Best movies like The Jigsaw Man
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like The Jigsaw Man (1983):
Similar in 78%
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 83%
The Inside Man (1984)
Plot Summary:
In 1981, after the successful test of a submarine tracker device developed by the Swedish scientist Paul Mandell and sponsored by the US government through his representative Miller, his industry is totally burned and the laser device is stolen. Stig Larsson from the Swedish Secret Agency suspects of an inside job and brings the Swedish Marine Thomas Kallin to investigate Paul undercover as his driver. The naive Kallin is double-crossed but continues his investigation while Larsson finds the truth about the heist.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 466
Genere: Mystery, Action, Thriller
Country: Sweden, UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: political thriller, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
The Black Windmill (1974)
Plot Summary:
A British agent's son is kidnapped and held for a ransom of diamonds. The agent finds out that he can't even count on the people he thought were on his side to help him, so he decides to track down the kidnappers himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: UK, France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: bloody, political thriller, psychological, serious, realistic, suspenseful, poliziottesco
Similar in 82%
The Amateur (1981)
Plot Summary:
A researcher for the CIA who convinces his superiors to send him to the eastern bloc in order to avenge the murder of his wife by enemy agents discovers a web of deception underneath his wife's death.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 889
Genere: Crime, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political thriller, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, suspense
Similar in 79%
Defense of the Realm (1985)
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
Similar in 75%
Executive Power (1997)
Plot Summary:
While protecting the U.S. President, Secret Service agent Nick Sager helps him to dispose of the body of a young girl, who accidentally died during an adulterous encounter. Some time later, a few weeks before the elections, the disillusioned ex-agent is approached by his former partner. The President's former aide, and one of few people who knew about the cover-up, is found dead in mysterious circumstances.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 393
Genere: Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic, suspenseful, political thriller
Similar in 87%
Brotherhood of the Rose (1989)
Plot Summary:
Romulus and Remus are two CIA agents, their direct instructor is John Elliott. They both were picked up at an orphanage by Elliott at the age of about eight, raised together as brothers and specially trained to supersede every other agent in the service. This is what they know. What do not know.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 911
Genere: Thriller
Country: USA, New Zealand
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
On Dangerous Ground (1996)
Plot Summary:
Vusi Madlazi returns to the South African village he left as a young boy (he was organizing against apartheid, and left in fear of his life) to bury his father. He meets up with his brother Ernest, who tells him their other brother Stephen couldn't be contacted. Vusi goes to Johannesburg to find him, but at first can only find his neighbor/girlfriend, Karin, a stripper. Vusi proceeds to learn how conditions have changed since the end of apartheid, not always for the better for black men.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 245
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: UK, Canada, Luxembourg
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 78%
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%
Bullet to Beijing (1995)
Plot Summary:
When long-time British agent Harry Palmer loses his job because the Cold War is over, he's promptly approached by a Russian bossman, Alex. In St. Petersburg Alex tells Harry of his plan for Russia's future, which is threatened because a deadly biochemical weapon called the Red Death has been stolen from him. He'll pay Harry handsomely to retrieve it. An ex-spy friend tips Harry off that it's being sent to Beijing by train, aboard which we begin to learn whose side everyone's really on.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: Canada, UK, USA, Russia
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, political thriller, cynical, fast, independent film, eurospy
Similar in 76%
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 88%
Who's Got the Black Box? (1967)
Plot Summary:
The widow of a murdered undercover NATO officer in Greece is the prime suspect in his killing. She finds herself embroiled in a bigger conspiracy about the sabotage of U.S. radar installations while trying to prove her innocence.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 582
Genere: Thriller
Country: France, Italy, Greece
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, eurospy
Similar in 89%
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
Similar in 75%
The Double Man (1967)
Plot Summary:
In a complex piece of espionage the Russian secret service attempts to kidnap a high ranking officer in the CIA and replace him with a double of its own.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: retro, political thriller, grindhouse, exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, eurospy
Similar in 82%
Icon (2005)
Plot Summary:
A former US Operative, who lived in Russia in his earlier years and had been married there with a child, comes out of retirement to face down a former enemy, now running as a candidate for President in modern Russia. Working with a Russian policewoman, they work to uncover a plot to use biological weapons against certain factions of the Russian people to commit genocide. The virus would also be released in other populations, but would be treated making the candidate a hero. A side plot has the agent being reunited with his long lost daughter.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 190 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, suspense
Similar in 75%
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 83%
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 81%
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 82%
A Perfect Spy (1987)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of Magnus Pym, from his childhood to the end of his career in middle age. As a young man, there is little doubt that his father Rick was the most influential character in his life. Rick was a raconteur, con man, thief, black marketer and all in all, simply larger than life. From a young age, Rick included Magnus in his schemes and the young man learned that you would do anything for the ones you love. When a university student in Switzerland, Pym meets the other person who will have the greatest influence in his life, Axel, a Czech refugee. As Pym enters his career in the British Secret Service, his relationship with Axel and the values he developed in childhood lead him down his own path of betrayal and loyalty.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 982
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 374 min
Plot tags: political, psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 88%
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 87%
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 79%
Half Moon Street (1986)
Plot Summary:
Dr. Lauren Slaughter, a research fellow at the Arab-Anglo Institute in London is utterly frustrated by her job. To supplement her income, she starts moonlighting at the Jasmine Escort Service, where she has more control over men and money than she does at the office. On one of her 'dates', Lauren meets the politician Lord Bulbeck who is trying to mediate a peace accord between the Arabs and Israelis. Bulbeck falls in love with his escort, and unwittingly, Lauren becomes a pawn in some very dirty politics.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: political thriller, psychological, serious, realistic, suspense, independent film, sexual, erotic, light, romantic
Similar in 82%
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 82%
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 79%
The Enemy Within (1994)
Plot Summary:
Colonel Casey discovers what appears to be plans by General Lloyd to use fake military excercises to assist Jack Giddings in his plans to remove President Foster from office. Colonel Casey, and President Foster must find evidence that there is a coup planned and stop it, before it takes place. Unfortunately, there isn't much time.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic, political thriller
Similar in 86%
Farewell (2009)
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
Similar in 87%
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 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 80%
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 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