Theme: Spy Films

Spy films are thrillers and action films that deal with international espionage. Common story elements centre around the efforts to obtain information from the enemy, to prevent plots to attack domestic territory or world-domination schemes and assorted manoeuvrings around.

The spy film as we know it emerged on screen with the first James Bond film Dr No (1962) adapted from the popular books by Ian Fleming. The Bond films introduced the tropes of the genre – the suave womanising super-spy; the super-villain with the world domination plot and his near-invincible henchmen; and the gadgetry and weapons employed by the villain, which frequently took the works into the realm of science-fiction. The Bond films became a long-running series passing through different actors and continuing to the present day. There was also a large body of imitators during the 1960s that rarely took themselves seriously and attained a psychedelic absurdity.

From the late 1960s, the spy film has made a move back towards a greater realism. The late 1990s/2000s brought the spy parody in the form of the Austin Powers films, spoofing the look and tropes of the James Bond films and these too led to a number of imitators. The variant that is discussed here that features assorted science-fictional elements has been nicknamed ‘spy-fi’.

For more detail and an overview of the genre see the Theme Essay Spy Films.