Top 10 Films about Privacy and Surveillance

Have you seen the best privacy and surveillance movie?

The Hoody team has a few movie buffs in its midst. Name any film about privacy or government surveillance movie, and you can guarantee we've seen it. Of course, not all surveillance movies are made equal and no one has time to waste on a rotten tomato. So, with that in mind, we've put together the films we think are worth a watch.

Get the popcorn ready and take your pick or better yet, why not have a surveillance movie marathon and watch them all?

In no particular order, let's get started...

#1 Enemy of the State

Starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman, and Jon Voigt, Enemy of the State, is a classic fast-paced action thriller directed by the late (and great) Top Gun director, Tony Scott. Released in 1998, Enemy of the State is a government surveillance movie tackling the topic of the misuse of power. Smith plays lawyer Robert Clayton Dean, who comes into possession of a videotape that just so happens to be evidence of an NSA-ordered assassination. Cue Dean dashing across Washington in a bid to save his name and his life.

What makes this surveillance movie so notable is how close it is to reality...not so much with the high-speed car chases, but the fact that Edward Snowden's revelations 15 years later were scarily close to what the NSA “bad guys” were planning in Enemy of the State.

#2 Snowden

Talking about Snowden's revelations, you can't have a list of the best privacy and surveillance movies without Oliver Stone's biopic, Snowden. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the US intelligence analyst who blew the whistle on the NSA's spying and data mining activities. The provocative political drama is a bit of a slow burn told through flashbacks but it does give a glaring insight into the moral quandary Snowden found himself in, and what his actions standing up against government surveillance cost him personally. Gordon-Levitt's performance really brings that home as he expertly portrays Snowden's building inner turmoil.

#3 Citizenfour

Staying with the topic of Snowden, if you prefer documentaries then the Oscar-nominated documentary, Citizenfour is a must-see surveillance movie. Directed by Laura Poitras, Citizenfour is the filmed interviews with Snowden conducted in his Hong Kong hotel room as he reveals his NSA information to reporter Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald. Where Stone's movie relies on an actor's interpretations, this is the real deal.

#4 The Lives of Others

This Oscar-winner is one of the most poignant surveillance movies on our list. Set in East Berlin in 1984, The Lives of Others begins with a sinister look into Stasi interview techniques, introducing us to Gerd Wiesler, a Stasi surveillance officer. Wiesler (played by Ulrich Mühe) is assigned to monitor a famous playwright and his actress girlfriend. But as Wiesler listens in on the intimate moments of the couple's life, he is moved to question his loyalties to the tyrannical regime and moves from voyeur to covert participant in their lives in an attempt to save them from themselves. The plot is reminiscent of the 1974 film The Conversation (also on our list), but The Lives of Others holds its own. It's a tense yet riveting and moving film, well deserving of its Award for Best Foreign Language film.

#5 The Social Dilemma

Directed by Jeff Orlowski, The Social Dilemma is a docudrama highlighting the destructive force of social media. Orlowski interviews a group of high-ranking ex-founders, engineers, and Silicon Valley veterans— those responsible for the manipulative algorithms. What ensues is a kind of confessional and apologetic retrospect that is both shocking and captivating. It delves into the nitty gritty of exactly HOW these platforms are basically surveillance services, using their customers' personal data for profit. If you haven't already realized the extent of social media's power, then give yourself a scare and watch The Social Dilemma.

#6 The Truman Show

In the 1998 film, The Truman Show, Jim Carrey broke out of his slapstick comedy routine to play Truman Burbank in this privacy and surveillance movie with a twist. Unbeknownst to Truman, he is the star of a TV show. His entire world is fictional, created to capture his every move on hidden cameras and broadcast it to an unseen nation. But the cracks in this reality TV show start to show when Truman tries to follow his dreams. The entire film is a great metaphor for the goldfish bowl of celebrity life, constantly watched, under surveillance, and where privacy is destroyed.

#7 Minority Report

Directed by Stephen Speilberg and starring Tom Cruise, Minority Report is a sci-fi thriller based on a story by Philip K. Dick. The movie is set in Washington D.C. in 2054, where police use psychic technology to make arrests based on thoughts. Crazily, this isn't as farfetched as you'd want to think. Just last year researchers claimed to have built AI that could read brain waves to gauge loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.

But back to fiction... Cruise plays the head of the Pre-Crime Unit, John Anderton, who suddenly finds himself accused of a future murder. It's a fast-paced “whodunit” with great visuals and performances but its future view of biometric data, surveillance, and hyper-personalized advertising is also pretty thought-provoking.

#8 The Conversation

Released in 1974 and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, The Conversation is an absolute classic. It stars Gene Hackman in one of his finest performances as he plays Harry Caul, a surveillance expert. Caul is tasked with monitoring a couple and hears a cryptic conversation. Haunted by his past, he feels compelled to protect the couple and is ultimately led into a murder plot and corporate conspiracy. While the surveillance technology depicted in The Conversation may seem rudimentary by today's standards, the film's themes are still very relevant in a time of diminishing privacy and will speak to a society increasingly aware of and against government surveillance.

#9 Gattaca

Another sci-fi drama entry to the list of privacy and surveillance movies, Gattaca depicts a world where genetically modified humans rule the roost, while natural-born people make up the lowly laborers. Ethan Hawke plays Vincent, one of the naturally born “in-valids”. To achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut, he purchases superior DNA and joins the space program. All seems well until a murder investigation gets underway. Although a fictional movie, it highlights the very real and growing concerns surrounding genetic privacy and discrimination.

#10 The Great Hack

Directors Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim's The Great Hack was a searing look at how our own personal data has been weaponized against us. It concentrates on the scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, the British data research company, and Facebook. The documentary called into question the outcome of the Brexit vote and the election that put Donald Trump in the Whitehouse. Interesting, thought-provoking, and maddening all at once.

If it makes you a little paranoid about what you post, then check out our article 6 Things You Should Never Share on Social Media