Best True Story Movie the CIA Couldn't Keep Secret
**** Pending final CIA biographical movie listing and vetting ****
Which of these true story films, that exposes alleged* clandestine operations, activities or scandals of the U.S. government's Central Intelligence Agency, do you think is the best?
* Due to the CIA's "neither confirm nor deny" response to inquiries, the answer pool includes some true story movies that are semi-biographical or based on claims that are not substantiated, but plausible.
Discuss the topic here.
Which of these true story films, that exposes alleged* clandestine operations, activities or scandals of the U.S. government's Central Intelligence Agency, do you think is the best?
* Due to the CIA's "neither confirm nor deny" response to inquiries, the answer pool includes some true story movies that are semi-biographical or based on claims that are not substantiated, but plausible.
Discuss the topic here.
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- DirectorMontgomery MarklandStarsJessica Jade AndresMichael AndricopoulosLillian Solange BeaudoinFast living Los Angelenos are targeted by the Central Intelligence Agency during Operation Midnight Climax, part of MKUltra.CIA's Operation MIDNIGHT CLIMAX, part of MKUltra
- DirectorDelbert MannStarsLee MajorsNoah Beery Jr.Nehemiah PersoffThe story of Francis Gary Powers, a U-2 pilot for the C.I.A., who was shot down in his spy plane over Russia, captured, and imprisoned.CIA's Operation GRAND SLAM, the 24th deep-penetration Soviet overflight with an ambitious first trans national crossing of the Soviet Union flight plan. It was part of the larger U-2 spy program, code-named Project DRAGON LADY.
- DirectorBen AffleckStarsBen AffleckBryan CranstonJohn GoodmanActing under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.CIA's Operation ARGO aka "Canadian Caper"
- DirectorMike NicholsStarsTom HanksJulia RobertsPhilip Seymour HoffmanA drama based on a Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects.CIA's Operation CYCLONE the program to arm and finance the Afghan mujahideen in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1992.
- DirectorKathryn BigelowStarsJessica ChastainJoel EdgertonChris PrattA chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.CIA's Operation NEPTUNE SPEAR, the code-name for the final phase of the manhunt for Al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTom HanksMark RylanceAlan AldaDuring the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.CIA's captured spy prisoner exchange @ Glienicke Bridge of Soviet KGB Colonel William Fisher aka "Rudolf Abel" and CIA U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers
- DirectorRobert De NiroStarsMatt DamonAngelina JolieRobert De NiroThe tumultuous early history of the Central Intelligence Agency is viewed through the prism of one man's life.Birth of Central Intelligence Agency's counter-intelligence operation
- DirectorMichael CuestaStarsJeremy RennerRobert PatrickJena SimsJournalist Gary Webb, California 1996, started investigating CIA's role in the 1980s in getting crack cocaine to the black part of LA to get money and weapons to the Contra insurgents in Nicaragua.CIA'S involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking into the USA
- DirectorScott Z. BurnsStarsAdam DriverAnnette BeningJon HammIdealistic Senate staffer Daniel J. Jones, tasked by his boss to lead an investigation into the CIA's post 9/11 Detention and Interrogation Program, uncovers shocking secrets.CIA's post-9/11 development and use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques
- DirectorDoug LimanStarsNaomi WattsSean PennSonya DavisonCIA operative Valerie Plame discovers her identity is allegedly leaked by the government as payback for an op-ed article her husband wrote criticizing the Bush administration.Plame affair, outing of Valerie Plame as a covert Central Intelligence Agency officer
- DirectorRoger DonaldsonStarsKevin CostnerBruce GreenwoodShawn DriscollIn October 1962, the Kennedy administration struggles to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis.CIA's
- DirectorBilly RayStarsChris CooperRyan PhillippeDennis HaysbertFBI upstart Eric O'Neill enters into a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who was put on trial for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.CIA's
- DirectorGavin HoodStarsKeira KnightleyMatt SmithMatthew GoodeThe true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.by the United States for compromising intelligence on diplomats from member states of the Security Council, who were due to vote on a second United Nations resolution on the prospective 2003 invasion of Iraq.
- DirectorLaura PoitrasStarsEdward SnowdenGlenn GreenwaldWilliam BinneyA documentarian and a reporter travel to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden.
- DirectorJohn SchlesingerStarsTimothy HuttonSean PennPat HingleThe true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.CIA's plan to depose the Prime Minister of Australia and other CIA misrouted cable traffic
- DirectorJeffrey NachmanoffStarsDon CheadleGuy PearceArchie PanjabiWhen straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn.CIA's
- DirectorChristian CarionStarsGuillaume CanetEmir KusturicaAlexandra Maria LaraThe French intelligence service alerts the U.S. about a Soviet spy operation during the height of the Cold War, which sets off an unfortunate chain of events.Farewell Dossier exposing the Line X collection network and CIA campaign of counterintelligence responses
- DirectorDoug LimanStarsTom CruiseDomhnall GleesonSarah WrightThe story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair.CIA's
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsKevin CostnerGary OldmanJack LemmonNew Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.CIA's
- DirectorGeorge ClooneyStarsSam RockwellDrew BarrymoreGeorge ClooneyAn adaptation of the cult memoir of game show impresario Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell), in which he purports to have been a C.I.A. hitman.CIA's
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsJoseph Gordon-LevittShailene WoodleyMelissa LeoThe NSA's illegal surveillance techniques are leaked to the public by one of the agency's employees, Edward Snowden, in the form of thousands of classified documents distributed to the press.CIA's
- DirectorStephen GaghanStarsGeorge ClooneyMatt DamonAmanda PeetA politically charged epic about the state of the oil industry in the hands of those personally involved in and affected by it.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsDemián BichirRodrigo SantoroBenicio Del ToroIn 1967, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara leads a small partisan army to fight an ill-fated revolutionary guerrilla war in Bolivia, South America.CIA's
- DirectorMichael WinterbottomStarsAngelina JolieDan FuttermanIrrfan KhanMariane Pearl embarks on a frantic search to locate her journalist husband Daniel when he goes missing in Pakistan.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsTimothy HuttonMandy PatinkinLindsay CrouseDaniel Isaacson attempts to determine the true complicity of his parents Paul and Rochelle Isaacson, who were executed for espionage in the 1950s.CIA's
- DirectorJonathan LiebesmanStarsNick CannonClea DuVallTimothy HuttonFour individuals sign up for a psychological research study only to discover that they are now subjects of a brutal, classified government program.
- DirectorAnne WheelerStarsLeon PownallMacha GrenonNicola CavendishBased on a true story, this production relates the tale of two American lawyers who try to bring the U.S. government to its knees. In the early 1950s, the CIA funds a Montreal psychiatric hospital to do some research on mind control. Thirty-some years later, the patients want justice...