7. Gunther Bachmann – A Most Wanted Man (2014)

Where Ian Fleming’s spy novels were about the glamor and fantasy of the spy game, John Le Carré’s books are closer to the mundane, downbeat reality. The author’s 2008 book of the same name found the perfect counterpart in director Anton Corbijn, whose stark photography is perfect for the concrete grayness of this low-key thriller. But most of all, Philip Seymour Hoffman is ideal casting as the crumpled, weary Gunther Bachman, the leader of an undercover counter-terrorist unit. Gravel-voiced and glum, Hoffman’s impeccable (and tragically, final) performance leads us into a tangled world of surveillance and intrigue.

6. Nikita – La Femme Nikita (1990)

What makes Nikita so watchable is its lead character’s reluctance to become an agent and undercover state assassin. Initially a drug-addled drop-out, Nikita (Anne Parilaud) is given a stark choice: either train to become an operative or die in prison. The result is an action twist on Pigmalion, as the wayward Nikita gradually transforms herself into a deadly fighting machine. What makes the character so believable isn’t just Parilaud’s prowess in her action scenes, but her vulnerable ordinariness: one protracted gun fight sees her leap from danger and land in a trash-filled dumpster. Her performance brings grit and humor to director Luc Besson’s glossy action.

5. Alicia Huberman – Notorious (1946)

Before Nikita, Evelyn Salt, or Mallory Kane, there was Ingrid Bergman’s stellar performance as Alicia Huberman. In Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller, Notorious, Alica’s the daughter of a convicted German spy who is herself pressed into service as an agent for the Americans. Sent to Brazil to infiltrate a group of Nazis, Alicia’s soon caught between the affections of Devlin (Cary Grant), an ice-cold U.S. agent, and Sebastian (Claude Rains), one of the Nazis she’s ordered to seduce. A superbly drawn character, her inner-strength is offset by her capacity for drink. Indeed Alicia is one of the earliest–and still most interesting–secret agents in film.

4. Jason Bourne – The Bourne Series (2002-)

As embodied by Matt Damon, Jason Bourne felt like a breath of fresh air when he first appeared in 2002. Sure, he’s an indescribably tough former agent with the kind of skills that most of us could only dream of, but his amnesia and grim past mark him out as an underdog worth rooting for. And at a time when the Bond franchise was becoming increasingly mired in implausible gadgets (see Die Another Day‘s invisible car – or rather, don’t), Bourne’s tendency to fight with pens and books, or drive around in battered old cars, marked him out as a very different kind of hero. As an example of just how important Damon’s incarnation of Bourne is to the series, look no further than 2012’s The Bourne Legacy. Jeremy Renner does his best as Aaron Cross, but an agent in constant need of brain-boosting pills is no replacement for Bourne and his ever-present identity crisis.

3. George Smiley – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Another adaptation of a John Le Carré spy novel, this one with an all-star cast which includes Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, and Benedict Cumberbatch. Towering over them all is Gary Oldman as British Intelligence officer George Smiley, an operative whose skills are cerebral rather than athletic. He’s a noble character whose face is lined with a subtle yet profound undercurrent of regret. Just look at the scene Smiley shares with Benedict Cumberbatch’s Peter Guillam. “We both spend our lives looking for the weaknesses in one another’s systems,” he observes, ruefully.