Secret missions. A dash of romance. International intrigue. What’s not to like? These 15 spy movies will keep you on the edge of your seat and they’re perfect for a romantic date night.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) sees Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) battle The Syndicate. Sparks fly when he meets mesmerizing MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) who is every bit Hunt’s match. The Swedish actress returns in Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)- one of the best action movies ever - so why not stream both? (Netflix, Google Play, YouTube, Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV)
Casablanca
Although Casablanca was an A-list film with an incredible cast including Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, no one expected it to stand out among the hundreds of pictures produced by Hollywood in 1942. Casablanca was rushed into release to take advantage of the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier. The rest is history. Here's looking at you, kid. (Prime Video)
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Secret missions. A dash of romance. International intrigue. What’s not to like? These 15 spy movies will keep you on the edge of your seat and they’re perfect for a romantic date night.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) sees Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) battle The Syndicate. Sparks fly when he meets mesmerizing MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) who is every bit Hunt’s match. The Swedish actress returns in Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)- one of the best action movies ever - so why not stream both? (Netflix, Google Play, YouTube, Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV)
Casablanca
Although Casablanca was an A-list film with an incredible cast including Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, no one expected it to stand out among the hundreds of pictures produced by Hollywood in 1942. Casablanca was rushed into release to take advantage of the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier. The rest is history. Here's looking at you, kid. (Prime Video)
Actress Tang Wei and Tony Chiu-Wai Leung in the award-winning Lust, Caution
Lust, Caution (2007)
WWII spy (Tang Wei) must seduce and kill an official (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai. Instead, she falls in love. Lust, Caution is tense, sensual, and beautifully shot. Ang Lee won a Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival for his erotic thriller, his second win after Brokeback Mountain (another must-stream movie). (Netflix, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft)
Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas
The English Patient (1996)
Ralph Fiennes plays Hungarian cartographer Count László de Almásy in The English Patient, a complex, powerful, and moving story told through flashbacks. The Count is injured, war is raging, and as the Count recuperates we learn slowly about his past life, love affair, and a nest of spies. The English Patientwon nine Oscars, including Best Picture. (Google Play, YouTube, Prime Video, Vudu, Apple TV)
Cold War (2018)
If you only stream one foreign language film this year, let it be Cold War. Critic Roger Ebert describes it as: “An aching film on such exquisite pains of impossible love, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War concurrently swells your heart and breaks it, just like the sore memory of a lover that drifted away from your life, or an intensely craved kiss that never was.” (Prime Video, Netflix in some countries)
Atomic Blonde (2017) with Charlize Theron and Sofia Boutella
Atomic Blonde (2017)
An undercover British MI6 agent meets a French spy on a mission to Berlin during the Cold War. Actress Charlize Theron's character has a memorable entanglement when she's not stirring up trouble. (Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
There’s a lot of romance in the Marvel universe -Hawkeye and Laura Barton, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, and let’s not forget Peter Parker & MJ. We’re also rooting for SHIELD secret agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) who believed in Steve (Chris Evans) from the start of his journey. Will true love be enough though? Avengers: Endgame has the answer. (Disney+, Hulu, Google Play, Prime Video, Apple TV)
Carice van Houten plays a Jewish singer in the WWII thriller The Black Book
The Black Book (2006)
Carice van Houten (formerly of Game of Thrones) stars as a Jewish singer who infiltrates the Gestapo HQ for the Dutch resistance. She is ordered to seduce an officer (Sebastian Koch) but soon fears she is falling for the enemy. (Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu, Apple TV, Microsoft)
The Emperor and the Assassin (1998) starring actress Gong Li
The Emperor and the Assassin (1998)
Set in the 3rd century, The Emperor and the Assassin is the story of Ying Zheng and his concubine Zhao. She travels as a spy to Han with plans to manipulate the king but finds herself… Yep, you guessed it. She’s falling in love instead. Despite the well-tread plotline, The Emperor and the Assassin benefits from a brilliantly crafted set of interlocking stories and a knock-out production design. (Vudu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV)
No Way Out (1987) is a stylish, sexy thriller about the hunt for a murderer and a Russian mole. Kevin Costner is dashing Navy Lt. Tom Farrell who has a passionate fling with Susan Atwell (Sean Young) but discovers she’s involved with his boss, Defense Secretary David Brice (Gene Hackman). (Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft, Apple TV, Vudu)
Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in Knight & Day
Knight & Day (2010)
Following the success of Jerry Maguire and Vanilla Sky, Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz reunite in Knight & Day (2010), a breezy, rom-com espionage film that works extremely well despite its flimsy premise. Cruise is a rogue CIA agent. Diaz is his unwitting accomplice. Together, they try to right the world’s wrongs as the body count rises. It’s a fun romp with two actors at their most charming. Don’t think too hard. Just enjoy!
Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard in Allied (2016)
Allied (2016)
During a 1942 mission in Casablanca, a Canadian spy falls in love, hoping to start a new life with a French resistance fighter but neither may be the person they appear to be in Allied. Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard star in this beautiful WWII period piece. (Netflix, Apple TV, Prime Movies, Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft, Vudu)
Is ex-CIA officer (Laurence Fishburne) sleeping with his boss (Ellen Barkin) or the enemy?
Bad Company (1995)
Sparks fly between Ellen Barkin and Laurence Fishburne in Bad Company, a dark, romantic thriller dubbed the ‘thinking man’s Grisham film’. Ex-CIA operative Nelson Crowe (Fishburne) leaves the Agency under suspicious circumstances. Margaret Well (Barkin) plans to take over their company no matter what it takes. (Disney+, GooglePlay, Prime Video, YouTube, Apple TV, Vudu, Microsoft)
Arnold Schwarzenegger is an undercover spy trying to save his marriage in True Lies
True Lies (1994)
The Terminator director James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger team up for this spy romance with a comedic twist. True Liesrevolves around Harry, a secret agent who fears his wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) is having an affair with a used-car salesman, and he sets out to save his marriage and the world. Curtis’ ‘little black dress’ moment is a classic. A True Lies reboot is in the works. (Prime Video)
Actress Eva Green as Vesper Lynd haunts Bond
Casino Royale (2006)
007 has been seducing the ladies since 1962 but he finally meets his match in the lovely Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). It is a romance - and a betrayal - that almost breaks James Bond and continues haunting him right up to No Time to Die (2021). All of the Bond movies are worthy of streaming of course, but Casino Royale (2006) has a special place in 007 film history. (Netflix, Apple TV, Prime Movies, YouTube, Google Play, Microsoft, Vudu)
HONORABLE MENTION
Butterfly (1993)
French diplomat René Gallimard (Jeremy Irons) is settling in to his new post in Beijing when he becomes attracted to an opera singer, Song Liling (John Lone). The two begin a relationship, but there is much about Song that Gallimard is still to discover - including that that Gallimard's lover is not what she seems and may even be spying on him for the Chinese government. (Prime Video)
Gemma Arterton and James Norton in Rogue Agent
Rogue Agent (2022)
Rogue Agent is an unbelievable tale - except it happened in real life. James Norton and Gemma Arterton star in this bizarre tale involving conman Robert Freegard who poses as an undercover MI5 agent to kidnap victims until the woman who falls for him suspects he is a fraud. (AMC+, Netflix)
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