10 Greatest Spy Movies of All Time, Ranked

There’s a lot going on in Lust, Caution, and it’s hugely ambitious, so being a spy movie is really just one of the things it’s trying to be. It’s also an erotic thriller of sorts, a historical drama, a World War II movie, and something of a romance film, being about a secret agent who’s tasked with first seducing – and then assassinating – a high-ranking official, but things get more complicated during the mission itself, because of course they do.

Famously, or maybe infamously, Lust, Caution was rated NC-17, and does kind of earn that rating, but it’s not just shocking or graphic for the sake of getting attention. There’s a purpose to where it’s willing to go, and what it ends up showing, and you come away from it once it’s ended sort of exhausted, and figuratively out of breath, but in a good way.

This one is being snuck onto the ranking in a very espionage-y kind of way, a real smuggling operation sort of thing, since The Conversation isn't a spy movie in the traditional sense. Gene Hackman doesn’t really play one or anything, but he is a surveillance expert who becomes obsessed with a couple he’s spying on/listening to, mostly because he feels they might be at risk of getting murdered.

There's not much by way of action in The Conversation, and even the thrills are deliberately muted and subdued for much of its runtime.

There’s tension and paranoia throughout the whole thing, though, yeah, The Conversation is more about spying than it is about a spy. Not much action here or anything, and even the thrills are deliberately muted and subdued for much of The Conversation. But the approach works, and the film is very involving, being one of several great movies Francis Ford Coppola directed in the 1970s.

Casino Royale kicked off Daniel Craig’s run as James Bond, and did so exceptionally well, being probably the best of the five movies he’d end up starring in. Previous James Bond movies had been intense at times, but Casino Royale felt like it went a step further, and it also ended up working as a bit of a reboot for the series as a whole, or something of an origin story… but not in a corny way; more because the story here concerns Bond’s early work as a 00 agent.

Also, Casino Royale was the first book Ian Fleming wrote in the James Bond series, and it’s done justice with this film for sure. Even if you're not a huge James Bond fan, Casino Royale is pretty easy to recommend as an exciting – and sometimes moving – action/thriller film, and if it was made with the intention of making Bond cool again, then the mission was definitely accomplished.

In the interest of having a range of movies featured here, there’s only going to be one (out of the eight) Mission: Impossible movies included in the top 20. Of the bunch, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is probably the best, though there are indeed some other excellent Mission: Impossible films, and honestly none that come close to being terrible (yes, even the out-there and messy second movie has its moments).

With Mission: Impossible – Fallout, though, everything is perfectly in place, the pacing is ideal, the action is always exciting and continually escalates, and the stakes feel appropriately grand without any sharks being jumped, so to speak. It’s as good as a Mission: Impossible movie could probably ever be, and also ranks as an all-timer when it comes to action/adventure films more broadly.

One of Hitchcock’s best spy movies can also be counted among his best romantic films: Notorious. This one came out the year after World War II ended, and its story is all about the war’s aftermath, given it revolves around a government agent and a somewhat mysterious woman both risking a great deal in an effort to first locate, then get to know, and then arrest a Nazi hiding out in Brazil.

Notorious is one of those movies that shows how romance can be linked to the spy genre surprisingly effectively, as the stakes of the spy stuff get heightened when two people are in love, and then the romantic stakes are heightened when spies or agents have to continually pretend to be someone they're not. So, this is one of those movies that’s got a lot to say about both espionage and love, and it all goes down surprisingly smoothly, especially for a film that’s now almost eight decades old.

While it’s recent, Black Bag does already feel pretty iconic as far as modern-day spy movies go, and is also a pretty underrated film, too. It’s about a married couple, both of them spies, and the way their bond is tested when one of them is accused of betraying her country. It starts with a simple hook/moral question, but naturally becomes a good deal more complex as things go on.

Also, Black Bag doesn’t have a ton of time to get complicated, since it’s not much longer than an hour and a half, but it’s very economical, well-edited, and paced extremely well, all the while not being afraid to keep things understated and not too flashy (it’s not an action-focused spy movie, in other words). It comes together well, and, like a good many solid spy movies, will likely benefit from repeat viewings.

In The Professional, there’s a super charismatic and proficient Secret Service agent named Joss Beaumont, but he gets betrayed by the people he’s working for early on, and then faces two decades in prison. He says, “Nah, maybe not,” and breaks out before going on a rampage of the one-man army variety, tracking down whoever might be responsible for the betrayal and then getting revenge.

It's kind of nihilistic, and a bit over-the-top at points, but The Professional is also very thrilling and surprisingly action-packed, too, being the kind of film that doesn’t ever really seem keen on slowing down. It also benefits from an Ennio Morricone score, with the main theme being an earworm that, once heard, can’t be unheard. Also, The Professional might well contain Jean-Paul Belmondo’s best performance, or it’s at least a contender alongside the likes of Breathless and Pierrot le Fou.

Released in a pretty strong year for cinema, Charade is one of the most Hitchcockian films not actually directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Also, yes, like with Mr. Bond, some of Hitchcock’s spy movies will get mentioned here, but not just yet. For now, Charade deserves some praise, especially because it’s a genuinely great comedy – and has a perfect lead actor pairing in Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn – on top of being a fun spy thriller.

In the film, Grant and Hepburn play characters who fall for each other, but then get swept up in a madcap series of events involving dangerous associates of the latter’s dead husband. The pair kind of have to become isolated and amateur sleuths to get to the bottom of whatever’s going on, and everything becomes worth questioning, since everyone’s hard to read. Charade is almost farcical, but not to the point where the thrills get undermined, so it’s an exceptionally well-balanced film, all things considered.

Michael Caine never played the most well-known of all cinematic British spies (his time will come, in this ranking, don’t worry), but he did portray Harry Palmer, who’s a character you might know if you really like spy novels and/or movies. Caine played Palmer a total of five times, but the first movie in what became a series, The Ipcress File, is the best of the bunch.

It’s also a more low-key sort of spy story, compared to that other one whose first movies came out in the 1960s, and came to redefine what spies were, in pop culture. But if you're willing to have a bit more of a slow-burn kind of thing, and a spy film that emphasizes thrills and suspense over action, then The Ipcress File satisfies, with Caine being especially good here (and probably the main reason to watch this one).

Not that Steven Spielberg had to prove he could make non-sentimental and serious movies in 2005, after more than three decades spent directing a variety of feature films, but still, Munich does stand out for being his darkest and potentially most cynical movie to date. It takes place in the wake of 11 Israeli athletes being kidnapped and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, with Mossad agents being deployed to find the perpetrators and take them out.

It's a film about a dark chapter in history, and the further dark events that followed it, all playing out across a very tense runtime that nears three hours. But Munich earns its length, and tackles some thought-provoking and continually relevant things, though it’s harder to recommend if you're personally after a spy movie that’s more traditionally entertaining, or one offering some kind of escapism.