Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligence agencies. It was given new impetus by the development of fascism and communism in the lead-up to World War II, continued to develop during the Cold War, and received a fresh impetus from the emergence of rogue states, international criminal organizations, global terrorist networks, maritime piracy and technological sabotage and espionage as potent threats to Western societies. As a genre, spy fiction is thematically related to the novel of adventure, the thriller and the politico-military thriller.
Aldrich Hazen Ames is an American former CIA counterintelligence officer who was convicted of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union and Russia in 1994. He is serving a life sentence, without the possibility of parole, in the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana. Ames was known to have compromised more highly classified CIA assets than any other officer until Robert Hanssen, who was arrested seven years later in 2001.
Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky is a former colonel of the KGB who became KGB resident-designate (rezident) and bureau chief in London.
Mark Strong is a British actor best known for his film roles such as Prince Septimus in Stardust (2007), Archibald in RocknRolla (2008), Lord Henry Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes (2009), Frank D'Amico in Kick-Ass (2010), Jim Prideaux in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Sinestro in Green Lantern (2011), George in Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Major General Stewart Menzies in The Imitation Game (2014), Merlin in Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), Dr. Thaddeus Sivana in Shazam! (2019) and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023), and John in Cruella (2021).
Walton Sanders Goggins Jr. is an American actor. He has starred in various television series, including The Shield (2002–2008), Justified (2010–2015), Vice Principals (2016–2017), The Righteous Gemstones (2019–present), Invincible (2021–present), and Fallout (2024–present). He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Justified, and then later for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Fallout.
Night Flight from Moscow, also known as The Serpent, is a 1973 Cold War spy thriller film produced, co-written and directed by Henri Verneuil and starring Yul Brynner, Henry Fonda, Dirk Bogarde, Philippe Noiret and Michel Bouquet. The score was composed by Ennio Morricone.
MGM+, is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the MGMPlus Entertainment subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which is itself a subsidiary of Amazon MGM Studios. The network's programming consists of recent and older theatrically released motion pictures, original television series, documentaries, and music and comedy specials.
Ella Summer Purnell is an English actress. She began her career as a child actress in West End theatre and films such as Never Let Me Go (2010), Intruders (2011), and Maleficent (2014). Her other films include Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016), Churchill (2017), and Army of the Dead (2021).
The Americans is an American period spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg for FX. It aired for six seasons from 2013 to 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also served as showrunners and executive producers. Set during the Cold War, the show follows Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Soviet KGB intelligence officers posing as an American married couple living in Falls Church, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C.. The couple combine their spying duties with raising their American-born children Paige and Henry.
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence on foreign nationals in support of its Five Eyes partners. SIS is one of the British intelligence agencies and the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service ("C") is directly accountable to the Foreign Secretary.
American Ultra is a 2015 American stoner spy action comedy film directed by Nima Nourizadeh and written by Max Landis. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman and Tony Hale. The story is about a stoner who discovers he was part of a secret government program and is a sleeper agent.
Berlin Station is an American drama television series created by Olen Steinhauer. The series stars Richard Armitage, Rhys Ifans, Leland Orser, Michelle Forbes, Richard Jenkins, Keke Palmer, Ashley Judd, John Doman, Tamlyn Tomita, and Ismael Cruz Córdova. Bradford Winters had been showrunner for its first two seasons, with Jason Horwitch taking over for season 3.
Atomic Blonde is a 2017 American action thriller film directed by David Leitch from a screenplay by Kurt Johnstad, based on the 2012 graphic novel The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart. The film stars Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella, and Toby Jones. The story revolves around a spy who has to find a list of double agents that is being smuggled into the West on the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Get Shorty is an American comedy-drama television series, based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard, and serves as the third installment overall in its titular franchise. Created by Davey Holmes, it premiered on August 13, 2017, on Epix. It stars Chris O'Dowd, Ray Romano, Sean Bridgers, Carolyn Dodd, Lidia Porto, Goya Robles, Megan Stevenson, Lucy Walters, and Sarah Stiles. It has aired for three seasons, consisting of twenty-seven episodes. In December 2018, it was renewed for a third season, which began airing on October 6, 2019. Although no further seasons have been commissioned, MGM+ has not officially cancelled the show.
Condor is an American thriller television series based on the novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady and its 1975 film adaptation Three Days of the Condor written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel. The series stars Max Irons. The series was created by Todd Katzberg, Jason Smilovic, and Ken Robinson and premiered on June 6, 2018 on Audience. In July 2018, the series had been renewed for a second season, although in January 2020, Audience announced it would be ending operations in its current format. The second season, already filmed at the time of the announcement, premiered on June 9, 2020, on C More and RTÉ2. In December 2020, its existing two seasons were picked up by Epix. They began premiering the second season on November 7, 2021.
The 355 is a 2022 American action spy thriller film directed by Simon Kinberg from a screenplay by Theresa Rebeck and Kinberg, and a story by Rebeck. The film features an ensemble cast, starring Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger, and Lupita Nyong'o as a group of international spies who must work together to stop a terrorist organization from starting World War III. Édgar Ramírez and Sebastian Stan also star. The title is derived from Agent 355, the codename of a female spy for the Patriots during the American Revolution.
The Courier is a 2020 historical spy film directed by Dominic Cooke and written by Tom O'Connor. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne, and is based on the true story of a British businessman who was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service to be a message conduit with Russian spy source Oleg Penkovsky in the 1960s. Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, and Angus Wright also star.
Pennyworth, marketed as Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman's Butler for its third season, is an American television series that premiered on July 28, 2019, on Epix, based on DC Comics' Batman character of the same name. The series was developed for television and is executive produced by Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, and stars Jack Bannon as Alfred Pennyworth, a younger version of the iteration of the character previously portrayed by Sean Pertwee in Heller's and Cannon's Fox series Gotham (2014–2019), with the series serving as a prequel to both Gotham, and V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore, David Lloyd, and Tony Weare. Ben Aldridge, Hainsley Lloyd Bennett, Ryan Fletcher, Dorothy Atkinson, Emma Paetz, Paloma Faith, Polly Walker, James Purefoy, and Jason Flemyng also star.
Treason is a British spy thriller television miniseries created by Matt Charman for the streaming service Netflix. It stars Olga Kurylenko, Oona Chaplin, Ciarán Hinds, and Charlie Cox.
The Agency is an American espionage thriller television series from Paramount+ with Showtime produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov and starring Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Richard Gere. The series premiered on November 29, 2024, and is based on the critically acclaimed French series Le Bureau des Légendes, created by Éric Rochant, that aired on Canal+ from 2015 to 2020.
