Mission: Impossible movie celebrated its 30th anniversary on May 22, and it remains one of the best franchise starters in the spy thriller movie genre. Spy thrillers have an impressive legacy in Hollywood history, with Alfred Hitchcock mastering the formula early on, and many current filmmakers tracing their influences back to the director. The greatest spy thrillers span a good six decades, and the tension in the stories always remains strong.

There are some spy thrillers that might not have the cultural acclaim of others, but thanks to their cultural footprint in the genre, they have stood the test of time. Mission: Impossible proves that. It is a remake of a classic TV show, but the first movie released 30 years ago is one that has spawned a multi-billion-dollar franchise. While James Bond came out first, and the Bourne movies came out later, Mission: Impossible proved that serialized spy stories could be a major selling point in Hollywood.

Over the years, directors like Hitchcock, Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, and Sydney Pollack have tried their hands at spy thrillers, and what resulted were masterpieces that stand up with the best the genre has ever had to offer. However, not all the best thriller movies were from major directors, and some were one-shot stories that succeeded thanks to the tension, thrills, and twists that only the best espionage thrillers could maintain.

10

Body Of Lies (2008)

In 2008, Ridley Scott directed the spy thriller Body of Lies, with Leonardo DiCaprio as CIA agent Roger Ferris and Russell Crowe as his handler Ed Hoffman. The plot sees Ferris come up with a plan to capture a terrorist by creating a fake terrorist organization to draw him out of hiding. Hoffman manipulates the operation from his offices at Langley.

The movie doesn’t have a high Rotten Tomatoes score, sitting at 54%, but it remains a solid post-9/11 spy movie. However, Scott’s globe-trotting style and the great acting performances by DiCaprio and Crowe help make the movie well worth watching for spy thriller fans. While it has no award recognition, it still shows the modern spy agencies in a way that few other films have attempted.

9

The Hunt For Red October (1990)

Jack Ryan remains one of the most beloved spies in literature and movies, and his first appearance on the big screen was in The Hunt for Red October. While later movies had more box office success, with Harrison Ford the most notable actor to play the CIA analyst, the best spy thriller for the character was this first movie, with Alec Baldwin in the lead role. However, what makes this movie stand out is Baldwin’s co-star, Sean Connery, who plays a defecting Russian named Ramius.

Directed by John McTiernan, the movie sees Ramius attempting to defect to the U.S. with a top-secret stealth submarine, and it is up to Ryan to convince military leaders he is defecting and not attacking. The film has an 88% Rotten Tomatoes score and earned three Oscar nominations, winning for Best Sound Effects Editing. On top of bringing Jack Ryan to Hollywood, it is a tense movie about submarine warfare with an incredible cast.

8

Munich (2005)

Released in 2005, Munich is a Steven Spielberg movie based on the non-fiction book Vengeance by George Jonas. Eric Bana stars as Mossad operative Avner, who is part of a covert squad known as Black September sent to hunt down the Palestinians responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack that killed 11 Israeli athletes. Daniel Craig was also cast before his first appearance as James Bond.

Munich earned five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Original Score. On top of those big award nominations, it also has a 79% Rotten Tomatoes score. While Spielberg has some masterpieces based on real-life events, including Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, this is his most morally complex thriller.

7

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Released in 1996, Brian De Palma directed Mission: Impossible, a remake of the classic 1960s spy television series. The movie was controversial, especially among the original Mission: Impossible cast members, for killing off nearly the entire original team and framing Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt for the betrayal. Hunt has to go on the run to prove his innocence and uncover the real traitor.

The Rotten Tomatoes score of 66% is lower compared to other spy thrillers, but the exciting set pieces and franchise start make it one of the most iconic movies in the genre. The franchise has reached eight installments, spanning 30 years, and Cruise has remained in the lead role the entire time.

6

Ronin (1998)

John Frankenheimer directed Ronin, a 1998 movie that had a screenplay co-written by playwright David Mamet, under the pseudonym Richard Weisz. Robert De Niro stars in the movie as Sam, with an incredible supporting cast including Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean, and Jonathan Pryce. The plot sees a team of former intelligence operatives hired to steal a mysterious briefcase in post-Cold War Europe.

The shifting of loyalties and the idea that people can’t trust anyone, even their own former allies, is the prevalent theme here, and it works to perfection. The Rotten Tomatoes score sits at 69%, with many critics comparing it to The French Connection. However, this has one of the best car chase scenes in any spy movie, with the Paris and Nice car chases being done entirely practically.

5

The Bourne Identity (2002)

The Bourne Identity is the franchise that forced the James Bond franchise to change its focus. Jason Bourne took the idea of a super spy and made him more human, more likely to make mistakes, and added more violence and brutality to the action. After The Bourne Identity launched its franchise, Bond changed four years later to look a lot more like Bourne movies than older James Bond films.

Matt Damon stars as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac who is shot and left for dead, only to learn that the country he served ordered his assassination. The first movie has an 84% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it revolutionized the entire spy genre, introducing the shaky cam to the genre.

4

Casino Royale (2006)

The James Bond movies were waning in popularity with Pierce Brosnan, but when The Bourne Identity proved that audiences wanted something more exciting with more at stake, Bond changed. Brosnan was out, and Daniel Craig was in, and the franchise exploded in popularity once again. The first movie, Casino Royale, was about a poker game with the people involved betting high stakes, but it was the most intense Bond movie in many years.

Directed by Martin Campbell, this took Bond back to his early days, and the action and thrills seemed fresh once again. The movie has a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it received nine BAFTA nominations, including the first ever for an actor playing James Bond. With near-universal acclaim and a franchise reset, this is one of the best Bond spy movies ever made.

3

Three Days Of The Condor (1975)

The legendary Sydney Pollack directed his own spy thriller in 1975, and it harkened back to Alfred Hitchcock’s spy movies by putting a normal man in a deadly situation he was in no way capable of handling on his own. What really makes this work is that Robert Redford stars as that man, a bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner (codename ‘Condor’) whose entire department is assassinated by rogue CIA operatives to cover up illegal actions in the Middle East.

As the only man to escape the assassination attempt, he goes on the run while the CIA hunts him down to kill him, and he has no idea who he can trust in his own government. Three Days of the Condor received an Academy Award nomination for Best Film Editing, and it has an 88% Rotten Tomatoes score. This spy thriller defined the post-Watergate paranoid thriller, including adding an ambiguous ending and the mistrust of the government.

2

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is based on John le Carré’s 1974 novel, with his iconic character George Smiley. Gary Oldman plays Smiley, a former spymaster who is forced into retirement. However, when a mole is discovered to be at the top of British intelligence, Smiley is brought out of retirement to figure out which of the suspects is the traitor in the government.

The movie has an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score, but it remains one of the best prestige spy thrillers ever made. It earned three Oscar nominations, including Best Actor for Oldman (his first-ever nomination), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. It also won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film. Oldman’s masterful performance and the bureaucratic paranoia seen in le Carré’s novels make this the best spy thriller of the 21st century.

1

North By Northwest (1959)

The best spy thriller ever made is by one of the greatest directors in movie history. In 1959, Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest hit theaters and rewrote everything audiences knew about the spy genre. Ernest Lehman earned an Oscar nomination for his screenplay in this story about an advertising executive who is mistaken for a government agent and ends up running for his life across the country.

Casting Cary Grant as the unassuming businessperson who has to run from assassins and government agents alike with no training at all was a masterful decision. The film picked up three Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Color). It has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score and is the best wrong-man espionage thriller ever made.