Movies like the ones in the James Bond sequence never go out of style. It is a series of spy thrillers that have spanned the history of the cinematic world since 1962.
James Bond is a fictional character created by the author Ian Fleming; a British citizen working for the American intelligence MI6, Bond also answers to his code name 007.
The novels of Ian Fleming were adapted for the cinema screen and the first film in the series called Dr. No, was released in 1962. The latest movie in the James Bond sequence is all set to be released later this year.
Up till today, the James Bond franchise has released a total of 24 films under the banner, amassing a net amount of approximately $7 billion!
Throughout the film series, the character of James Bond has been played by several renowned actors including Sean Connery, David Nivel, Pierce Brosnan and most recently, Daniel Craig.
Undoubtedly, he has come out to be one of the most iconic characters of all times. With secret agents and espionage capers, the Bond movies have earned the reputation of superhero action blockbusters.
But, with so many movies down the list, the series have encompassed a number of clichés that inevitably spring up in the plot. To tone down the sameness, check out the following list of movies like James Bond, that are equally spectacular spy action-thrillers and the Bond fans are surely going to want to binge watch them over again.
Here Is He Best Movies Like James Bond:
Argo
Available on Amazon Prime
Argo is a 2012 historical drama and spy thriller, directed by Ben Affleck. Based on real events, the film follows the dangerous operation to rescue six Americans from militants during the Iranian Revolution.
Ben Affleck himself stars in the lead role of Tony Mendez, a CIA expert who must devise a plan that will safely extract the Americans before they are discovered. Under the guise of filming a science fiction feature during the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the film takes through a roller coaster ride full of adventure, action, drama and above all, some atypical spying sequences, that made the movie an instant success.
The movie was acclaimed both by the film critics and the audience alike. They highly praised it for direction, action sequences, fine details and complex portrayal of well-wrought characters, with interpolated bits of stark humor.
Performing commercially well, the film grossed about $232 million globally, making it one of the highest hitting in the American box office.
Atomic Blonde
Available on Amazon Prime
Adapted from a graphic novel titled ‘The Coldest City’, this movie first hit the screens in 2017. The film is a directorial venture of David Leitich and revolves around a spy, Lorraine Broughton,
who is to find a list of double agents, who are being smuggled to the West right before the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. She is plunged in the midst of the Cold War to discover who had murdered her colleague.
Perhaps Broughton, played by Charlize Theron, is the most badass reinvention of a spy after James Bond. With robust action scenes and thrilling performances, the movie did well commercially.
It grossed a total of $100 million world over. Critical consensus however, rested more on the negative side as they called the plot sequence astonishingly hollow, with scenes faintly resembling the ones in Bond movies.
Body of Lies
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Directed by Ridley Scott, this 2008 action thriller and drama, stars renowned actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe and Mark Strong in the main roles. The screenplay was adapted from a novel by David Ignatius, that goes by the same name.
It is set in the Middle East, and the plot traces efforts by the CIA and Jordanian Intelligence to catch a terrorist. The different approaches become a cause for strain in the relations between these counterparts, faintly highlighting the political tensions between Western and Arab societies.
The film shows the conflict between more technology-centered modern intelligence methods versus the traditional human-oriented approach.
Similar to movies like James Bond, Body of Lies is a good mix of striking visuals and fast-paced action shots. The film received mixed critical reviews, some of which called it unconvincing and conventional. However, it did commercially well grossing $115 million worldwide against a production budget of $70 million.
Farewell
Available on Amazon Prime
This 2009 espionage thriller is a must watch for fans of movies like James Bond. Based faintly on real events, the movie traces one of the most important espionage cases of the 20th century.
Set predominantly in Moscow, it tells the story of a Soviet spy who, disillusioned from the Soviet regime, starts to pass information and details of KGB operations across the West to a naïve French engineer. As the CIA enters the picture, an unfortunate chain of events begins.
Directed by Christian Carion, it stars two leading actor-directors, Guillaume Canet and Emir Kusturica. Throughout the action, the audience is intrigued and held curious, keeping them hooked from the beginning to the end. Indeed, this espionage drama, which performed excellently among the critics, is a story told with real panache.
Indiana Jones
Available on Amazon Prime
To choose the best action thriller from the Indiana Jones film series is a task of utter difficulty. Just as movies in the James Bond sequence, all the films in the Indiana Jones series feature wickedly cruel plot sequences that require traveling to exotic locations in order to defeat the villain.
Indiana Jones is a fictional professor of archaeology, who first appeared on screen with the 1981 film, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The series was created by George Lucas and the first four films were directed by Steven Spielberg. Indiana Jones is portrayed on-screen by the famous actor, Harrison Ford.
The movies received so much critical acclaim that it was adapted into a novel by various authors! Moreover, they topped commercial charts and proved to be a huge commercial success, with the four films collectively grossing approximately $2 billion worldwide!
Related: Movies Like Indiana Jones
Mission Impossible: Fallout
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This is the final film in the Mission Impossible film series that was released in 2018. The movie stars the celebrated actor Tom Cruise, among others and is a directorial venture of Christopher McQuarrie.
In the film, a group of terrorists plan to detonate three plutonium cores for a simultaneous nuclear attack on different cities. Ethan Hunt, played by Cruise, along with his IMF team, sets out to stop the carnage.
The film is undoubtedly the best and the most stunning one of the series and offers the same action spy thriller vibe as in other movies like James Bond.
It proved to be a massive success at the box office, grossing a whopping amount of $791.1 million globally. The film was welcomed with consensual critical acclaim, who praised the movie for McQuarrie’s direction, cast performances and for the brilliantly evolving plot.
North by Northwest
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This film is an action thriller and spy mystery, that was directed by the legendary director, Alfred Hitchcock. Starring popular actors such as Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, the film follows an innocent New York City ad-executive, as he finds himself on the run for his life.
His identity has been mistaken, when some very dangerous international spies confuse him for a government agent and try to prevent him from blocking their plan to smuggle microfilm, which contains government secrets.
Critics welcomed the film with positive appraisal. Some magazines even labelled it as Hitchcock’s finest work. The dashing actress, Cary Grant won the screen critics with her fine acting skills that made the movie a thrilling and entertaining experience to watch, just as spy thriller movies like James Bond.
Spy Game
Available on Amazon Prime
There are reasons enough to watch this movie, but none is bigger than the fact that it stars Brad Pitt. This 2001 film is a spy thriller directed by Tony Scott and revolves around the relationship between two generations of spies – an older retiring spy, Nathan, played by Robert Redford and his protégé, Tom Bishop, played by Pitt.
In a profession fraught with danger and uncertainty, the two spies forge an uncommonly close friendship based on mutual respect and affection.
But this is a thing of the past. Now, on the brink of his retirement from the agency, Nathan learns that Bishop has gone rogue. His one-time protégé has been jailed in Beijing on espionage charges, after he attempts to break a prisoner out of China.
As the agency decides Bishop is expendable, Nathan puts aside past conflicts and attempts to save him in a 24-hour window. He takes on his most dangerous ‘personal’ mission ever. The machinations of power and Redford’s attempts to manipulate them to his advantage make the movie a thrilling and entertaining watch.
Receiving positive reviews from the critics and audience alike, the film went on to gross $143 million worldwide, making it a huge commercial success.
The Day of the Jackal
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It is a British-French political thriller directed by Fred Zinnemann, that was released in 1973. The screenplay is based on the novel authored by Frederick Forsyth. It tells the story of an accomplished and professional assassin, known as Jackal.
He is hired by a French paramilitary group to assassinate the French President Charles De Gaulle. The plot follows his meticulous preparation for the same, in tandem with the police investigation trying to identify and prevent him from doing so.
The film became a massive critical success and won the BAFTA Award for Best Editing among other prestigious awards and award nominations. It grossed $16 million at the box office and it was also ranked the 74th Greatest British Film of the 20th century.
The Ipcress File
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Premiered in 1965, The Ipcress File is an espionage thriller that was released during the height of the James Bond fame in the 60s. However, rather than trying to be ‘another’ Bond movie, this film attempts to be one of its kind. Michael Caine plays the protagonist, a spy named Harry Palmer.
This spy, unlike Bond, has to struggle with bureaucracy and leads a far less exotic life that includes supermarket shopping and making omelets. The plot gains momentum when the famous scientist Dr. Radcliffe is abducted and his security guard is killed, Harry Palmer steps in to investigate the case and rescue the victim.
It was well received critically and went on to win the BAFTA Award for the Best British Film. It was valiantly labelled as an “anti-Bond” film, for retaining originality and eschewing imitations.
Fans of movies like James Bond would want to watch it for this very reason. Featuring a fantastic and outlasting performance by Caine and a gripping plot that includes a brainwashing scandal and a kidnapped scientist, makes the film certainly worth a watch.
The Lives of Others
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The Academy award-winning film is one of the movies like James Bond that takes suspense and action to a new level. The film, which hit the big screens in 2006, marked the feature film debut of the director, Florian Henckel. It follows the story of a Stasi officer spying on a dissident playwright and his actress lover.
The film won an Oscar and is considered to paint a very authentic picture of life in East Germany. This secretive and suspenseful world featuring the large network of citizens turned informants highlights the difficulties of remaining true to oneself in such circumstances.
As soon as the film was released, it was quick to gain a cult following, as well as mainstream attention. It was received with widespread acclaim from the critics alike. Consequently, it won several prestigious awards including the Academy award for the Best Foreign Language Film.
The Quiet American
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The Quiet American is a 2002 cinematic adaptation of Graham Greene’s bestselling novel set in Vietnam, that goes by the same name. A British journalist meets a supposed U.S. medical worker in Saigon, leading to a love triangle involving a young Vietnamese woman.
However, beneath the romantic plot, lurks a story of espionage and double-dealing as the CIA tries to influence a local policy.
The story’s rich details are influenced by Greene’s career as a correspondent and as an agent. However, unlike Greene’s novel, the film ends with a montage of superimposed images of American soldiers from the intervening decades of the Vietnam War.
For this film, the actor playing the main role, Michael Caine was nominated for the Academy Award for the Best Actor. It bagged generally favorable reviews from the critics and also qualified for entry in the Oscars.
Three Days of the Condor
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Directed by Sydney Pollack, this 1975 political spy thriller came out with a cinematic aplomb in the 70s. The protagonists, Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway, were two of the most sought-after Hollywood stars in the 70s, and this exciting film brings them together in good old James Bond fashion – only with a lot more action and a whole lot of mystery.
A lowly CIA researcher is plunged into a highly operative role while trying to escape the clutches of the Agency. One day, Redford returns from lunch to his New York office to find all his co-workers dead. He soon realizes that he is also a target and kidnaps a civilian – the beautiful Faye Dunaway – in a desperate ploy to overtake the culprit and also stay alive in the process.
The film won several awards and received Academy award nominations, especially for the actors’ performances. The critical reviews were favorably positive. Some viewed it as a severe case of political propaganda, while others praised the overt complexity of the plot. The film grossed an amount of $8.9 million in North America.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
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This spy thriller movie, which is directed by Tomas Alfredson, is set in the times of the Cold War. It was adapted from the celebrated novel of the same name authored by John Le Carré. The movie follows George Smiley, played by Gary Oldman, a former British spy who is rehired by the UK Government to investigate and uncover a double agent in MI6.
This film, unlike purely spy action movies like James Bond, eschews high-tech gadgets and stunt-heavy action sequences to focus instead, on the psychological drama of spying.
The film was a massive critical and commercial success and went on to win several awards of prestige, including the BAFTA Award for Best British Film. It also received three Oscar nominations. Besides, it remained the highest-grossing film for three consecutive weeks at the British box office.
Zero Dark Thirty
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Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar-winning film, Zero Dark Thirty tells the fictionalized story of the post 9/11, ten-year search and ultimate killing of Osama Bin Laden by US special operatives.
Releasing in 2012, this detective thriller met with much controversy for its positive portrayal of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,’ or its pro-torture propaganda. Further, questions were also raised about the CIA’s cooperation with the filmmakers and their influence on the script.
Nevertheless, the film managed to gain critical appraisal and commercial success, grossing $132 million globally. The film received five Academy award nominations and four Golden Globe nominations. It won several other prestigious awards for acting, direction and screenplay. Certain critics however, called the plot historically inaccurate and the controversial portrayal of classified information.
Conclusion:
Watching spy thrillers is always a fun-filled and entertaining experience. While movies of the James Bond sequence, throne the genre of spy action thrillers, other similar movies like James Bond are no less when it comes to leaving the viewers curious about spying adventures. So, buckle up your detective thinking caps and spying equipment as these brilliant pieces of cinema toll you through the journey of suspense, action, romance, and unraveling of lots of spying secrets.