60 Best Spy Thriller Movies That Will Keep You Hooked

An advertising executive Roger Thornhill's life goes upside down when he is mistaken for a certain George Kaplan. He is kidnapped, almost killed, framed for a murder and chased around by men led by Phillip Vandamm. As he sets out to prove his innocence and find the real Kaplan, he is helped by Eve Kendall, who is not what she appears to be.

In order to find his true identity, Jason Bourne comes out of hiding to meet Britsh reporter Simon Ross who is researching Operation Blackbriar, which replaced the Operation Treadstone that he was a part of. However, realizing Ross is being followed, Jason escapes and survives CIA chase across countries with help from Nicky Parsons and Pamela Landy.

James Bond embarks on a mission to prevent Le Chiffre, a private banker who funds terrorists, from winning in a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale. As he participates in the gamble with beautiful Treasury agent, Vesper Lynd, as his partner, both are threatened by a powerful organization.

Based on a Robert Ludlum novel of the same name, The Bourne Identity is an action-packed spy thriller where the lead character, Jason Bourne, brilliantly portrayed by Matt Damon has lost all memory but discovers that he is being hunted. He embarks on a mission to unravel his identity and realizes that he is involved with CIA and its secrets.

James Bond is presumed dead after being caught in friendly fire while trying to retrieve a list of British agents. MI6 is compromised and identities of several agents are exposed. Bond, who reveals he is alive after M is attacked at MI6 and six agents are killed, must track down a man from M's past, seeking revenge.

The Day of the Jackal is a political thriller film which tells the story of President Charles DeGaulle, who is put under ironclad security after facing several assassination attempts. Eventually, a professional assassin codenamed ‘Jackal’, takes up the task to kill him.

The movie is adapted from a 1999 book -The Master of Disguise – by the CIA exfiltration specialist, Tony Mendez and a 2007 article by Joshuah Bearman. Depicting true events, the movie follows Mendez, as he devises an ingenious but risky plan to rescue six Americans from Tehran in 1979 by posing as a film crew unit scouting for location in Iran for a science-fiction film.  

After being arrested, young troublemaker Gary "Eggsy" Unwin dials an emergency number he was given when his father died 17 years ago. He is approached by Harry Hart, who reveals that Eggsy's father was a colleague and fellow member of Kingsman secret service group. He offers to initiate Eggsy into the group as a global threat looms large.

Jason Bourne's new life with girlfriend Marie in India is threatened after he is framed by Russian agent Kirill for a huge money theft from the CIA. When Kirill kills Marie while attempting to assassinate Bourne, the latter vows to avenge her and to prove his innocence to the CIA, which is also after him.

After failing to secure three plutonium cores from the Syndicate, who are now known as the Apostles, secret agent Ethan Hunt is forced to team up with Special Agent August Walker. Walker betrays Ethan and team and they must stop him and Solomon Lane from detonating nuclear bombs over the Siachen Glacier. 

In 1957, Russian spy Rudolf Abel is arrested in New York City and is defended by principled lawyer James B. Donovan. Meanwhile, Francis Powers’ U-2 spy plane is shot down in the USSR and he is imprisoned. Ultimately, with great risk to his own life, Donovan facilitates the exchange of Abel and Powers at the Glienicke Bridge. 

At the height of the Cold War, Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius, commanding the latest nearly undetectable nuclear missile submarine Red October, defies orders and sets course for America's east coast. After its presence is briefly detected, Jack Ryan, CIA analyst and former Marine, is given three days to confirm his theory that Ramius plans to defect.

Following a botched infiltration mission in Kremlin that ended in an explosion, the US Government initiates Ghost Protocol, disavowing Impossible Missions Force (IMF). Agent Ethan Hunt is forced to go off the grid, but must team up with other fugitive agents to clear the organization's name and apprehend a dangerous terrorist with access to Russian nuclear launch codes.

With the Impossible Missions Force disbanded because of recklessness, secret agent Ethan Hunt is now being hunted as a fugitive by the CIA and embarks on a personal mission to prove the existence of the Syndicate, an international rogue organization. He gathers his team and joins forces with disavowed MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, who is now a Syndicate operative.

Post September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, US intelligence and military forces focussed on capturing and killing one of the most wanted men in the world – Osama Bin Laden. The movie dramatizes this search that continued for over ten years and culminated in the killing of Bin Laden by the SEALs in Pakistan.

When Condor, a bookish CIA analyst tasked with reading all kinds of publications from around the world, comes across an unusual thriller novel, he decides to file a report on it. Then one day he returns to the office to find all his coworkers dead. Rattled, he tries to contact the headquarters; but it results in more bloodshed and personal danger. 

James Bond is living a peaceful life after leaving service, but his old friend Felix shows up and asks for his help. He asks Bond to rescue a kidnapped scientist, and although Bond initially declines, he eventually agrees to help. Bond’s search for the scientist leads to a showdown with a powerful adversary.

Irish woman Deirdre puts together a 'Ronin' team, comprised of outcast specialists working as mercenaries, to steal a large briefcase from a man before he sells it to the Russians. However, after the mission is successfully completed, one team member steals the case to sell it for his own profit, starting a wild goose chase among his teammates.

In 1963, CIA agent Napoleon Solo successfully rescues Gaby Teller from East Berlin despite being pursued by KGB operative Illya Kuryakin. Soon Solo and Kuryakin, reluctantly, have to come together to prevent a criminal organisation from building nuclear weapon. Their only lead is Gaby, whose father is the scientist building the weapon.

The seventeenth movie in the James Bond franchise sees the iconic English spy go up against his former friend Alec Trevelyan to save the world. Presumed dead, Alec is in possession of the GoldenEye, a satellite-based weapon capable of destroying millions and Bond must stop him and Alec’s ally, assassin Xenia Onatopp. 

The first film in the James Bond series, Dr. No sees the suave agent '007' go to Jamaica to investigate the mysterious disappearance of another secret agent and ends up saving the American space programme from the destructive clutches of a megalomaniac scientist. Starring Sean Connery as James Bond, this film sets the tone for the rest of the series.

The first installment in the Mission: Impossible film series, the movie follows secret agent Ethan Hunt and his mission to expose the mole who has framed him for the murders of many of his Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team. A commercial success, it became one of the highest-grossing films of 1996.  

CIA asset Tom Bishop is captured by People's Liberation Army of China, and is about to be executed. His former mentor Nathan Muir, on his last day before retirement, decides to rescue his protégé, when he realizes the CIA intends on doing nothing. 

When a British and a Soviet ballistic missile submarine go missing British superspy James Bond is forced to collaborate with sexy Russian agent Anya Amasova. They identify shipping tycoon and scientist Karl Stromberg as the culprit and as they work towards stopping him from destroying the world, a seven-foot giant with scary steel teeth, becomes their main adversary. 

Former C.I.A. Agent Frank Moses lives a quiet life alone with only his conversation with Sarah Ross, a Pension Department employee, to look forward to. When, out of the blue, he is attacked by heavily-armed, masked assailants, he teams up with his old associates to figure out why he is a target and why his file at the CIA headquarter is tagged as RED (Retired Extremely Dangerous)

Spy is about an unpretentious, desk-bound CIA analyst Susan Cooper, who actually is the unacknowledged backbone of many risky missions of the Agency. She supports the field agent by live-monitoring him, but when he gets removed from the scene, Cooper turns an undercover agent to track down Bulgarian arms dealer Rayna Boyanov and the nuclear device, to avert a worldwide disaster

1960s British spy Austin Powers is awakened from voluntary cryostasis three decades later after his arch-nemesis Dr. Evil returns to threaten the world with nuclear weapons. The out-of-fashion secret agent teams up with his ex-partner's daughter Vanessa Kensington and pursues his target through Las Vegas, but is harassed by a group of fembots sent by his adversary.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a CIA agent on the hunt for an elusive terrorist leader, Al Saleem, Body of Lies is an action-thriller film that portrays the tensions and drama between the agent, his supervisor and their Jordanian intelligence counterparts. Russel Crowe plays the CIA agent's boss whose unclear directives have the agent doubting his motives to catch the terrorist.

At the height of Cold War, Control, the head of British intelligence, and experienced spy George Smiley, are forced to resign after an agent is killed during a mission to identify a Soviet spy within the organization. One year later, after new evidence emerges, Smiley is reinstated by a Cabinet official to seek out the high-ranking mole.

Secret Agent Ethan Hunt is retired from field work but makes a comeback when one of his own student is captured by arms dealer Owen Davian. As the situation gets more dangerous, Ethan has to find out about a mysterious object code named the Rabbit's Foot, deal with IMF’s double agent and simultaneously protect his wife Julia.

The geopolitical thriller revolves around petroleum politics and the influence of the oil industry worldwide. With interconnected storylines, the movie focuses on Bennett Holiday, an American lawyer, facilitating a deceitful merger, Bryan Woodman, an energy analyst and veteran CIA agent Bob Barnes, who uncovers an assassination plot. 

Tasked with recovering two warheads stolen by a terrorist group called SPECTRE under the leadership of their number two man Emilio Largo, James Bond travels to Bahamas. There, he enters Largo’s lair, going underwater to find the warheads, braving attacks from sharks and men. However, he must convince Largo’s mistress to help him if he wants to succeed.  

Jack Ryan is assigned to a case involving the murder of the US President’s friend by a Columbian drug cartel. When it is revealed that the murdered man had a business relationship with his assassin, the President declares the cartel to be a "clear and present danger" to the nation. Meanwhile, unknown to Ryan, a secret paramilitary force is sent to Columbia to wipe out the cartel. 

The 24th movie in the James Bond series, Spectre tells the story of MI6 agent James Bond’s entanglement with the global criminal organization Spectre and their leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld. 

Since the time she was two years old, Hanna is trained by her ex-CIA operative father to become an assassin. Now sixteen, she steps out on a mission to kill Marissa, an intelligence operative. As she travels across Europe, Hanna is pursued by Marissa who is hell bent on killing her. Along the way, she learns a secret about her own identity.

After criminal Tobin Frost acquires a data storage device for an MI6 agent, he is attacked by mercenaries. He surrenders to the American consulate, who place him in a safe house under rookie agent Matt Weston. The two men then try to survive assassins and the CIA while uncovering the truth. 

A fictionalized retelling of the birth of the CIA, the movie revolves around the life of CIA officer Edward Wilson.  While his methods become popular in the CIA, he has to contend with KGB agents and double-agents. Unfortunately, his dedication to duty will test his dedication to his family. 

The sixteenth movie in the James Bond franchise finds Bond looking for revenge against drug lord Fran Sanchez after Sanchez maims his best friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter, and murders Leiter’s wife. But Bond is suspended from the MI6 and is helped by Q and pilot Pam Bouvier in his quest. 

Agent 007, James Bond is sent to investigate the death of three MI6 agents who were mysteriously killed while investigating the operations of a Caribbean island dictator Dr. Kananga. During his investigations, he discovers Dr. Kananga’s alter ego is Mr. Big—a drug lord who wants monopoly over the heroin business—and must stop him. 

The sensitive solar cell technology, Solex Agitator, goes missing and then is being sold to the highest bidder. On a mission to recover it, James Bond is beleaguered by the world’s most expensive assassin, Francisco Scaramanga, famous for carrying a golden gun. As Bond tracks him down with the help of Mary Goodnight, the two have a deadly confrontation on Scaramanga’s faraway island. 

Secret agent, James Bond, is assigned to retrieve an encryption device (A.T.A.C.) from the British spy ship that accidently sunk near Greece. He is joined by Melina Havelock, daughter of the murdered oceanographer who was appointed by the British to trace the ship. Seeking revenge for her parents’ murders, she teams up with Bond to find the device before the Russians do.  

Atomic Blonde is a 2017 spy thriller film, which tells the story of an undercover MI6 agent, who is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent as well as recover a stolen list having the names of several exceptional secret agents. 

Following an assassination attempt by M's own bodyguard, James Bond travels to Italy and South America in the pursuit of Dominic Greene, a businessman and green technology developer eying to seize a large plot of land in Bolivia. The mission motivates Bond on a personal level as Greene is linked to the mysterious Quantum organization which blackmailed Vesper.

The fourth installment of the Bourne film franchise, The Bourne Legacy, sees black ops agent, Aaron Cross, run for his life from the Department of Defense after he discovers their secret about field operatives. Jeremy Renner stars as the black ops agent who poses a potential threat to the department upon discovering that it is giving performance-enhancing drugs to its operatives.

British spy Austin Powers realises that his wife Vanessa is a fembot who has been sent by Dr Evil to kill him. Moreover, Dr Evil has travelled back in time to 1969 and stolen Powers’ mojo. He also has plans to threaten the world using a laser on the Moon. Powers, along with Felicity Shagwell, must now travel back in time to recover his mojo and save the world.

Ex-CIA agent, Frank Moses, his girlfriend, Sarah and his friend Marvin become a target when it is revealed that that they know the location of the Nightshade, a portable nuclear weapon. The trio now have to search for the nuclear device and prevent it from falling in wrong hands; all the while evading fierce assassins, armed terrorists and influential government officials.

James Clayton is recruited by Senior CIA instructor Walter Burke to be trained at the Farm, the CIA training facility. Unfortunately, he is let go after failing an exercise. Later, Burke tells him that he actually passed and recruits him as an undercover agent. But nothing is what it seems.  

A Ballerina is recruited by the Russian intelligence service, and she attends a school, where she learns to use her body as a weapon. Her first mission, is to entrap a CIA agent, who threatens to unravel the security of both the nations. 

John and Jane Smith, an apparently normal couple with a dull married life, suddenly discover that both are working as assassins for rival firms after being assigned the same target. Their target escapes in the ensuing confusion, and they are given one final assignment by their respective agencies: to kill the other Smith.

A Russian defector, Orlov, turns himself in to CIA and accuses Evelyn Salt of being a Russian sleeper agent who will kill Russian president Boris Matveyev at the funeral of American Vice president. Consequently Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent, is forced to escape and now has to prove her innocence, protect her husband and uncover the conspiracy.

After Chinese government denies him broadcast rights in the country, news tycoon Elliot Carver plans to instigate a war-like situation between Britain and China using his news empire. Along with Chinese agent Wai Lin, Bond investigates the sinking of a British warship in Chinese waters and finds out that one of its cruise missiles is missing.

British Agent 009 carrying a fake Fabergé egg dies while crossing over to West Berlin from East. Shortly, a real Fabergé egg also appears at a British auction, making MI6 suspicious of Soviet involvement. Eventually James Bond is pressed into action and he travels to India, where she meets Octopussy, a wealthy businesswoman and smuggler. 

Following the assassination of a British oil tycoon, Bond is assigned to protect his daughter Elektra King from Renard, a KGB agent-turned-terrorist who cannot feel pain because of a bullet lodged in his brain. He begins to question the motives of his charge as he attempts to save Europe from Renard's nuclear plot with physicist Dr. Christmas Jones.

James Reese, a personal assistant to the U.S. ambassador in France, is passionate about his side job as a low-level CIA operative and aspires to become a special agent. He finally gets the opportunity when he is asked to accompany hotheaded agent, Charlie Wax, on a mission that also reveals dark secrets about his own personal life.

Based on Tom Clancy’s novel, the movie follows CIA analyst Jack Ryan as he tries to uncover and stop a plot by an Austrian Neo-Nazi billionaire Richard Dressler. Dressler wants to start a nuclear war between the USA and Russia and create a Fascist Europe. 

Chatty garage owner June Havens bumps into rogue government agent Roy at an airport, shortly after which her plane crash-lands when Roy kills the other people onboard. Now pursued by the FBI, she is forced into a dangerous adventure across the globe after Roy convinces her that he is a good guy and that she is safer with him.

Inept agent Johnny English, the only surviving member of MI7 after the rest are killed in a bombing at another agent's funeral, is assigned to investigate the stealing of the British Crown Jewels. While pursuing his prime suspect, Frenchman Pascal Sauvage, he is aided by his trusted assistant Jeremy Bough and intrigued by the mysterious Lorna Campbell.

As the fifth instalment in the Jack Ryan series, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a spy thriller that revolves around a former soldier-turned-undercover CIA agent who while working on Wall Street discovers that a Russian businessman is about to unleash a terrorist attack on the U.S. Starring Chris Pine in the lead role, this past-faced film also features Kevin Costner and Keira Knightley.

Ethan Hunt returns on another mission to seize and destroy Chimera, a deadly virus, and its cure Bellerophon, both of which are in possession of rogue agent Ambrose. Ethan must infiltrate enemy stronghold with help from Nyah Hall, a skilled thief and former lover of Ambrose, before the latter sells the virus to an international terrorist group.

MI6 agent James Bond is captured and tortured in North Korea. After fourteen months, he is traded with a terrorist Zao, only to be informed that he is no more an agent. He is accused of giving out secret information during his incarceration which he denies. Bond must now find out who back stabbed him in Korea and why?