Spy movies and the cold war
The focus here is predominantly the kind of movies and tv-series that has a more advanced plot and/or classic cloak and dagger plot. I really jump at spy movies set in the 40-70s.
But there also has to be some action, AND a reasonable amount of outdoor scenes - not just talk, talk, talk indoors, like the much renowned "Smiley's people" and "Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy" from the 80s.
I don´t like b/w movies, so you won´t find the really classic movies like "The third man" here, but other movies with the same spirit and more modern ones, like The superb tv-series like "The Blackist" and "The Americans".
Another interesting subgenre in this list are the nazihunter movies.
But there also has to be some action, AND a reasonable amount of outdoor scenes - not just talk, talk, talk indoors, like the much renowned "Smiley's people" and "Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy" from the 80s.
I don´t like b/w movies, so you won´t find the really classic movies like "The third man" here, but other movies with the same spirit and more modern ones, like The superb tv-series like "The Blackist" and "The Americans".
Another interesting subgenre in this list are the nazihunter movies.
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- DirectorSidney J. FurieStarsMichael CaineNigel GreenGuy DolemanIn London, a wisecracking spy investigates the kidnapping and brainwashing of British scientists while dealing with the constraints of his agency's bureaucracy.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsEwan McGregorPierce BrosnanOlivia WilliamsA ghost writer, hired to complete the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister, uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy.
- DirectorEdward HallStarsMichelle DockeryMichael Peter WillisCharlotte RamplingA young woman finds out that her mother worked as a spy for the British Secret Service during World War II and has been on the run ever since.
- DirectorMikael HåfströmStarsJohn CusackGong LiChow Yun-FatA '40s period piece which revolves around an American expat who returns to Shanghai in the months before Pearl Harbor due to the death of his friend.
- DirectorPhillip NoyceStarsMichael CaineBrendan FraserDo Thi Hai YenAn old British reporter vies with a young U.S. doctor for the affections of a beautiful Vietnamese woman.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsBrad PittMarion CotillardJared HarrisIn 1942, a Canadian intelligence officer in North Africa encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. When they reunite in London, their relationship is tested by the pressures of war.
- DirectorDavid MametStarsSteve MartinBen GazzaraCampbell ScottAn employee who develops a lucrative secret process for his corporation is tempted to betray the company when higher ups attempt to take the process from him. Dastardly intrigue ensues.Sadly, a great movie very hard to find.
- DirectorArthur PennStarsGene HackmanMatt DillonBrad WilliamsWhen American Donna Lloyd is kidnapped during a trip to Europe, her son Chris and her husband Walter start searching for her.
- DirectorRonald NeameStarsJon VoightMaximilian SchellMaria SchellFollowing the suicide of an elderly Jewish man, a journalist in possession of the man's diary investigates the alleged sighting of a former S.S. Captain, who commanded a concentration camp during World War II.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsWilliam HurtLee MarvinBrian DennehyA Moscow police officer investigates a vicious triple homicide and stumbles upon a high-level international political conspiracy.
- DirectorAlan J. PakulaStarsHarrison FordBrad PittMargaret ColinA police officer uncovers the real identity of his house-guest, an I.R.A. terrorist in hiding.
- DirectorPaul VerhoevenStarsCarice van HoutenSebastian KochThom HoffmanIn the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.
- DirectorBrian G. HuttonStarsRichard BurtonClint EastwoodMary UreAllied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.
- DirectorFred SchepisiStarsSean ConneryMichelle PfeifferRoy ScheiderA British publisher is sent a manuscript detailing Soviet Union nuclear missile capabilities. British Intelligence intercept it and recruit him to investigate the author's editor, a beautiful Russian woman he claims never to have met.
- DirectorTerence YoungStarsSean ConneryRobert ShawLotte LenyaJames 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.
- DirectorPeter R. HuntStarsGeorge LazenbyDiana RiggTelly SavalasBritish agent James Bond goes undercover to pursue the villainous Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who is planning to hold the world to ransom.
- DirectorBilly RayStarsChris CooperRyan PhillippeDennis HaysbertFBI upstart Eric O'Neill enters into a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who was put on trial for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.
- DirectorRobert De NiroStarsMatt DamonAngelina JolieRobert De NiroThe tumultuous early history of the Central Intelligence Agency is viewed through the prism of one man's life.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsEric BanaDaniel CraigMarie-Josée CrozeAfter 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.
- DirectorMike NicholsStarsTom HanksJulia RobertsPhilip Seymour HoffmanA drama based on a Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects.
- DirectorSydney PollackStarsNicole KidmanSean PennCatherine KeenerPolitical 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.
- DirectorAnthony MannStarsKirk DouglasRichard HarrisUlla JacobssonNorwegian resistance tries to stop German efforts to produce an atomic bomb component during World War II.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsRock HudsonErnest BorgninePatrick McGoohanUSN nuclear sub USS Tigerfish must rush to the North Pole to rescue the staff of Drift Ice Station Zebra weather station.
- DirectorJohn McTiernanStarsSean ConneryAlec BaldwinScott GlennIn November 1984, the Soviet Union's best submarine captain violates orders and heads for the U.S. in a new undetectable sub. The American CIA and military must quickly determine: Is he trying to defect or to start a war?
- DirectorRoger DonaldsonStarsKevin CostnerGene HackmanSean YoungA coverup and witchhunt occur after a politician accidentally kills his mistress.
- DirectorBrad BirdStarsTom CruiseJeremy RennerSimon PeggThe IMF is shut down when it's implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization's name.
- StarsRichard ChamberlainJaclyn SmithAnthony QuayleAn injured, unconscious man washes ashore in a small French town. As he recovers, it becomes quite clear, someone is trying to kill him.
- DirectorRoger DonaldsonStarsPierce BrosnanLuke BraceyOlga KurylenkoAn ex-C.I.A. operative is brought back in on a very personal mission and finds himself pitted against his former pupil in a deadly game involving high-level C.I.A. officials and the Russian President-elect.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsRobert De NiroJean RenoNatascha McElhoneA freelancing former U.S. Intelligence Agent tries to track down a mysterious package that is wanted by the Irish and the Russians.
- DirectorJohn BoormanStarsPierce BrosnanGeoffrey RushJamie Lee CurtisA tailor living in Panama reluctantly becomes a spy for a British Agent.
- DirectorTomas AlfredsonStarsGary OldmanColin FirthTom HardyIn the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6.
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsEdward FoxTerence AlexanderMichel AuclairIn the aftermath of France allowing Algeria's independence, a group of resentful military veterans hire a professional assassin codenamed "Jackal" to kill President Charles de Gaulle.
- DirectorDoug LimanStarsFranka PotenteMatt DamonChris CooperA 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.
- DirectorHarald ZwartStarsPeter StormareLena OlinMark HamillA nuclear armed SS20 will be smuggled from Russia via Finland to Sweden unless Swedish agent Hamilton +5 stop them with "no loose ends". What about the other stolen SS20?
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsCary GrantEva Marie SaintJames MasonA 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.
- DirectorTony ScottStarsRobert RedfordBrad PittCatherine McCormackRetiring CIA agent Nathan Muir recalls his training of Tom Bishop while working against agency politics to free him from his Chinese captors.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsGene HackmanRoy ScheiderFernando ReyA pair of NYPD detectives in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a heroin smuggling ring based in Marseilles, but stopping them and capturing their leaders proves an elusive goal.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsGene HackmanFernando ReyBernard Fresson"Popeye" Doyle travels to Marseille to find Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler who eluded him in New York.
- DirectorBen AffleckStarsBen AffleckBryan CranstonJohn GoodmanActing 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.
- DirectorPhil Alden RobinsonStarsRobert RedfordDan AykroydSidney PoitierA security pro finds his past returning to haunt him when he and his unique team are tasked with retrieving a particularly important item.
- DirectorJohn MaddenStarsHelen MirrenSam WorthingtonTom WilkinsonIn 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.
- DirectorOla SolumTristan de Vere ColeStarsHelge JordalSverre Anker OusdalHans Ola SørlieA group of seamen from Norway find a Soviet listening station and they become targets for both America and Russia. Another cold war takes place.
- DirectorJean-Paul SaloméStarsSophie MarceauJulie DepardieuMoritz BleibtreuLondon, 1944: SOE's section for French ops parachute 4 women into France, plus a woman there, to free an English geologist and kill SS colonel Heindrich.
- StarsEdgar RamírezAlexander ScheerFadi Abi SamraThe story of Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the 1975 OPEC meeting.
- DirectorAntoine FuquaStarsMark WahlbergMichael PeñaRhona MitraA marksman living in exile is coaxed back into action after hearing of a plot to kill the President. After being-double crossed for the attempt and on the run, he sets out for the real killer and the truth.
- DirectorSydney PollackStarsRobert RedfordFaye DunawayCliff RobertsonA bookish CIA researcher in Manhattan finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.
- DirectorPeter YatesStarsKelly McGillisJeff DanielsMandy PatinkinIn 1950s America, an FBI agent and a blacklist victim uncover a plot to smuggle Nazi war criminals into the country.
- DirectorJohn SchlesingerStarsDustin HoffmanLaurence OlivierRoy ScheiderAfter the shocking murder of his older brother, a New York history student finds himself inexplicably hounded by shadowy government agents on the trail of a Nazi war criminal who is trying to retrieve smuggled diamonds.
- DirectorJohn SchlesingerStarsTimothy HuttonSean PennPat HingleThe true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.
- StarsPeter StraussRobert MitchumConnie SelleccaTwo orphans, Romulus and Remus, are raised by CIA handler John Eliot to be the best in the cloak and dagger game. Decades later, he turns on them and orders their elimination. They decide to fight back and track him down to learn why.
- CreatorJoseph WeisbergStarsKeri RussellMatthew RhysKeidrich SellatiAt the height of the Cold War, two Russian agents pose as the average American couple, complete with family.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsMichael CaineAnthony AndrewsVictoria TennantThe son of a German General becomes part of a mysterious conspiracy to gain hidden Nazi funds.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsBibi AnderssonRichard BooneNigel GreenDuring the Cold War a Naval Intelligence officer endowed with a powerful photographic memory is transferred to the CIA to participate in a covert operation in Moscow.
- DirectorGeoffrey ReeveStarsSven-Bertil TaubeBarbara ParkinsAlexander KnoxFollowing a triple professional hit a U.S. agent arrives in Amsterdam to investigate a heroin smuggling ring. He finds a city rife with drugs and a police force unable or unwilling to do much about it. With his incognito female fellow agent the American is soon stirring things up.
- DirectorJohn GlenStarsTimothy DaltonMaryam d'AboJeroen KrabbéJames Bond is sent to investigate a KGB policy to kill all enemy spies, and uncovers an arms deal that potentially has major global ramifications.
- StarsPeter HaberMaria GripSture DjerfSomeone is killing off Swedish military officers and making it look like the works of Soviet agents. Hamilton has to crack the case before all hell breaks loose and there is a full scale spy-war with the soviets.
- DirectorKen RussellStarsMichael CaineKarl MaldenEd BegleyBritish spy-turned-detective Harry Palmer stumbles upon an oil tycoon's plot to overthrow Communism using a supercomputer.
- DirectorGuy HamiltonStarsMichael CaineOscar HomolkaPaul HubschmidSent to East Berlin to retrieve a Communist defector, British spy Harry Palmer suspects the situation is not what his superiors believe it to be.
- DirectorJoachim RønningEspen SandbergStarsAksel HennieAgnes KittelsenNicolai Cleve BrochThe true story about one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II and his battle to overcome his inner demons.
- DirectorOle Christian MadsenStarsThure LindhardtMads MikkelsenStine StengadeA drama centered on two fighters in the Holger Danske World War II resistance group.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsDougray ScottKate WinsletSaffron BurrowsA young genius frantically races against time to crack an enemy code and solve the mystery surrounding the woman he loves.
- DirectorMorten TyldumStarsBenedict CumberbatchKeira KnightleyMatthew GoodeDuring World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.
- DirectorStanley DonenStarsCary GrantAudrey HepburnWalter MatthauRomance and suspense ensue in Paris as a woman is pursued by several men who want a fortune her murdered husband had stolen. Whom can she trust?
- DirectorDon SharpStarsDonald SutherlandVanessa RedgraveRichard WidmarkOn the remote Norwegian Bear Island, used as a submarine base by the Germans during World War II, U.N. scientist Larsen sends a distress signal using an emergency N.A.T.O. frequency, and is received by scientific vessel Morning Rose.
- DirectorFranklin J. SchaffnerStarsGregory PeckLaurence OlivierJames MasonA Nazi hunter in Paraguay discovers a sinister and bizarre plot to rekindle the Third Reich.
- DirectorKjell SundvallStarsMikael PersbrandtMichael KitchenPernilla AugustYoung police officer Roger is on the trail of the international master assassin, while the assassin follows his plan to murder Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.
- DirectorJohn MackenzieStarsMichael CainePierce BrosnanNed BeattyJohn Preston is a British Agent with the task of preventing the Russians detonating a nuclear explosion next to an American base in the UK. The Russians are hoping this will shatter the "special relationship" between the two countries.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTom HanksMark RylanceAlan AldaDuring the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
- DirectorLars KraumeStarsBurghart KlaußnerRonald ZehrfeldLilith StangenbergThe story of the man who brought high-ranking German Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann to justice.
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsJohnny DeppAngelina JoliePaul BettanyRevolves around Frank, an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path.
- CreatorKarianne LundJo NesbøErik SkjoldbjærgStarsHenrik MestadAne Dahl TorpEldar SkarIn the near future, Norway is occupied by Russia on behalf of the European Union because the newly-elected environmentally-friendly Norwegian government has stopped the all important oil- and gas-production in the North Sea.
- DirectorMartin CampbellStarsDaniel CraigEva GreenJudi DenchAfter 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.
- CreatorDavid FarrStarsTom HiddlestonHugh LaurieElizabeth DebickiThe night manager of a Cairo hotel is recruited to infiltrate an arms dealer's inner circle.
- DirectorRichard MarquandStarsDonald SutherlandKate NelliganStephen MacKennaA ruthless German spy, trying to get out of Britain with vital information about D-Day, must spend time with a young woman and her crippled husband.
- DirectorMichael AndersonStarsGeorge SegalAlec GuinnessMax von SydowIn the West Berlin of the 1960s, two British agents are killed by a Nazi group, prompting British Intelligence to dispatch agent Quiller to investigate.
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsAnne ParillaudMarc DuretPatrick FontanaConvicted felon Nikita isn't going to jail; she's given a new identity and trained, stylishly, as a top secret spy/assassin.
- DirectorKevin MacdonaldStarsRussell CroweRachel McAdamsBen AffleckWhen a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the Representative, his old college friend.
- DirectorMimi LederStarsGeorge ClooneyNicole KidmanMarcel IuresA US Army colonel and a civilian woman supervising him must track down stolen Russian nuclear weapons before they're used by terrorists.
- DirectorBharat NalluriStarsKit HaringtonPeter FirthJennifer EhleWhen a terrorist escapes custody during a routine handover, Will Holloway must team with disgraced MI5 Intelligence Chief Harry Pearce to track him down before an imminent terrorist attack on London.
- DirectorRichard DonnerStarsMel GibsonJulia RobertsPatrick StewartA taxi driver with a penchant for conspiracy theories becomes a target after one of these theories turns out to be true. Unfortunately, to save himself, he has to figure out which theory it is.
- DirectorFrancis LawrenceStarsJennifer LawrenceJoel EdgertonMatthias SchoenaertsBallerina 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.
- DirectorDavid SeltzerStarsMichael DouglasMelanie GriffithLiam NeesonAn American woman of Irish and Jewish-German parentage goes undercover in Nazi Germany.
- DirectorHarald ZwartStarsThomas GullestadJonathan Rhys MeyersMarie BlokhusThey were 12 saboteurs. The Nazis killed 11 of them. This is the true story of the one that got away.
- CreatorJon BokenkampStarsJames SpaderMegan BooneDiego KlattenhoffA new FBI profiler, Elizabeth Keen, has her entire life uprooted when a mysterious criminal, Raymond Reddington, who has eluded capture for decades, turns himself in and insists on speaking only to her.
- DirectorGavin HoodStarsKeira KnightleyMatt SmithMatthew GoodeThe true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
- DirectorBille AugustStarsJulia OrmondJens Jørgen FleischerAgga OlsenA 6 y.o. Inuit boy runs off a snowy roof in Copenhagen and dies. Smilla, a half Inuit who lives in the building and knows the boy, looks into it. What makes an acrophobic boy run up on the roof? The clues take her to Greenland.
- CreatorPetter S. RosenlundStarsAndreas DöhlerMarc Ben PuchRobert Hunger-BühlerThe story behind Germany's attempt to develop an atomic bomb during World War II and the sabotage of the heavy water program in Rjukan, Norway from the points of view of the Germans, the Allies, the saboteurs, and the company.
- DirectorD.J. CarusoStarsShia LaBeoufMichelle MonaghanRosario DawsonJerry and Rachel are two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move.
- DirectorRobert ParrishStarsMichael CaineAnthony QuinnJames MasonWhen a U.S. Intelligence Agent is unable to bring a ruthless drug baron to justice, he resorts to hiring a contract killer. But the man with whom he is put in contact turns out to be an old friend.As usual in the seventies, movies got different english titles in Europe and the US. The european namn for this was better i think - "The Marseille contract".
Best thing with spy-movies from the seventies, is that there often are more scenery in them than in modern stuff like Bourne. - DirectorDominic CookeStarsBenedict CumberbatchMerab NinidzeRachel BrosnahanBusinessman Greville Wynne is asked by a Russian source to try to help put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsGene HackmanJohn CazaleAllen GarfieldA paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.
- DirectorJaume Collet-SerraStarsLiam NeesonDiane KrugerJanuary JonesWhen 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.
- DirectorStephen GaghanStarsGeorge ClooneyMatt DamonAmanda PeetA politically charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved in and affected by it.
- DirectorFernando MeirellesStarsRalph FiennesRachel WeiszDanny HustonA widower's transcontinental quest to find answers about his wife's death leads him to explosive secrets.
- CreatorTodd KatzbergKen RobinsonJason SmilovicStarsMax IronsKristen HagerBob BalabanA brilliant, young, idealistic CIA analyst finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy that kills everyone else at his office. Can he, with no field experience, stay alive long enough to get to the bottom of it?
- DirectorLuc BessonStarsSasha LussHelen MirrenLuke EvansBeneath Anna Poliatova's striking beauty lies a secret that will unleash her indelible strength and skill to become one of the world's most feared government assassins.Better than most of the spy thrillers with a female protagonist that has been produced 2010-2020 - Atomic Blonde, Salt, Hanna etc.
- DirectorLukasz KosmickiStarsBill PullmanLotte VerbeekJames BloorDuring 1962's Cuban missile crisis, a troubled math genius finds himself drafted to play in a U.S.-Soviet chess match -- and a deadly game of espionage.
- DirectorMcGStarsKevin CostnerHailee SteinfeldConnie NielsenA dying CIA agent trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter is offered an experimental drug that could save his life in exchange for one last assignment.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsNaomi WattsViggo MortensenArmin Mueller-StahlA teenager who dies during childbirth leaves clues in her journal that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.
- DirectorJens JonssonStarsIngrid Bolsø BerdalRolf LassgårdAlexander ScheerSonja Wigert is a diva and star in Stockholm when World War II breaks out, rapidly getting attention from German officer Josef Terboven. She's then recruited by Swedish intelligence as a spy, but Terboven makes her spy on the Swedes.