The most memorable spy films

Based on a true story, Spike Lee's searing drama tells the tale of two men, one black and one white, who infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. Adam Driver plays the man who is effectively spying on the KKK from the inside, which is a particular risk given that he's Jewish.

After the success of “John Wick,” co-director David Leitch branched off on his own to bring that vibe to a slightly different world. This time, Charlize Theron is in the Keanu Reeves role, but she’s a spy, not an assassin. Exactly who she is spying for and when and why is a bit murky, though, because the film starts to pile up the twists at the end. Before that, it’s just a really visceral thriller with some great action scenes.

Bond parodies and spy spoofs were tried before, but nobody knocked it out of the park before the first Austin Powers movie. Mike Myers’ British spy had everybody spouting catchphrases until they became annoying, but the original movie was so fun. The first sequel, “The Spy Who Shagged Me,” has its moments. The less said about “Goldmember” the better.

Frankly, the first three Bourne movies are all really good. Matt Damon stars in all three as Jason Bourne, an assassin and spy who gets amnesia and then spends a few movies piecing things together. The first one, “The Bourne Identity,” is the best of the bunch, though. We, and Bourne, have the fewest pieces of the puzzle, making the story more engrossing. Also, Franka Potente is a great foil.

Some call “Charade” the best Hitchcock movie that he never made. While it certainly owes a debt to the espionage thrillers that Hitchcock excelled at, the film stands on its own merits. Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn are both excellent in the lead roles, but it’s Walter Matthau who winds up stealing the show.

The “Get Smart” movie maybe doesn’t live up to the caliber of the ‘60s sitcom starring Don Adams as the bumbling CONTROL agent, Maxwell Smart. However, what the movie does have is Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway as the duo of Smart and 99. It wasn’t a hit, but it is a charming spy comedy.

Steven Soderbergh found something fascinating about Gina Carano, the former MMA star turned actor (turned pariah). She had limited experience and marginal acting chops, but Soderbergh wanted to build a film that played to her strengths. As such, she spends most of “Haywire” just having fight scenes. She fights a litany of movie stars — better actors who can shoulder that load and let Carano do her thing, which she can handle.

Tom Cruise has made seven “Mission: Impossible” movies (with at least one more on the way), and all of them are at least pretty good. Even the second one has its moments. If we are going to include only one on this list, though, we’re going with “Rogue Nation,” the fifth movie in the series. It gives Ethan Hunt his best crew, including the addition of Rebecca Ferguson.

“Three Days of the Condor” is one of the classic ‘70s conspiracy thrillers with a nihilistic streak. Some of it doesn’t hold up. Maybe we don’t need Robert Redford taking Faye Dunaway hostage with the two eventually falling in love. The conspiracy aspects of it, though, still crackle, and Redford and Dunaway are megawatt stars.

“Airplane!” is considered one of the top parodies, and top comedies, of all time by many. After having milked that style of movie for all its worth, the team behind that film decided to try its hand at spoofing the spy film. “Top Secret!” is basically “Airplane!” but without the plane. It’s not quite as funny, but it does have a young Val Kilmer as the star.

There is a handful of Alfred Hitchcock movies that get votes as his best, and “North by Northwest” is one of them. Part of what makes it unique is that it’s a spy movie in which the main character isn’t a spy. Instead, he’s a normal man roped into a world of conspiracy and spy work due to mistaken identity. Cary Grant is basically an everyman in an insane situation, making “North by Northwest” feel fresh. Also, it has that scene with the plane.

If nothing else, “Spy” deserves recognition for having the most straight-to-the-point title. However, it’s also a solidly funny film. Melissa McCarthy plays a CIA employee who works the desk but finds herself having to set out into the field. Does wackiness ensue? You know it!

Steven Spielberg has made a couple of movies about spies. “Munich” is a bit of a slog, but “Bridge of Spies” has a lot going for it. For starters,Tom Hanks is in the starring role, and yet it’s Mark Rylance who won an Oscar for her performance in the movie. It’s a “mature” drama, which is to say that doesn’t include fight scenes and gun fights of other spy films, but it has a story to tell.

There have been a few Jack Ryan films, but he somehow doesn’t feel like an iconic character. Maybe that’s because different actors have played the Tom Clancy hero, but then again James Bond exists and he’s doing just fine. Of all the Ryan stories, “The Hunt for Red October” is the best. It’s the first of the bunch and the only one featuring Alec Baldwin as Ryan, and it has Sean Connery as a rogue Russian submarine captain.

Here’s a movie featuring a couple of guys who have been in multiple spy movies. The titular Charlie Wilson is played by Tom Hanks, a great actor. It takes a real heavyweight thespian to overshadow him in a movie. Enter Philip Seymour Hoffman. At the time arguably the greatest living actor we had, Hoffman is a force of nature in every scene he’s in. It almost ends up hurting the rest of the movie that he isn’t a part of.

There are a few good possible choices from Sean Connery’s time as Bond. “Dr. No” was the first one, for example. And yet when you think Connery and you think James Bond, most people will probably go with “Goldfinger.” It feels like the most “famous” Bond film, and that makes it the one to recognize.

The Pierce Brosnan Bond films got bad pretty fast. That is to say, he made exactly one good movie, and it was his first one. “GoldenEye” is also still kind of silly, but it felt like it revitalized Bond as a character. It was the first Bond movie for a whole generation of movie fans, which certainly makes it a memorable and, arguably, important film.

When Daniel Craig took over as Bond, the films suddenly got more “serious.” That hasn’t turned out to be a bad thing. It seems to be the general consensus that “Skyfall” is the best of the Craig-era Bond movies. It certainly has some memorable action scenes — they all do —but also a great turn by Javier Bardem as the villain. Also, a shout out to Judi Dench for her performance as M.

Remember “The Artist,” the silent film that won Best Picture? What if I told you that before that, the director of that movie and its two stars had made a spy parody movie? Sound interesting? Then you should check out “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.” Jean Dujardin stars as a bumbling spy with the code name OSS 117. The film is in French, which probably leads to some of the wordplay not landing, but it’s still a fun movie.

The real life story that inspired “Argo” is fascinating. A CIA agent, played by Ben Affleck, has to go into Iran to rescue trapped U.S. diplomats during the hostage crisis. The agents do it under the cover of being the crew of a Canadian sci-fi movie looking at Iran as a potential filming location. It’s a fascinating story, and it feels like “Argo,” which won Best Picture at the Oscars, does it justice.

The works of John le Carre have been adapted many times over, but “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is probably his most famous. We’re talking about the 2011 adaptation featuring Gary Oldman as George Smiley. It’s a star-studded cast full of great actors, and though the film may be a little slow and ponderous for some, a lot of spy movie fans don’t mind that kind of pace. They like to see the wheels spinning.

Leave it to the Coen brothers to treat the world of espionage with absolutely zero gravitas. Basically everybody in this movie is an idiot, including the former CIA analyst whose memoir in progress ends up in the hands of two greedy morons who work at a gym. Oh, and those doofuses are played by Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt. “Burn After Reading” is as sardonic as any Coen film, but it’s also really funny.

Yes, there are issues with “True Lies.” It has problems with its depiction of people from the Middle East, and women in general. That being said, it also features Arnold Schwarzenegger riding a horse. It’s goofy and ridiculous and over the top. We’re not just talking about how good these films are but also how memorable. Any Arnold film directed by James Cameron is going to be remembered.

There are a lot more assassins in films than in real life, and one assumes they don’t tend to look like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Of course, when people think of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” they think of it as the movie that made Pitt and Jolie a couple. Putting the tabloids aside, though, it’s a crazy action film with a lot of gun play that’s pretty fun.

Alfred Hitchcock made a few spy and spy-adjacent, films, and we couldn’t include them all. However, since they weren’t made as part of any series, we figured it was fair to list a couple of them. “Notorious” is old enough of a film that it can feature Nazis as contemporary villains, but it’s also a love story as much as it is a spy story. Either way, it stars Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Can’t complain about that.

Hey, some people consider this to be a spy film. It made Wikipedia’s list of spy films for example, and why wouldn’t we take an opportunity to include a movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe? There is definitely some spy work being done by Steve Rogers and his buddies Natasha and Sam, aka Black Widow and Falcon. Also, when promoting the movie, the filmmakers talked extensively about it being influenced by ‘70s conspiracy films. “Three Days of the Condor” was specifically name-dropped. Everything comes full circle.

Christopher Nolan is always ambitious. He's also not afraid to make an audience work for it. "Tenet" was released at an unfortunate time, which is to say at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Plus, it's a super dense, complicated movie. On the other hand, it's cool as hell and even if you don't know what's going on, it's quite the thrill ride. John David Washington plays an unnamed CIA agent who, well, we'll admit we can't explain it. We just enjoy watching it.