Political Thrillers on Netflix

As a secret police agent eavesdrops on a successful writer in East Germany in 1984, he becomes increasingly fascinated by the man's life and politics.

Year: 2006
IMDb: 8.4
Netflix rating: 4/5
Runtime: 02:17:35
Netflix ID: 70056425 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

In 1979, six Americans take shelter from Iranian militants in the Canadian embassy, prompting the CIA to concoct an elaborate plot to rescue them.

Year: 2012
IMDb: 7.7
Netflix rating: 4.1/5
Runtime: 02:00:18
Netflix ID: 70231922 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

An Indian intelligence agent journeys to a war-torn coastal island to break a resolute rebel group and meets a passionate journalist.

Year: 2013
IMDb: 7.7
Runtime: 02:08:29
Netflix ID: 70293703 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Carlos the Jackal is a Venezuelan terrorist who executed scores of assassinations, abductions and bombings across Europe and the Middle East.

Year: 2010
IMDb: 7.6
Netflix rating: 3.7/5
Runtime: 02:45:26
Netflix ID: 70170424 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A U.S. drug czar learns his teenage daughter is an addict in this Oscar-winning saga that interlaces three disturbing snapshots of America's drug war.

Year: 2000
IMDb: 7.6
Netflix rating: 3.7/5
Runtime: 02:27:17
Netflix ID: 60003243 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

While on a covert Caribbean holiday, MI5's Johnny Worricker becomes embroiled with shifty American businessmen linked to an international conspiracy.

Year: 2014
IMDb: 7.6
Netflix rating: 3.6/5
Runtime: 01:39:23
Netflix ID: 80019909 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A young prosecutor is assigned a career-making case involving a colleague but soon starts to question the motivations behind the charges.

Year: 2015
IMDb: 7.6
Runtime: 02:06:23
Netflix ID: 81149202 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A tenacious Capitol Hill lobbyist with a well-earned reputation for winning no matter what takes on the most challenging battle of her career.

Year: 2016
IMDb: 7.5
Runtime: 02:12:16
Netflix ID: 80125395 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A radical terrorist group known as the Red Army Faction uses extreme violence to combat what they perceive as a new fascist threat in 1970s Germany.

Year: 2008
IMDb: 7.4
Netflix rating: 3.7/5
Runtime: 02:29:40
Netflix ID: 70112501 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A grueling battle over turning a seaside town near Rome into a gambling paradise exposes criminal rivalries and endemic corruption on a grand scale.

Year: 2015
IMDb: 7.4
Netflix rating: 3/5
Runtime: 02:14:49
Netflix ID: 80075009 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

This quiet thriller traces Edward Snowden's journey from Army recruit to disillusioned cyber analyst bent on exposing vast U.S. surveillance programs.

Year: 2015
IMDb: 7.3
Runtime: 02:14:14
Netflix ID: 80064514 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A man awakens from a five-year coma blessed with second sight: the ability to see a person's past, present and future simply through physical contact.

Year: 1983
IMDb: 7.2
Netflix rating: 3.6/5
Runtime: 01:43:45
Netflix ID: 60002169 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

In the 1990s, a South Korean spy poses as a brassy entrepreneur with a luring scheme for a cash-strapped North Korea, but politics tests his loyalty.

Year: 2018
IMDb: 7.2
Runtime: 02:17:14
Netflix ID: 81019389 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

After being wounded in World War II, a disillusioned Nazi colonel hatches a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Year: 2008
IMDb: 7.1
Netflix rating: 3.5/5
Runtime: 02:00:17
Netflix ID: 70101344 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Dirty tricks stand to soil an ambitious young press spokesman's idealism in a cutthroat presidential campaign where 'victory' is relative.

Year: 2011
IMDb: 7.1
Netflix rating: 3.5/5
Runtime: 01:36:49
Netflix ID: 70202140 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When the American-educated scion of a powerful Indian family returns to the subcontinent, his first taste of power starts him down a corrupt path.

Year: 2010
IMDb: 7.1
Netflix rating: 3.6/5
Runtime: 02:50:03
Netflix ID: 70123124 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When his mistress is found dead, a congressman tries desperately to protect his career, while two journalists uncover an intricate web of lies.

Year: 2009
IMDb: 7.1
Netflix rating: 3.6/5
Runtime: 02:07:17
Netflix ID: 70102779 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A Czech police captain becomes caught in a political whitewash when East German agents assume control of his investigation into a jewelry robbery.

Year: 2012
IMDb: 7.1
Runtime: 01:41:26
Netflix ID: 70264609 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A duplicitous young man finds success in the dark world of social media smear tactics — but his virtual vitriol soon has violent real-life consequences.

Year: 2020
IMDb: 7.1
Runtime: 02:16:14
Netflix ID: 81270667 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A successful new congressman finds himself entranced by a beautiful ballerina, but mysterious forces are conspiring to prevent their love affair.

Year: 2011
IMDb: 7
Netflix rating: 3.7/5
Runtime: 01:45:41
Netflix ID: 70130140 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A story of greed and corruption in the global quest for oil unfolds through the fates of a CIA operative, an energy analyst and other power players.

Year: 2005
IMDb: 6.9
Netflix rating: 3.3/5
Runtime: 02:07:40
Netflix ID: 70018715 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

On the run, mobster Káčko flees to Seychelles then South Africa, where his considerable talents vault him once again to the top of a criminal empire.

Year: 2015
IMDb: 6.9
Runtime: 01:37:26
Netflix ID: 81191933 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

As a tip leads a local politician to his long-estranged son, his daughter has doubts about whether the young man is truly family or just an impostor.

Year: 2019
IMDb: 6.9
Runtime: 02:27:52
Netflix ID: 81176204 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Valerie Plame finds her life, career and marriage in jeopardy when her own government leaks her status as a CIA operative in a political vendetta.

Year: 2010
IMDb: 6.8
Netflix rating: 3.6/5
Runtime: 01:47:40
Netflix ID: 70119704 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Knotty love triangles and nefarious schemes arise when a nobleman’s plans to remarry fall into the cunning hands of his first wife and a vengeful rival.

Year: 2013
IMDb: 6.8
Runtime: 02:19:13
Netflix ID: 70273256 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Two U.S. soldiers in the first Gulf War are programmed to rebel once they return home. Several years later, one becomes a vice presidential candidate.

Year: 2004
IMDb: 6.6
Netflix rating: 3.5/5
Runtime: 02:09:49
Netflix ID: 60037627 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When law student Darby Shaw theorizes about the assassinations of two Supreme Court justices, she is put in danger and turns to a reporter for help.

Year: 1993
IMDb: 6.6
Netflix rating: 3.7/5
Runtime: 02:21:03
Netflix ID: 848915 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Spies from around the globe pursue MI5's Johnny Worricker and his old flame, Margot Tyrell, whose intel could bring down the British government.

Year: 2014
IMDb: 6.6
Netflix rating: 3.6/5
Runtime: 01:36:49
Netflix ID: 80019908 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

As his country prepares for war, top Egyptian official Ashraf Marwan makes contact with Israel and wades into a shadowy game of high-stakes espionage.

Year: 2018
IMDb: 6.6
Runtime: 01:54:12
Netflix ID: 80188120 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Silvia Broome is a translator at the United Nations. But her job turns perilous when she overhears a plot to assassinate a government official.

Year: 2005
IMDb: 6.4
Netflix rating: 3.4/5
Runtime: 02:08:19
Netflix ID: 70019510 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A pair of Czechoslovakian resistance fighters sets out to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of the Final Solution.

Year: 2017
IMDb: 6.4
Runtime: 02:00:03
Netflix ID: 80198987 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Twenty-six years after the 1980 massacre at Gwangju, South Korea, three relatives of the victims come together to avenge the infamous orchestrator.

Year: 2012
IMDb: 6.3
Runtime: 02:15:11
Netflix ID: 80198771 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

In 1921 Barcelona, amid unrest between anarchists and the police, a cop plays both sides to learn who stole army weapons that could ignite a civil war.

Year: 2018
IMDb: 6.3
Runtime: 02:06:02
Netflix ID: 80199806 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

After private detective Billy Taggart informs the mayor of New York that his wife is having an affair, the woman's lover turns up dead.

Year: 2013
IMDb: 6.2
Netflix rating: 3.3/5
Runtime: 01:44:49
Netflix ID: 70243341 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Set on avenging his father's death, an Irish Republican Army terrorist sails to America on a mission to buy weapons from an underground arms dealer.

Year: 1997
IMDb: 6.2
Netflix rating: 3.4/5
Runtime: 01:51:13
Netflix ID: 1152837 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

An American man living in Central America is kidnapped by radicals seeking ransom. A hostage expert steps in to help, but he falls for the man's wife.

Year: 2000
IMDb: 6.2
Runtime: 02:15:20
Netflix ID: 60003503 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

After nearly a decade of alien rule, a group of Chicago freedom fighters faces off against the human collaborators determined to crush their resistance.

Year: 2019
IMDb: 6
Runtime: 01:45:02
Netflix ID: 80238650 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When terrorists hijack a flight, the passengers become political pawns and are detained for a week in Entebbe, Uganda, inspiring a daring rescue mission.

Year: 2018
IMDb: 5.8
Runtime: 01:46:54
Netflix ID: 80209485 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Based on a true and gripping story: Cuban spies infiltrate exile groups in the 1990s to stop terrorism against the island, but at a high personal cost.

Year: 2020
IMDb: 5.8
Runtime: 02:08:02
Netflix ID: 81000201 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Desperate to keep her husband’s secret, a devoted politician’s wife struggles to stave off threats that could ruin their promising new life.

Year: 2018
IMDb: 5.2
Runtime: 01:40:12
Netflix ID: 80209658 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A hard-hitting reporter becomes entangled in the story she’s trying to break when she helps her ailing father broker an arms deal in Central America.

Year: 2020
IMDb: 4.2
Runtime: 01:55:42
Netflix ID: 80245076 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

After a near-fatal incident in the Congo, a journalist uncovers a dangerous story that pits her against political forces and sends her on the run.

Year: 2015
Runtime: 01:31:53
Netflix ID: 81230980 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

After the election-night murder of her campaign manager at a polling site, a gubernatorial candidate challenges the corrupt incumbent's victory.

Year: 2019
Runtime: 01:59:52
Netflix ID: 81049899 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

In the aftermath of Czechoslovakia's split, an ambitious detective investigates an old murder case that threatens to dredge up painful secrets.

Year: 2016
Runtime: 01:46:05
Netflix ID: 81192918 · Watch on Netflix

An ambitious TV host's career — and life — fall onto dangerous ground when her reporting threatens to expose powerful political figures.

Year: 2015
Runtime: 01:46:30
Netflix ID: 81232432 · Watch on Netflix

This political thriller inspired by real events features a young director paid to follow Mayor Svend Balder, but his shady methods are dangerous.

Year: 2005
Runtime: 01:32:07
Netflix ID: 70254948 · Watch on Netflix