Best movies like Defense of the Realm
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A reporter Mullen 'stumbles' on a story linking a prominent Member of Parliament to a KGB agent. In fact it is also linked to a near Nuclear disaster involving a teenage runaway and an Americal USAF base. Has there been a Government cover-up,Mullen teams up with Vernon Bayliss, an old hack, and Nina Beckam the MP's assistant to find out the truth.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: political thriller, noir, neo noir, political, cult classic, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Best tv shows and movies like Defense of the Realm (1985):
Similar in 80%
The Art of Losing (2004)
Plot Summary:
A body is discovered impaled on a stake near a scenic lake near Bogota. A journalist try to find what happened. With a friend, they set about to find the cause of the crime and uncover an intricate real estate fraud involving corrupt politicians, emerald hunters, nudists... Written by Lyse Lefebvre.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 822
Genere: Thriller
Country: Colombia, Spain
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, suspenseful, psychological, tense, disturbing, sexy, twisted
Similar in 81%
The List (2000)
Plot Summary:
After being arrested for solicitation, a high-class prostitute threatens to make public a list of her best clients and someone resorts to murder to keep the list a secret. Meanwhile, the judge on the case struggles with his dilemma and one cop aims to find the killer.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 444
Genere: Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, suspense, erotic, realistic, independent film, detective
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Similar in 87%
White Lie (2013)
Plot Summary:
A young writer has his book stolen by his mentor.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 12
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK, France
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir
Similar in 81%
The Salamander (1981)
Plot Summary:
An Italian policeman investigates a series of murders involving people in prominent positions. Left behind at each murder scene is a drawing of a salamander. The policeman begins to suspect these murders are linked to a plot to seize control of the government.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspense, enigmatic, captivating, poliziottesco, independent film, rough, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
Crusader (2005)
Plot Summary:
The World Of Mass Communication Is About To Become Unplugged.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 421
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: Spain
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tech noir
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Similar in 86%
The Clearstream Affair (2014)
Plot Summary:
Journalist Denis Robert sparked a storm in the world of European finance by denouncing the murky operations of banking firm Clearstream. His quest to reveal the truth behind a secret world of shadowy multinational banking puts him in contact with an ever-expanding anti-corruption investigation carried out by Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke. Their paths will lead them to the heart of a political/financial intrigue named the which will rock the foundations of the Europe and the French government itself.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 989
Genere: Thriller
Country: France, Luxembourg, Belgium
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, captivating, realistic
Similar in 77%
The Idealist (2015)
Plot Summary:
A whistle blower attempts to reveal the secret behind a nuclear disaster that occurred during the height of the Cold War.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Thriller
Country: Denmark, USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, suspense, tense
Similar in 86%
A Dark Reflection (2015)
Plot Summary:
A journalist digs deep into the world of aviation and discovers some uncomfortable truths. And a conspiracy trail dating back to 1954. But why is no one saying anything?.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 659
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, captivating, suspenseful, realistic
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Similar in 76%
The Fourth State (2012)
Plot Summary:
A journalist gets caught up in a terrorist plot in Moscow while investigating the Russian secret service.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, suspense
Similar in 88%
Baltic Storm (2003)
Plot Summary:
A journalist from Berlin, Germany, and a Swedish lawyer discover the truth behind the sinking of the "MS Estonia" in 1994, where more than 850 people drowned.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany, UK
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, interesting
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Similar in 75%
The MacKintosh Man (1973)
Plot Summary:
A member of British Intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught, imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization and expose a traitor.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, suspenseful, tense, neo noir, political thriller, rough, realistic, stylized, fast
Similar in 81%
Midnight in Saint Petersburg (1996)
Plot Summary:
Harry Palmer heads a private investigation business based in Moscow. His associates are Nikolai "Nick" Petrov (Jason Connery), ex-CIA agent Craig (Michael Sarrazin), and ex-KGB Colonel Gradsky (Lev Prygunov). They take on the job of finding 1000 grams of weapons-grade plutonium stolen from the Russian government, though they do not know the identity of their client.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK, Russia, Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, eurospy
Similar in 80%
American Roulette (1988)
Plot Summary:
Carlos Quintas, the democratically-elected president of an unnamed South American country, has been deposed by a military coup. He is in London, the head of a government in exile, rallying international support. He is also a poet of talent and reputation, in love with Kate, his assistant, who has a secret of her own and keeps Carlos at a distance. The generals have a team of professionals in London bent on kidnap and assassination. Hovering around Carlos are two Russians, who may be KGB, an American book publisher, who may be CIA, an elusive Brit, probably from her majesty's secret service, and his own few supporters. Is Carlos doomed? Whom can he trust?.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
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Similar in 76%
The Whistle Blower (1986)
Plot Summary:
A war veteran tries to investigate the murder of his son who was working as a Russian translator for the British intelligence service during the Cold War. He meets a web of deception and paranoia that seems impenetrable.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: political thriller, political, tense, rough, clever, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
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Similar in 80%
Funeral in Berlin (1966)
Plot Summary:
Colonel Stok, a Soviet intelligence officer responsible for security at the Berlin Wall, appears to want to defect but the evidence is contradictory. Stok wants the British to handle his defection and asks for one of their agents, Harry Palmer, to smuggle him out of East Germany.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: political thriller, suspenseful, visually stunning, serious, realistic, psychotronic, psychological, exciting, tense, parody
Similar in 81%
The Jigsaw Man (1983)
Plot Summary:
Philip Kimberly, the former head of the British Secret Service who defected to Russia, is given plastic surgery and sent back to Britain by the KGB to retrieve some vital documents. With the documents in hand, he instead plays off MI6 and the KGB against each other.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: political thriller, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 84%
The Fourth Protocol (1987)
Plot Summary:
Plan Aurora, led by Kim Philby is a plan that breaches the top-secret Fourth Protocol and turns the fears that shaped it into a living nightmare. A crack Soviet agent, placed under cover in a quiet English country town, begins to assemble a nuclear bomb, whilst MI5 agent John Preston attempts to prevent it's detonation.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, suspenseful, intense, serious, political, philosophical, political thriller, cult classic, realistic
Similar in 87%
The Secret Agent (1996)
Plot Summary:
London of the late 19th century is a haven for political exiles of all sorts - refugees, partisans, anarchists. Verloc has made his living spying for the Russian goverment, an agent provacateur of sorts, while simultaneously providing information to the London police, specifically Chief Inspector Heat. When the new Russian ambassador demands he prove his worth or lose his salary, Verloc sets off a tragic chain of events that involves his pretty young wife Winnie, her retarded brother Stevie, and a figure called the Professor, whose fascination with explosives and destruction makes him the person to call on when Verloc needs a bomb.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, harsh, realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious, political thriller, bleak, light, romantic
Similar in 89%
Legacy (2013)
Plot Summary:
Set in the 1970s London during the height of the Cold War when a young spy discovers the disturbing truth about his father's complex past. Based on Alan Judd's 2001 novel Legacy, the second in the Thoroughgood series after 1981's A Breed Of Heroes (adapted by the BBC in 1994). As the three day week, petrol rationing and industrial strife plunge Britain into a state of emergency, MI6 trainee spy Charles Thoroughgood is asked to reconnect with an old university friend, Russian diplomat Viktor Koslov, with a view to 'turning' him. Viktor has his own agenda, though, and reveals a shocking truth about Charles's own family that threatens to derail him, both personally and professionally. He is catapulted into a dangerous personal odyssey to uncover the truth but finds himself drawn into a lethal KGB plot to mount an attack within the UK. His life is further complicated by a relationship with the wife of another agent, which forces him to realise that betrayal can take many forms.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 461
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, tense, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
Jack Strong (2014)
Plot Summary:
A spy thriller telling a historically based story of a man who alone dares to challenge Soviets being in the middle of the communistic system himself. Planning the maneuvers of Warsaw Pact forces he discovers that the American plans of nuclear counterattack against Soviet forces is planned to be executed on Polish territory. Thanks to his determination he starts a long, lonely and psychologically exhausting cooperation with CIA. From that moment the life of his and his family is in danger as one careless move can lead to tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Thriller
Country: Poland
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, serious, suspenseful, exciting, political, factual
Similar in 75%
The Assets (2014)
Plot Summary:
1985 serves as the backdrop to the final showdown of the Cold War when Sandy and her partner Jeanne Vertefeuille vowed to find the mole that would turn out to be the most notorious traitor in US History, Aldrich Ames. Sandy is in a race against time to save the Soviet intelligence officers from being caught and killed. Living her own double life at home, this beautiful wife and mother vowed to stop at nothing until she uncovered the truth.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic, political
Similar in 75%
King's Game (2004)
Plot Summary:
Starting a new job as a political journalist at a leading newspaper, Ulrik Torp witnesses a brutal struggle for power in the Midparty's ranks -- a struggle that coincides with the charismatic party leader's involvement in a near fatal car accident. A flurry of lies and media speculation surrounds the incident. Gradually, Ulrik unearths a ruthless conspiracy involving the incumbent prime minister.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Sweden, Denmark
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: political thriller, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, political
Similar in 89%
The Parallax View (1974)
Plot Summary:
An ambitious reporter, investigating a senator's assassination, realizes witnesses to the shooting are systematically dying and discovers a multi-million dollar corporation which serves as a front for the recruitment of political assassins.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, disturbing, suspenseful, psychological, neo noir, political, intense, political thriller, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
State of Play (2003)
Plot Summary:
A thriller set in London, in which a politician's life becomes increasingly complex as his research assistant is found dead on the London Underground and, in a seemingly unrelated incident, a teenage pickpocket is shot dead.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 312 min
Plot tags: political thriller, political, realistic, tense, suspense, atmospheric, talky, serious, clever, twist ending
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Similar in 76%
Kill the Messenger (2014)
Plot Summary:
A reporter becomes the target of a vicious smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide after he exposes the CIA's role in arming Contra rebels in Nicaragua and importing cocaine into California. Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political, tense, suspenseful, thought provoking, clever, captivating, disturbing, spiritual, neo noir, emotional
Similar in 77%
Secret State (2012)
Plot Summary:
A four-part conspiracy theory drama inspired by Chris Mullen's novel "A Very British Coup". When a devastating industrial accident results in deaths and raises safety questions about the US petrochemical company involved, PM Tom Dawkins becomes aware of an establishment cover up.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, clever, realistic, political, political thriller, political drama
Similar in 85%
Enigma (1982)
Plot Summary:
Five highly-trained KGB agents are sent to the west to assassinate several Soviet dissidents. In order to stop the diabolical plot, an American agent must infiltrate Soviet intelligence and obtain information from a Russian computer.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, France
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, intense, serious, realistic, political, political thriller, independent film, exciting, romantic, atmospheric
Similar in 76%
Page Eight (2011)
Plot Summary:
Page Eight is lovingly turned, with elegant writing, a flawless cast and a heartfelt message from writer/director David Hare about the danger zone where spies and politicians meet. The tension builds gently as we follow the fortunes of Johnny Worricker, a jazz-loving charmer who works high up at MI5 as an intelligence analyst. It’s a part made for Bill Nighy and he purrs out bon mots with a weary panache that women 20 years younger find irresistible. One such is his neighbour, Nancy Pierpan (Rachel Weisz), in a Battersea mansion block. The question for Johnny is whether her interest in him is genuine or hides something darker. As his boss (Michael Gambon) puts it: “Distrust is a terrible habit.” Questions of trust, honour and friendship rumble through the play. The characters exchange oblique repartee as a plot about a damning dossier unwinds. It’s not to be missed.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: political thriller, tense, serious, realistic, political, captivating, psychological, exciting, sincere, suspense
Similar in 82%
The Ipcress File (1965)
Plot Summary:
This espionage thriller represents a landmark in spy movies introducing the sly, dry intelligence agent Harry Palmer. The story, centers on Palmer's investigation into British Intelligence security. He's soon enmeshed in a world of double-dealing, kidnap and murder and finds a traitor is operating at the heart of the secret service. Will the mysterious 'Ipcress File' reveal who the traitor is?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, suspenseful, suspense, exciting, tense, enigmatic, clever, realistic, cynical, retro
Similar in 81%
All the President's Men (1976)
Plot Summary:
In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defense case, and the discovery of names and addresses of Republican fund organizers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. The editor of the Post is prepared to run with the story and assigns Woodward and Carl Bernstein to it. They find the trail leading higher and higher in the Republican Party, and eventually into the White House itself.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 124000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: political thriller, political, cerebral, realistic, serious, suspense, factual, tense, captivating, neo noir