10. Matt Damon as Edward Wilson

The Good Shepherd

It isn’t about dedication and loyalty, it’s about belief in what we do.

Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and Robert De Niro star in this partially fact-based drama that examines the early history of the CIA as seen through the eyes of a dedicated agent. Edward Wilson is the pride of his class at Yale.  His brilliance and success brought attention to the CIA who then recruited him to work for the fledgling CIA during World War II. Though loyal to his country, Wilson begins to feel less enthusiastic about the job as he becomes jaded by lies and his idealism falters.  Not surprisingly his distrust and paranoia begins to his personal life.

9. Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan

Clear and Present Danger (1994)

I’m sorry, Mr. President, I don’t dance.

Super spook Jack Ryan gets political when an unconstitutional “war on drugs” — fought with U.S. soldiers — goes awry. This Tom Clancy hero played by Harrison Ford uncovers the secret plan just as the troops are abandoned.  Eventually he realizes he’s being set up to take the fall.  The suspense clicks away at a nail biting pace as the audience waits to discover whether or not Ryan will save the soldiers and himself.

8. Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt

Mission Impossible

Relax Luther, it’s much worse than you think.

What was so great about Mission Impossible was the revitalization of this kind of film.  Technology, espionage, and back stabbing, but mostly never knowing who was the good guy or the  bad guy was the brilliance of Mission Impossible, and probably why two sequels followed.

7. Mike Myers as Austin Powers

The Austin Powers Trilogy

Shall we shag now, or shall we shag later? How do you like to do it? Do you like to wash up first? You know, top and tails… whore’s bath? Personally, before I’m on the job, I like to give my undercarriage a bit of a ‘how’s your father’!

Our “bad guy” Dr. Evil (better call him Dr., he didn’t go to 8 years of evil medical school to be called Mr.) is a product of a plethora of sixties British villains, and like “From Russia With Love” refers to his second hand man as #2, along with having a pet cat he strokes affectionately while plotting evil world domination.  In this case that means taking out the Sex Icon, secret agent Austin Powers.  However, neither are quite as smooth as these typecasts are in the action/drama genre and both seem to bumble as their fates send them each to the future.  Upon the unfreezing process Dr.Evil’s cat has lost it’s hair and he finds he has a genetically engineered son that is the product of 90’s flannel wear.  Powers awakes to his old partners daughter and goes through his own awkward transition into the 90’s.  While the times have changed, one thing remains the same, Dr. Evil wants Austin Powers dead, and Austin Powers wants to capture Dr. Evil.  Austin Powers is a great spy, but moreover, he’s hilarious and irresistable!

6. Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill

North By Northwest

Now you listen to me, I’m an advertising man, not a red herring. I’ve got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don’t intend to disappoint them all by getting myself “slightly” killed.

North By Northwest has the perfect balance of comedy and drama.  Hitchcock, the master of suspense creates a story about an advertising executive who looks like someone else and is forced to go on the lam.  When everyone around him is suddenly convinced he is a spy, it provides for a ton and tension and great moments of laughter. With a fight on Mount Rushmore and a vast array of great character moments makes this film as Grants “accidental” spy role brilliant!

5. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker (and Jamie Lee Curtis as Helen Tasker)

True Lies

Helen Tasker: Have you ever killed anyone?
Harry: Yeah, but they were all bad.

Not only do I adore this movie but it’s one of my favorite roles of Arnold Schwarzenegger.  James Cameron created his most lighted hearted, yet still heavily action based film about a spy who hides his identity from his wife.  He masks the charade of a boring white collar worker and her life doesn’t really differ either.  Bored out of her mind (Jamie Lee Curtis) his wife finds herself tangled up in a plot with a used car salesman, posing as a secret agent to get ladies.  Harry Tasker finds out about his wife and decides to give her the adventure she’s been looking for, but then his real life job interferes with the false world he created for his wife.

4. Roger Moore as Simon Templar

The Saint

Thank you. You know what the hardest part about being you is? Pretending to be so bad in bed.

Roger Moore formerly a Bond, brought his spy ability to the screen in the form of Simon Templar.  Simon Templar is very different from James Bond.  As master of disguise he interprets this role as a master thief. Although not a full on spy in the strictest sense of the word, Templar is a shadowy figure, living under assumed names and with little known about his history.  His services can be bought and sold and he is a chameleon that can assume just about any identity. He is essentially the result of what would happen if Bond went Rogue and started selling his services to the highest bidder.  He may not be a spy for country, but he is a spy for hire.

For the record I am actually a HUGE fan of Val Kilmers Simon Templar as well.  A very nice re-make.

3. Robert Reford as Joe “The Condor”

Three Days Of The Condor

Well, I actually trust a few people. That’s a problem.

Robert Redford is Joe, his CIA code name is Condor.  He is a bookish CIA researcher who ventures out to lunch and upon his return finds all of his colleagues dead. In the next seventy-two hours almost everyone he trusts will try to kill him.

2. Matt Damon as Jason Bourne

The Bourne Trilogy

“I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs two hundred fifteen pounds and knows how to handle himself. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside, and at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Now why would I know that? How can I know that and not know who I am?”

Bourne is the thinking mans action hero. Jason Bourne is the character that changed how action movies were viewed and made.  However, if not for Martin Riggs, Jason Bourne wouldn’t exist, but let me not get ahead of myself.  Bourne took the element of Riggs that was more than a killing, gun toting machine, but a real man with events in life that made him the killer he is.  The complexity of his character, and the desire to discover who he is, is a battle we all struggle with on some level or another.  While Bourne is trying to understand who he is and how he got to the point in his life, there is a real metaphor there for anyone who looks hard enough, which is why this character is so tangible when he has super assassin skills.  His style of fighting, and his reluctance to the world of violence, even though he lives and breathes violence makes this character have the depth and complexity to have far greater impact with years to come.

1. The many face of JAMES BOND

The various James Bond films

“The names Bond, James Bond”

When you have seven different men play a role and the franchise only grows in it’s success, there’s a lot to be said about that character.  Obviously, it’s not just about the actor playing Bond, but about 007 himself.  The gadgets, the women, and the exciting cars may go with the job, but it’s the deadly cool and calm secret agent named James Bond that has kept people coming back forgenerations to watch a see what new espionage or over the top psychotic bad guy he’d have to face at the end.  The Daniel Craig Bond is going in a different direction now, but some of that old campy and cartoonish villains were what made the Bond movies that much more fun.  Bond is all about raw entertainment and pleasure, and we all know he delivers.

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