With the death pinned on a fictitious KGB mole, Costner is assigned to figure out what’s going on before the trail leads suspicions his way.

After unwittingly starting an affair with the mistress of the secretary of defense, played by Gene Hackman, she turns up dead. In this smoke and mirrors cold-war thriller, Kevin Costner plays a navy officer posted to the Pentagon. This leads to a satisfying character transformation, as he must evolved from an unprepared bookworm into a resourceful field agent. He’s then forced outwit those to trying to kill him, while figuring out whom he can trust and getting to the bottom of it all. That’s why I never bring a sandwich to the office btw. Wow, younger Robert Redford was a beast! In this novel adaptation, he plays a CIA researcher who comes back from lunch to find all of his co-workers murdered. It instead gave us a low-key and slow cooking narrative marinated in paranoia and anxiety. This spy film doesn’t go for the usual high-octane action. A true piece of riveting escapism, this one has it all, including the obligatory rubber masks and unexpected plot twists.īased on the novel of the same name, this espionage film had Gary Oldman play a disgraced and retired British spy re-hired at the height of the cold war to unmask a soviet mole. Set up as an action series, the original film adaptation dangled the genre in never before seen directions! Centering on Tom Cruise as a freshman member of an impossible mission task force, he finds himself framed for the death of his colleagues and branded a traitor. The highpoint here are the flashbacks, which showcase an old school spy teaching a freshman the tricks of his trade.

With only 24 hours until retirement, he decides to use his last remaining hours on the job to rescue his comrade from execution. Kicking off our list is Tony Scott’s thriller starring Robert Redford as a veteran CIA agent who discovers that the Chinese government captured his former pupil and friend, played by Brad Pitt.

Plus, please be advised, the following contains major spoilers. We’re also only singling out one entry per franchise, meaning one Bond flick and only one of Hitchcock’s many espionage classics. Just to be clear, we’re zeroing in on the spy films that are intelligent, iconic or otherwise elevated the genre. Welcome to and today we’ll be counting down the top 10 spy movies. Pay attention, cause you know a twist is coming.

Spy agent movies