From 'Mission Impossible' to 'Slow Horses': Why We Love Watching Spies

CNN
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Is it the relentless action or the mix of mystery and intrigue? Is it the Aston Martin chases, always on a scenic route? The exotic locations? The beautiful love stories that culminate in a steamy date? Or is it just the British accent?

Regardless, there’s something special about spy movies that makes us want to watch them. Since the genre’s emergence, espionage has invaded both the small and big screens, from long-running franchises like James Bond to newer films like the “Kingsman” series or the subversive “The 355.”

On television, the success of shows like “Homeland,” “The Americans” and the most recent “Slow Horses” — whose fourth season begins Wednesday on Apple TV+ — highlights our collective fascination with spy stories.

Even in an era where genre cinema has all but disappeared in favor of endless remakes and sequels, where television shows are often canceled shortly after airing, spy stories continue to capture our imaginations and the pockets of studios.

But this genre is not just about flashy stories led by an attractive protagonist. The ubiquity of these stories reveals something deeper, not only about our world, but also about ourselves.

Espionage is a literary genre that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in parallel with globalization and imperial power, explains film historian Samhita Sunya. An early example is Rudyard Kipling’s novel “Kim,” published in 1901, which tells the story of a young Irishman living in British-ruled India who ends up becoming a spy.

The book is an early indication of what spy novels, and later the genre as a whole, would become: representations of broader geopolitical fears. The genre then reached its peak during the Cold War, Sunya said, amid fears of a nuclear catastrophe between the United States and the former USSR.

These tensions are playing out on the international stage and in the mainstream media. “Dr. No,” the first James Bond film released in 1962, is a perfect example. Dr. No, part of the international terrorist group SPECTRE, is a half-Chinese, half-German nuclear scientist who is eventually defeated by Bond.

“It was almost about maintaining this balance of power and this fear of third countries becoming nuclear as well,” Sunya said. “That included stateless organizations, as well as the concern that China would become a nuclear power.”

Joseph Wiseman as Dr. No in the 1962 James Bond film, where he played a half-Chinese, half-German scientist, reflecting the anxieties of the time.

Today, we are seeing a new peak in the spy genre, Sunya said. In a world of artificial intelligence and the threat of disease following the global pandemic, similar anxieties are resurfacing and making their way into spy fiction.

Last year, “Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” embody these modern fears. In both films, saving the world means defeating a corrupt, sentient AI or preventing an AI tool from being used for malicious purposes.

The films came during a year dominated by AI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared before a Senate panel calling for increased government regulation of the controversial technology, and the Biden administration issued an executive order aimed at addressing the associated risks.

These confusing anxieties, in real life and in the media, feed off each other. The boundaries between fiction and reality can begin to blur.

Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

“You see it in movies, on TV, in books. It makes people more interested in these stories. And then they hear in the media or from government sources that there is also a real risk,” said Julia Tatiana Bailey, an art historian and curator at the Rudolfinum Gallery in Prague. “It just fuels this paranoia.”

Spy novels aren’t just about sociopolitical issues. These films became blockbusters for a reason. They’re global escapades: Experience the grandiose Amalfi Coast in Italy and the bustle of Mumbai, India, in Christopher Nolan’s 2020 spy thriller “Tenet.”

Or feast your eyes on the visual buffet of Daniel Craig striding through the streets of Mexico City during a Day of the Dead parade in 2015’s “Spectre” — a four-minute scene that alone has garnered nearly four million views on YouTube. In 1996’s “Mission Impossible,” some of the film’s most dramatic moments are set against the cobblestone streets of Prague, Czech Republic.

Of course, there are also the gadgets, the cars, the sex, even the outfits — all of which lend a certain erotic thrill that has become synonymous with the genre and contributed to its broad appeal.

Elizabeth Debicki and John David Washington in

In the 1960s, for example, European spy films, a genre inspired by James Bond, became extremely popular in South Asia, Sunya says. Newspapers advertised these films as “adults only,” because of their association with this type of erotic spectacle. Yet these films became so popular that other countries began producing their own spy films.

The genre then becomes a universe in its own right, existing outside of the geopolitical context with which it plays. Spies and the glamour that surrounds them are idealized, to the point of ignoring the political tensions and nervous questions that certain stories raise.

Ultimately, most Americans don’t know much about what spies actually do, Bailey said. We know that covert activities exist because they are sometimes revealed publicly. Last year, for example, China claimed that a CIA spy was embedded in the Chinese military. This activity could be pervasive, existing beneath our daily lives. It’s this mystery that makes espionage so appealing in fiction.

“Through fiction, we get a glimpse into a world that we know exists, but to which we have no other access,” Bailey said.

Spy novels oscillate between knowledge and ignorance. On the one hand, these stories are the fruit of the author’s imagination. On the other, clandestine activities take place behind the scenes, and this secrecy also contributes to fueling our anxieties.

“There are a lot of interesting questions to ask about what reality is, how we perceive reality, and who controls us,” Bailey said. “And all of those questions come up in spy stories as well.”

These days, the life of a spy is far less glamorous than what we see on our screens, Bailey said. It’s no longer about thrilling car chases, but rather sitting at a desk searching for data.

But the image of spies chasing bad guys is funny. In spy novels, there is clearly a good guy and a bad guy. The work itself is brave and risky. Our protagonists become heroes and we are their accomplices, trying to solve the problem of the day alongside them.

Yet spy novels and their continued popularity reveal how we use these stories to understand real-life issues, Sunya said.

“The forms and stories that it takes, even if they are wildly imaginative or exaggerated or spectacular, end up telling us something about how we are trying to make sense of the real world at that moment,” she said.

Of course, there are sociopolitical reasons why certain spy films and series are made and popularized at specific times. The genre can also reveal our fears about the world around us, or our growing distrust of government institutions.

But we’ll turn to spy novels and all their blockbuster charm. After all, who can resist a good story?