32 Of The Best Movies About The Cold War

 Tom Cruise in Top Gun.
Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

If you grew up anytime from the 1950s to the 1980s, The Cold War was omnipresent. Bomb drills, proxy wars, and fear of a nuclear apocalypse were on everyone's minds, pretty much all the time. It was a scary time, to be sure, but it also produced some great movies. This is a list of all those great movies that couldn't have happened without The Cold War and the fear of the Soviets.

Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October
Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt For Red October

Nothing sums up the Cold War quite like a good Tom Clancy story, and The Hunt For Red October is one of the author's best, and Sean Connery's performance as a Soviet submarine captain equals it. It was also the first book to get turned into a film, though it was ironically released in 1990, just months after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.

Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer
Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer

While 2023's Oppenheimer is partly about the development of the bomb during World War II, before the Cold War, the portrayal of the Red Scare and J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) having his security clearance taken away for being a suspected communist fits firmly in the Cold War era.

Roger Moore leans to the side with a confident smile in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Roger Moore leans to the side with a confident smile in The Spy Who Loved Me.

The Spy Who Loved Me

In a way, almost every James Bond movie from Dr. No to A View To A Kill is Cold War adjacent, at least. In The Spy Who Loved Me, however, Bond (Roger Moore) is pursued by Soviet agents in the beginning, and then teams up with a KGB agent, Major Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) to thwart the evil Stromberg's plans for world domination over both countries.

Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies
Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies

Bridge Of Spies

There is no more true example of a Cold War movie on this list than Bridge Of Spies. For starters, it's based on a true story about a prisoner exchange between the US and the USSR, including one very famous U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell). The movie takes place during one of the "hottest" moments of the Cold War, when tensions were almost boiling over.

Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy in WarGames
Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy in WarGames

WarGames

By the 1980s, the Cold War was so ubiquitous in American life that even teen romance movies took place with the backdrop of potential nuclear war. WarGames, with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, is the best example of this, as Brodderick's character unwittingly almost starts World War III.

Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove
Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove

Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb depicts the epitome of Cold War nuclear missile madness. The obscurity of it all is presented in such a perfect way, that if this had been the only Cold War movie, it would tell the whole story.

The Right Stuff cast
The Right Stuff cast

The Right Stuff

There may not be any nukes in The Right Stuff, but it has to be on any list of Cold War movies. The space race was a major component of the competition between the USA and the USSR. the specter of the Soviets looms over everything in the movie, and the true story it is based on.

Charlie Wilson's War

One of the biggest aspects of the Cold War was the proxy wars that the two superpowers fought and supported. The Soviets provided weapons and support for the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War and the US supported the Afghan Mujahidin after the USSR invaded Afghanistan. Charlie Wilson's War shows the CIA's support and how Congress funded the US's allies in the war.

Bill Murray in Stripes
Bill Murray in Stripes

Stripes

Cold War movies aren't all serious, though. Stripes has one of the best lines in the history of war movies, when Winger (Bill Murray) explains that invading Czechoslovakia is like invading Wisconsin. It's not Moscow!

The opening scene of Red Dawn
The opening scene of Red Dawn

Red Dawn

Director John Milius' Cold War fever dream, Red Dawn, depicts an actual hot war between East and West, with nothing but a group of high schoolers fighting off the Russians and Cubans. It's a ridiculous movie, but it's still a classic for anyone who grew up in the 1980s. It's also remembered for being the first movie ever rated PG-13.

James Earl Jones in By Dawn's Early Light
James Earl Jones in By Dawn's Early Light

By Dawn's Early Light

HBO's By Dawn's Early Light brings to bear all of our worst fears of a Soviet first strike in a nuclear attack and the holocaust that could happen after such an event. With an all-star cast that includes James Earl Jones, Martin Landau, Powers Boothe, Rebecca De Mornay, Darren McGavin, and Rip Torn, it's a much better movie than it's remembered for being.

Linda Fiorentino and Anthony Edwards in Gotcha!
Linda Fiorentino and Anthony Edwards in Gotcha!

Gotcha!

1985 Gotcha! is a really fun movie about a college student (Anthony Edwards) who unwittingly finds himself in the middle of a Cold War dispute when he falls in love with who he thinks is a Czechoslovakian woman (Linda Fiorentino), but finds out later something very different. It also features a great scene at the infamous Checkpoint Charlie in a divided Berlin.

Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd standing next to each other in a tent in Spies Like Us.
Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd standing next to each other in a tent in Spies Like Us.

Spies Like Us

Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd star as bumbling would-be spies in Spies Like Us who find themselves in the middle of the Cold War when the CIA sends them out as patsies, but they end up the heroes anyway.

Bruce Greenwood As John F. Kennedy
Bruce Greenwood As John F. Kennedy

Thirteen Days

It's been said that the closest the USSR and the USA came to actually fighting a real war was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was a terrifying moment that was really well chronicled in Thirteen Days with Bruce Greenwood playing President Kennedy and Kevin Costner as one of his closest advisors.

David Strathairn in Good Night, and Good Luck
David Strathairn in Good Night, and Good Luck

Good Night, And Good Luck

One of the more fascinating aspects of the Cold War didn't really involve the Russians directly. McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the 1950s show just how scared some American politicians were of the influence of communism around the world and at home. Good Night, And Good Luck brings the Red Scare to life on the big screen, explaining it to a younger generation that didn't remember it directly.

Kurt Russell in Miracle
Kurt Russell in Miracle

Miracle

The geopolitics of the Cold War were so pervasive that they even reached sporting events, like the 1980 Winter Olympics. Miracle tells the true story of the underdog 1980 US Olympic hockey team who beat the mighty Soviets in Lake Placid, eventually winning the Gold Medal. It was much more than just a hockey game.

Gary Oldman looking dour while telling a story in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Gary Oldman looking dour while telling a story in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Although most of the movies on this list involve the United States, in a very real way, Europe was the front line in the Cold War. The dividing line between East and West ran right down the middle of the continent and the Brits were very much involved in fighting the espionage battle, as depicted (fictionally) in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water.
Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water.

The Shape Of Water

Guillermo del Toro's The Shape Of Water adds a love story and some science fiction to the commentary on the Cold War.  Sally Hawkins plays a cleaning lady who discovers that her facility is conducting experiments on a humanoid amphibian to get a leg up on the Soviets in the '60s. It's a weird movie, and one you wouldn't expect to incorporate the Cold War, but that's what makes the subject so fascinating.

Michael Gambon in The Good Shepherd
Michael Gambon in The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd

Director Robert De Niro's spy movie The Good Shepherd, starring Matt Damon tells the largely fictionalize-but-based-on-a-true-story tale of Edward Wilson (Damon) and the creation of the art and science of counterintelligence at the CIA, which before the events in the movie, did not really exist.

Gene Hackman in Crimson Tide
Gene Hackman in Crimson Tide

Crimson Tide

The Cold War reached right down to the men and women on the front of the conflict, especially those on a nuclear submarine like the one Gene Hackman's character captains in Crimson Tide. While the movie is fictional, it's not hard to believe something like it, a conflict between two officers (Hackman and Denzel Washington) over the launching nukes, could have happened in real life.

Rocky vs Drago in Rocky IV
Rocky vs Drago in Rocky IV

Rocky IV

Rocky IV is pure, unadulterated pro-America jingoism, but that doesn't mean it's a bad movie. It's over-the-top and ridiculous, sure, but it actually does capture how many Americans felt in Reagan's America, that we had the Soviets on the ropes and we were one knockout punch away from winning. It turns out, that wasn't far off in 1985 when the movie came out.

Harrison Ford in K-19: The Widowmaker
Harrison Ford in K-19: The Widowmaker

K-19: The Widowmaker

Harrison Ford plays a Soviet submarine captain in K-19: The Widowmaker and if you think that sounds ridiculous, you're only partly correct. The title, and a brief description, make the movie sound insane, and it is, but it's also kind of great. Ford pulls off the role and director Kathryn Bigelow someone makes the crazy premise work. It's the sort-of-true story of the captain of the first Soviet nuclear sub and it's fun, if far from perfect.

Sam Rockwell in Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind
Sam Rockwell in Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind

Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind

Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind is a bonkers movie, supposedly based on the bonkers life story of Chuck Barris, the original host of The Gong Show and, at least according to him in his autobiography, a spy against the Soviets during the Cold War. Whether or not you believe Barris (most don't), the movie is a really fun watch.

Robert Redford in Spy Game
Robert Redford in Spy Game

Spy Game

You can't go wrong with a team of Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, and director Tony Scott and while Spy Game isn't the best movie for any of them, it's still a wonderful movie. Though it's set a couple years after the Cold War ended, much of the movie happens in a flashback to 1970s East Berlin, setting it firmly in the heart of the quiet conflict.

Kevin Costner in No Way Out
Kevin Costner in No Way Out

No Way Out

No Way Out is pure 1980s Cold War. Kevin Costner plays a Navy officer who gets involved with another officer's girlfriend, played by Gene Hackman and Sean Young, respectively. Costner's character is also working for the CIA, looking for a mole, who is suspected to be Hackman's character. There is a murder, and everyone is trying to pin it on everyone else, so the movie is kind of all over the place, but it's still a classic.

Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

Author John le Carre wrote some of the best Cold War spy fiction of his day and the movie The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is based on one his best books. The great Richard Burton stars as a British spy who is sent to East Germany as a double agent, to help spread misinformation through the Warsaw Pact countries. Released in 1965 when tensions were high, it's a spy movie classic.

Clint Eastwood in Firefox
Clint Eastwood in Firefox

Firefox

To be fair, Firefox, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood is really a heist movie disguised as a Cold War movie. Eastwood's character, whose mother is Russian, is charged with infiltrating the Soviet Union and stealing a cutting edge jet fighter plane. It's everything you would expect from a military movie made in the 1980s.

Tom Cruise as Maverick in Top Gun
Tom Cruise as Maverick in Top Gun

Top Gun

In Top Gun Maverick and the boys might not have been fighting the Russians, but make no mistake, the movie was, in a real way, fighting the Russians by getting America fired up about its own military. The movie, made with the help of the Defense Department, is awesome, to be sure, but it's also a piece of serious Cold War propaganda.

X-Men: First Class
X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class

The X-Men, both in the comics and in their on-screen story, began in the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, so it makes sense that both sides would be interested in recruiting the mutants for their powers. This is central to the origin story film X-Men: First Class. Professor X and Magneto both go to work for the CIA in the movie, infiltrating the Soviet Union to rescue other mutants.

Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde
Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde

Atomic Blonde

released in 2017, but set just before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Atomic Blonde tells the story of an MI6 agent, played by Charlize Theron, sent to recover a stolen file containing "The List" of the names of all the spies in Berlin. Lorraine (Theron) is one of the best agents MI6 has... or is she?

Sidney Poitier in Little Nikita
Sidney Poitier in Little Nikita

Little Nikita

Decades before The Americans came Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix in Little Nikita, about a teenager (Phoenix) who is told he isn't who he thinks he is, and that his parents, unbeknownst to him, are Soviet spies raising him as an American. If you were a kid in the '80s, this was something you actually worried about. For real.

Henry Cavill as Napoleon Solo in The Man From UNCLE
Henry Cavill as Napoleon Solo in The Man From UNCLE

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The TV show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. from the early '60s was an early attempt by television to bring Cold War espionage into the homes of Americans. The 2015 movie, set in the early '60s, doesn't set the Soviets as the bad guys, instead, East and West team up to take out their old foes, Nazis.

Angelina Jolie in Salt
Angelina Jolie in Salt

Salt

Angelina Jolie stars in Salt as a suspected Russian sleeper agent, after she grew up in the USSR, but works now for the CIA. While it's not set during the Cold War, it has heavy Cold War overtones. It might as well be the US versus USSR, rather than the US vs. Russia as it's presented.

It's safe to say that these won't be the final say on the Cold War on film. With so many stories to tell over the decades-long standoff, filmmakers will certainly continue to mine it for great ideas and exciting stories.