There’s something about a couple of FBI agents walking into a scene that immediately gives credence to a movie. Maybe it’s the inevitable suits, maybe it’s the badges, maybe it’s the way they like to oh-so-subtly reveal a weapon under a jacket rather than just whipping one out. Some of these movies are meticulously researched; some are fact-based, and some are a little more fanciful (we’re looking at you, Face/Off, but here are the 15 best films we’ve enjoyed about the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
15 Point Break (1991)
Clearly, this is one of your less truly factual FBI films, and that’s because it’s mostly about Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves surfing and jumping out of airplanes. Keanu is Johnny Utah, a newbie agent and former college football player paired up with Agent Angelo Pappas, played by Gary Busey, which really raises some eyebrows about the Bureau’s hiring techniques. They’re after a gang of bank robbers called the Ex-Presidents, so named for their penchant for wearing rubber face masks that look like former heads of state.
Utah ends up going undercover with the gang, which necessitates learning how to surf and to seduce the girlfriend, Tyler (Lori Petty), of the leader, Bodhi (Patrick Swayze). Utah uses what are likely not sanctioned FBI tactics to try and get his man, including jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, and letting the key suspect go surf himself to death, but it sure is enjoyable.
14 Donnie Brasco (1997)
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Donnie Brasco was based on a memoir by Joseph Pistone, who was played in the film by Johnny Depp, an FBI agent who went deep undercover with the New York Bonnano crime family in the 1970s under the moniker Donnie Brasco.
Posing as a jewel thief, Pistone/Brasco ends up forging an uneasy friendship with hitman Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino). Pistone/Brasco’s allegiances are twisted and torn as he tries to satisfy the FBI, Lefty, and his family without endangering anyone, although Lefty ended up in jail and Pistone/Brasco’s family is still in witness protection.
13 The FBI Story (1959)
James Stewart starred in this 1959 drama that had a leg up over its competitors in the category of FBI movies: J. Edgar Hoover was a consultant. Not only did he tell the director Mervyn Le Roy, who was a friend, to ax scenes in which he didn’t approve of the Bureau’s portrayal, but he also made a brief cameo and ensured that two agents were on set at all times. Stewart played Chip Hardesty, an agent who tells the story of his life with the FBI in flashback.
He goes from a Knoxville government clerk flirting with Vera Miles to an inspired agent investigating the Klan in the South, to a more experienced field agent trying to take down the likes of Dillinger and Machine Gun Kelly. The film ends after the death of Hardesty’s son in WWII and the conclusion of Hardesty’s career.
12 Face/Off (1997)
John Woo’s cult action film had the capacity to be unwatchably silly, but he pushed it that little bit further and it became fantastic. John Travolta played stalwart FBI agent Sean Archer, although much of the time he looks like Nicolas Cage, who is playing mad criminal Castor Troy, because the two have had their faces swapped, in what has to be a major violation of all sorts of medical ethics.
Troy killed Archer’s son, and after Troy ends up in a coma whilst arranging a bomb plot with his twin brother who is of course named Pollux, Archer does what any good agent would do and has his face switched with that of his deadly enemy without his knowledge or consent. Of course, he can’t leave Troy without a face, so Troy now becomes Archer, which no one had the foresight to think might be confusing. It’s violent, and totally bananas, and there are probably FBI rules against all of it, but you can’t deny how much fun it is.
11 The Siege (1998)
Denzel Washington and Tony Shalhoub starred in this 1998 action thriller as special agents Hubbard and Haddad, desperately trying to stem a series of terrorist attacks taking place in New York City. Much like real life after 9/11, law enforcement came down with terrifying harshness against the Arab-American community, and Haddad’s son is one of many arrested.
Bruce Willis plays Army General William Devereaux, who takes over once the President instigates martial law, and it’s clear he is not the good guy. He nearly kills the FBI agents, who are definitely the good guys, but in the end martial law is revoked, Devereaux is arrested, and order is tidily reinstated.
10 Wind River (2017)
Taylor Sheridan’s 2017 neo-Western stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen as government agents (U.S. Fish and Wildlife and FBI, respectively) trying to solve the murder of an 18-year-old girl whose frozen body was discovered on a Wyoming Indian reservation. The agents butt heads with the medical examiner and security guards at a nearby oil-drilling site, and it’s revealed that Lambert (Renner) has a personal tragedy of his own: his teenage daughter died in the same way as the new victim.
The film was a critical success, not least for Sheridan putting the spotlight on the huge number of indigenous women who are assaulted and/or killed every year in the U.S. and Canada.
9 American Hustle (2013)
David O. Russell’s 2013 film is a highly fictionalized version of the FBI’s Abscam sting operation of the 1970s and 80s, which involved the takedown of a number of government officials for bribery and corruption, mostly in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Christian Bale and Amy Adams play con artists Irving and Sydney who are caught by an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper), who promises to let the pair go free if they can help him take down the mayor of New Jersey (Jeremy Renner).
The characters played by Bale, Adams, and Renner were all loosely based on actual players in the Abscam sting, but loose cannon agents Richie DiMaso (Cooper) and Stoddard Thorsen (Louis C.K.) have no specific historical counterparts.
8 J. Edgar (2011)
A biopic of the FBI’s most famous director starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Clint Eastwood was always going to be big, whether a flop or a hit, and it was mostly a success, with DiCaprio in particular getting acclaim for his performance as the beefy, complicated character. The film goes over seminal moments in history such as the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, the Red Scare, and the introduction of forensic science into the Bureau’s arsenal of crime-fighting tools.
The film also delves into his close relationship with his mother (played by Judi Dench), his discomfort with women, and his possible romantic relationship with colleague Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). In his later years, Hoover increasingly resorted to less-than-legal tactics to avenge what he saw as attacks on his reputation. Overall, it’s an intriguing, star-studded study of a perplexing yet fascinating life.
7 No Man of God (2021)
Going hand-in-hand with our fascination with the FBI is our fascination with serial killers, and Amber Sealey’s 2021 film combines both. Based on historical transcripts, Elijah Wood is Special Agent Bill Hagmaier, who from 1984 to 1989 took on death row inmate Ted Bundy (Luke Kirby) as a case study with the Behavior Science Unit. It’s always a risk to get close to a manipulative killer like Bundy, but that’s exactly what Hagmaier did over those five years, and the performances of the two leads take what could have been a story you’ve seen before into something much more intriguing.
6 The Departed (2006)
This isn’t a straight portrayal of an FBI agent, but there are still a lot of ties to the organization. Martin Scorsese’s 2006 thriller is based on a few sources: 2002 Hong Kong crime drama Infernal Affairs, the Winter Hill Gang out of Boston led by Whitey Bulger, and the corrupt FBI agent who fell in with them, John Connolly.
There’s a good deal of overlap with the 2015 film Black Mass, in which Johnny Depp played Bulger and Joel Egerton Connolly, but in The Departedthe roles went to Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon, with the addition of Leonardo Di Caprio as a fictional undercover state trooper based on the character played by Tony Leung in Infernal Affairs. There’s a lot of undercover criss-cross deception, and Costello is eventually revealed as an FBI informant.
5 The X-FIles: Fight the Future
Everyone’s favorite paranormal-hunting FBI agents were bound to be high up on this list. This was the first of the two X-Files feature films (the second, I Want to Believe, was released in 2008) and it came out in 1998 between seasons five and six. Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are at the scene of a bomb threat that plays out strangely, and after Scully autopsies one of the victims, the discovery of an alien virus leads to the much bigger discovery of a massive government conspiracy.
It’s more action-packed than most episodes, with chases through cornfields, an almost-kiss interrupted by a bee, and a trip to Antarctica. It’s probably more action-packed than the careers of most FBI agents, but that’s why we watch it.
4 Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Sidney Lumet’s 1975 bank heist film was based on the true story that played out at a Chase Manhattan Bank in Brooklyn in 1972, perpetrated quite poorly by Sonny Wojtowicz (Sonny Wortzik in the film, played by Al Pacino) and Salvatore Naturile (John Cazale). They take bank employees hostage, and the news comes out that Wortzik wants the money for a gender-reassignment surgery for his partner. The media arrives and the whole situation plays out on television, with supportive bystanders gathering on the sidewalk, and towards evening a couple of FBI agents take over.
After a failed attempt by Sonny’s mother to talk him into surrendering, the whole group, hostages and all, head to the airport as per Sonny’s demands. Before they can board the plane, one of the agents shoots Sal in the head and Sonny is arrested.
3 Mississippi Burning (1988)
In 1964, three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, were murdered in Mississippi, and Alan Parker’s 1988 film takes its inspiration from there, with FBI agents John Proctor (Rupert Anderson in the film) and Joseph Sullivan (Alan Ward in the film) played by Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe respectively. After not receiving much help from locals, the sheriff deputy’s wife (played by Frances McDormand), tells Anderson where the bodies are buried, much to the displeasure of her husband (Brad Dourif).
Violence breaks out with the local branch of the Klan, and most of the perpetrators are eventually convicted. Although the film was widely praised for its acting, the decision to focus on the white historical characters was criticized by many, including Martin Luther King, Jr.’s widow.
2 Manhunter (1986)
A full five years before The Silence of the Lambs, Michael Mann’s Manhunter was released, based on Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon, which introduced the iconic character of Hannibal Lecktor, here played by Brian Cox (and using a different spelling than in the books and other films). The film focuses on former FBI profiler Will Graham (William Petersen), who retired after a nasty interaction with Lecktor, whom he imprisoned.
But now there’s a new serial killer in town, dubbed The Tooth Fairy (Tom Noonan), and the only people who can help, it seems, are Graham and Lecktor. In preparation for the role, Petersen spent time with both the FBI Violent Crimes Unit and the Chicago PD, learning the toll that dealing with violent criminals takes on agents, and the result is a pretty magnificent film that took quite some time to be appreciated, but is finally getting its due as a grim, stylized cult classic.
1 The SIlence of the Lambs (1991)
There’s not much to say about Jonathan Demme’s 1991 film that hasn’t been said already, but it absolutely set the bar for portrayals of FBI agents, most notably Jodie Foster as FBI trainee Clarice Starling, who is thrown into a terrifying game of cat and mouse with notorious killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) while hunting another killer, Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). Foster is simply stunning as Starling, a former small-town girl thrown into the deep end of violence and madness, expected to be able to compartmentalize what’s going on without much instruction.
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