Best movies like Farewell
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Farewell? Share your insights to navigate others to films and tv shows you've viewed previously that might likewise captivate them. Assist in enlarging the network of people mentioning videos to each other. We value your involvement!
Plot Summary:
Engaging, emotional and riveting, FAREWELL is an intricate and highly intelligent thriller pulled from the pages of history— about an ordinary man thrust into the biggest theft of Soviet information of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan called this piece of history - largely unknown until now - “one of the most important espionage cases of the 20th century.” FAREWELL begins in 1981, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. A French businessman based in Moscow, Pierre Froment, (Guillaume Canet) makes an unlikely connection with Grigoriev (Emir Kusturica), a senior KGB officer disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev. Grigoriev begins passing Froment highly sensitive information about the Soviet spy network in the US.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, political, sincere
Best tv shows and movies like Farewell (2009):
Similar in 79%
The Tamarind Seed (1974)
Plot Summary:
During a Caribbean holiday, a British civil servant finds herself falling in love with a Russian agent.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: romantic, independent film, serious, realistic, microfilm
Similar in 86%
The Patriots (1994)
Plot Summary:
Ariel, un jeune Juif français, décide de quitter sa famille pour partir en Israël et devenir un agent du Mossad, les services secrets israéliens. En participant à des missions à Paris, Tel Aviv et Washington, il sera initié à l'art délicat de la manipulation.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 88%
Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within (1998)
Plot Summary:
Fact-based story about a 90's espionage case that was chronicled as the worst case of espionage in US history.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 360
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
The Defector (1966)
Plot Summary:
Professor Bower, an American physicist, is effectively blackmailed by a shady CIA agent named Adams to help the CIA obtain secret microfilm from a defecting Russian scientist. The reluctant Bower travels to East Germany undercover as an antiques collector where he encounters Heinzmann, an East German fellow physicist, who is also a secret agent. Heinzmann is aware of Bower's meeting with Adams and his intention to steal the microfilm, however their mutual respect for one another's tactics complicate the proceedings.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 804
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, eurospy, microfilm
Similar in 81%
Triple Agent (2004)
Plot Summary:
The Popular Front wins elections, the Spanish Civil War begins, and Hitler and Stalin are manipulating and spying. The brilliant exile, Fiodor Voronin, a general at 20, is the deputy at the White Russian Military Union, probably slated to replace the aging Général Dobrinsky soon. Fiodor's Greek wife, Arsinoé, paints and stays away from politics, befriending Communist neighbors. Her health declines; the attentive Fiodor arranges care and, against the backdrop of Stalin's Great Purge, considers his options. He plays a chess game in which love of country, love of Arsinoé, ideology, petty jealousies, and the machinations of power roil in matters of life and death.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Russia
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspense, enigmatic, psychological
Similar in 79%
Deutschland 83 (2015)
Plot Summary:
A gripping coming-of-age story set against the real culture wars and political events of Germany in the 1980s. The drama follows Martin Rauch as the 24 year-old East Germany native is pulled from the world as he knows it and sent to the West as an undercover spy for the Stasi foreign service. Hiding in plain sight in the West German army, he must gather the secrets of NATO military strategy. Everything is new, nothing is quite what it seems and everyone he encounters is harboring secrets, both political and personal.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, exciting, captivating, epic, political, action adventure
Similar in 89%
Little Nikita (1988)
Plot Summary:
Roy Parmenter is an FBI agent in San Diego; 20 years ago his partner was killed by a Soviet spy, nicknamed Scuba, still at large. Scuba is now trying to extort the Soviets; to prove he's serious, he's killing their agents one by one, including "sleepers," agents under deep cover awaiting orders. Roy interviews a high school lad, Jeff Grant, an applicant to the Air Force Academy. In a routine background check, Roy discovers that Jeff's parents are sleepers. He must see if Jeff is also a spy, confront the parents yet protect them, and catch his nemesis. Meanwhile, the Soviets have sent their own spy-catcher, the loner Karpov, to reel in Scuba. Alliances shift; it's cat and mouse.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, suspenseful, cult classic, serious, realistic, psychological, sexy, clever, brutal
Similar in 78%
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 80%
The Serpent (1973)
Plot Summary:
Vlassov is a Soviet spy who defects in France. He is whisked to the U.S, where Allan Davies takes over the case. After polygraph tests and cross-examinations, Vlassov names several Western European agents who are also spying for the Soviets. Davies wants to take the listed agents into custody; meanwhile, those on the list start dying under mysterious circumstances.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: France, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: political thriller, psychological, serious, realistic, suspenseful, eurospy
Similar in 85%
Restless (2012)
Plot Summary:
A young woman finds out that her mother worked as a spy for the British Secret Service during World War II and has been on the run ever since.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, captivating, realistic, historical drama, neo noir, period drama
Similar in 78%
A Different Loyalty (2004)
Plot Summary:
In January 1963, British journalist Leo Cauffield suddenly disappears from his home in Beirut. His wife Sally knew that he was working part-time for British intelligence, but was not prepared to be told by the British embassy that they suspect he has defected to Communist Russia. As his wife puts together the pieces of the mysterious jigsaw of the past, tracking her passionate relationship with her husband and his history as former head of MI6’s counter-espionage section, her relentless search for the truth takes her to London, New York and finally Moscow.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: Canada, UK, USA, Malta
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Torn Curtain (1966)
Plot Summary:
During the Cold War, an American scientist appears to defect to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the formula for a resin solution, but the plan goes awry when his fiancee, unaware of his motivation, follows him across the border.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, suspenseful, stylized, political thriller, enigmatic, psychological, serious, realistic, clever
Similar in 86%
The Deadly Affair (1967)
Plot Summary:
Charles Dobbs is a British secret agent investigating the apparent suicide of Foreign Office official Samuel Fennan. Dobbs suspects that Fennan's wife, Elsa, a survivor of a Nazi Germany extermination camp, might have some clues, but other officials want Dobbs to drop the case. So Dobbs hires a retiring inspector, Mendel, to quietly make inquiries. Dobbs isn't at all sure as there are a number of anomalies that simply can't be explained away. Dobbs is also having trouble at home with his errant wife, whom he very much loves, having frequent affairs. He's also pleased to see an old friend, Dieter Frey, who he recruited after the war. With the assistance of a colleague and a retired policeman, Dobbs tries to piece together just who is the spy and who in fact assassinated Fennan.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, psychological, exciting, enigmatic, neo noir, political, dark, slasher
Similar in 87%
Spy(ies) (2009)
Plot Summary:
Vincent is a bright young man but has introverted personality. He is working as a baggage handler at an airport and refuses to follow a career path accordingly to his education. With his colleague, Gerard, Vincent used to steal objects from the luggage in the hold before shipment. As he opens a diplomatic baggage, Gerard provokes an explosion and dies.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: France, UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, suspenseful, serious, psychological, bleak
Similar in 77%
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 77%
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 75%
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 87%
Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story (2002)
Plot Summary:
Drama. TV Movie.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 428
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 200 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative
Similar in 85%
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 82%
The Russia House (1990)
Plot Summary:
An expatriate British publisher unexpectedly finds himself working for British intelligence to investigate people in Russia.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: political, stylized, sentimental, sex comedy, sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative
Similar in 90%
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 87%
The Game (2014)
Plot Summary:
London 1972. When a defecting KGB officer, Arkady Malinov, reveals Operation Glass, a devastating Soviet plot that could change the course of the Cold War, Daddy, the head of MI5, assembles a secret team to investigate. As the Soviets awaken a list of sleeper agents all over Britain, Daddy's team must move swiftly to gain information about the plot.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 59 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, suspenseful, tense, clever, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 84%
The Executioner (1970)
Plot Summary:
A British intelligence agent must track down a fellow spy suspected of being a double agent.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 450
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, talky, suspense, eurospy
Similar in 82%
Topaz (1969)
Plot Summary:
A French intelligence agent becomes embroiled in the Cold War politics first with uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis, and then back to France to break up an international Russian spy ring.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, suspenseful, psychological, political thriller, enigmatic, psychological thriller, exciting, retro, art house
Similar in 88%
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
Plot Summary:
The true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA, Mexico
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, psychological, captivating, serious, political, suspenseful, factual, retro, neo noir
Similar in 76%
The Company (2007)
Plot Summary:
Real-life figures from the Cold War era mix with a fictional story based on a group of CIA operatives and their counterparts in the KGB, MI6, and the Mossad.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 286 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, epic, captivating, suspenseful, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
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 78%
The Americans (2013)
Plot Summary:
Set during the Cold War period in the 1980s, The Americans is the story of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American married couple in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and their neighbor, Stan Beeman, an FBI Counterintelligence agent.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 109000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, captivating, atmospheric, suspenseful, dramatic, sexy, neo noir, political, dark
Similar in 88%
Despite the Falling Snow (2016)
Plot Summary:
In Cold War Moscow, a female spy steals secrets from an idealistic politician – and falls in love with him. Moscow, 1959: Katya (Rebecca Ferguson, Mission Impossible- Rogue Nation, The Girl on the Train, The White Queen), is young, beautiful – and a spy for the Americans. When she and Mischa (Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Emerald City), begin spying on Alexander ( Sam Reid, Anonymous), an idealistic Communist politician, the last thing she expects is to fall in love with him. Her choice between love and duty leads to a nail-biting conclusion that Alexander (Charles Dance, The Imitation Game) can only unravel decades later in 1990s New York. His journey back to the snowbound streets of Moscow uncovers a love triangle and betrayals from those he trusted most.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: tense, touching, suspense, suspenseful, emotional
Similar in 78%
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 210000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, France, Germany, USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: suspense, clever, tense, confusing, bleak, non-linear, atmospheric, thought provoking, period piece, political