Access Code (1984)
Computer Surveillance Conspiracy Thriller
Obscure VHS era paranoia thriller about the uncovering of a conspiracy to use satellites to control the population. Not a very interesting film.
Techno-Thrillers
The term ‘techno-thriller’ was coined in the 1980s to describe the spy thrillers of Tom Clancy that were dense with explanations about the workings of military equipment.
In its usage here, techno-thriller refers to a work that counts as nominal science-fiction due to its use of advanced technology but where the science-fictional content is not conceptual but secondary to other aspects such as thriller or action. An SF film might concern the devastating aftermath of the release of a Doomsday Weapon, whereas a techno-thriller is merely concerned with the race to prevent its use.
In the works included here, the techno-thriller element is often little more than a McGuffin – a device or a formula that is sought by parties in order to drive the plot in a thriller. Almost all of the entries in Spy Films are included as techno-thrillers because of the employment of fantastical gadgetry by the heroes, extravagant world domination schemes by the villains or the fight to acquire super-science weapons/formulas/devices/inventions.
The topic also includes nuclear thrillers, IT thrillers and works about technologically advanced vehicles.
For more detail and an overview of the genre see the Theme Essay Techno-Thrillers.
Airwolf (1985)
Hi-Tech Helicopter
The pilot for a tv series that was theatrically released outside of the US. A blatant copy of Blue Thunder, this concerns the hijacking and retrieval of a hi-tech helicopter
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Virus from Space/Michael Crichton Adaptation
Robert Wise’s standout adaptation of Michael Crichton’s first novel about scientists trying to contain a virus brought back from space. This does a very faithful job of capturing Crichton’s fascination with the science
Antitrust (2001)
IT Industry Thriller
IT industry thriller that borrows the title from the Microsoft antitrust case that was in the headlines at the time and casts Tim Robbins as a villainous Bill Gates lookalike
Bells (1981)
Exploding Telephone Calls
Rather silly thriller in which Richard Chamberlain tries to track a madman who has discovered a means of transmitting explosions by telephone
Black Moon Rising (1986)
Techno-Thriller/Hi-Tech Car Theft
Made from an old John Carpenter script, this is a reasonable action film starring Tommy Lee Jones as a professional thief who is tasked with stealing a hi-tech car
Black Thunder (1998)
Hi-Tech Fighter Plane Theft/Action
Low-budget action film that blatantly rehshes the plot of Firefox with Michael Dudikoff as a pilot recruited to go into enemy territory and steal back a hi-tech plane
The Black Widow (1947)
Serial/Deadly Female Spy
A rather dull fifteen-chapter serial about the efforts a detective who sets out to stop Sombra, an Asian spy intent on stealing US atomic rocket secrets
Bleeding Steel (2017)
SF Action Film
Jackie Chan starring action film that reads like an earthbound Star Wars with he up against a villain in black and his army of super-soldiers
Blue Thunder (1983)
Hi-Tech Helicopter Theft/Action
Dan O’Bannon scripted film about a hi-tech helicopter, this crackles with great writing and some immensely exciting aerial action scenes from director John Badham
BrainWaves (1982)
Experimental Neurosurgery/Transplanted Memories
Ulli Lommel film in which Suzanne Love undergoes experimental brain surgery only to start receiving memories from the donor, a woman who was murdered
Broken Arrow (1995)
Action/Nuclear Hijacking
John Woo’s second Hollywood film, an action film about nuclear hijacking. Woo’s unique stylistics promptly get buried under the machinery of big-budget action filmmaking
Chain Reaction (1996)
Techno-Thriller
Thriller with Keanu Reeves wrongfully accused and on the run from authorities in the quest for a process that creates cheap energy from water. A rehash of director Andrew Davis’s The Fugitive mostly construed around its set-pieces
The Chairman (1969)
Spy Thriller/Journey to Communist China
Big-budgeted spy thriller with Gregory Peck as a scientist who poses as a defector to Communist China. This never enervates much as a thriller but its recreations of Communist China are amazing
Charlie’s Angels (2019)
TV Series Remake/Action Film
The second big screen revival of the hit 1970s tv series. Essentially a Girl Power version of one of the Mission: Impossible films, which turns what was originally a girl-fronted detective show into a spy caper featuring SF gadgetry
Chill Factor (1999)
Action Chase/Chemical Weapons
An inane action film that sets out to copy Speed with Skeet Ulrich and a motormouth Cuba Gooding Jr forced to drive an ice cream truck filled with chemical weapons
The China Syndrome (1979)
Nuclear Power Plant Accident
Strong and effective dramatic film released only three weeks before the real-life Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas play a tv camera crew caught in the midst of a nuclear reactor meltdown
The Circle (2017)
Online Mass Surveillance Thriller
Hollywood tries to make a big message film about online mass surveillance but renders anodyne straw arguments. Meanwhile, back in the real world you cannot help but think things the film depicts things might happen very different
Crosstalk (1982)
AI Murder Mystery
Australian thriller about an inventor who has created an A.I,, although the film only puts it at the purpose of a routine murder mystery plot
Deal of the Century (1983)
Arms Trading Black Comedy
The great William Friedkin, the director of The Exorcist and other works, had a flop with this unfunny Chevy Chase and Sigourney Weaver comedy about arms dealing and the efforts to obtain a robot plane
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
James Bond Film
The seventh James Bond film where Sean Connery was inveigled back to the role with a heft salary increase. However, the result is the worst of all the Connery Bonds with an incoherent plot and uneven action scenes
Die Another Day (2002)
James Bond Film
Pierce Brosnan’s final outing as James Bond lacks the sharpness of the preceding entries and is hampered by Halle Berry who is given great presence but nothing to do. Despite which this has some of the best action scenes of any Bond film
Dr No (1962)
James Bond Film
The first of the James Bond films. While the formula of the series is not quite established yet, this is a slick exciting work that did a number of groundbreaking things and created some iconic images
Eagle Eye (2008)
Surveillance Thriller/A.I. Amok
Shia LaBeouf ends up on the run from the FBI in a conspiracy involving an A.I. A thriller about the surveillance society that, despite much sound and fury, finds almost nothing to say about its subject
Eraser (1996)
Action/Hi-Tech Weaponry
The publicity machine made a big effort to convince us we were a more serious Arnold Schwarzenegger film but it is business as usual. The spectacular action scenes are frequently undercut by their absurd improbability
Fast & Furious 9 (2021)
Action Film
The Fast and the Furious series has escalated from films about illegal street racing to essentially superhero films involving ridiculous stunt work that defies the laws of physics. This takes the characters into orbit
Firefox (1982)
Hi-Tech Fighter Plane Theft/Techno-Thriller
Clint Eastwood directs/stars in a standout thriller about the theft of a hi-tech fighter plane from inside the Soviet Union. The USSR is shown with paranoid effect and there is an exhilarating climax with the plane in flight
Flight of Fury (2007)
Action/Hi-Tech Fighter Plane Theft
A blatant copy of the Clint Eastwood film Firefox where Steven Seagal is sent to retrieve a hi-tech stealth bomber that has been stolen by a rogue colonel
The Formula (1980)
International Thriller/Hunt for a Nazi Fuel Substitute
Dull big-budget thriller about Nazi fuel formulas and Big Oil conspiracies. This seems intended as a copy of The Boys from Brazil centred around George C. Scott and Marlon Brando trying to out over-act one another
Freedom Strike (1998)
Action Film/Advanced Weaponry
Michael Dudikoff-starring action film about the use of advanced technology during a Middle Eastern war as Syrian terrorists hijack and threaten to fire US nuclear missles
GoldenEye (1995)
James Bond Film
The 17th James Bond film, the first featuring Pierce Brosnan who gives a dazzlingly ruthless performance. The series is rebooted and takes the opportunity to reconstruct the mythos in terms of modern politics in ways that often take you aback
Hackers (1995)
Teenage Computer Hackers
Film that wants to be an expose of the lives of hackers but seems an absurd agglomeration of cliches that stumbles over its own feet trying to establish its counter-culture cool
Heart of Stone (2023)
Spy/Action Film
A spy action film starring Gal Gadot as a double agent. The film had its air stolen by Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning, nevertheless is filled with exhilarating action sequences and should have had a higher profile
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Tom Clancy Techno-Thriller/Advanced Submarine
The first and best Tom Clancy adaptation about a hi-tech Soviet submarine whose captain goes rogue. Director John McTiernan conducts the undersea maneuverings with gripping psychological tension
I Spy (2002)
Spy Comedy/TV Series Remake
Painfully unfunny big screen revival of the 1960s spy tv series. This has been reduced to a series of plotless gags that involve Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson doing nothing except bickering with each other
Ignition (2001)
Action Thriller
An action film set against the backdrop of a new Moon mission where Bill Pullman plays a US marshal assigned to protect judge Lena Olin whose life is under threat
Kamikaze (1986)
Device That Can Kill People by TV
An early film written/produced by Luc Besson concerning a scientist driven crazy by tv announcers who invents a device that can kill people as they appear live on tv
The Karate Killers (1967)
Man from U.N.C.L.E./Spy Film
One of the appealingly colourful theatrical films edited together from the tv series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – although surprisingly given the title this is not a martial arts film
Light Blast (1985)
Action Film/Laser Weapon
From the director of the original Inglorious Bastards, an action film with Erik Estrada as a cop pursuing a blackmailing scientist who has a powerful laser weapon
Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
Action Film/Socially Catastrophic Hack Attack
The fourth of the Die Hard films and the only one that enters into genre territory with Bruce Willis now fighting a catastrophic hack attack that disables the entire US
Live Wire (1992)
Human Bombs Thriller
Thriller with Pierce Brosnan as a bomb disposal expert who comes up against terrorists who have invented an explosive that can be drunken in a glass of water
The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979)
Man Builds an Atomic Bomb
An anarchic Japanese film where a school teacher builds an atomic bomb and then begins blackmailing the authorities with his demands
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
James Bond Film
Ninth and weakest of the James Bond films. Ian Fleming created a great nemesis in the assassin Scaramanga and the film casts it with Christopher Lee – only to fail to write the role interesting enough for Lee to fill
The Manhattan Project (1986)
Teenager Builds Atomic Bomb
Teen thriller where Christopher Collett decides to build an atomic bomb for the school science prize
Marooned (1969)
NASA Space Mission Disaster
Released three months after the Moon Landing, this was a big-budget film depicting a space mission disaster that leaves three astronauts marooned in orbit
Megaforce (1982)
Hi-Tech Action Team
SF film about an international action team outfitted in hi-tech vehicles, this was a big bomb in its day
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Spy/Action Film
The second of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible films where he has the smarts to hire John Woo as director who brings his customary stylish flair with action to transform the film into something exhiliraing
Mission: Impossible III (2006)
Spy/Action Film
For his third outing in the series, Tom Cruise made a smart bet on giving the reins to J.J. Abrams who made his directorial debut and turned in the most enjoyable entry in the series to that point. One of the best moves is in the casting of Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain of the show
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Spy/Action Film
The seventh of Mission: Impossible films with Tom Cruise still on great form at age 61. He and the team raise the bar for the series to a new high
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Spy/Action Film
The sixth of the Mission: Impossible films. Not the best of the series but Tom Cruise and associates have everything polished to an expertly honed formula by now and the film is a kinetic ride of intensive and often jaw-dropping action sequences
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Spy/Action Film
The best of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible films to this point. The live-action directorial debut of Pixar director Brad Bird proves an inspired move and Bird gets all the gadgetry just right along with a series of sensational action sequences
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
Spy/Action Film
The Mission: Impossible films have become superbly polished vehicles with exotic locales, death-defying stuntwork and spectacular action sequences. This enacts it all well; the main problem is that Ghost Protocol is such a tough act to follow that this cannot help but fall in its shadow
A Murder at the End of the World (2023)
Hi-Tech Murder Mystery
Brit Marling is one of the most intelligent creative faces of the 2010s/20s. Here she co-writes, co-directs and stars in a fascinating murder mystery set in the tech world at a futuristic retreat
The Net (1995)
Cyber-Thriller
Film that tried to jump aboard the newly arrived paradigm of the internet but is mostly a cliched thriller about Sandra Bullock trying to recover her erased identity
Open Windows (2014)
Internet Stalker and Surveillance Thriller
This Nacho Vigalondo film prefigured Unfriended with everything taking place on a computer screen. A far more adventurous film with a wildly entertaining plot about celebrity stalking
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)
Spy/Action Film
Guy Ricthie makes a spy action film that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is far more absurdly entertaining than anything you expect it to be. Hugh Grant steals the day as the super-villain of the show
The Order of the Black Eagle (1987)
Spy/Action Film
A low-budget spy/action film with entertainingly bizarre elements including a cryogenically frozen Hitler and the hero going into action accompanied by a baboon
Raise the Titanic (1980)
Engineering Project to Raise the Titanic
Massively ambitious Clive Cussler adaptation about the attempts to raise the wreck of the Titanic, which became one of the most over-budgeted flops of its day. The actual raising of the Titanic looks utterly magnificent but the rest of the film remains sunken amid murky underwater photography that looks like children’s toys shot in a bathtub
Real Genius (1985)
Hi-Tech University Hijinks
Highly enjoyable comedy set among the hi-tech hijinks of a group of university science geeks. Val Kilmer owns the show in his second screen performance
The Saint (1997)
TV Series Remake/Thief Hero
Big screen revival of the famous playboy spy falls flat due to the miscasting of Val Kilmer in the title role where Kilmer’s attempts to adopt disguises and accents throughout becomes risible. The thriller plot is nothing to get excited about.
The Satan Bug (1965)
Germ Warfare Theft Thriller
One of the first films about biowarfare, a tightly effective techno-thriller from John Sturges
Sneakers (1992)
Hi-Tech Thriller
Standout thriller set around the world of computing, one of the earliest techno-thriller to adapt to the new internet age
The Spy With My Face (1965)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Film/Spy Film
The second of the feature films repackaged from the tv series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., one of the better copies of the James Bond spy fad of the 1960s. Despite the low conceptual horizons of a tv episode, this plays itself with a splendidly droll tongue-in-cheek panache
Stealth (2005)
Artifically Intelligent Fighter Plane Amok
Action film about an artificially intelligent fighter plane that goes amok. Rob Cohen directs in all the cliches of the genre and the seeming need to have something spectacular happening every few minutes
Submerged (2005)
Action Film/Mind Control
Steven Seagal submarine action where he tackles a terrorist who has perfected mind control techniques
The Sum of All Fears (2002)
Nuclear Terrorism/Tom Clancy Adaptation
Fourth of the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan films, which performs a confusing continuity reset to recast the role with the younger Ben Affleck. The film’s release was delayed by 9/11, which makes the plot about nuclear terrorism on US soil seems absurdly tame in retrospect
Super Tanker (2011)
Disaster Movie/Super-Container of Antimatter
Syfy Channel disaster movie about the efforts to dispose of a container of antimatter being carried on board a tanker, where things proceed to go wrong
The 355 (2022)
Spy/Action Film
Female-led spy/action film that serves everything up in an enjoyably kinetic mix with likeable characters. Not wheel reinventing but more enjoyable than most Hollywood product
Thunderball (1965)
James Bond Film
The fourth James Bond film and crippled by the misfortune of coming just after Goldfinger, which defined the formula and became the peak of the series. By contrast, this is stuck with having to make everything bigger and more spectacular
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995)
Action/Advanced Weaponry
Sequel to Under Siege in which Steven Seagal was a lone individual in a Die Hard scenario defending a battleship against a terrorist takeover; this is the same but with Seagal defending a train
Unforgettable (1996)
Transplanted Memories Thriller
Thriller where Ray Liotta undergoes an experimental process to receive an injection of memories from his dead wife and from these sets out to try and solve her murder
WarGames (1983)
Teen Hacker Accidentally Triggers Nuclear War
This was the first film to ever depict the internet with Matthew Broderick as a teen innocent hacker who accidentally hacks in and triggers a nuclear alert thinking he is playing a computer game
WarGames: The Dead Code (2006)
Teen Hacker Thriller/Amok A.I.
WarGames was a thriller that was way ahead of its time; this sequel is no more than video fodder exploiting recognition factor that reduces the original to hacker movie cliches in a technically ill-informed and incoherent plot
xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017)
Extreme Adventure Sports Spy
xXx, with Vin Diesel as an extreme sports junkie version of James Bond, was ridiculous. This second sequel surprisingly turns out halfway watchable, keeping the stunts moving fast and introducing an ensemble to build this out as a Fast and the Furious-type franchise