Movies like Coded Message for the Boss (1979)
The best movies like Coded Message for the Boss (1979) are All the Old Knives (2022), Atomic Blonde (2017) and The Amateur (2025). If Coded Message for the Boss hooked you with its thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Lives of Others (2006)8.0/10 from 4,350 votes
- NewestThe Amateur (2025)Released 2025
- In GermanThe Lives of Others (2006)Also in German
All the Old Knives (2022)
When the CIA discovers one of its agents leaked information that cost more than 100 people their lives, veteran operative Henry Pelham is assigned to root out the mole with his former lover and colleague Celia Harrison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAtomic Blonde (2017)
An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Amateur (2025)
After his life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, a brilliant but introverted CIA decoder takes matters into his own hands when his supervisors refuse to take action.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCypher (2002)
An unsuspecting, disenchanted man finds himself working as a spy in the dangerous, high-stakes world of corporate espionage. Quickly getting way over-his-head, he teams up with a mysterious femme fatale.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThree Days of the Condor (1975)
When bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner finds all his co-workers dead, he, together with a woman he has kidnapped, must work together to outwit those responsible until he determines who he can really trust.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShining Through (1992)
Spirited New Yorker Linda Voss goes to work for international lawyer and secret Office of Strategic Services operative Ed Leland just before World War II. As they fall in love, the United States enters the fight against Hitler, and Linda volunteers to work for Ed spying undercover behind Nazi lines. Assigned to uncover information about a German bomb, Linda also has personal motives to fulfill: discovering the fate of her Jewish family members in Berlin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lives of Others (2006)
In 1984 East Berlin, dedicated Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler begins spying on a famous playwright and his actress-lover Christa-Maria. Wiesler becomes unexpectedly sympathetic to the couple, and faces conflicting loyalties when his superior takes a liking to Christa-Maria.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Gray Man (2022)
When a shadowy CIA agent uncovers damning agency secrets, he's hunted across the globe by a sociopathic rogue operative who's put a bounty on his head.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCanary Black (2024)
Top level CIA agent Avery Graves is blackmailed by terrorists into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband. Cut off from her team, she turns to her underworld contacts to survive and help locate the coveted intelligence that the kidnappers want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSafe House (2012)
A dangerous CIA renegade resurfaces after a decade on the run. When the safe house he's remanded to is attacked by mercenaries, a rookie operative escapes with him. Now, the unlikely allies must stay alive long enough to uncover who wants them dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMission: Impossible III (2006)
Retired from active duty, and training recruits for the Impossible Mission Force, agent Ethan Hunt faces the toughest foe of his career: Owen Davian, an international broker of arms and information, who's as cunning as he is ruthless. Davian emerges to threaten Hunt and all that he holds dear – including the woman Hunt loves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNobody (2021)
Hutch Mansell, a suburban dad, overlooked husband, nothing neighbor — a "nobody." When two thieves break into his home one night, Hutch's unknown long-simmering rage is ignited and propels him on a brutal path that will uncover dark secrets he fought to leave behind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPretty Poison (1968)
A troubled arsonist spins a tale of espionage to a captivating girl, who becomes enthralled and entangled in his dangerous fantasies, leading to unexpected murder and chaos that change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHanna (2011)
Raised by her father, an ex-CIA agent, in the wilds of Finland, Hanna's upbringing has been geared to making her the perfect assassin. Sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys across Europe, eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative. As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKandahar (2023)
After his mission is exposed, an undercover CIA operative stuck deep in hostile territory in Afghanistan must fight his way out, alongside his Afghan translator, to an extraction point in Kandahar, all whilst avoiding elite enemy forces and foreign spies tasked with hunting them down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMission: Impossible (1996)
When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the prime suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisErased (2012)
A former agent of the CIA and his estranged daughter go on the run after his employers target them for assassination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnlocked (2017)
After failing to apprehend the terrorist behind a Paris attack that claimed dozens of lives, CIA agent Alice Racine is forced to live in London as a caseworker. Her mentor unexpectedly calls her back into action when the CIA discovers that another attack is imminent. Alice soon learns that the classified information she's uncovered has been compromised...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Saint (1997)
Simon Templar (The Saint), is a thief for hire, whose latest job to steal the secret process for cold fusion puts him at odds with a traitor bent on toppling the Russian government, as well as the woman who holds its secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMission: Impossible II (2000)
With computer genius Luther Stickell at his side and a beautiful thief on his mind, agent Ethan Hunt races across Australia and Spain to stop a former IMF agent from unleashing a genetically engineered biological weapon called Chimera. This mission, should Hunt choose to accept it, plunges him into the center of an international crisis of terrifying magnitude.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBody of Lies (2008)
The CIA’s hunt is on for the mastermind of a wave of terrorist attacks. Roger Ferris is the agency’s man on the ground, moving from place to place, scrambling to stay ahead of ever-shifting events. An eye in the sky – a satellite link – watches Ferris. At the other end of that real-time link is the CIA’s Ed Hoffman, strategizing events from thousands of miles away. And as Ferris nears the target, he discovers trust can be just as dangerous as it is necessary for survival.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnderground (1970)
An American intelligence agent attempts to kidnap a top Nazi general.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Little Nikita (1988)
An FBI agent works to uncover an all-American family as Soviet sleeper agents, and gets caught up in friendship with their oblivious teenage son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBelly of the Beast (2003)
An ex-CIA agent returns to Thailand and reconnects with an old partner in order to rescue his daughter who has been kidnapped.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Osterman Weekend (1983)
The host of an investigative news show is convinced by the CIA that the friends he has invited to a weekend in the country are engaged in a conspiracy that threatens national security.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this13 Rue Madeleine (1947)
Bob Sharkey, an instructor of would-be spies for the Allied Office of Strategic Services, becomes suspicious of one of the latest batch of students, Bill O'Connell, who is too good at espionage. His boss, Charles Gibson confirms that O'Connell is really a top German agent, but tells Sharkey to pass him, as they intend to feed the mole false information about the impending D-Day invasion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Foreigner (2003)
This story is about a freelance agent who is the courier of a package from France to Germany. He soon finds that many people want to get their hands on it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Assignment (1997)
Jack Shaw has experienced the terror first-hand. He's a top CIA agent who's tracked international killer-for-hire Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez for over twenty years and barely survived Carlos' devastating bombing of a Parisian cafe. Now, he finally gets a break when he discovers Carlos' dead ringer: American naval officer and dedicated family man Annibal Ramirez.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFay Grim (2007)
Many years after her notorious husband, Henry Fool, fled after killing a neighbor, Fay Grim receives a visit from CIA agent Fulbright, who tells her that Henry is dead, but that some of his journals have been unearthed in France. She sets forth on a globe-trotting odyssey that soon leads to the discovery that he is alive, and his journals are more than they appear to be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisFlush Memoria (2015)
A film exploring a Kafkaesque setting where spy is played against spy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Coded Message for the Boss?
The closest matches to Coded Message for the Boss are All the Old Knives (2022), Atomic Blonde (2017) and The Amateur (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Coded Message for the Boss?
Start with All the Old Knives (2022), the closest match to Coded Message for the Boss.
What is the highest-rated movie like Coded Message for the Boss?
The Lives of Others (2006), rated 8.0/10 by 4,350 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Coded Message for the Boss?
The Amateur (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Coded Message for the Boss?
Yes: The Lives of Others (2006).
How are movies similar to Coded Message for the Boss chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Coded Message for the Boss, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.