Movies like The Spy Who Fell to Earth (2019)
The best movies like The Spy Who Fell to Earth (2019) are Snowden's Great Escape (2015), Damascus Cover (2017) and A Good American (2015). If The Spy Who Fell to Earth hooked you with its documentary and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedZero Days (2016)7.4/10 from 273 votes
- NewestCover-Up (2025)Released 2025
Snowden's Great Escape (2015)
Tells the story of how Edward Snowden managed to evade capture by the US. For the first time Snowden tells the story of how he managed to escape so that not to have to spend the rest of his life in an American prison.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Damascus Cover (2017)
A spy navigates the precarious terrain of love and survival during an undercover mission in Syria.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Good American (2015)
A Good American tells the story of the best code-breaker the USA ever had and how he and a small team within NSA created a surveillance tool that could pick up any electronic signal on earth, filter it for targets and render results in real-time while keeping the privacy as demanded by the US constitution.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
George Smiley, the aging master spy of the Cold War and once heir apparent to Control, is brought back out of retirement to flush out a top level mole within the Circus. Smiley must travel back through his life and murky workings of the Circus to unravel the net spun by his nemesis Karla 'The Sandman' of the KGB and reveal the identity of the mole before he disappears.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStarring Jerry as Himself (2024)
Jerry, an ordinary immigrant dad, retired in Orlando, is recruited to be an undercover agent for the Chinese police. Jerry’s family recreates the events on film and his three sons discover a darker truth. True crime meets spy thriller in this genre-bending docufiction hybrid about an immigrant’s search for the American dream. A Slamdance Film Festival Grand Jury and Audience Award winner.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
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: Fans watch both · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBridge of Spies (2015)
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers' only hope is New York lawyer James Donovan, recruited by a CIA operative to negotiate his release. Donovan boards a plane to Berlin, hoping to win the young man's freedom through a prisoner exchange. If all goes well, the Russians would get Rudolf Abel, the convicted spy who Donovan defended in court.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Gatekeepers (2012)
In an unprecedented and candid series of interviews, six former heads of the Shin Bet — Israel's intelligence and security agency — speak about their role in Israel's decades-long counterterrorism campaign, discussing their controversial methods and whether the ends ultimately justify the means.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCold Case Hammarskjöld (2019)
Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (currently Zambia), September 18, 1961. Swedish economist and diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the UN, dies mysteriously in a plane crash. Decades later, Danish journalist and filmmaker Mads Brügger and Swedish researcher Göran Björkdahl investigate the case in search of definitive closure.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Most Wanted Man (2014)
A Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg and becomes a person of interest for a covert government team tracking the movements of potential terrorists.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSilenced (2014)
Three National Security whistleblowers fight to reveal the darkest corners of America's war on terror, challenging a government that is increasingly determined to maintain secrecy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
1971 (2014)
Forty years before WikiLeaks and the NSA scandal, there was Media, Pennsylvania. In 1971, eight activists plotted an intricate break-in to the local FBI offices to leak stolen documents and expose the illegal surveillance of ordinary Americans in an era of anti-war activism. In this riveting heist story, the perpetrators reveal themselves for the first time, reflecting on their actions and raising broader questions surrounding security leaks in activism today.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Breach (2007)
Eric O'Neill, a low-level surveillance expert with the FBI, believes he is accomplishing his dream of becoming a full-fledged agent, with his unexpected promotion and assignment to clerk for Robert Hanssen, a renowned senior agent with 25 years in the FBI. However, he soon learns the reason for his promotion is to gain Hanssen's trust and find proof that he is a traitor to the country. Determined to draw the suspected double-agent out of deep cover, O'Neill finds himself in a lethal game of spy vs. spy, where nothing is as it seems.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZero Days (2016)
Alex Gibney explores the phenomenon of Stuxnet, a self-replicating computer virus discovered in 2010 by international IT experts. Evidently commissioned by the US and Israeli governments, this malware was designed to specifically sabotage Iran’s nuclear programme. However, the complex computer worm ended up not only infecting its intended target but also spreading uncontrollably.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Green Prince (2014)
This real-life thriller tells the story of one of Israel’s prized intelligence sources, recruited to spy on his own people for more than a decade. Focusing on the complex relationship with his handler, The Green Prince is a gripping account of terror, betrayal, and unthinkable choices, along with a friendship that defies all boundaries.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWe Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (2013)
Julian Assange. Bradley Manning. Collateral murder. Cablegate. WikiLeaks. These people and terms have exploded into public consciousness by fundamentally changing the way democratic societies deal with privacy, secrecy, and the right to information, perhaps for generations to come. We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is an extensive examination of all things related to WikiLeaks and the larger global debate over access to information.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWikiRebels (2010)
In WikiRebels, we learn about the early hacker life of Julian Assange, and his later decision to form an organization where whistleblowers can anonymously pass information that documents crime and immorality. His stated goal is to expose injustice, and nothing exemplifies this more than the leaked film entitled “Collateral Murder.” WikiRebels shows other films released by WikiLeaks, and catalogs the most significant leaks since its 2006 inception, including the Iceland banking scandal, Kenya corruption and death squads, and toxic dumping in Cote D’Ivoire.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Shadow Billionaire (2009)
DHL Founder and billionaire Larry Hillblom seemed to have vanished into thin air when he failed to return from a routine flight in his vintage Seabee over the Pacific. After his disappearance, a dark side of Larry emerged. Even before he was officially declared dead, bar girls throughout Southeast Asia came forward claiming to have had children by Larry and seeking a piece of his vast fortune. BILLIONAIRE unravels the secretive and scandalous life of this enigmatic and reclusive tycoon. The battle over his estate took on epic proportions, pitting impoverished, teenage prostitutes against Larry's former business associates and several of the largest law firms in the world. In the end it is a David and Goliath story, as a surprising hero emerges to untangle the web and discover the startling truth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Cover-Up (2025)
He's devoted his career to uncovering stories the powerful want buried. From My Lai to Abu Ghraib, dig into the life's work of journalist Seymour Hersh.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Six Billion Dollar Man (2025)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange battled extradition to the U.S., where he could've faced a lengthy sentence for publishing classified documents. His case, centered on press freedom, took unexpected twists as it unfolded.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Third Eye Spies (2019)
Two physicists discover psychic abilities are real only to have their experiments at Stanford co-opted by the CIA and their research silenced by the demands of secrecy. This is the true story of Russell Targ and America's Cold War psychic spies, disclosed and declassified for the first time, with evidence presented by a Nobel laureate, an Apollo astronaut, and the military and scientific community that has been suppressed for nearly 30 years.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby (2011)
A personal exploration into the life of America's controversial former CIA Director told through the eyes of his wife and filmmaker son, Carl. Through extraordinary events in twentieth century history, this consummate soldier/spy stood at the center of the Agency's most clandestine activities and operations. The film reveals the 'cover life' of this CIA operative, who followed orders and took on the dirtiest assignments until the Nixon Administration ordered him to 'stonewall' Congress about the CIA's past abuses, but he refused. This film reveals why, for the first time, he could not obey.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Bletchley Park: Code-breaking's Forgotten Genius (2015)
Gordon Welchman was one of the original elite codebreakers crucial to the allies defeating the Nazis in World War II. He is the forgotten genius of Bletchley Park.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Bomb (2015)
Using masterfully restored footage from recently declassified images, The Bomb tells a powerful story of the most destructive invention in human history. From the earliest testing stages to its use as the ultimate chess piece in global politics, the program outlines how America developed the bomb, how it changed the world and how it continues to loom large in our lives. The show also includes interviews with prominent historians and government insiders, along with men and women who helped build the weapon piece by piece.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Icarus: The Aftermath (2022)
Fogel’s follow-up provides a hair-raising mixture of Kafkaesque nightmare and Le Carré-type suspense as, over the course of three years, Rodchenkov is a nomad refugee, continuously moving residences, protected by his heardbut-never-seen security detail. Why? Vladimir Putin has publicly stated his determination to kill Rodchenkov. Fogel’s astonishing story includes Rodchenkov’s daring attempts to counter Putin’s charges, and his painful efforts to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Dissident (2020)
When Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappears after entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, his fiancée and dissidents around the world are left to piece together the clues to a brutal murder and expose a global cover up perpetrated by the very country he loved.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Accountant of Auschwitz (2018)
Oskar Gröning, known as the "Accountant of Auschwitz," was charged with the murder of 300,000 Jews. When he took the stand in 2015, at the age of 94, his trial made headlines worldwide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mystery of D.B. Cooper (2020)
This documentary brings to life the stories of four people believed by their family and friends to be “DB Cooper,” a man who hijacked a 727 flying out of Seattle and jumped from the plane over the wilds of Washington State with a parachute and $200,000, never to be heard from again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Day in September (1999)
The full story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli revenge operation 'Wrath of God.' The 1972 Munich Olympics were interrupted by Palestinian terrorists taking Israeli athletes hostage. Besides footage taken at the time, we see interviews with the surviving terrorist, Jamal Al Gashey, and various officials detailing exactly how the police, lacking an anti-terrorist squad and turning down help from the Israelis, botched the operation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass (2021)
Thirty years after the release of his film JFK (1991), filmmaker Oliver Stone reviews recently declassified evidence related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which took place in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & history
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Spy Who Fell to Earth?
The closest matches to The Spy Who Fell to Earth are Snowden's Great Escape (2015), Damascus Cover (2017) and A Good American (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Spy Who Fell to Earth?
People who watched The Spy Who Fell to Earth most often go on to Snowden's Great Escape (2015), Damascus Cover (2017) and A Good American (2015).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Spy Who Fell to Earth?
Zero Days (2016), rated 7.4/10 by 273 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Spy Who Fell to Earth?
Cover-Up (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Spy Who Fell to Earth?
Yes: Snowden's Great Escape (2015), Damascus Cover (2017) and A Good American (2015).
How are movies similar to The Spy Who Fell to Earth chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Spy Who Fell to Earth, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.