# What is the best secret agent movie of all time?

> From suave Bond classics and gripping Cold War thrillers to gritty modern assassins and stylized female operatives, spy cinema spans decades of intrigue. Who gets the mission?

*By YPB Team · Published April 8, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-secret-agent-movie-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Goldfinger**
   Often considered the definitive James Bond film, the 1964 Sean Connery classic set the gold standard for spy cinema.
2. **Casino Royale**
   Daniel Craig's 2006 Bond reboot strips 007 back to basics with raw action, emotional depth, and a thrilling poker showdown.
3. **The Bourne Identity**
   Matt Damon redefined the action spy film in 2002 as amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne, with gritty realism and hand-to-hand combat.
4. **Mission: Impossible – Fallout**
   Tom Cruise delivers jaw-dropping practical stunts in this 2018 peak of the Mission: Impossible franchise.
5. **Skyfall**
   The 50th anniversary Bond film in 2012 — directed by Sam Mendes — is widely considered one of the best in the franchise's history.
6. **North by Northwest**
   Cary Grant is mistaken for a government agent and chased across America by spies in Hitchcock's iconic 1959 thriller.
7. **Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy**
   Gary Oldman delivers a masterful performance as a retired intelligence chief hunting a Soviet mole inside MI6 in this 2011 cold war thriller.
8. **Bridge of Spies**
   Tom Hanks plays a lawyer recruited by the CIA to negotiate the release of U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers in this 2015 Spielberg film.
9. **Three Days of the Condor**
   Robert Redford plays a CIA researcher who returns from lunch to find all his colleagues dead in this 1975 Cold War paranoia classic.
10. **Atomic Blonde**
   Charlize Theron stars as a lethal MI6 agent navigating the chaos of the Berlin Wall's fall in this stylized 2017 action thriller.
11. **La Femme Nikita**
   Luc Besson's 1990 French thriller follows a young woman trained as an assassin who struggles to maintain a normal life.
12. **Munich**
   Steven Spielberg's gripping 2005 drama follows the covert Israeli team tasked with hunting down the organizers of the 1972 Olympic massacre.

Tags: movies, action, thriller, spy