Best movies like Operation C.I.A.
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A young CIA agent is assigned to Saigon to stop a planned political assassination.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 178
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, cult film
Best tv shows and movies like Operation C.I.A. (1965):
Similar in 81%
Target for Killing (1966)
Plot Summary:
A secret agent is charged with preventing a crime syndicate's plot to assassinate a young heiress.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 210
Genere: Crime, Thriller, Drama
Country: Italy, Austria, West Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: eurospy
Similar in 76%
Trade Routes (2007)
Plot Summary:
Set against an Eastern European nation's election, in a country that was the most notorious communist dictatorship, the film charts the paths of five characters; An aging CIA officer; A young attractive economic advisor; The ambitious Bulgarian Prime Minister's chief of staff; An American political consultant; and a retired member of the Bulgarian Communist State Police. These five character destinies intertwine in the weeks leading up to the elections in a fledgling democracy.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Bulgaria, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: political, political drama
Similar in 83%
Altered Minds (2013)
Plot Summary:
A family reunion goes awry when the oldest son makes the accusation that his dying father, a famed psychiatrist who also did work for the CIA, adopted his children for the purposes of psychological experimentation.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 709
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Hammerhead (1968)
Plot Summary:
An American agent has tracked down the stronghold of an evil criminal mastermind, determined to take over the world (what, another one ?).
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 534
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, eurospy
Similar in 75%
Missile X: The Neutron Bomb Incident (1979)
Plot Summary:
An American intelligence agent travels to pre-Islamic Revolution Iran to try to thwart a power-mad European baron from using a stolen cruise missile to destroy an unspecific target in that country.
IMDB Rating: 3.0
IMDB Votes: 299
Genere: Adventure, Thriller
Country: West Germany, Italy, Iran, Spain, USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film, campy
Similar in 90%
The Mind Benders (1963)
Plot Summary:
A British scientist is discovered to have been passing information to the Communists, then kills himself. Another scientist decides that they might have brainwashed him by a sensory deprivation technique, but he doesn’t know if someone really can be convinced to act against their strongest feelings. So he agrees to be the subject in an experiment in which others will try to make him stop loving his wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 903
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: psychotronic
Similar in 84%
The Dirty Game (1965)
Plot Summary:
A U.S. intelligence general (Robert Ryan) recalls three Cold War cases of Soviet (Henry Fonda), French and Italian (Vittorio Gassman) spies.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 267
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: France, Italy, West Germany, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: anthology, retro, independent film, eurospy, microfilm
Similar in 84%
The Foreigner (1978)
Plot Summary:
A French special op suffers an existential crisis as he wanders New York City in search of a mission and the requisite connections.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 214
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: independent film, atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, existential
Similar in 83%
OSS 117 - Double Agent (1968)
Plot Summary:
A secret agent is sent to the Middle East to destroy a gang of assassins.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 315
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, psychotronic, eurospy
Similar in 83%
Assignment K (1968)
Plot Summary:
Philip Scott, the boss of a toy company, is secretly also the chief of a British spy organization. Scott's cover is destroyed when enemy agents kidnap his girlfriend to force him to reveal the identities of his fellow spies.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 252
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, eurospy
Similar in 80%
Secret Agent Fireball (1965)
Plot Summary:
An American CIA agent (Richard Harrison) must find the whereabouts of valuable microfilm that was smuggled over by two Russian scientists who had been hoping to defect.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 142
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, eurospy, microfilm
Similar in 88%
The Sell Out (1976)
Plot Summary:
This action drama centers on a former CIA operative who grudgingly rejoins the spy game due to the machinations of his one-time student - a screw up who goes to work for the Soviets. As his job drags him deeper into a dangerous and under-handed world, the student wants out of the agency and oout of the U.S.S.R. But the man's choices have made him a target and now both the United States and Russia want him dead, sending their mos able hit men to do it.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 619
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, Italy, Israel
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: suspense, poliziottesco
Similar in 78%
Some May Live (1967)
Plot Summary:
During the Vietnam War U.S. decoder Kate Meredith is plagued with guilt when her correspondent husband coerces her to pass information to him and the Viet Cong.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 71
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychotronic, cult film
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 89%
The Naked Runner (1967)
Plot Summary:
Sam Laker is an American industrialist, working in Britain, who has just been awarded an international award for industrial design. He is planning to travel to East Germany to attend a trade show and show off his invention, taking his 10 year old son with him for a holiday. Meanwhile a British Intelligence officer who served with Laker in the Second World War decides to use the opportunity of Laker's trip and his lack of an intelligence profile to coerce him into carrying out an assassination.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, microfilm
Similar in 90%
Allegiance (2015)
Plot Summary:
Alex O'Connor, a young idealistic CIA analyst specializing in Russian affairs, learns a shocking secret and his close-knit, affluent family is about to be split apart when it's revealed that his parents, Mark and Katya, are covert Russian spies deactivated decades ago. But today the Kremlin has re-enlisted them into service as they plan a terrorist operation inside the U.S. border that will bring America to its knees.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, suspense, interesting
Similar in 84%
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 80%
Möbius (2013)
Plot Summary:
An FSB officer fall in love with his agent, an American woman who works as a trader in a Russian bank.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: France, Belgium, Luxembourg
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, political thriller, stylized
Similar in 78%
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 77%
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 90%
Dying of the Light (2014)
Plot Summary:
Evan Lake, a veteran CIA agent, has been ordered to retire. But when his protégé uncovers evidence that Lake's nemesis, the terrorist Banir, has resurfaced, Lake goes rogue, embarking on a perilous, intercontinental mission to eliminate his sworn enemy.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: Bahamas, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, rough, serious, suspense, cult classic
Similar in 76%
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 84%
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Plot Summary:
British agent Alec Leamas refuses to come in from the cold war during the 1960s, choosing to face another mission, which may prove to be his final one.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political, black and white, suspense, grim, clever, bleak, realistic, talky, political thriller, retro
Similar in 90%
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 76%
Beirut (2018)
Plot Summary:
A former U. S. diplomat returns to service in order to save a former colleague in Beirut.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: political, rough, bleak, suspense, suspenseful, social, action thriller, powerful, independent film, political drama
Similar in 76%
The Debt (2010)
Plot Summary:
Rachel Singer is a former Mossad agent who tried to capture a notorious Nazi war criminal – the Surgeon of Birkenau – in a secret Israeli mission that ended with his death on the streets of East Berlin. Now, 30 years later, a man claiming to be the doctor has surfaced, and Rachel must return to Eastern Europe to uncover the truth. Overwhelmed by haunting memories of her younger self and her two fellow agents, the still-celebrated heroine must relive the trauma of those events and confront the debt she has incurred.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 71000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, Hungary, Israel
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, psychological, tense, exciting, talky, realistic, serious, psychological thriller, political
Similar in 90%
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
Plot Summary:
Jack Ryan, as a young covert CIA analyst, uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 137000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Russia
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspenseful, serious, intense, suspense, entertaining, action adventure, action thriller, clever, political thriller
Similar in 75%
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 75%
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 87%
Rendition (2007)
Plot Summary:
When an Egyptian terrorism suspect "disappears" on a flight from Africa to Washington DC, his American wife and a CIA analyst find themselves caught up in a struggle to secure his release from a secret detention facility somewhere outside the US.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 58000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, tense, suspenseful, disturbing, dramatic, realistic, psychological thriller, sincere, sexy