Most of us have never met a secret agent in real life (at least, as far as we know), but that doesn’t mean we aren’t fascinated by the world of espionage. How else can we build on the 50 years of good luck of the James Bond movies, a franchise that has survived thanks to the replacement of its lead actor a dozen times, or the “Mission: Impossible” phenomenon?
The most productive of those spy movies feature intelligent, ruthless, and unflappable heroes (or anti-heroes, as the case may be) who threaten their lives to thwart foreign plots that threaten global peace. But even his popular spy movie has an underlying background. point of tension and convincing action that makes it impossible to resist the audience. Even though the Cold War is over, that doesn’t mean we’re abandoning old spy movies, its greatest cultural relic. Here are seven spy movies on Netflix to watch outside.
Released in 2019, “The Coldest Game” is a return to Cold War-era paranoia. At the height of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1962, just days before the Cuban Missile Crisis, Joshua Mansky (Bill Pullman) is drafted to compete in a chess tournament in Russia after his predecessor is discovered dead from suspected Soviet poisoning. But Mansky is a coward, his brilliant brain can only serve in society and in front of the chessboard if he is dulled by alcohol: masses and masses of alcohol. Is this the guy you need to put on the front line diplomacy?Maybe not. But it’s the only one they have.
While on the ground in the Soviet Union, Mansky is not only caught up in the pressure he has to endure to defeat his Russian adversary, but he is also caught between warring secret agents, not knowing who to trust. Tense and full of twists and turns in the story. The third act, “The Coldest Game” features exact functionality through Bill Pullman, even if the rest of the narrative may tend to be complicated.
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What’s bigger than a secret agent? A double agent, who plays both opposing sides for the sake of peace. That’s what we have in “The Angel,” the incredible true story (well, sort of) of Ashraf Marwan, an Egyptian diplomat married to President Gamal Abdul Nasser’s daughter. Between the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Egypt, he engages in an awkward dance, feeding Israel a constant nourishment of data (true and false) to guide them to a position where he believes they will be very willing to do so. To settle for peace talks. It’s not an action movie like many other spy movies, but it doesn’t lack tension or drama.
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Set in Cuba in the 1990s, “Wasp Network” features a tough cast that includes Penelope Cruz, Gael Garcia Bernal, Ana de Armas and Edgar Ramirez. When Rene Gonzalez (Ramirez) travels to the United States and likely leaves Cuba, his circle of relatives back home face endless unrest because of his actions. But he (and other similarly situated Cubans, who have been stationed in Miami to infiltrate anti-Castro groups) probably aren’t quite what they seem.
A story of agents, double agents, and maybe even triple agents, “Wasp Network” is about betting the long term and dealing with the consequences of your supposed actions, even if it means presenting the world with an edition of yourself that is rarely shown. Unlike many other spy movies, which concentrate largely on the effects of a given mission, “Wasp Network” concentrates on the higher price those spies pay in the performance of their duties.
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Most people are lucky if they do something really interesting in their lives. For example, if you play in the NFL, you shouldn’t expect to climb Mount Everest or sign up for the French Foreign Legion either. But that was not to be. This is the case of Moe Berg, a Jewish New Yorker who was a catcher in Major League Baseball for 16 years before becoming a foreign spy for the Office of Strategic Services (later renamed the Central Intelligence Agency) in World War II.
Known for being just about the smartest guy in the room, Berg spoke several more languages and possessed a point of fame that made him the best agent, as he can also be sent abroad on goodwill tours as a sports celebrity. “Was a Spy” may not live up to its incredible life story, however, it is well played by a talented cast that includes Paul Rudd, Guy Pearce, and Paul Giamatti, to name a few.
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You know the expression “It’s so crazy it might work”? It’s not from the World War II Operation Minced Meat mission, but it is that too. This spy drama revolves around an implausible plan introduced through the British intelligence network. temporarily go after the German spies by passing them false information.
The plan? Washing a corpse on the Spanish coast with false main points about an Allied invasion of occupied France, which, if it worked, which is a big if, would send the Germans in the wrong direction from their true landing site. The logic is this: Germans would settle for this commotion just because only a fool would have such a ridiculous concept to fake it, so it had to be genuine. Starring Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, and Kelly Macdonald, “Operation Mincemeat” is the basis of a spy conspiracy that’s stranger than fiction with the stories of other genuine people who actually pulled it off.
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A spy parody reminiscent of some of the original greatest satires of World War II and the Cold War, “Top Secret!”it served as a launching pad for the career of Val Kilmer, who made his film debut here. It follows the misadventures of an American singer (Kilmer), who ends up involved in a foreign resistance movement on an excursion to East Germany. Overlooked by Paramount and regarded as a box-office blues at the time of its release in 1984, some critics (including Roger Ebert) defended its sense of humor and it has since become a beloved comedy. he helped turn Val Kilmer into one of the most charismatic rising stars of his generation.
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Set against the backdrop of a Germany on the verge of invading Czechoslovakia, “Munich – On the Brink of War” is a dramatic depiction of a desperate but ultimately futile attempt to achieve peace. George McKay plays Hugh, a British official sent to Munich to help ease tensions between Germany and England, preventing Hitler from executing a competitive maneuver that would force the United Kingdom to claim war or threaten by appearing weak and irresponsible on the outside stage. Meanwhile, his former Oxford classmate Paul (Jannis Niewöhner) works as a translator for the German delegation, though Paul has his own ulterior motives, which could have a major impact on Europe’s last chance of avoiding war.
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Audrey Fox is a feature film editor and film and television critic at Looper, with collaborations on RogerEbert. com, The Nerdist, /Film, and IGN, among others. He blessed our tomato lords with his coveted seal of approval. Audrey earned her Bachelor of Arts in Film from Clark University and Master of Arts in International Relations from Harvard University. When she’s not watching movies, she enjoys old nonfiction, theater, traveling, and playing the violin (a little).
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