Entertainment

Riveting Cold War Spy Movies That You Should Watch

Spy. Photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash

Spies are cool, be it in the movies or real life. While some of the movie characters are unrealistic in terms of their impossible missions and their incredible skills, it’s still fascinating to watch them. If you’re tired of watching James Bond, you might want to check out these Cold War spy movies:

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold poster. © 1965 – Paramount Pictures / IMDB

Originally a novel written by the British author John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold became a highly anticipated movie in 1965 starring Richard Burton, a British spy named Alec Leamas who the East Germans recruited. He was, in fact, on a mission to sow disinformation to them. In the turn of events, Alec found out that his mission was different from what he thought it really was.

Torn Curtain

Poster for Torn Curtain. © 1966 – Universal Pictures / IMDB

Torn Curtain was a film produced in 1966 about an American physicist named Michael Armstrong who pretended to defect to East Germany. It shocked even his fiancee, who decided to follow him behind the Iron Curtain. It turned out that Michael was not a spy but a double agent working to discover Soviet nuclear secrets.

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Spies are cool, be it in the movies or real life. While some of the movie characters are unrealistic in terms of their impossible missions and their incredible skills, it’s still fascinating to watch them. If you’re tired of watching James Bond, you might want to check out these Cold War spy movies:

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold poster. © 1965 – Paramount Pictures / IMDB

Originally a novel written by the British author John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold became a highly anticipated movie in 1965 starring Richard Burton, a British spy named Alec Leamas who the East Germans recruited. He was, in fact, on a mission to sow disinformation to them. In the turn of events, Alec found out that his mission was different from what he thought it really was.

Torn Curtain

Poster for Torn Curtain. © 1966 – Universal Pictures / IMDB

Torn Curtain was a film produced in 1966 about an American physicist named Michael Armstrong who pretended to defect to East Germany. It shocked even his fiancee, who decided to follow him behind the Iron Curtain. It turned out that Michael was not a spy but a double agent working to discover Soviet nuclear secrets.

The Falcon and The Snowman

The Falcon & The Snowman Poster. © 1985 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved / IMDB

This movie was based on the 1979 book The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage by Robert Lindsey. It tells the story of two childhood friends, Christopher Boyce (played by Timothy Hutton) and Andrew Daulton Lee (played by Sean Penn), who sold US secrets to the USSR after Christopher got frustrated by the secret dealings of the US government. He dragged his friend Andrew, a drug addict, into the espionage. Motivated by the amount of money that he was going to make, he agreed and contacted and dealt with the KGB’s agents in Mexico on Christopher’s behalf. Things turned to be difficult as both of them got more involved in the whole act.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy

Poster for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (film). © 2011 – Focus Features / IMDB

Also based on John le Carré’s novel, it is a story about hunting for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service. In the 1970s in London, the head of MI6 tasked an agent to find out the identity of a Soviet spy in the organization’s ranks by meeting with a Hungarian general who knew who it was. However, the general died and couldn’t reveal his identity. Undersecretary Oliver Lacson had to call back the aging veteran agent George Smiley to find out who the mole was and stop the classified British information from being spilled to the Russians.

Have you watched any of these? Which among them was your favorite? Share with us your favorite film set in the Cold War.

About SOFREP News Team View All Posts

The SOFREP News Team is a collective of professional military journalists. Brandon Tyler Webb is the SOFREP News Team's Editor-in-Chief. Guy D. McCardle is the SOFREP News Team's Managing Editor. Brandon and Guy both manage the SOFREP News Team.

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