Hart and Johnson: The world’s two unlikeliest megastars join forces this week for Central Intelligence, playing former high school classmates who reunite and get embroiled in international action courtesy of the CIA. Since its inception in 1947, Hollywood has committed plenty of celluloid around the agency’s foundation of espionage and top-secret missions, inspiring this week’s gallery: the best and worst CIA agents in movie history.
Aidan Gillen in The Dark Knight Rises (2012, 87%): Never mess with a guy in Kirkland Signature pants who introduces himself as literally “CIA.” …Just kidding! You can throw him out of a plane.
Matt Damon in the Bourne series: Some people dream of working for the CIA, and some people after joining, boy, they really want to quit.
Liam Neeson in the Taken series: Bryan Mills is retired, but those particular set of skills acquired over a very long career you carry into your golden years.
The Jack Ryan series: Once considered the brainy American rival to James Bond, Tom Clancy’s signature hero was initially played by Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October, 1990), Harrison Ford (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, 1992 and 1994 respectively) before being twice rebooted with fresh faces: Ben Affleck in The Sum of All Fears (2002) and Chris Pine in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014).
Ben Affleck in Argo (2012, 96%): Playing loose with history, Affleck cast himself as an exfiltration genius responsible for rescuing six Americans during the 1980 Iran hostage crisis by faking a movie production within the country.
Emily VanCamp in Captain America: Civil War (2016, 90%): After leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. to join the CIA, VanCamp’s Sharon Carter is assigned to the task force bringing in The Winter Soldier.
Angelina Jolie in Salt (2010, 62%): Evelyn Salt is an accused spy who turns out to be working for the CIA working for the KGB…or IS she??
Henry Cavill in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015, 66%): A retro throwback set during the same era as the swingin’ original TV show, Cavill plays posh CIA agent Napoleon Solo who’s teamed with a KGB agent (Armie Hammer) to retrieve a nuke.
Jeffrey Wright from the James Bond series: 007’s buddy working out of the other side of the Atlantic who’s made appearances since Dr.No (1962), most recently played by Wright in the Daniel Craig cycle.
Robert DeNiro in Ronin (1998, 68%): DeNiro as an ex-CIA agent (or IS he??) in John Frankenheimer’s last great film.
Ryan Reynolds in Safe House (2012, 53%): Reynolds is playing house at one of the agency’s safe locations when an ex-operative (Denzel Washington) is brought in to hide from mercenaries.
Denzel Washington in Man On Fire (2004, 39%): Playing another ex-agent, Washington goes on a rampage in Mexico City in Tony Scott’s stylish thriller.
Gerard Butler in Law-Abiding Citizen (2009, 25%): Another ex-CIA op with nothing good on his mind, Butler orchestrates seemingly impossible revenge killings from a maximum security jail cell.
Robert Redford in 3 Days of the Condor (1975, 88%): Redford, a lowly CIA analyst, returns from lunch and finds all his co-workers dead…
…but seems okay enough with it to stick with the agency, training Brad Pitt 25 years later in Spy Game (2001, 66%).
Melissa McCarthy in Spy (2015, 94%): McCarthy plays a well-intentioned agency desk jockey who is given the impossible mission of going undercover in Paris.
Sam Rockwell in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2003, 79%): Rockwell had his breakthrough role in playing Gong Show host Chuck Barris, who claimed to be a CIA assassin in-between humiliating amateurs on national TV.
Bruce Willis in RED (2010, 71%): Along with John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman, the trio make up what the CIA classify as “Retried, Extremely Dangerous.”
Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd in Spies Like Us (1985, 35%): Two government losers take the CIA entry exam only to be enlisted as Cold War decoys.
Johnny Depp in Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003, 68%): A corrupt CIA agent gets in way over his head in Robert Rodriguez’s closer to his Mexico trilogy.
Chris Pine and Tom Hardy in This Means War (2012, 26%): Your tax dollars at work as two agents use government resouces to go after Reese Witherspoon.
Frankie Muniz in Agent Cody Banks (2003, 39%): In-between seasons of Malcom in the Middle, Muniz put out two movies as the upstart world-saving agent.
Sam Eagle in Muppets Most Wanted (2014, 79%): The pompous puppet was recast as an agent in the globe-trotting Muppets reboot sequel.
J.K. Simmons in Burn After Reading: Gallery’s over! What did we learn? I guess we learned not to do it again (whatever it was).
