For the purposes of this list, we are defining Spy Movies as those movies including shady government operatives or mercenaries, typically one being highlighted as the central badass of that film or franchise.
5. Vincent - Collateral
Synopsis: Collateral features Tom Cruise as an aging hit-man who hires Jamie Foxx's unlucky cab driver to ferry him from one ass-kicking to another as he works his way through a list of witnesses in a high profile criminal trial in Michael Mann's under-appreciated action gem.
Critical Scene: Enjoy the scene midway through the movie when our anti-hero makes his way through a rave crowd, beating people down without even looking at them as his focus remains on his target, who inevitably receives two in the chest (and then a third just for good measure).
4. Former CIA Field Agent Brian Mills - Taken
Synopsis: While not a personal favorite of The GFC, Taken nonetheless features Liam Neeson mercilessly kicking the asses of pretty much everyone he encounters on his quest to find his kidnapped daughter.
Critical Scene: The climax of the film takes place aboard the yacht of the bastardly Middle-Eastern Sheikh who has purchased Mills' daughter at auction. Neeson punctuates his performance by slicing up a bodyguard in a sweet knife fight, and puts the exclamation point on a movie that reinvented Neeson's career as an Alpha Male Badass.
3. James Bond - Casino Royale
Synopsis: Martin Campbell's reboot of the franchise and choice of Daniel Craig as the lead was controversial, but the origin story of 007 worked perfectly, with Craig portraying a much more brutal Bond than had ever been seen.
Critical Scene: After the first ten minutes of seeing the new Bond break all of the rules of the Bond book as he uses a man's head to destroy a bathroom in a most un-gentlemanly fashion in a flashback, before coldly executing his second kill and earning his 00 status, we knew we would never see (or want to see) Bond quite the same way.
2. Ethan Hunt - Mission Impossible III
Synopsis: JJ Abrams' take on the IMF remains the high point of the series in the opinion of The GFC, just barely edging out this winter's Ghost Protocol, and also gives Tom Cruise the distinction as the only actor to appear on this list twice, securing his place as a bona-fide Alpha-Male Badass. This movie grabs us by the balls from the opening interrogation scene and doesn't let go until seemingly every person in the movie has been defibrillated at least once.
Critical Scene: Ethan dismantles the ingenious villain, played brilliantly by Phillip Seymour-Hoffman, while trying to keep his head from exploding, in a look-ma-no-hands show of ass-kicking brilliance.
1. Jason Bourne - The Bourne Ultimatum
Synopsis: Paul Greengrass returns after the groundbreaking second chapter in the Matt Damon era of the Bourne franchise that features Damon kicking ass with every household item short of a Q-tip, with a shaky-cam style that makes the action, if not the plot, just sing. While The GFC board remains divided as to the merits of Ultimatum vs. MI III, Jason Bourne himself is an asskicker without peer.
Critical Scene: Bourne uses a rival asset's face to destroy yet another bathroom and then chokes him out with a bath towel, solidifying his position as the premiere owner of asses on this list.
