To celebrate Traitor's release, we've compiled a list of the 10 Best Spy Films from the past 50 years of top-secret assignments and edge-of-your-seat suspense. Naturally, no list of spy films would be complete without at least one 007 reference (there's two here), but there are plenty of silver-screen spies and saboteurs that deserve their spot in the rankings just as much as Bond.
So shake up that martini and get ready for a spy film thrill ride!
Director John Woo brings a heavy dose of Hong Kong-style martial arts action to the sequel to the wildly successful first installment of Mission: Impossible franchise. Complicated plotlines and political texturing is traded almost entirely for adrenaline-soaked action sequences as Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, an operative for the top-secret government agency IMF (Impossible Missions Force). He's on the hunt for fellow agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), who has gone rogue with a sample of a synthetic virus named Chimera that just so happens to be deadly enough to kill everybody, everywhere. Add a love interest, a blinding array of double-crossings and edge-of-your-seat nonstop action, and you've got yourself a hell of a spy flick.
Described by many as the fastest, most brutal and best Bond film to date, Quantum of Solace sets a new standard for the classic spy franchise. Picking up just moments after its predecessor, Casino Royale, left off, Bond (Daniel Craig) kills his way from Australia to Italy and South America on a mission of vengeance that pits the super-spy against a powerful businessman. While the ladies remain a consistent element in 007's world, Craig's Bond does away with the old cliche catch-phrases and replaces them with pure grit. By the film's climax, everyone from the CIA to the terrorists and even his agency's own M are out to get him.
The Conversation
This is Francis Ford Coppola's brilliant, paranoid 1974 film about a CIA surveillance tech genius, played by Gene Hackman. He ends up finding out a lot more than he should, and is tormented by his discovery. The film is a full generation ahead of its time, and the final scene is a snapshot of a dystopian, Orwellian future to come. It's not your traditional spy film, but a fascinating study in paranoia and fear. Coppola was on a good streak in '74, too; this was nominated for best picture the same year his other film, Godfather: Part II, won the Oscar (he also won for best director).
