Highest-Rated Movies about 'Covert Operations'

Army of Shadows (1969), Zero Days (2016), The Gatekeepers (2012), The Trials of Henry Kissinger (2002), Dirty Wars (2013), My Enemy's Enemy (2007), The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008), Missile (1988) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Covert Operations movies.

#16. The Good Shepherd (2006)

Storyline: Laconic and self-contained, Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) heads C.I.A. covert operations during the Bay of Pigs. The agency suspects that Fidel Castro was tipped, so Wilson looks for the leak. As he investigates, he recalls, in a series of flashbacks, his father's death, student days at Yale (poetry; Skull and Bones), recruitment into the fledgling O.S.S., truncated affairs, a shotgun marriage, cutting his teeth on spy craft in London, distance from his son, the emergence of the Cold War, and relationships with agency, British, and Soviet counterparts. We watch his idealism give way to something else: disclosing the nature of that something else is at the heart of this movie's narration as he closes in on the leak.

Plot Keywords: spy, cold war, historical, drama, thriller, angelina jolie, espionage ...

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#17. Defence of the Realm (1985)

Storyline: 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.—Matthew Stanfield <mattst@cogs.susx.ac.uk>

Plot Keywords: political thriller, investigative journalism, cold war, government conspiracy, british film, 1980s, espionage ...

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#18. Charlotte Gray (2001)

Storyline: Charlotte (Cate Blanchett), a young Scottish woman, who has studied in France, is living in London during World War II. Within a few weeks she falls in love with a young pilot and is recruited by the Secret Service to act as a courier for the French Resistance. However, her mission behind enemy lines becomes a personal mission to find her lover who has been shot down. Assigned to a Communist Resistance group, she encounters acts of betrayal from sometimes unexpected sources, but meets the violence of war and her own disappointment with hope.—<johnno.r@xtra.co.nz>

Plot Keywords: war, world war ii, france, resistance, spy, romance, history ...

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#19. Secrets of State (2008)

Storyline: In France, terrorist groups and intelligence agencies battle in a merciless war everyday, in the name of radically opposed ideologies. Yet, terrorist and secret agents lead almost the same lives. Condemned to secrecy, these masters of manipulation follow the same methods. Alex and Al Barad are two of them. The former is the head of the D.G.S.E.'s (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, the French equivalent of the CIA or the MI6) counter-terrorism unit while the latter reigns over a terrorist network, and both fight using the most ruthless of weapons: human beings. Secret Défense (aka Secrets Of State) tells of their secret war through the destinies of Diane, a student recruited by the French secret service, and Pierre, a troubled young man who thinks terrorism will bring him salvation. Trained and indoctrinated for missions which are beyond them, they are both drawn into a chain of events from which they seem incapable of escaping. While they both be sacrificed in the name of their "noble" causes?—Happy_Evil_Dude

Plot Keywords: political thriller, spy, conspiracy, government corruption, international relations, covert operations, power struggle ...

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#20. They Came to Blow Up America (1943)

Storyline: Because of his German parentage, government agent Carl Steelman is assigned to by his chief, Craig, to join the Nazi Bund, to obtain information on the underground activities of the group. Steelman is welcomed and becomes a trusted member of the group. His father, Julius Steelman, unaware of this son's real mission, drives him from their home. The government agents raid a Bund meeting and Steelman assumes the identity of one of the members who was about to depart to Germany for training. In Berlin, Steelman meets and falls in love with Helga Lorenz, a member of the German underground. In order to hide his true identity and complete his mission, Steelman has to betray the girl to the Gestapo, but later manages to rescue her and see her safely on her way to England. Frau Reiter, wife of the man whose identity Steelman has assumed, threatens to turn him over to the police. He convinces the Gestapo that she is crazy and she is confined to an insane asylum. His training completed, Steelman is sent to America, via submarine, in charge of a group of eight saboteurs. Before they depart the sub, off the Long Island coast, Steelman plants a time-bomb in the sub.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: war, world war ii, espionage, nazis, america, sabotage, history ...

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#21. Wintertime (1943)

Storyline: Nora and her uncle get railroaded into spending the night at a broken-down hotel in Canada. After Nora falls for the handsome owner, she convinces her uncle to invest in the inn and modernize it. After the hotel opens, Nora's uncle faces financial ruin and her romance hit a snag in the form of pretty reporter.—Daniel Bubbeo <dbubbeo@cmp.com>

Plot Keywords: war, history, world war ii, norway, nazis, occupation, winter ...

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#22. Backstabbing for Beginners (2018)

Storyline: In October 2002, twenty-four year old Michael Sullivan moves from a job in lobbying to one in the diplomatic corps at the UN, he getting the job despite he feeling the interview having gone badly. He comes from a family of diplomats with both his father and his older sister having served - the former who was killed in 1983 in the US Embassy bombing in Beirut - and thus feels it is in his blood, his hope to make some difference in the world. He is assigned to be the assistant to Costa Pasaris - Pasha - the Undersecretary to the Oil for Food program, the largest ever humanitarian program in the organization. The program is to have Iraqi oil sold at market value with no proceeds going to the regime of Saddam Hussein, in exchange for food and medicine to the Iraqi populace who have suffered under that regime in Hussein filling his own coffers instead. Pasha quickly begins to see Michael as a trusted and valuable aide for the program, particularly against naysayers, especially internal ones such as the Field Director in Iraq, Christina Dupre, who believes the program is rampant with corruption. Michael does sees signs of corruption within the program while in Baghdad, such as the hospitals and medical clinics in Iraq being provided expired and thus useless medications. But it isn't until he begins to trust his Iraqi interpreter, Nashim Hussani, that he begins to believe that there are bigger issues at play, including the fate of his predecessor, who he knows was killed in a car accident, but who Nashim implies was murdered for information he possessed about the program. Michael has to decide who to trust with conflicting information from Nashim and Pasha. When Michael finally comes to the realization of what is happening, he has to decide how best to exact justice and change regardless of the repercussions on his diplomatic career.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: political thriller, conspiracy, corruption, international politics, based on true events, united nations, power struggle ...

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#24. Topaz (1969)

Storyline: A high ranking Russian official defects to the U.S., where he is interviewed by U.S. Agent Michael Nordstrom. The defector reveals that a French spy ring codenamed "Topaz" has been passing N.A.T.O. secrets to the Russians. Michael calls in his French friend and counterpart Andre Devereaux to expose the spies.

Plot Keywords: spy, cold war, political thriller, alfred hitchcock, 1960s, france, usa ...

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#25. The Whistle Blower (1987)

Storyline: Twenty-eight-year-old idealist Bob Jones is contemplating leaving his position as a Russian translator at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) as those at the top have issued a new whistle blowing policy, encouraging employees to report any suspicious behavior, in light of the highly publicized case of Ramsay Dodgson, a Soviet spy who was working undetected in the organization for ten years before being caught. Bob does not like the idea of being at the mercy of work colleagues, most, like Dodgson, who he did and does not know. In private, he confides to his father, widowed businessman and retired Navy officer Frank Jones, that part of his want to leave the job, which also entails eavesdropping on private conversations between Soviet officials on a multitude of everyday topics, is that he believes the British, and by association Americans, are just as corrupt as the Russians in how they infiltrate institutions most of the public see as commonplace, this belief to which conservative, patriotic Frank takes offense. After a specific incident, Bob wants to use that whistle blowing policy to report against the operations of the GCHQ, but not knowing to whom. Shortly thereafter, Frank learns that Bob has died from an apparent fall off of his building roof. Frank begins to think that Bob's death was not an accident, but has something to do with whatever Bob was planning on exposing. Knowing no one in high places, Frank, with Bob's girlfriend Cynthia Goodburn helping, goes on a mission of discovery, at his own peril, to find out why his son was killed, which may forever change his view of what he has believed in all his life.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: political thriller, espionage, cold war, british film, based on true events, government corruption, national security ...

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#26. American Assassin (2017)

Storyline: Twenty three-year-old Mitch lost his parents to a tragic car accident at the age of fourteen, and his girlfriend to a terrorist attack just as they were engaged. Seeking revenge, he is enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy as a black ops recruit. Kennedy then assigns Cold War veteran Stan Hurley to train Mitch. Together they will later on investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on military and civilian targets. The discovery of a pattern in the violence leads them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent to stop a mysterious operative intent on starting a world war in the Middle East.

Plot Keywords: action, thriller, spy, revenge, counter-terrorism, military, agent ...

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#27. Captive State (2019)

Storyline: Nearly a decade after occupation by an extraterrestrial force, the lives of a Chicago neighborhood on both sides of the conflict are explored. In a working-class Chicago neighborhood occupied by an alien force for nine years, increased surveillance and the restriction of civil rights have given rise to an authoritarian system - and dissent among the populace.—yusufpiskin

Plot Keywords: sci-fi, thriller, alien, resistance, dystopian, futuristic, government conspiracy ...

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#28. The Killer Elite (1975)

Storyline: Mike Locken is one of the principal members of a group of freelance spies. A significant portion of their work is for the C.I.A. and while on a case for them, one of his friends turns on him and shoots him in the elbow and knee. His assignment, to protect someone, goes down in flames. He is nearly crippled, but with braces is able to again become mobile. For revenge as much as anything else, Mike goes after his ex-friend.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

Plot Keywords: action, adventure, thriller, crime, mercenaries, assassination, revenge ...

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#29. The 49th Man (1953)

Storyline: U.S.Security Investigation Division chief Paul Reagan (Richard Denning) assigns John Williams (John Ireland) to hunt down a subversive group that has been smuggling A-bomb parts into the United States in specially designed cases. Williams traces the ring to Marseilles, France, where he meets Margo Wayne (Suzanne Dalbert) at a waterfront café and discovers she is part of the plot. When recalled by Reagan, Williams is informed that he has been engaged in a "war games" security check to test America's atomic defense, but he proves to Reagan that enemy agents are actually using the "war games" as a front to smuggle an A-bomb into the country.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: spy, cold war, nuclear weapons, military, covert operations, mystery, thriller ...

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#30. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

Storyline: The turtles find out where the Ooze, the substance which made them mutate, came from. Unfortunately Shredder learns about it too, and uses it to enhance himself. So the turtles have to prove again who's the better ninja fighter.

Plot Keywords: action, adventure, comedy, sci-fi, superhero, brotherhood, villain ...

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