Movies like Ring of Spies (1964)
The best movies like Ring of Spies (1964) are The Quiller Memorandum (1966), Each Dawn I Die (1939) and They Made Me a Fugitive (1947). If Ring of Spies hooked you with its drama and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPickup on South Street (1953)7.4/10 from 342 votes
- NewestOscar Shaw (2026)Released 2026
The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEach Dawn I Die (1939)
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIslands (2025)
In this twisty thriller, a tennis coach at a tropical resort finds himself at the center of a missing persons mystery. Tom teaches tennis during the day and parties at night. When an enigmatic tourist arrives, Tom is unable to shake the feeling he has met her before. Tension and attraction grow, until her husband disappears, and the police suspect Tom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTime Without Pity (1957)
Alec Graham is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie, with whom he spent a weekend at the English country home of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford. Alec’s father, David Graham, a not-so-successful writer and alcoholic who has neglected his son in the past, flies in from Canada to visit his son on death row. David then goes on a quest to try and clear his son’s name while battling “the bottle.”
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Locket (1946)
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrighton Rock (1948)
Centring on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's main thematic concern is the criminal underbelly evident in inter-war Brighton.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young Savages (1961)
A district attorney investigates the racially charged case of three teenagers accused of the murder of a blind Puerto Rican boy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dark Past (1948)
A gang hold a family hostage in their own home. The leader of the escaped cons is bothered by a recurring dream that the doctor of the house may be able to analyze.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoint Blank (1967)
After being double-crossed and left for dead, a mysterious man named Walker single-mindedly tries to retrieve the rather inconsequential sum of money that was stolen from him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Deadly Affair (1967)
Charles Dobbs is a British secret agent investigating the apparent suicide of Foreign Office official Samuel Fennan. Dobbs suspects that Fennan's wife, Elsa, a survivor of a Nazi Germany extermination camp, might have some clues, but other officials want Dobbs to drop the case. So Dobbs hires a retiring inspector, Mendel, to quietly make inquiries. Dobbs isn't at all sure as there are a number of anomalies that simply can't be explained away. Dobbs is also having trouble at home with his errant wife, whom he very much loves, having frequent affairs. He's also pleased to see an old friend, Dieter Frey, who he recruited after the war. With the assistance of a colleague and a retired policeman, Dobbs tries to piece together just who is the spy and who in fact assassinated Fennan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIndemnity (2022)
An ex-fireman with PTSD goes on the run when accused of a crime he doesn't even remember committing, leading him down a rabbit hole of conspiracy to the highest degree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Lamp (1950)
P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of the 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiss Marple: They Do It with Mirrors (1992)
At the insistence of Ruth Van Rydock, an old schoolfriend who is convinced that there is something wrong, Miss Marple agrees to visit 'Stonygates', the country house of Ruth's sister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Key (1942)
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPickup on South Street (1953)
In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOscar Shaw (2026)
After retiring from the police force, a relentless detective haunted by the tragic loss of his closest friend sets out on a perilous quest for vengeance, seeking redemption and fighting to restore justice to the streets he once swore to protect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Assault (2014)
After a cheerleader is sexually assaulted by the high school football team, she must overcome her shame and use the evidence gathered from the subsequent social media firestorm to piece together the night that she can't remember in her fight for justice. Based on the true story of the Steubenville, Ohio rape case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTopaz (1969)
Copenhagen, Denmark, 1962. When a high-ranking Soviet official decides to change sides, a French intelligence agent is caught up in a cold, silent and bloody spy war in which his own family will play a decisive role.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady in the Lake (1946)
Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Way Out (1987)
Navy Lt. Tom Farrell meets a young woman, Susan Atwell, and they share a passionate fling. Farrell then finds out that his superior, Defense Secretary David Brice, is also romantically involved with Atwell. When the young woman turns up dead, Farrell is put in charge of the murder investigation. He begins to uncover shocking clues about the case, but when details of his encounter with Susan surface, he becomes a suspect as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle 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 drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAgent of the Secret Service (1979)
Musician Stefan meets a young attractive woman Lidia. Stefan is going on tour to Austria, and Lydia, "accidentally" remembering her Viennese acquaintance, asks to give her a souvenir from Moldova. In Vienna, Stefan is met by people who are well aware of his private life and even familiar with his diary. The musician begins to suspect something is wrong, but when his daughter's well-being is threatened, Stefan becomes truly worried...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Mirror Mirror (2025)
Over the brief course of a month, troubled teen Daniella finds solace in the pursuit of another young woman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
With No Expiration Date (1987)
Leaving the seaside town at the end of the Great Patriotic War, the SS men hid lists of secret agents. A few years later, Sam Page, a former fascist mercenary Semyon Paygin, and two other agents come to the USSR in order to search for the archive. After all, the crimes of SS agents have no statute of limitations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
A Dangerous Boy (2024)
Sigurdur Thordarson, known as Siggi, becomes a hacker at 12, exposing Icelandic bank corruption at 14. Branded the "teenage whistleblower," he joins WikiLeaks in 2010, mentored by Julian Assange. Siggi leaks globally, but clashes with Assange, prompting him to spy for the FBI at 18. This tale weaves paranoia, hacking, and friendship, portraying Siggi's turbulent journey from trust to betrayal, revealing a heart-wrenching coming-of-age narrative.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Farewell, the spy who loved France (2019)
"The Farewell Affair" is one of the greatest espionage stories of the Cold War that will result in the accelerated fall of the USSR. It involves Vladimir Vetrov, a KGB agent put in the closet, who decides to contact the DST and deliver several lists of technological and scientific agents and secrets, which the KGB has been stealing from the countries of the Western Blocs for decades.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
The Serpent (1973)
Vlassov is a Soviet spy who defects in France. He is whisked to the U.S, where Allan Davies takes over the case. After polygraph tests and cross-examinations, Vlassov names several Western European agents who are also spying for the Soviets. Davies wants to take the listed agents into custody; meanwhile, those on the list start dying under mysterious circumstances.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKlassi Ghalina: Mission to Moscow (TBA)
The class goes on a special secret mission in Moscow..
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ring of Spies?
The closest matches to Ring of Spies are The Quiller Memorandum (1966), Each Dawn I Die (1939) and They Made Me a Fugitive (1947). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ring of Spies?
Start with The Quiller Memorandum (1966), the closest match to Ring of Spies.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ring of Spies?
Pickup on South Street (1953), rated 7.4/10 by 342 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ring of Spies?
Oscar Shaw (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Ring of Spies?
Yes: The Quiller Memorandum (1966), Each Dawn I Die (1939) and They Made Me a Fugitive (1947).
How are movies similar to Ring of Spies chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ring of Spies, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.