The Best Spy Movies

What it's about: A tragic love story set in East Berlin with the backdrop of an undercover Stasi controlled culture. Stasi captain Wieler is ordered to follow author Dreyman and plunges deeper and deeper into his life until he reaches the threshold of doubting the system.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Wounded to the brink of death and suffering from amnesia, Jason Bourne is rescued at sea by a fisherman. With nothing to go on but a Swiss bank account number, he starts to reconstruct his life, but finds that many people he encounters want him dead. However, Bourne realizes that he has the combat and mental skills of a world-class spy—but who does he work for?

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Bourne is brought out of hiding once again by reporter Simon Ross who is trying to unveil Operation Blackbriar, an upgrade to Project Treadstone, in a series of newspaper columns. Information from the reporter stirs a new set of memories, and Bourne must finally uncover his dark past while dodging The Company's best efforts to eradicate him.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: When a CIA operation to purchase classified Russian documents is blown by a rival agent, who then shows up in the sleepy seaside village where Bourne and Marie have been living. The pair run for their lives and Bourne, who promised retaliation should anyone from his former life attempt contact, is forced to once again take up his life as a trained assassin to survive.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: The story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into the agency's ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (FX) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 4 others).

What it's about: Le Chiffre, a banker to the world's terrorists, is scheduled to participate in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro, where he intends to use his winnings to establish his financial grip on the terrorist market. M sends Bond—on his maiden mission as a 00 Agent—to attend this game and prevent Le Chiffre from winning. With the help of Vesper Lynd and Felix Leiter, Bond enters the most important poker game in his already dangerous career.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Ethan and team take on their most impossible mission yet—eradicating 'The Syndicate', an International and highly-skilled rogue organisation committed to destroying the IMF.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (FX & Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 9 services (iTunes, Google Play & 7 others).

What it's about: When Bond's latest assignment goes gravely wrong and agents around the world are exposed, MI6 is attacked forcing M to relocate the agency. These events cause her authority and position to be challenged by Gareth Mallory, the new Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee. With MI6 now compromised from both inside and out, M is left with one ally she can trust: Bond. 007 takes to the shadows - aided only by field agent, Eve - following a trail to the mysterious Silva, whose lethal and hidden motives have yet to reveal themselves.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA 'exfiltration' specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Cinemax), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Cinemax) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Microsoft & 3 others).

What it's about: Ethan Hunt and his team are racing against time to track down a dangerous terrorist named Hendricks, who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes and is planning a strike on the United States. An attempt to stop him ends in an explosion causing severe destruction to the Kremlin and the IMF to be implicated in the bombing, forcing the President to disavow them. No longer being aided by the government, Ethan and his team chase Hendricks around the globe, although they might still be too late to stop a disaster.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (FX) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 9 services (iTunes, Google Play & 7 others).

What it's about: A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May, 2011.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (IFC) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Surveillance expert Harry Caul is hired by a mysterious client's brusque aide to tail a young couple. Tracking the pair through San Francisco's Union Square, Caul and his associate Stan manage to record a cryptic conversation between them. Tormented by memories of a previous case that ended badly, Caul becomes obsessed with the resulting tape, trying to determine if the couple are in danger.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers' only hope is New York lawyer James Donovan, recruited by a CIA operative to negotiate his release. Donovan boards a plane to Berlin, hoping to win the young man's freedom through a prisoner exchange. If all goes well, the Russians would get Rudolf Abel, the convicted spy who Donovan defended in court.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A new, technologically-superior Soviet sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius. The American government thinks Ramius is planning to attack. A lone CIA analyst has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it — because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find him, too.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Starz), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz & Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Special agent 007 comes face to face with one of the most notorious villains of all time, and now he must outwit and outgun the powerful tycoon to prevent him from cashing in on a devious scheme to raid Fort Knox -- and obliterate the world's economy.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Starz), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz & Epix) & rent or buy from $13.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A desk-bound CIA analyst volunteers to go undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer, and prevent diabolical global disaster.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (FX) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: When an IMF mission ends badly, the world is faced with dire consequences. As Ethan Hunt takes it upon himself to fulfill his original briefing, the CIA begin to question his loyalty and his motives. The IMF team find themselves in a race against time, hunted by assassins while trying to prevent a global catastrophe.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 9 services (iTunes, Google Play & 7 others).

What it's about: A private eye investigates the apparent suicide of a fading porn star in 1970s Los Angeles and uncovers a conspiracy.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Microsoft & 3 others).

What it's about: Richard Hannay stumbles upon a conspiracy that thrusts him into a hectic chase across the Scottish moors—a chase in which he is both the pursuer and the pursued—as well as into an unexpected romance with the cool Pamela.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (SnagFilms), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, FilmBox & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Tells the true story of a 60 Minutes television series exposé of the tobacco industry, as seen through the eyes of a real tobacco executive, Jeffrey Wigand.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: During America’s Civil War Union spies steal engineer Johnnie Gray's beloved locomotive The General - his lady love, Annabelle Lee, aboard an attached boxcar - and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle. Released throughout most of the world in 1927, this Silent comedy-action film flopped when originally released, but now is regarded as one of the great American motion pictures. The story is based on actual historic events.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix & SnagFilms), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Fandor & Kanopy), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (Google Play, Microsoft & 2 others).

What it's about: When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the No. 1 suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 9 services (iTunes, Google Play & 7 others).

What it's about: Agent 007 is back in the second installment of the James Bond series, this time battling a secret crime organization known as SPECTRE. Russians Rosa Klebb and Kronsteen are out to snatch a decoding device known as the Lektor, using the ravishing Tatiana to lure Bond into helping them. Bond willingly travels to meet Tatiana in Istanbul, where he must rely on his wits to escape with his life in a series of deadly encounters with the enemy

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Starz & CBS All Access), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz & Epix) & rent or buy from $13.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco, finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and soon races to uncover a terrible plot.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Tribeca Short List) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Microsoft).

What it's about: As a swingin' fashion photographer by day and a groovy British superagent by night, Austin Powers is the '60s' most shagadelic spy, baby! But can he stop megalomaniac Dr. Evil after the bald villain freezes himself and unthaws in the '90s? With the help of sexy sidekick Vanessa Kensington, he just might.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Retired from active duty to train new IMF agents, Ethan Hunt is called back into action to confront sadistic arms dealer, Owen Davian. Hunt must try to protect his girlfriend while working with his new team to complete the mission.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Hulu), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 9 services (iTunes, Google Play & 7 others).

What it's about: Doormat Wesley Gibson discovers that his recently murdered father – who Wesley never knew – belonged to a secret guild of assassins. After a leather-clad sexpot drafts Wesley into the society, he hones his innate killing skills and turns avenger.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: When a disc containing memoirs of a former CIA analyst falls into the hands of gym employees, Linda and Chad, they see a chance to make enough money for Linda to have life-changing cosmetic surgery. Predictably, events whirl out of control for the duo, and those in their orbit.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A briefcase with undisclosed contents – sought by Irish terrorists and the Russian mob – makes its way into criminals' hands. An Irish liaison assembles a squad of mercenaries, or 'ronin', and gives them the thorny task of recovering the case.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A martial artist agrees to spy on a reclusive crime lord using his invitation to a tournament there as cover.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: At the height of the Cold War, a mysterious criminal organization plans to use nuclear weapons and technology to upset the fragile balance of power between the United States and Soviet Union. CIA agent Napoleon Solo and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin are forced to put aside their hostilities and work together to stop the evildoers in their tracks. The duo's only lead is the daughter of a missing German scientist, whom they must find soon to prevent a global catastrophe.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.49 on 5 services (iTunes, Microsoft & 3 others).

What it's about: When his peaceful life is threatened by a high-tech assassin, former black-ops agent, Frank Moses reassembles his old team in a last ditch effort to survive and uncover his assailants.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (IndieFlix) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A bookish CIA researcher finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: When a gunman takes five lives with six shots, all evidence points to the suspect in custody. On interrogation, the suspect offers up a single note: "Get Jack Reacher!" So begins an extraordinary chase for the truth, pitting Jack Reacher against an unexpected enemy, with a skill for violence and a secret to keep.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 9 services (iTunes, Google Play & 7 others).

What it's about: When CIA Analyst Jack Ryan interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets Jack and his family as revenge.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hulu & CBS All Access), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: An Indian spy is married to a Pakistani military officer during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Google Play).

What it's about: Called in to recover evidence in the aftermath of a horrific explosion on a New Orleans ferry, Federal agent Doug Carlin gets pulled away from the scene and taken to a top-secret government lab that uses a time-shifting surveillance device to help prevent crime.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (HBO) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: A criminal organization has obtained two nuclear bombs and are asking for a 100 million pound ransom in the form of diamonds in seven days or they will use the weapons. The secret service sends James Bond to the Bahamas to once again save the world.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Starz & CBS All Access), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz & Epix) & rent or buy from $13.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A marksman living in exile is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the president. Ultimately double-crossed and framed for the attempt, he goes on the run to track the real killer and find out who exactly set him up, and why??

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet mole within his former colleagues at the heart of MI6.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Starz), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: It has been twenty years since Don Diego de la Vega fought Spanish oppression in Alta California as the legendary romantic hero, Zorro. Having escaped from prison he transforms troubled bandit Alejandro into his successor, in order to foil the plans of the tyrannical Don Rafael Montero who robbed him of his freedom, his wife and his precious daughter.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle & IMDb TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).