What is it about a great political thriller that makes these types of movies and series such a mainstay on our screens?
Is it the satisfaction of seeing corrupt politicians getting their comeuppance? Or the chance to escape to far-flung reaches of the globe? Perhaps it’s the fact so many of these stories are inspired by true events – making the stakes feel all the more real.
The hook could be a missing person, a politician in peril, or a killer lurking in the shadows. The genre can cover action thrillers to crime dramas and everything in between.
Perhaps the most important ingredient in an effective political thriller is its refusal to be defined by any one trademark, but rather that it simply feels immediate, always keeps its audience guessing, and is never anything less than compelling viewing.
All The King's Men
A star-studded ensemble cast leads this 2006 political drama, which was the second on screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name – the first being a Best Picture winner all the way back in 1949.
The film deals with the rise to power of a Louisiana governor (Sean Penn) and is loosely based on the true story of US senator Huey Long, whose progressive stance on welfare reforms made him a controversial figure of US politics during the early 1930s. Penn is electrifying in the role and is ably supported by the likes of Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins and the late James Gandolfini.
Did we mention it was star studded?
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All The King's Men
Foreign Correspondent
When it comes to globetrotting espionage and intrigue, you really can’t go past the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock. Having already captured the imagination of audiences in his native England, Hitchcock made the move to America, and Foreign Correspondent became the second in a brace of successful Hollywood s.
Based on real-life political memoir, Foreign Correspondent is the story of a British-based American reporter (Joel McCrea) who attempts to expose enemy spies in the lead up to World War II. It’s the kind of fast-paced, twisty-turny plot for which Hitchcock would become synonymous and is notable for the fact it was one of two of the director's films to be nominated for Best Picture in in 1940 – the other being Rebecca, which won.
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Foreign Correspondent
Escape From Mogadishu
This action packed 2021 film tells the remarkable true story of a group of North and South Korean embassy workers who, in 1991, made a perilous escape through the war-torn streets of Mogadishu, during a bloody chapter in the decades long Somali Civil War.
The unbelievable events are rendered in gritty realism that puts you in the shoes of these desperate characters faced with enormous challenges, however the filmmakers take a refreshing approach to the story so that the guerrilla-style action sequences feel more Three Kings than Black Hawk Down.
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Escape From Mogadishu
The Bureau
An intriguing premise is only part of what’s made this French series such a hit with both audiences and critics since it first hit our screens back in 2015. Based on real first-person accounts by former spies, the story focuses on the “Bureau of Legends” - a team responsible for training deep cover operatives tasked with gathering intelligence from political hot spots scattered across the globe.
Over the course of its five seasons, the show takes a warts and all look at an occupation that is so often glamorisedin more action-fuelled fare. The ins and outs of each tense operation are covered in painstaking detail, to the point where at times this sometimes feels more real-life documentary than drama, and a compelling one at thatSterling performances come from a cast that includes Mathieu Kassovitz, Sara Giraudeau, Florence Loiret-Caille, Jonathan Zaccaï and Léa Drucker.
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The Bureau - season 1 episode 1
Exterior Night
This Italian miniseries co-created by Giovanni Bianconi (a writer on acclaimed series Gomorrah) centres around a bloody chapter in Italy’s history, when the country's former prime minister and president of the Christian Democracy party, Aldo Moro, was kidnapped and subsequently held hostage by a group of far-left terrorists known as the Red Brigades.
Originally released in Italy as a two-part film, the story is told across 6 distinct chapters, and takes us inside the tumultuous events of 1978 by switching between different characters' perspectives. This storytelling device gives the audience a unique insight into both sides of the political divide and offers a snapshot of the volatile climate that would lead to its citizens taking the law into their own hands.
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External Night – episode 1
The Walk-In
Touching on similar themes to Exterior Night, albeit in a more modern setting, The Walk-In details the rise of modern neo-Nazism in the wake of Brexit – when British MPs were being targeted, and in some cases even murdered, for holding opposing views to that of these radical fringe groups.
The incomparable Stephan Graham (Line of Duty, Boardwalk Empire) stars as activist and former Neo-Nazi Matthew Collins, who is tasked with infiltrating a far-right terrorist group in efforts to thwart an assassination attempt on a Labour MP. Graham is at his blistering best in this tense series that conjures memories of films like The Departed and Infernal Affairs, in a high stakes cat and mouse thriller that unravels over five tense episodes.
There’s also an Australian connection, with the real-life Collins once holding asylum within our borders for over a decade after flipping on his former Neo-Nazi comrades.
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The walk-In - season 1 episode 1
The Tunnel
If you enjoy your serial killer stories with a dash of political intrigue, then this British-French remake of popular Danish series The Bridge is just for you. Following the grisly discovery of a body containing the upper half of a British politician and the lower half of a French prostitute at the midway point of England and France, two detectives (played by Emmy award winner Stephen Dillane and Clemence Poesy) from opposite sides of the English Channel must work together to hunt down a suspect who believes themselves to be the harbinger of truth in a politically charged environment that consumes both countries.
Fans of The Bridge will recognise familiar plot elements in the earlier episodes, but the show quickly comes into its own in later seasons – with enough twists and turns to satisfy even the most loyal viewer of the original 2011 series. The multi-award-winning series continues across three seasons, with a Eurotunnel kidnapping and more challenging the unlikely detective pairing.
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The Tunnel - season 1 episode 1
