Best movies like The Ipcress File
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like The Ipcress File (1965):
Similar in 79%
The Kremlin Letter (1970)
Plot Summary:
A network of older spies from the West recruits a young intelligence officer with a photographic memory to accompany them on a mission inside Russia. They must recover a letter written by the CIA that promises American assistance to Russia if China gets the atomic bomb.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: neo noir, political thriller, visually stunning, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
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 88%
Billion Dollar Brain (1967)
Plot Summary:
A former British spy stumbles into in a plot to overthrow Communism with the help of a supercomputer. But who is working for whom?.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: political thriller, psychotronic, suspense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, surprise ending, eurospy, vintage
Similar in 86%
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 87%
Agent Hamilton (2020)
Plot Summary:
Carl Hamilton has just returned to Sweden after many years of secret education in the US when Stockholm is shaken by a series of terrorist attacks. Hamilton is assigned to assist the Swedish intelligence service in their pursuit of the guilty, but at the same time works as a double agent.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: Sweden, Germany, Lithuania
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, action thriller
Similar in 88%
Danger Route (1967)
Plot Summary:
Jonas Wilde, a British secret agent licensed to kill, wants to resign from his murderous work, but his superiors pressure him into taking on a new assignment-the assassination of a defecting Soviet scientist. In the course of the dangerous mission, he discovers a mole has infiltrated British intelligence.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 493
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: political thriller, grindhouse, exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, psychotronic, freeze frame, eurospy
Similar in 82%
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
Similar in 84%
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 87%
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 87%
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%
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%
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 76%
The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
Plot Summary:
Two British agents are murdered by a mysterious Neonazi organization in West Berlin. The British Secret Service sends agent Quiller to investigate. Soon Quiller is confronted with Neonazi chief "Oktober" and involved in a dangerous game where each side tries to find out the enemy's headquarters at any price.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: neo noir, political thriller, independent film, exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, eurospy
Similar in 75%
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%
Eye of the Needle (1981)
Plot Summary:
A ruthless German spy, trying to get out of Britain with vital information about D-Day, must spend time with a young woman and her crippled husband.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Romance, Thriller, War
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sexy, tense, suspenseful, suspense, political thriller, bleak, serious, realistic, erotic, exciting
Similar in 79%
The Odessa File (1974)
Plot Summary:
After reading the diary of an elderly Jewish man who committed suicide, freelance journalist Peter Miller begins to investigate the alleged sighting of a former SS-Captain who commanded a concentration camp during World War II. Miller eventually finds himself involved with the powerful organization of former SS members, called ODESSA, as well as with the Israeli secret service. Miller probes deeper and eventually discovers a link between the SS-Captain, ODESSA, and his own family.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, West Germany
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: political thriller, twisted, tense, atmospheric, suspenseful, political, suspense, powerful, serious, captivating
Similar in 77%
Spooks: The Greater Good (2015)
Plot Summary:
During a handover to the head of counter-terrorism of MI5, Harry Pearce, a terrorist escapes custody. When Harry disappears soon after, his protégé is tasked with finding out what happened as an impending attack on London looms, and eventually uncovers a deadly conspiracy.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, serious, suspenseful, suspense, action thriller, action adventure, fast, surprise ending, neo noir
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 79%
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 79%
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 79%
The Statement (2003)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in France in the 1990s, the French were defeated by the Germans early in World War II, an armistice was signed in 1940 which effectively split France into a German occupied part in the North and a semi-independent part in the south which became known as Vichy France. In reality the Vichy government was a puppet regime controlled by the Germans. Part of the agreement was that the Vichy Government would assist with the 'cleansing' of Jews from France. The Vichy government formed a police force called the Milice, who worked with the Germans.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada, France, UK
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: tense, suspenseful, political, intense, serious, cult classic, bleak, realistic, psychological, brutal
Similar in 85%
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
Plot Summary:
An international assassin known as ‘The Jackal’ is employed by disgruntled French generals to kill President Charles de Gaulle, with a dedicated gendarme on the assassin's trail.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 44000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, France
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: political thriller, exciting, suspenseful, political, atmospheric, talky, intense, rough, serious, suspense
Similar in 83%
The Point Men (2001)
Plot Summary:
Some time after their botched operation to capture a known Palestinian terrorist, a team of Israeli agents starts to get killed off one by one. Their leader must get to the bottom of things before the killer(s) plan is complete.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, France, Luxembourg, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense, cult classic, surprise ending, independent film, black comedy, dark comedy, cult film
Similar in 76%
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)
Plot Summary:
When the Nazi high command learns in late 1943 that Winston Churchill will be spending time at a country estate in Norfolk, it hatches an audacious scheme to kidnap the prime minister and spirit him to Germany for enforced negotiations with Hitler.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: UK
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspense, tense, intense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, political thriller, rough, independent film
Similar in 86%
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%
A Most Wanted Man (2014)
Plot Summary:
A Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg and becomes a person of interest for a covert government team which tracks the movements of potential terrorists.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 79000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA, Germany
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: clever, bleak, tense, political, suspense, melancholic, thought provoking, psychological, cerebral, independent film
Similar in 88%
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Plot Summary:
The Manchurian Candidate is a political thriller from American director John Frankenheimer. An American soldier is brainwashed into being a killer for the communist Russians during the Korean War.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 79000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: political thriller, black and white, psychological, political, tense, thought provoking, suspenseful, suspense, psychological thriller, captivating
Similar in 77%
Body of Lies (2008)
Plot Summary:
The CIA’s hunt is on for the mastermind of a wave of terrorist attacks. Roger Ferris is the agency’s man on the ground, moving from place to place, scrambling to stay ahead of ever-shifting events. An eye in the sky – a satellite link – watches Ferris. At the other end of that real-time link is the CIA’s Ed Hoffman, strategizing events from thousands of miles away. And as Ferris nears the target, he discovers trust can be just as dangerous as it is necessary for survival.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 237000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: clever, political, exciting, tense, realistic, political thriller, serious, suspense, entertaining, enigmatic
Similar in 77%
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)
Plot Summary:
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 290 min
Plot tags: clever, talky, serious, political thriller, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative, tense, atmospheric, thought provoking
Similar in 86%
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