Unlike other movie genres, the spy movie never seems to go out of favor. Whether it’s battling Nazi spies, KGB moles, or narco-terrorists, films about special agents putting their lives on the line for their country or a cause have always found their audience.

The makers of “Red Sparrow,” a film starring Jennifer Lawrence as a Russian special agent, hope that holds true when the movie debuts this weekend. Hollywood’s “It Girl” plays a ballerina who suffers a career-ending injury and is recruited by the Russian secret intelligence service, which turns her into an assassin.

Only time will tell if “Red Sparrow” takes its place among the best spy movies ever. In the meantime, to ease the suspense, 24/7 Wall St. has compiled a list of the best and worst spy movies of all time.

Click here to see the best spy movies of all time.
Click here to see the worst spy movies of all time.
Click here to see our detailed findings and methodology.

30. The Quiet American (2002)
> Starring: Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Thi Hai Yen Do
> Primary setting: Saigon, Vietnam

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29. The Bourne Identity (2002)
> Starring: Franka Potente, Matt Damon, Chris Cooper
> Primary setting: Zürich, Switzerland

28. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
> Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy
> Primary setting: London, England

27. Three Days of the Condor (1975)
> Starring: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson
> Primary setting: New York, New York

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26. Dr. No (1962)
> Starring: Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Bernard Lee
> Primary setting: Kingston, Jamaica

25. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
> Starring: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Joan Allen
> Primary setting: Naples, Italy

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24. The In-Laws (1979)
> Starring: Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Richard Libertini
> Primary setting: New York, New York

23. Black Book (2006)
> Starring: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman
> Primary setting: The Hague, The Netherlands

22. The Ipcress File (1965)
> Starring: Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman
> Primary setting: London, England

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21. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
> Starring: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner
> Primary setting: London, England

20. From Russia with Love (1963)
> Starring: Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya
> Primary setting: Istanbul, Turkey

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19. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
> Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg
> Primary setting: Dubai, UAE

18. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
> Starring: Richard Burton, Oskar Werner, Claire Bloom
> Primary setting: East Germany

17. Bridge of Spies (2015)
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda
> Primary setting: East Berlin, East Germany

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16. The Day of the Jackal (1973)
> Starring: Edward Fox, Terence Alexander, Michel Auclair
> Primary setting: Paris, France

15. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
> Starring: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall
> Primary setting: London, England

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14. Pickup on South Street (1953)
> Starring: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter
> Primary setting: New York, New York

13. Casino Royale (2006)
> Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench
> Primary setting: Montenegro

12. Goldfinger (1964)
> Starring: Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman
> Primary setting: Fort Knox, Kentucky

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11. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
> Starring: Matt Damon, Edgar Ramírez, Joan Allen
> Primary setting: New York, New York

10. Skyfall (2012)
> Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris
> Primary setting: United Kingdom

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9. Charade (1963)
> Starring: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau
> Primary setting: Paris, France

8. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
> Starring: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas
> Primary setting: Bandrika

7. Argo (2012)
> Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman
> Primary setting: Tehran, Iran

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6. The 39 Steps (1935)
> Starring: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim
> Primary setting: London, England

5. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
> Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh
> Primary setting: New York, New York

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4. Notorious (1946)
> Starring: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
> Primary setting: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

3. The Lives of Others (2006)
> Starring: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch
> Primary setting: East Berlin, East Germany

2. Army of Shadows (1969)
> Starring: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel
> Primary setting: Lyon, France

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1. North by Northwest (1959)
> Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
> Primary setting: United States

30. Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)
> Starring: Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley
> Primary setting: New York, New York

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29. Spies Like Us (1985)
> Starring: Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Forrest
> Primary setting: Soviet Tajikistan

28. Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (2006)
> Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Mickey Rourke, Sophie Okonedo
> Primary setting: London, England

27. The Numbers Station (2013)
> Starring: John Cusack, Malin Akerman, Liam Cunningham
> Primary setting: England

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26. The In-Laws (2003)
> Starring: Albert Brooks, Michael Douglas, Ryan Reynolds
> Primary setting: Chicago, Illinois

25. xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017)
> Starring: Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone
> Primary setting: London, England

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24. Johnny English (2003)
> Starring: Rowan Atkinson, John Malkovich, Natalie Imbruglia
> Primary setting: England

23. D.E.B.S. (2004)
> Starring: Sara Foster, Jordana Brewster, Devon Aoki
> Primary setting: United States

22. Barely Lethal (2015)
> Starring: Jaime King, Samuel L. Jackson, Madeleine Stack
> Primary setting: United States

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21. Casino Royale (1967)
> Starring: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress
> Primary setting: United Kingdom

20. Invasion U.S.A. (1985)
> Starring: Chuck Norris, Richard Lynch, Melissa Prophet
> Primary setting: Miami, Florida

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19. Agent Cody Banks (2003)
> Starring: Frankie Muniz, Hilary Duff, Andrew Francis
> Primary setting: Seattle, Washington

18. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
> Starring: Daryl Sabara, Alexa PenaVega, Antonio Banderas
> Primary setting: Cyberspace

17. Condorman (1981)
> Starring: Michael Crawford, Oliver Reed, Barbara Carrera
> Primary setting: Istanbul, Turkey

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16. The Spy Next Door (2010)
> Starring: Jackie Chan, Amber Valletta, Billy Ray Cyrus
> Primary setting: United States

15. Bad Company (2002)
> Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Chris Rock, Peter Stormare
> Primary setting: New York, New York

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14. Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986)
> Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Stephen Collins, John Wood
> Primary setting: New York, New York

13. I Spy (2002)
> Starring: Eddie Murphy, Owen Wilson, Famke Janssen
> Primary setting: Budapest, Hungary

12. Killers (2010)
> Starring: Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Tom Selleck
> Primary setting: Nice, France

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11. Terminal Velocity (1994)
> Starring: Charlie Sheen, Nastassja Kinski, James Gandolfini
> Primary setting: Tucson, Arizona

10. xXx: State of the Union (2005)
> Starring: Ice Cube, Samuel L. Jackson, Willem Dafoe
> Primary setting: Washington, D.C.

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9. The Tuxedo (2002)
> Starring: Jackie Chan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jason Isaacs
> Primary setting: United States

8. Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011)
> Starring: Jessica Alba, Jeremy Piven, Joel McHale
> Primary setting: United States

7. Spy Hard (1996)
> Starring: Leslie Nielsen, Nicollette Sheridan, Charles Durning
> Primary setting: United States

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6. Code Name: The Cleaner (2007)
> Starring: Cedric the Entertainer, Lucy Liu, Nicollette Sheridan
> Primary setting: Unspecified

5. The Cold Light of Day (2012)
> Starring: Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver
> Primary setting: Madrid, Spain

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4. Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004)
> Starring: Frankie Muniz, Anthony Anderson, Hannah Spearritt
> Primary setting: London, England

3. The Avengers (1998)
> Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery
> Primary setting: London, England

2. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
> Starring: Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu, Talisa Soto
> Primary setting: Vancouver, Canada

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1. Leonard, Part 6 (1987)
> Starring: Bill Cosby, Tom Courtenay, Joe Don Baker
> Primary setting: United States

Spy movies are among the most engrossing of all movie genres. Because of the intrigue, convoluted plots, and uncertain loyalties, these films demand your undivided attention.

We can thank Ian Fleming and John Le Carre for popularizing spies derring-do in books. Fleming created the most enduring of spies, James Bond, who was later portrayed in film by Sean Connery as Britain’s unflappable, skirt-chasing special agent. Bond had a license to kill, and he did so with the latest gadgets provided for him by the British secret service. The success of the Bond movie franchise, whose movies included “Goldfinger,” “From Russia With Love,” and “Thunderball,” would eventually be followed by the Bourne Identity series starring Matt Damon and the Mission: Impossible films with Tom Cruise.

Le Carre, whose real name is David John Moore Cornwell, actually worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service. He explored the tension between moral ideals of western democracies and amoral methods to achieve results in the books “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.” Both of these books were made into successful movies.

No list of spy movies would be complete without Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense. Hitchcock mined the spy genre beginning in the 1930s with “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “The 39 Steps,” and “Sabotage” through the 1960s with “Torn Curtain” and “Topaz” for some of his greatest work.

Some of the pre-World War II spy thrillers pitted England against unnamed foes from Europe. Most of the movies explore the Cold War tension between the West and the communist bloc and the toll it takes on special agents. The movies are not necessarily stark contrasts of good and evil, and many of them do not have a neat conclusion that ties up loose ends in a satisfying manner.

Not all the enemies are external. “Three Days of the Condor” features Robert Redford as a CIA codebreaker who discovers a secret American plan to invade the Middle East to secure its oil supply. He has to fend off hitmen sent by the CIA to kill him. In the “Falcon and the Snowman,” Timothy Hutton plays a young CIA employee disillusioned by the Watergate scandal who sells secrets to the Soviet Union.

Few women have played major roles in spy films. A notable exception is “La Femme Nikita,” starring Anne Parillaud, who plays a convict turned into a secret police assassin. Angelina Jolie has had star turns in the films “Salt” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”

The worst spy movies tend to be those that lampoon the genre and fail in their mission. “Casino Royale,” made in 1967, was a send-up of the James Bond films, and the film was a chaotic mess. Five directors had a hand in this albatross that featured a host of stars, among them David Niven, Peter Sellers, Orson Welles, and Woody Allen. Even they couldn’t save it.

Two of the Spy Kids movies are also included among the worst spy movies ever made.

The worst of the worst? “Leonard, Part 6,” starring Bill Cosby as a retired CIA agent battling a villainous vegetarian seeking world domination.

To determine the best and worst spy films of all time, 24/7 Wall St. created an index based on each film’s Rotten Tomatoes average critic rating, Rotten Tomatoes average audience rating, and Internet Movie Database average user rating. To be considered, each film had to have at least 10,000 total user ratings between IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes and 10 approved Tomatometer critic reviews.

We averaged the user ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb and weighted by the number of votes for each. The combined user rating was then averaged with the Rotten Tomatoes critic rating.

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