Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "cold-war-era"
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1. The Americans (2013–2018)
TV-MA | 44 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
At the height of the Cold War, two Russian agents pose as the average American couple, complete with family.
Stars: Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Keidrich Sellati, Holly Taylor
Votes: 111,555
2. Monster (2004– )
TV-14 | 24 min | Animation, Crime, Drama
Tenma, a brilliant neurosurgeon with a promising future, risks his career to save the life of a critically wounded young boy. The boy, now a charismatic young man, reappears 9 years later in the midst of a string of unusual serial murders.
Stars: Hidenobu Kiuchi, Liam O'Brien, Mamiko Noto, Karen Strassman
Votes: 44,935
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, War
An unhinged American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 518,930 | Gross: $0.28M
4. Clue (1985)
PG | 94 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Six guests are anonymously invited to a strange mansion for dinner, but after their host is killed, they must cooperate with the staff to identify the murderer as the bodies pile up.
Director: Jonathan Lynn | Stars: Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd
Votes: 109,526 | Gross: $14.64M
5. The Hunt for Red October (1990)
PG | 135 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
In November 1984, the Soviet Union's best submarine captain violates orders and heads for the U.S. in a new undetectable sub. The American CIA and military must quickly determine: Is he trying to defect or to start a war?
Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Sam Neill
Votes: 215,079 | Gross: $122.01M
6. The Liquidator (1965)
Approved | 105 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Colonel Mostyn of the British Intelligence Service suspects there is a leak in his department and hires an American expatriate to eliminate various targets working for the Soviets.
Director: Jack Cardiff | Stars: Rod Taylor, Trevor Howard, Jill St. John, Wilfrid Hyde-White
Votes: 1,298
7. Red Dawn (1984)
PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
It is the dawn of World War III. In the west mountains of America, a group of teenagers band together to defend their town, and their country, from invading Soviet forces.
Director: John Milius | Stars: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen
Votes: 63,221 | Gross: $38.38M
8. Top Secret! (1984)
PG | 90 min | Comedy, Crime, Music
An American rock and roll singer is invited to a cultural festival in East Germany in order to distract from a plot to destroy NATO submarines, but he accidentally becomes involved in a resistance plot to rescue an imprisoned scientist.
Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker | Stars: Val Kilmer, Omar Sharif, Jeremy Kemp, Warren Clarke
Votes: 73,203 | Gross: $20.50M
9. Bridge of Spies (2015)
PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, History, Thriller
During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan
Votes: 328,103 | Gross: $72.31M
10. The Courier (2020)
PG-13 | 112 min | Drama, History, Mystery
Businessman Greville Wynne is asked by a Russian source to try to help put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Director: Dominic Cooke | Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, Vladimir Chuprikov
Votes: 73,834 | Gross: $6.61M
11. JFK (1991)
R | 189 min | Drama, History, Thriller
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau
Votes: 170,170 | Gross: $70.41M
12. Miracle (2004)
PG | 135 min | Biography, Drama, History
The true story of Herb Brooks, the player-turned-coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Soviet squad.
Director: Gavin O'Connor | Stars: Kurt Russell, Patricia Clarkson, Nathan West, Noah Emmerich
Votes: 58,992 | Gross: $64.38M
13. October Sky (1999)
PG | 108 min | Biography, Drama, Family
The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.
Director: Joe Johnston | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Chris Owen
Votes: 98,201 | Gross: $32.48M
14. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
PG | 115 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
When strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city's residents one body at a time.
Director: Philip Kaufman | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright
Votes: 70,032 | Gross: $24.95M
15. Pan Am (2011–2012)
TV-PG | 583 min | Drama, History, Romance
Period drama about the pilots and flight attendants who once made Pan Am the most glamorous way to fly.
Stars: Christina Ricci, Margot Robbie, Michael Mosley, Karine Vanasse
Votes: 21,263
16. Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
R | 102 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
A drama based on a Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Votes: 125,004 | Gross: $66.66M
17. In Like Flint (1967)
Unrated | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Super-spy Flint takes on a cabal of women plotting to rule the world.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: James Coburn, Lee J. Cobb, Jean Hale, Andrew Duggan
Votes: 6,102 | Gross: $11.00M
18. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–1968)
TV-PG | 50 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
The two top Agents of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.) fight the enemies of peace, particularly the forces of T.H.R.U.S.H.
Stars: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Leo G. Carroll, John Herman Shaner
Votes: 6,275
19. Get Smart (1965–1970)
TV-G | 25 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Maxwell Smart, a highly intellectual but bumbling spy working for the CONTROL agency, battles the evil forces of rival spy agency KAOS with the help of his competent partner Agent 99.
Stars: Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, Edward Platt, Robert Karvelas
Votes: 13,815
20. Casino Royale (1967)
Approved | 131 min | Comedy
In an early spy spoof, aging Sir James Bond comes out of retirement to take on SMERSH.
Directors: Val Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, Richard Talmadge | Stars: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Orson Welles
Votes: 32,537
21. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
G | 92 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe
Votes: 85,862
22. Octopussy (1983)
PG | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A fake Fabergé egg recovered from the body of a fellow agent leads James Bond to uncover a jewel smuggling operation led by the mysterious Octopussy, and a plot to blow up a NATO air base.
Director: John Glen | Stars: Roger Moore, Maud Adams, Louis Jourdan, Kristina Wayborn
Votes: 113,100 | Gross: $67.90M
23. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Thriller
An American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 79,931
24. Moonraker (1979)
PG | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
James Bond investigates the mid-air theft of a space shuttle, and discovers a plot to commit global genocide.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel
Votes: 108,902 | Gross: $70.31M
25. The Vietnam War (2017)
TV-MA | 99 min | Documentary, History, War
A comprehensive history of the United States' involvement in the bitterly divisive armed conflict in Southeast Asia.
Stars: Peter Coyote, Huy Duc, James Willbanks, Duong Van Mai Elliott
Votes: 28,076
26. White Nights (1985)
PG-13 | 136 min | Drama, Music
A Russian American ballet dancer's airplane is forced to land in USSR, where he's "repatriated". He stays with an American man married to a Russian. Will the American help him flee USSR?
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, Jerzy Skolimowski, Helen Mirren
Votes: 8,234 | Gross: $42.16M
27. The Living Daylights (1987)
PG | 130 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond is sent to investigate a KGB policy to kill all enemy spies, and uncovers an arms deal that potentially has major global ramifications.
Director: John Glen | Stars: Timothy Dalton, Maryam d'Abo, Jeroen Krabbé, Joe Don Baker
Votes: 105,964 | Gross: $51.19M
28. Thirteen Days (2000)
PG-13 | 145 min | Drama, History, Thriller
In October 1962, the Kennedy administration struggles to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Shawn Driscoll, Drake Cook
Votes: 62,774 | Gross: $34.59M
29. You Only Live Twice (1967)
PG | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond and the Japanese Secret Service must find and stop the true culprit of a series of space hijackings, before war is provoked between Russia and the United States.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Sean Connery, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama, Tetsurô Tanba
Votes: 117,693 | Gross: $43.08M
30. The Hour (2011–2012)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama
A behind-the-scenes drama and espionage thriller in Cold War-era England that centers on a journalist, a producer, and an anchorman for an investigative news programme.
Stars: Romola Garai, Ben Whishaw, Dominic West, Anna Chancellor
Votes: 11,080
31. The Fountainhead (1949)
Approved | 114 min | Drama, Romance
An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Kent Smith
Votes: 10,931
32. Lord of the Flies (1963)
Not Rated | 92 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Schoolboys marooned on a Pacific island create their own savage civilization.
Director: Peter Brook | Stars: James Aubrey, Tom Chapin, Hugh Edwards, Roger Elwin
Votes: 20,443
33. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)
TV-14 | 45 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced out of semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons.
Stars: Alec Guinness, Michael Jayston, Anthony Bate, George Sewell
Votes: 9,640
34. Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
PG | 93 min | Biography, Drama, History
Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looks to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Director: George Clooney | Stars: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels
Votes: 101,363 | Gross: $31.56M
35. Trumbo (2015)
R | 124 min | Biography, Drama
In 1947, Dalton Trumbo was Hollywood's top screenwriter, until he and other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs.
Director: Jay Roach | Stars: Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K.
Votes: 84,835 | Gross: $7.86M
36. Pawn Sacrifice (2014)
PG-13 | 115 min | Biography, Drama, History
Set during the Cold War, American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer finds himself caught between two superpowers and his own struggles as he challenges the Soviet Empire.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Tobey Maguire, Liev Schreiber, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg
Votes: 49,341 | Gross: $2.44M
37. Seven Days in May (1964)
Approved | 118 min | Drama, Thriller
United States military leaders plot to overthrow the President because he supports a nuclear disarmament treaty and they fear a Soviet sneak attack.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, Ava Gardner
Votes: 17,382 | Gross: $7.96M
38. Frost/Nixon (2008)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
A dramatic retelling of the post-Watergate television interviews between British talk-show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell
Votes: 112,535 | Gross: $18.59M
39. Argentina, 1985 (2022)
R | 140 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A team of lawyers takes on the heads of Argentina's bloody military dictatorship during the 1980s in a battle against odds and a race against time.
Director: Santiago Mitre | Stars: Ricardo Darín, Gina Mastronicola, Francisco Bertín, Santiago Armas Estevarena
Votes: 31,279
40. Nixon (1995)
R | 192 min | Biography, Drama, History
A biographical story of former U.S. President Richard Nixon, from his days as a young boy, to his eventual Presidency, which ended in shame.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, Powers Boothe, Ed Harris
Votes: 32,760 | Gross: $13.56M
41. Deutschland 83 (2015)
TV-MA | 42 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
Martin Rauch is recruited by the HVA to infiltrate the West Germany army. As a rookie spy, his decisions constantly put his cover at risk and force his agency to take extreme measures.
Stars: Jonas Nay, Maria Schrader, Ulrich Noethen, Sylvester Groth
Votes: 15,050
42. The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)
R | 150 min | Action, Biography, Crime
A look at Germany's terrorist group, The Red Army Faction (RAF), which organized bombings, robberies, kidnappings, and assassinations in the late 1960s and '70s.
Director: Uli Edel | Stars: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Bruno Ganz
Votes: 40,159 | Gross: $0.48M
43. Animal Farm (1999 TV Movie)
PG | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
The animals of a farm successfully revolt against its human owner, only to slide into a more brutal tyranny amongst themselves.
Director: John Stephenson | Stars: Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Julia Ormond
Votes: 6,490
44. Fail Safe (1964)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Thriller
A technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted?
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Fritz Weaver, Dan O'Herlihy
Votes: 24,443
45. The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966)
Unrated | 126 min | Comedy, War
Without hostile intent, a Soviet submarine runs aground off New England. Men are sent for a boat, but many villagers go into a tizzy, risking bloodshed.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin, Brian Keith
Votes: 10,071 | Gross: $21.69M
46. Ice Station Zebra (1968)
G | 148 min | Adventure, Thriller
USN nuclear sub USS Tigerfish must rush to the North Pole to rescue the staff of Drift Ice Station Zebra weather station.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown
Votes: 11,905
47. Animal Farm (1954)
Approved | 72 min | Animation, Drama
A successful farmyard revolution by the resident animals vs. the farmer goes horribly wrong when the victors create a new tyranny among themselves.
Directors: Joy Batchelor, John Halas | Stars: Gordon Heath, Maurice Denham
Votes: 19,043
48. Topaz (1969)
M/PG | 143 min | Drama, Thriller
A French Intelligence Agent becomes embroiled in the Cold War politics first with uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and then back to France to break up an international Russian spy ring.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, John Vernon, Karin Dor
Votes: 19,573 | Gross: $8.37M
49. Smiley's People (1982)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Mystery
The murder of a Soviet defector forces his old handler, British spymaster George Smiley, out of retirement. His investigation leads to an old nemesis, the Soviet spymaster known only as "Karla". This will be their final dance.
Stars: Alec Guinness, Eileen Atkins, Bill Paterson, Vladek Sheybal
Votes: 4,770
50. Summer of Rockets (2019)
60 min | Drama
Cold war drama following a Russian Jewish inventor and his family living in Britain.
Stars: Toby Stephens, Keeley Hawes, Lily Sacofsky, Linus Roache
Votes: 2,169