“You are capable of far more than you’ve been led to believe.”

100 Significant Espionage Films

Significant, not best, though certainly some of these films will be on anyone's best "spy" film rankings. Unfortunately, those rankings are most often done by critics with zero background in actual espionage who wouldn't know a CPU  - no, not a central processing unit, or steganography  - think Matryoshka Dolls (see what I mean?) from traffic analysis - here think The Imitation Game.

Most rankers have seen maybe twenty espionage films in their lives, or have copied them from other ranking lists to make up an article with a click-bait headline. Notice that North by Northwest is usually on all the Top 10s, and usually a couple of Bond films. On this list Northwest is ranked No. 069 and the first Bond, Dr.No comes in at No. 020. Of course Dr. No is not the best Bond film, but it was the first, and gave the world 007, M, Q, Moneypenny, and the Walther PPK. That makes it the most significant Bond film.

Many of the films will be unknown to most readers except for espionage enthusuasts. That's good. How boring to have a list of films that everyone has seen. This list will give you, depending on your  enthusiasm, a few months to a couple years of exciting movie-going.

Last thing... We're happy here at Spy Guys Lifestyles for you to comment and we'll answer the really interesting ones. However, "How could you rank so-and-so ahead of so-and-so? will always go unacknowledged.

Really last thing! If you have some films you think have an espionage thread that you don't see here, please, by all means, comment so I can watch them. And I will. There are no films on this list that I haven't seen at least three times, some as many as ten.

#1 Les Vampires - Did 007, Dr. No (Nok), Q's gear, the espionage genre start here?

#1 Les Vampires - Did 007, Dr. No (Nok), Q's gear, the espionage genre start here?

#2 Spione - In 1928, Fritz Lang perfects the espionage film template; used 1000's of times.

#2 Spione - In 1928, Fritz Lang perfects the espionage film template; used 1000's of times.

#3 The Third Man - Joe Harbin was not the 3rd man. He was MI-6's Harold "Kim" Philby.

#3 The Third Man - Joe Harbin was not the 3rd man. He was MI-6's Harold "Kim" Philby.

#4 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Talky, thoughtful “whack-a-mole” spy film. Brilliant.

#4 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Talky, thoughtful “whack-a-mole” spy film. Brilliant.

#5 The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - Bad Mommy. A+ "brainwashing" film.

#5 The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - Bad Mommy. A+ "brainwashing" film.

#6 Zero Dark Thirty - Does ZD30 define "spying?" "Find me somebody to kill!"

#6 Zero Dark Thirty - Does ZD30 define "spying?" "Find me somebody to kill!"

#7 Tenet - It's extra clever if you like to work crossword puzzles, *and* watch them.

#7 Tenet - It's extra clever if you like to work crossword puzzles, *and* watch them.