The Best James Bond Movies is a ranking unto itself, to be sure. Screenwriter Graham Moore won for Best Adapted Screenplay, having based the project on Andrew Hodges’ biography “Alan Turing: The Enigma.” 12. “The Imitation Game” was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Actor for Cumberbatch and Best Supporting Actress for Keira Knightley, who plays code-breaker Joan Clarke. This poignant spy drama offers not only a fascinating glimpse into Turing’s most salient innovations and discoveries, but also a heartbreaking espionage story that fearlessly interrogates what generations of LGBTQ people have been asked to sacrifice - and hide. Mark Rylance won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.ġ3. “The Imitation Game” (2014) “The Imitation Game” Weinstein/Everett Collectionĭirected by Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game” tells the compelling true story of Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), a brilliant mathematician and computer scientist who worked as a code-breaker for the British during World War II. Steven Spielberg directs with a script from Matt Charman and the Coen brothers. The 2015 historical drama not only stirringly reenacts the events of the 1960 U-2 crisis, but sees the Best Picture nominee’s staggeringly skilled team combine their mega-watt talents for some of the most memorable beats in spy cinema. pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell). Donovan, a Cold War-era attorney tasked with negotiating the release of U.S. “Bridge of Spies” (2015) “Bridge of Spies” Disney/Everett CollectionĪmong Tom Hanks’ best roles is his performance in “Bridge of Spies” as the real James B. It earned additional Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Supporting Actor for Driver. But it maneuvers perspective and dramatic irony with enough panache characteristic of the genre to overpower any classification technicalities. Set in 1970s Colorado, “BlacKkKlansman” might not be a spy movie in the most traditional sense of international espionage. but they do so while rendering unique portraits of the complex characters caught in their tale’s crosshairs.ĭetectives Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) and Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) go undercover in the Ku Klux Klan for Spike Lee’s darkly hilarious “BlacKkKlansman.” Based on Stallworth’s 2014 memoir of the same name, this 2018 Best Picture contender won Best Adapted Screenplay, earning Lee his first competitive Oscar 30 years after “Do The Right Thing.” (Lee won an honorary Oscar for his body of work in 2015). Great spy stories may make use of the genre’s irresistible tropes - fast cars, strong drinks, double-crosses, etc. ![]() Over the years, filmmakers have repeatedly adapted the works of John le Carré, Robert Ludlum, Ian Fleming, and more spy novelists imagining the covert operations of local, national, and international enemies. Literary works inspired many more of the spy movies to follow. The espionage genre is as old as filmmaking itself with silent spy movies set against the backdrop of World War I (1914’s “The German Spy Peril” is on YouTube) testing the medium’s limitations early in the 20th century. Even films primarily centered on other subject matter make frequent use of spy drama beats (see Star Wars and Marvel, for starters), proving it’s a bedrock source for onscreen entertainment. ![]() From the harrowing heights of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise to the suave savvy of six James Bonds, espionage has become the thematic ground on which some of cinema’s most epic dramas, thrillers, and comedies (hello, “Austin Powers”) are built. Shaken, stirred, or even streamed, spy movies make up many of the most exciting, edge-of-your-seat stories the movies have to offer.
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