A former CIA agent recommends the best movies and series about spies: “Most have nothing to do with reality, but there are a couple of exceptions”

We often watch so many movies and series about secret agents, spies and so on that we sometimes wonder if everything we see is really true, or just a lie that has been lengthened and exaggerated over time. It is no wonder, because the truth is that little or nothing is really known about how these government organizations, such as the CIAhe FBI or the MI6. Well, it seems that this mystery is finally cleared up a bit, given that one of the agents themselves has revealed how faithful these works are to reality.

“At the CIA we watch all the spy movies and series. We love them, but most of them have nothing to do with reality,” he confesses. John Luckiotherformer CIA agent and expert advisor on the scripts of titles such as The Bourne Ultimatum they Matt Damon, Risky lies o Kill the messenger. Kiriakou is a more than authoritative voice on the matter, since he spent years working for the intelligence organization and in fact was imprisoned for revealing some interrogation techniques and methods, being the first to disclose said confidential information. Now he is also the first to reveal which works escape this exaggerated fiction.

“There are a couple of exceptions. In terms of television, Homeland hit the nail on the head. The only thing they were not precise about is that if you go crazy they send you to the hospital until you are no longer crazy,” Kiriakou explained, referring to the acclaimed 20th Century Fox production starring Claire Danes and which tells the story of a CIA agent who suspects that a sergeant is collaborating with the enemy after returning from Iraq. Homeland It is considered one of the best series of recent years and can currently be seen on Disney+ and Netflix, but it is not the only work that Kiriakou recommends.

“In the movies section, there is a movie that was released in 2003 called The recruit -titled The test in our country. The first half hour of that film, in which the protagonist is preparing, is 100% faithful to reality except for one small detail: they don’t beat us up during training,” explains Kiriakou about the film starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell about a young spy. “Everything else that the character goes through… we passed it with flying colors,” insists the former CIA agent, who left a final piece of advice to know when a work has no idea what it is talking about.

“The rest of the movies are disastrous. And listen, as a general rule, if someone calls the CIA ‘The Company,’ turn off what you’re watching.” Kiriakou concluded, pointing to all those films and series that tend to mythologize and stereotype intelligence agents. In recent years we have had plenty of examples, such as The invisible agent Confidencial (Black Bag) o Amateuralthough it seems that we will have to wait for it to have the seal of approval of the real spies.