story Burn After Reading. The all-cast cast is led by John Malkovich as Osbourne Cox, a mid-level CIA analyst whose work documents are stolen by a pair of inept gym employees, Linda Litzke and Chad Feldheimer, setting off a chain event of increasingly paranoid and deadly reactions all based on utter stupidity. The rest of the ensemble includes the likes of George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and J.K. Simmons in this hilarious take on spy movies.

The characters were all over-the-top and ridiculous, with head-turning performances from Malkovich, Clooney, and especially Brad Pitt.

As a Coen brothers movie, this was as much a satire of spy movies as it was a spy movie itself. The characters were all over-the-top and ridiculous, with head-turning performances from Malkovich, Clooney, and especially Brad Pitt. The movie also has one of the most shocking death scenes ever filmed for a spy movie. It went on to earn two Golden Globe nominations, incuding Best Motion Picture and Best Actress for s McDormand while the BAFTA Awards nominated the Coen Brothers' screenplay as well as Brad Pitt and Tilda Swinton.

21 True Lies (1994)

James Cameron & Arnold Schwarzenegger's Spy Thriller

Though Oscar-winning director James Cameron's best movies aren't usually humorous, True Lies injects some much-needed laughs into the spy genre without ever sacrificing the thrills of spy movies. This film follows world-class secret agent Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) as he tracks down stolen nuclear weapons while keeping his dangerous job hidden from his wife Helen(Jamie Lee Curtis).

The two leads make for a surprisingly great comedic duo, with Curtis winning a Golden Globe for her performance. Though not as big of a hit as some of Cameron's other movies, True Lies grossed nearly $400 million, via Box Office Mojo, and spawned a TV remake. In more modern times, True Lies faces criticism of sexism, racial insensitivities, and toxic masculinity. However, at the same time, it remains the only movie in Cameron's career that just exists to have a good time.