Highest-Rated Movies about 'Defection', Sort by Popularity

Citizenfour (2014), Crossing the Line (2006), The Hunt for Red October (1990), A Most Wanted Man (2014), The Living Daylights (1987), Torn Curtain (1966), The White Crow (2018), Moscow on the Hudson (1984) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Defection movies.

#1. Citizenfour (2014)

Storyline: In January 2013, Laura Poitras started receiving anonymous encrypted e-mails from "CITIZENFOUR," who claimed to have evidence of illegal covert surveillance programs run by the NSA in collaboration with other intelligence agencies worldwide. Five months later, she and reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The resulting film is history unfolding before our eyes.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: reporter, hacker, fugitive, defector, government official, director, brooding ...

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#2. Crossing the Line (2006)

Storyline: With Americans on all sides of the issue up in arms and Congress embroiled in a knock-down-drag-out policy battle over how to move forward, CROSSING ARIZONA tells the story of how we got to where we are today. Heightened security in California and Texas has pushed illegal border-crossers into the treacherous Arizona desert in unprecedented numbers - an estimated 4,500 a day. Most are Mexican men in search of work, but increasingly the border-crossers are women and children seeking to reunite with their husbands and fathers. This influx of migrants crossing through Arizona and the attendant rising death toll have elicited complicated feelings about human rights, culture, class, labor and national security. "Crossing Arizona" examines the crisis through the eyes of those directly affected by it. Frustrated ranchers go out day after day to repair cut fences and pick up the trash that endangers their livestock and livelihoods. Humanitarian groups place water stations in the desert in an attempt to save lives. Political activists rally against anti-migrant ballot initiatives and try to counter rampant fear mongering. Farmers who depend on the illegal work force face each day with the fear that they may lose their workers to a border patrol sweep. And now there are the Minutemen, an armed citizen patrol group taking border security into their own hands. As up-to-date as the nightly news, but far more in-depth, "Crossing Arizona" is an indispensable primer on what is already the most divisive issue of this election cycle.—Crossing AZ LLC

Plot Keywords: narrator, soldier, officer, government official, engaging, fascinating, uneasy ...

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#3. The Hunt for Red October (1990)

Storyline: The Soviets create a new nuclear submarine that runs silent due to a revolutionary propulsion system. The Russian sub Captain defects. His goal is taking it to the U.S. to prevent the Russians from using the sub to cause nuclear war against the U.S.

Plot Keywords: cia agent, captain, military officer, doctor, cia analyst, saboteur, engaging ...

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#4. A Most Wanted Man (2014)

Storyline: When a half-Chechen, half-Russian, brutally tortured immigrant turns up in Hamburg's Islamic community, laying claim to his father's ill gotten fortune, both German and US security agencies take a close interest: as the clock ticks down and the stakes rise, the race is on to establish this most wanted man's true identity - oppressed victim or destruction-bent extremist? Based on John le Carré's novel, A MOST WANTED MAN is a contemporary, cerebral tale of intrigue, love, rivalry, and politics that prickles with tension right through to its last heart-stopping scene.

Plot Keywords: spy, terrorist, government official, co-worker, civilian, muslim, brooding ...

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#5. The Living Daylights (1987)

Storyline: James Bond 007's mission is to firstly, organise the defection of a top Soviet general. When the general is re-captured, Bond heads off to find why an ally of General Koskov was sent to murder him. Bond's mission continues to take him to Afghanistan, where he must confront an arms dealer known as Brad Whitaker. Everything eventually reveals its self to Bond.

Plot Keywords: james bond, secret agent, assassin, sexy woman, kgb agent, commander, thrilling ...

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#6. Torn Curtain (1966)

Storyline: Professor Michael Armstrong is heading to Copenhagen, Denmark to attend a physics conference accompanied by his assistant and fiancée Sarah Sherman. Once arrived however, Michael informs her that he may be staying for awhile and she should return home. She follows him and realizes he's actually heading to East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain. She follows him there and is shocked when he announces that he's defecting to the East after the U.S. government cancelled his research project. In fact, Michael is there to obtain information from a renowned East German scientist. Once the information is obtained, he and Sarah now have to make their way back to the West.

Plot Keywords: spy, physicist, friend, communist, fiancé, fiancée, suspenseful ...

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#7. The White Crow (2018)

Storyline: Director Ralph Fiennes captures the raw physicality and brilliance of Rudolf Nureyev, whose escape to the West stunned the world at the height of the Cold War. With his magnetic presence, Nureyev emerged as ballet's most famous star, a wild and beautiful dancer limited by the world of 1950s Leningrad. His flirtation with Western artists and ideas led him into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse with the KGB.—Anonymous B

Plot Keywords: rudolf nureyev, dancer, engaging, intricate, ballet, cold war, defection ...

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#8. Moscow on the Hudson (1984)

Storyline: A Russian circus visits the US. A clown wants to defect, but doesn't have the nerve. His saxophone playing friend however comes to the decision to defect in the middle of Bloomingdales. He is befriended by the black security guard and falls in love with the Italian immigrant from behind the perfume counter. We follow his life as he works his way through the American dream and tries to find work as a musician.

Plot Keywords: russian, musician, employee, retail manager, friend, police officer, charming ...

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#9. The Executioner (1970)

Storyline: Explosive international intrigue results when British Intelligence Agent John Shay (George Peppard) suspects Adam Booth (Keith Michell), a colleague, of being a double-agent. Although Shay's superiors warn him against an investigation, he travels to Greece and Turkey in order to check out his suspicions. There, Shay becomes involved with the beautiful Sarah (Dame Joan Collins), who was once his lover, and is now Booth's wife. Before long, Shay realizes that he is being used as a Communist pawn, and has fallen into grave danger.—alfiehitchie

Plot Keywords: spy, secretary, double agent, wife, scientist, kgb agent, suspenseful ...

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#10. The Iron Curtain (1948)

Storyline: A clerk in the Soviet embassy in Canada after World War II, Igor Gouzenko (Dana Andrews) is increasingly troubled by his work for duplicitous government officials. Hoping to forge a better life for his wife, Anna (Gene Tierney), and their young son, Igor decides to defect. Though he's pursued by loyal Soviets who are charged with bringing him back to the Soviet Union, he provides Canadian officials with key documents detailing his government's underhanded efforts to obtain atomic bomb plans.

Plot Keywords: spy, russian, clerk, defector, government official, wife, rousing ...

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