Non-Bond Spy/Thriller Flicks that are Great (or merely interesting)

chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
I saw one years & years ago that was fascinating- Code Name: Heraclitus. It had the strangest editing style I ever came across, cutting abruptly front to side & back. I'd love to see it again.
Then there was this strange little one starring Kate Capshaw called Code Name: Dancer. Another one I haven't seen since the 90's. I remember it being interesting.
Some actual great ones are Parallax View, Marathon Man, Ice Station Zebra, North By Northwest, Charade (man I love this one), The Conversation, Ronin, Patriot Games, Clear & Present Danger, Hunt For Red October, Tailor Of Panama....
When I was a wee laddie I saw Puppet On A Chain & When Eight Bells Toll at drive-ins. I so don't remember them. I think I need to fix that.

Got some good ones I missed?

Comments

  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    Of the top of my head, The International & Three Days of the Condor. The Debt is also very good.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,687
    Oh yeah, Three Days was great. I have The International (love it!), but never saw The Debt.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    Mission: Impossible is a good spy thriller.
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,882
    Deadlier_Than_the_Male_Half_Sheet_US.jpg

    My honorary Bond film.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,687
    Murdock wrote: »
    Mission: Impossible is a good spy thriller.
    Figures I'd leave those out.
    :P
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    The Harry Palmer movies with Michael Caine are good Spy thrillers too.
  • Posts: 7,653
    The third man
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    I've seen The Ipcress File and Billion Dollar Brain. I still need to see Funeral in Berlin.

    Oddly enough this is the only spy series I could see doing a crossover with Bond. Plus it would have been really cool to see Connery and Caine in the same movie.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    Posts: 15,686
    Murdock wrote: »
    Oddly enough this is the only spy series I could see doing a crossover with Bond. Plus it would have been really cool to see Connery and Caine in the same movie.

    They played together in 'The Man Who Would Be King', didn't they?

  • Posts: 5,774
    Murdock wrote: »
    Mission: Impossible is a good spy thriller.

    No it isn't. Jim Phelps (at least the Jim Phelps I know from watching him in two series over the years) would never have done that !

    One of my favourite is "Telefon", by Don Siegel, starring Charles Bronson and Lee Remick as KGB operatives on the hunt for a Soviet hardliner (played by Bond alumni Donald Pleasance) creating chaos in the US using brainwashed operatives.

    215px-Telefon_poster.jpg
  • Posts: 7,653
    Some of the older Hitchcocks are pretty brilliant too like

    Foreign correspondent
    the 39 steps
    The Man Who Knew Too Much
    secret agent
    The Lady vanishes
    [one of my favorites]
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    Gerard wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    Mission: Impossible is a good spy thriller.

    No it isn't. Jim Phelps (at least the Jim Phelps I know from watching him in two series over the years) would never have done that !

    I never really saw Voight's Phelps as the same person as Graves' Phelps. Just someone with the same name.

  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,687
    Murdock wrote: »
    I never really saw Voight's Phelps as the same person as Graves' Phelps. Just someone with the same name.
    Oh no, the code name theory again...
    #-o
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,328
    chrisisall wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    I never really saw Voight's Phelps as the same person as Graves' Phelps. Just someone with the same name.
    Oh no, the code name theory again...
    #-o

    Maybe they should have called him Dan Briggs. ;)
  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    Murdock wrote: »
    I've seen The Ipcress File and Billion Dollar Brain. I still need to see Funeral in Berlin.

    Oddly enough this is the only spy series I could see doing a crossover with Bond. Plus it would have been really cool to see Connery and Caine in the same movie.

    Love these films too @Murdock. I regularly listen to the Ipcress File soundtrack.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited January 2015 Posts: 23,883
    Some other good ones are the 4TH PROTOCOL, DAY OF THE JACKAL, RISING SUN, BOYS FROM BRAZIL, THE PEACEMAKER, EIGER SANCTION, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (Brilliant relatively unknown Polanski work - set in one location set, like Dial M for Murder), GHOST WRITER (or GHOST - also by Polanski), DEFENSE OF THE REALM, KISS THE GIRLS, ALONG CAME A SPIDER, THE GAME, A PERFECT MURDER, & JADE.

    On a more serious front with less action there is THE CONTENDER, SYRIANA (very topical given current Islamic issues), & MICHAEL CLAYTON

    There's also the BOURNE IDENTITY TV mini series from the 80's starring Richard Chamberlain & Jaclyn Smith (80's so it has cheese but it was good).
  • Posts: 1,478
    THE PARALLEX VIEW

    As cited in the introductory comment, this 1974 conspiracy/paranoia film is a gem.
    A great performance by Warren Beatty. The backdrop is Seattle and the assassination of a political figure at the Space Needle. Informed by the conspiracy theories that hung over the Kennedy assassination, this is a sparse, tense, and chilling film. Very unsettling.
  • Posts: 5,745
    The Honorable Woman on Netflix streaming. It's a series (that just won a few Golden Globes) about an Israeli woman who inherited her father's weapons company and switches to humanitarian relief work in the Middle East.

    So far two people have been assassinated, a child has been kidnapped, MI6 and "C" have gotten involved, a body guard has been shot, and I'm only halfway through episode two. It has a very intelligent, modern, honest, and verrry espionage-like touch to it that I currently find very exciting.

    Check it out.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,687
    Birdleson wrote: »
    And going back over this page it is very sup rising that none of us have mentioned one of the best, Francis Ford Coppola's THE CONVERSATION (1974).
    I did! At the top!
    :D
  • Posts: 1,478
    NxNW

    A stylish Hitchcock film that anticipates the Bond films by a couple of years. Worth carefully watching how the main character accidentally gets mistaken for a government agent.
  • Posts: 5,745
    JWESTBROOK wrote: »
    The Honorable Woman on Netflix streaming. It's a series (that just won a few Golden Globes) about an Israeli woman who inherited her father's weapons company and switches to humanitarian relief work in the Middle East.

    So far two people have been assassinated, a child has been kidnapped, MI6 and "C" have gotten involved, a body guard has been shot, and I'm only halfway through episode two. It has a very intelligent, modern, honest, and verrry espionage-like touch to it that I currently find very exciting.

    Check it out.

    I forgot to mention that in The Honorable Woman, the actor who played Mitchel from Quantum of Solace has a large role. Considering he was Craig's stuntman who supposedly got the Bond role in the chaos of production, he's an excellent actor in this series.
  • edited March 2016 Posts: 1,386
    Sorry if these have already been listed, but I really enjoy "Funeral in Berlin" with Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. The movie is directed by Guy Hamilton, the executive producer is Harry Saltzman, and second unit director is Peter Medak (future director of "The Changeling" with George C. Scott and one of my favorite horror movies). Also, I'd recommend "Where Eagles Dare" with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood and "The Guns of Naverone" with David Niven, Gregory Peck, & Anthony Quinn, & Force 10 From Naverone from director Guy Hamilton with Harrison Ford, Robert Shaw, Barbara Bach & Richard Kiehl. Also, the first Harry Palmer movie "The Ipcress File".
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,687
    josiah wrote: »
    Sorry if these have already been listed, but I really enjoy "Funeral in Berlin" with Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. The movie is directed by Guy Hamilton, the executive producer is Harry Saltzman, and second unit director is Peter Medak (future director of "The Changeling" with George C. Scott and one of my favorite horror movies). Also, I'd recommend "Where Eagles Dare" with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood and "The Guns of Naverone" with David Niven, Gregory Peck, & Anthony Quinn, & Force 10 From Naverone from director Guy Hamilton with Harrison Ford, Robert Shaw, Barbara Bach & Richard Kiehl. Also, the first Harry Palmer movie "The Ipcress File".

    Awesome list! =D>
  • edited March 2016 Posts: 1,386
    chrisisall wrote: »
    josiah wrote: »
    Sorry if these have already been listed, but I really enjoy "Funeral in Berlin" with Michael Caine as Harry Palmer. The movie is directed by Guy Hamilton, the executive producer is Harry Saltzman, and second unit director is Peter Medak (future director of "The Changeling" with George C. Scott and one of my favorite horror movies). Also, I'd recommend "Where Eagles Dare" with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood and "The Guns of Naverone" with David Niven, Gregory Peck, & Anthony Quinn, & Force 10 From Naverone from director Guy Hamilton with Harrison Ford, Robert Shaw, Barbara Bach & Richard Kiehl. Also, the first Harry Palmer movie "The Ipcress File".

    Awesome list! =D>

    Thanks! Yours too! I have seen, loved, and own most of those (with the exception of Tailor of Panama and Parallax View and that is only because I haven't seen them yet). Oh, and since you have a John Lecarre adaptation on the list, I will add "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" with Richard Burton (and a bit part by Bernard Lee), and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy with Gary Oldman :)
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 6,760
    With so many great ones already been mentioned I'll add two European class acts:

    Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others, 2006 Germany)
    Nikita (La Femme Nikita, 1990 France)
  • Posts: 4,325
    The Ipcress File (1965)
    Funeral in Berlin (1966)
    Billion Dollar Brain (1967)
    Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
    The Tailor of Panama (2001)
    The Fourth Protocol (1987)
    The Odessa File (1974)
    The Day of the Jackal (1973)
    The Jackal (1997)
    Ronin (1998)
    Operation: Daybreak (1975)
    The Hunt for Red October (1990)
    Patriot Games (1992)
    Clear and Present Danger (1994)
    Die Hard (1988)
    Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)
    Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)
    Die Hard 4.0 (2007)
    Lethal Weapon (1987)
    Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
    Croupier (1998)
    The Bourne Identity (2002)
    The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
    The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
    The Spy in Black (1939)
    The Riddle of the Sands (1979)
    The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935)
    Yellow Canary (1943)
    The French Connection (1971)
    French Connection II (1975)
    The Parallax View (1974)
    The Conversation (1974)
    The Devil's Own (1997)
    The Krays (1990)
    Farewell, My Lovely (1944)
    Hanna (2011)
    Our Man in Havana (1959)
    The Third Man (1949)
    Odd Man Out (1947)
    The Getaway (1972)
    Bullitt (1968)
    The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
    The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
    Dirty Harry (1971)
    Get Carter (1971)
    The Human Factor (1979)
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