Highest-Rated Movies about 'Cold War'

The Lives of Others (2006), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Z (1969), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), North by Northwest (1959), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Shutter Island (2010) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Cold War movies.

#16. The Right Stuff (1983)

Storyline: Tom Wolfe's book on the history of the U.S. Space program reads like a novel, and the film has that same fictional quality. It covers the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager to the Mercury 7 astronauts, showing that no one had a clue how to run a space program or how to select people to be in it. Thrilling, funny, charming and electrifying all at once.

Plot Keywords: astronaut, nasa, interview, hypodermic needle, houston texas, heroism, german american ...

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#17. October Sky (1999)

Storyline: In a 1950's mining town called Coalwood, Homer Hickam is a kid with only one future in sight, to work in the local coal mine like his father. However in October 1957, everything changes when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik goes into orbit. With that event, Homer becomes inspired to learn how to build rockets. With his friends and the local nerd, Homer sets to do just that by trial and a lot of error. Unfortunately, most of the town and especially Homer's father thinks that they are wasting their time. Only one teacher in the high school understands their efforts and lets them know that they could become contenders in the national science fair with college scholarships being the prize. Now the gang must learn to perfect their craft and overcome the many problems facing them as they shoot for the stars.

Plot Keywords: scientist, geek, drunkenness, death, marching band, football coach, coach ...

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#18. State of Siege (1972)

Storyline: In Uruguay in the early 1970s, an official of the US Agency for International Development (a group used as a front for training foreign police in counterinsurgency methods) is kidnapped by a group of urban guerillas. Using his interrogation as a backdrop, the film explores the often brutal consequences of the struggle between Uruguay's government and the leftist Tupamaro guerillas.—Erich Schneider <erich@alumni.caltech.edu>

Plot Keywords: torture, cold war, coup d'etat, martial law, male nudity, politics, guerilla ...

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#19. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Storyline: Dr. Miles Bennell returns to his small town practice to find several of his patients suffering the paranoid delusion that their friends or relatives are impostors. He is initially skeptical, especially when the alleged doppelgangers are able to answer detailed questions about their victim's lives, but he is eventually persuaded that something odd has happened and determines to find out what is causing this phenomenon.

Plot Keywords: alien invasion, surprise ending, told in flashback, carrying someone, pitchfork, doppelganger, flare ...

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#20. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Storyline: Travelling with mind-boggling speed, a gleaming unidentified flying object zooming in from the boundless deep space, penetrates the Earth's atmosphere, landing smoothly in Cold War-Washington, D.C. Encircled by large yet feeble military forces, the peaceful intergalactic ambassador, Klaatu, emerges from the mysterious vessel accompanied by the silently dangerous robot of incomprehensible power, Gort, only to witness firsthand the earthlings' hospitality. The sophisticated humanoid declares that he comes in peace; however, he needs to assemble the world's greatest minds to hear his merciful warning and a definitive ultimatum. Is Klaatu the messenger of humanity's doom?

Plot Keywords: robot, alien contact, military, scientist, christ allegory, ultimatum, single mother ...

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#21. X: First Class (2011)

Storyline: Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-MEN.

Plot Keywords: female spy, strip club, stripper, year 1944, year 1962, professor, vigilante ...

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#22. Pickup on South Street (1953)

Storyline: On a crowded subway, Skip McCoy picks the purse of Candy. Among his take, although he does not know it at the time, is a piece of top-secret microfilm that was being passed by Candy's consort, a Communist agent. Candy discovers the whereabouts of the film through Moe Williams, a police informer. She attempts to seduce McCoy to recover the film. She fails to get back the film and falls in love with him. The desperate agent exterminates Moe and savagely beats Candy. McCoy, now goaded into action, confronts the agent in a particularly brutal fight in a subway.

Plot Keywords: thief, grifter, gun, hammock, hospital, men's toilet, newspaper ...

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#23. Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press (1996)

Storyline: The profile of controversial journalist George Seldes and a piercing examination of America's news media. Narrated by Susan Sarandon, with readings of writings by Ed Asner, this Academy Award-nominated film includes stunning archival materials.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: infiltration, fascism, brutality, assassination, scandal, expulsion, political repression ...

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#24. Advise and Consent (1962)

Storyline: Robert Leffingwell is the president's nominee for Secretary of State. Prior to his approval, he must go through a Senate investigation to determine if he's qualified. Leading the Senate committee is idealistic Senator Brig Anderson, who soon finds himself unprepared for the opposition and political dirt that's revealed, including Leffingwell's past affiliations with a Communist organization. When Leffingwell testifies about his political leanings, he proves his innocence. Later, however, Anderson learns that he lied under oath and asks the president to withdraw Leffingwell from consideration, especially after the young senator and his wife begins receiving blackmail threats about a skeleton in his own closet.—Daniel Bubbeo <dbubbeo@cmp.com>

Plot Keywords: gay bar, washington d.c., newsboy, black maid, reference to george washington, cafeteria, oval office ...

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#25. Cold War (2018)

Storyline: A passionate love story between two people of different backgrounds and temperaments, who are fatefully mismatched and yet condemned to each other. Set against the background of the Cold War in the 1950s in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris, the film depicts an impossible love story in impossible times.

Plot Keywords: suicide pact, suicide, cold war, 1950s, poet, concert, marriage ...

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#26. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965)

Storyline: Alec Leamas (Richard Burton), a British spy, is sent to East Germany, supposedly to defect, but in fact to sow disinformation. As more plot turns appear, Leamas becomes more convinced that his own people see him as just a cog. His struggle back from dehumanization becomes the final focus of the story.

Plot Keywords: east germany, double agent, cold war, british intelligence, based on novel, berlin wall, double cross ...

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#27. Bridge of Spies (2015)

Storyline: In the cold war, a lawyer, James B. Donovan is recruited by the CIA and involved in an intense negotiation mission to release and exchange a CIA U-2 spy-plane pilot, Francis G. Powers. The pilot was arrested alive after his plane was shot down by the Soviet Union during a mission and stays in the company of a KGB intelligence officer, Rudolf Abel, who was arrested for espionage in the US.

Plot Keywords: lawyer, negotiation, cold war, berlin wall, berlin germany, spying, border crossing ...

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#28. Watchmen (2009)

Storyline: In a gritty and alternate 1985 the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown, but after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered an investigation into the killer is initiated. The reunited heroes set out to prevent their own destruction, but in doing so discover a deeper and far more diabolical plot.

Plot Keywords: rape, masked vigilante, conspiracy, nihilist, false promise of the american dream, female rear nudity, female nudity ...

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#29. The Abyss (1989)

Storyline: Formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some issues to work out. They are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on Earth.

Plot Keywords: submarine, alien, estranged couple, drowning, pantyhose, ocean, sea ...

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#30. Lord of War (2005)

Storyline: This movie charts the rise and fall of Yuri Orlov, from his early days in the early 1980s in Little Odessa, selling guns to mobsters in his local neighborhood, through to his ascension through the decade of excess and indulgence into the early 1990s, where he forms a business partnership with an African warlord and his psychotic son. This movie also charts his relationship through the years with his younger brother, his marriage to a famous model, his relentless pursuit by a determined INTERPOL Agent and his inner demons that sway between his drive for success and the immorality of what he does.

Plot Keywords: arms dealer, prostitution, sex standing up, government agent, helicopter, husband wife relationship, interrogation ...

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