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Spy films are known for the chase scenes, high-tech gadgets, and sometimes unbelievable missions that somehow manage to go the hero's way in the end.
And although many spy flicks are fictional, a good number are based on a true story. These true tales include everything from a double-agent exotic dancer to a mission that involved creating a fake sci-fi film to rescue people from a hostile land.
The stories might seem stranger than fiction, but these often underrated films are based on the tactics of real-life spies and secret agents.
If you're looking for your next thrilling espionage film to binge, we've got you covered.
The Courier shines a light on what it's like to be a normal person thrust into an extraordinary position in times of war. The film focuses on Greville Wynne (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), a real British salesman who regularly went to Moscow for work in 1960.
Wynne was approached by the British intelligence agency MI6 to meet up with Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), a high-ranking Soviet official who decided to give secrets to British intelligence. While hesitant, Wynne agreed, and continued to pass intelligence between the two for almost two years.
However, the Soviets eventually caught on and detained both Wynne and Penkovsky. Wynne remained in Soviet prison until 1964, when he was released back into British hands. Penkovsky was reportedly executed.
In the 2007 film Breach,Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper) is an American who turns against his country as a double agent. Born and raised in Illinois, Hanssen studied chemistry and Russian in college. He later studied accounting and began working for the Chicago Police Department when the FBI recruited him.
In 1979, Hanssen, then working in counterintelligence, started selling secrets to the Soviets. When his wife found out, she demanded he stop, confess his sins to their priest, and donate money to their church. Hanssen stopped for a while, but in 1985 ramped up his spying efforts, even delivering the names of American double agents in the KGB. At least three of these spies were executed after the Soviets learned about them.
Breach follows Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe), Hanssen's mentee, who eventually took down Hanssen.
In the 2015 film Bridge of Spies, Tom Hanks is an insurance lawyer trying to negotiate an exchange between an American pilot and a Russian spy, played by Mark Rylance, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for the role.
The Russian spy, Abel, was born in Britain, where his Russian father tried to indoctrinate employees in the factory where he worked. Before long, Abel and his father returned to Russia, where Abel became a spy for the Soviet Union. He worked in espionage in Europe for 20 years before obtaining a fake identity and moving to the United States in 1948. For nine years he transmitted messages to the Russians before being detained in 1957.
Spies usually work hard to keep their identities a secret, so a celebrity isn't an ideal candidate for a spy. But Chuck Barris, known for creating and hosting The Dating Game and The Gong Show in the ‘60s and ’70s, revealed in his 1984 autobiography, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, that he had worked for the CIA as an assassin during the same time period.
Many people refuted his claim, and the CIA even said he had never worked for them, but Barris was tight-lipped about whether he had made the whole thing up.
George Clooney saw the book as an opportunity for a great film, so he chose to make his directorial debut on a film of the same name based on the book, with a script by Charlie Kaufman. The 2002 film is full of famous faces, with Sam Rockwell portraying Barris, while Clooney, Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, and Maggie Gyllenhaal play supporting characters. Brad Pitt and Matt Damon make an appearance, too.
Tony Mendez was a CIA officer who spearheaded the “Canadian Caper” mission. In 1979, Iranian students took control of the US Embassy in Tehran in protest of an American-held Iranian. During the takeover, a few US diplomats managed to escape - but were still stuck in Iran.
Mendez helped orchestrate a plan to get them back. Essentially, the Americans would pose as a Canadian film crew who were in town to scout film locations for a sci-fi movie.
The 2012 film Argo details the ridiculous yet stunning success of the mission, with Ben Affleck playing Mendez, and also starring Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman. Argowon the Oscar for best picture in 2013.
As shown in the 2007 film Charlie Wilson's War, Charlie Wilson, a US congressman from Texas, became passionate about helping the Afghans fight back against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Wilson, a Democrat, partnered with the CIA to develop one of the largest covert operations ever to aid the Afghans with weapons and supplies.
The comedy-drama film, directed by Mike Nichols and with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, based on George Crile's biography of the same name, features Tom Hanks as Wilson, and also stars Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. Hoffman played CIA officer Gust Avrakotos, earning a best supporting actor Oscar nomination.
