Image credit: Bleecker Street Media, EuropaCorp, Focus Features, IFC Films, Roadside Attractions, Vice Studios, Fox Searchlight
If you're tired of scrolling through your endless streaming options only to pick an old favorite, this list is your lifesaver.
Let's skip the heavy-hitters everyone and their grandma knows about. Here are ten lesser-known political thrillers from the 2010s you should add to your must-watch list.
1. "Eye in the Sky" (2015) Forget drones as kids' toys; this film shows their scarier, adult implications. British Colonel Katherine Powell has her eyes on a top terrorist in Kenya and plans to eliminate him via drone strike. However, a nine-year-old girl enters the kill zone to sell bread. Politicians, lawyers, and military personnel get involved, all seen through multi-screens that track each player. Should they risk innocent lives for a bigger cause?
2. "Miss Sloane" (2016) Get ready to meet Elizabeth Sloane: a D.C. lobbyist who's as cunning as they come. She's all set to fight for gun control, but there's a problem – her own firm is against her. So what does she do? She quits and joins a smaller firm to fight against her former employer. In a game of political chess, Elizabeth uses every trick in the book, even paying a colleague to infiltrate a gun rights group.
3. "Closed Circuit" (2013) Love a good courtroom drama? How about one with British accents and high-stakes terrorism? Two defense lawyers, who also happen to be former lovers, find themselves on the same case – a high-profile terrorism trial.
As they dig into the evidence, they discover secrets that put their lives and the case at risk. The government might just be watching them closer than they think. Plus, the shady use of closed-circuit cameras in London adds another layer of "Big Brother is watching you."
4. "Beirut" (2018) Take a trip to 1980s Lebanon – chaos, kidnappings, and political unrest. Mason Skiles, a former U.S. diplomat, is called back to Beirut ten years after his wife was killed. His friend Cal has been taken hostage, and guess who the kidnappers want to negotiate with? Good ol' Mason.
In a city as volatile as its politics, Mason has to navigate through CIA agents, Israeli secret service, and rival Palestinian factions.
5. "The Day Shall Come" (2019) Alright, hold onto your seat for this dark comedy-thriller. Moses, a clueless Miami preacher, dreams of overthrowing the "oppressive regime" of the U.S. government. He's harmless, until an FBI agent decides to turn him into a criminal. Why? To boost her career. The FBI provides Moses with fake weapons and even sets up a fake plan to sell uranium to terrorists.
6. "A Most Wanted Man" (2014) Hamburg, Germany, is the setting for this suspenseful story based on John le Carré's novel. A young Muslim man, Issa, illegally enters Germany and comes under the radar of a covert anti-terrorism team led by the chain-smoking Günther Bachmann. They think Issa could lead them to bigger fish in the terrorist pond, but it's a race against time before other agencies swoop in.
Günther plays a masterful game of 4D chess, using human informants like chess pieces.
7. "Good Kill" (2014) A drone pilot, Major Thomas Egan, is having a moral crisis. He's waging a war he doesn't understand, all from the comfort of a Las Vegas air-conditioned bunker. Day in and day out, he "flies" drone missions over Afghanistan, but what's the cost of taking lives while being miles away? As the CIA takes control and orders increasingly questionable strikes, Thomas begins to unravel.
8. "Kill the Messenger" (2014) Ever wondered how crack cocaine flooded American streets in the '80s? This movie suggests the U.S. government had something to do with it.
Journalist Gary Webb stumbles upon this explosive story linking CIA operations and Nicaraguan drug dealers. He puts out a series of articles, and just like that, he's public enemy number one – for the government and competing newspapers.
9. "The Report" (2019) The CIA's post-9/11 Detention and Interrogation Program. Staffer Daniel Jones is assigned to review millions of CIA documents for the Senate Intelligence Committee. He uncovers a pattern of torture and deceit, and boy, does it ruffle feathers. Despite being stonewalled and threatened, he fights to get the 6,700-page report released.
Based on real events, this is one for the history books, literally.
10. "The East" (2013) Picture this: An undercover agent, Sarah, infiltrates an eco-terrorist group named "The East." Their goal? Expose and punish corrupt corporations. Sarah starts off skeptical but finds herself sympathizing with the group's causes.
The lines between good and bad blur as she participates in "jams," which are high-stakes operations to out corrupt companies. The stakes get personal when they target a pharmaceutical giant Sarah has ties to.
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