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Spy Movies Espionage and Spying Movies Edit Topics

What are the top spy movies that are based on a

true story?
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Brad Robinson, Ex-CIA operative now P.I. with The

Millennium Group: www.MillenniumGroup2001.com
Answered Oct 8, 2012

Although "based on a true story" can be a misleading description in

Hollywood, two films that have not yet been mentioned are "Syriana",
based loosely on the autobiography of real spy Bob Baer (his book was
titled, "See No Evil") and the upcoming "Argo", which chronicles a
classic (and until recently, classified) CIA "exfiltration" operation
during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.
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David Haddad, Founder, Publiseek.com

Answered Jan 29, 2012

Here are the top 10 spy movies that are based on a true story according
to IMDB.

1. Charlie Wilson's War (2007)Continue

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6. Fair Game (2010)

7. Europa Europa (1990)
8. Flammen & Citronen (2008)
9. The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
10. M. Butterfly (1993)

More info: http://www.imdb.com/keyword/base...

I searched for movies with tag "based on a true story" and keyword
"spy" sorted by amount of votes.
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Anonymous
Updated Jan 1, 2013

If I can qualify SOE members as spies:

The Man Who Never Was (1956) - True story from WW2
Operation Mincemeat (TV 2010) - same again
Odette (1950)   - about Odette Sansom, a French-born SOE agent
eventually interned in Ravensbruch
Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) - Violette Szabo

Also:
Mata Hari (1931) - the most famous spy of all?
British Agent (1934) - based on the memoirs of RH Bruce Lockhart in
Russia at time of the Revolution.

Nods to realism for Harry Palmer films, The Third Man, and movies
based on Le Carre's work (The Spy Who Came In From The Cold; Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy, etc).
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Fred Landis, Investigative Reporter

Answered Jan 29, 2012

Spy movies based on true stories that are reasonably close to the known
facts
Munich (2005) Spielberg Israeli assassination of Munich
terrorists

Fair Game (2010) starring Sean Penn about Valerie Plame and
Joe Wilson case

Breach (2007) Robert Hansson, FBI agent who spied for Russia

The Day of the Jackal (1973) assassination plot against Charles

de Gaulle

Five Fingers (1952) by Joseph Mankiewicz, starring James

Mason as valet to British Ambassador in Turkey . Mason sell
secrets to Nazis.

In reviewing the endless list of spy movies it is remarkable how few are
based on real events and how much better the older ones are.
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Michael Mauzy

The prologue of "Day of the Jackal" consists of a brief accounting of an actual failed
assassinat...

Manish Kumar, Student at Indian Institute of Technology,

Kharagpur (2013-present)
Answered Apr 9, 2017
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of the time. The movie gives more or less a knowledgeable
picture of Indian-Peace Keeping Mission in Sri Lanka and the
event that followed resulting in the assassination of Indian
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE. Even being a fiction
work it does however gives a clear picture of Indian
intelligence system in Sri Lanka at the time.

Ek Tha Tiger - Wikipedia : Its storyline is claimed to have

resembled that of Ravindra Kaushik - Wikipedia also known
as “The Black Tiger”.
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Neeraj Sinha, Technical Lead at Aricent (2010-present)

Answered May 16, 2014

Originally Answered: What are some good movies based on true stories?

Changeling (2008)

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Andrew Lemke, formerly trained engineer

Answered Jan 21, 2011

The Good Shepherd has some truth about the early history of the CIA.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343...

Also here is a miniseries called The Company:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488...

I have a really good list of books on the CIA and espionage too if you
need it...
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Gabriel Serpa Mendonça

Answered May 2, 2016

It's not about spies, but one of Open in app

the best "true stories" I've ever seen.
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Joachim Hagege, Computer Scientist, soldier in the IDF

Answered Mar 5, 2012

You should check the movie The Patriots, which is strongly connected
to Jonathan Pollard case and another famous story about the Mossad
(Israeli intelligence agency)
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Jay Faulkner
Updated Oct 20

“Counterfeit Traitor” staring William Holden is about Eric Ericson,

arguably the most important American spy of WW2. He provided
information that led to the destruction of the Nazi synthetic petroleum
industry by allied bombers and repeatedly risked his life and blackened
his reputation to do it.
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