50 Most Tense Undercover Movie Moments

Face / Off (1997)

The Moment: Archer struggles to get into character when confronted by Castor Troy’s brother, Pollux. Cue Nic Cage doing an impression of John Travolta doing an impression of Nic Cage…

Look Away When:
It appears that the jig might be up when Pollux remarks, “you don’t seem like yourself…”

X-Men 2 (2003)

The Moment: Mystique disguises herself as Lady Deathstrike in order to access some of the more sensitive files on Stryker’s database.

Look Away When: Lady Deathstrike herself enters the building and begins to make her way towards the office.

The Passion Of The Christ (2004)

The Moment: Undercover traitor Judas reels at the magnitude of his treacherous actions, wandering into a barren wasteland while plagued by hideous visions.

Look Away When: The strain on Judas’ mental state begins to boil over, as he finds himself taunted by a strange demon.

Soon enough, he decides to put himself out of his misery…

True Lies (1994)

The Moment: Arnie’s daughter finds herself in the line of fire during the film’s final reel, attempting to escape a gang of terrorists while confined to the top floor of an abandoned building.

Look Away When:
Arnie commandeers a Harrier jet and urges his daughter to jump from building to aircraft…

Kindergarten Cop (1990)

The Moment: Kimble very nearly blows his cover as a common or garden teacher, by beating seven shades out of an abusive father in front of a class of watching children.

Way to keep a low profile…

Look Away When:
The foolhardy parent ignores Kimble’s warnings, clearly not recognising that he’s built like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Bourne Identity (2002)

The Moment: Jason Bourne is so far undercover, even he doesn’t know who he really is.

However, there are more pressing issues at hand when a trained killer breaks into his apartment to wipe him out.

Look Away When: The tension ratchets up to impossible levels as Bourne stalks around the abandoned flat. That silence is just made to be broken.

We Own The Night (2007)

The Moment: Having turned informant on a criminal associate, Bobby Green and his wife are being moved to a safe location, when their convoy is attacked by said gangster’s heavies.

Played out against a rain-drenched night, its nerve-wracking in the extreme.

Look Away When: The collateral damage of the attack is revealed, much to Bobby’s distress.

Casino Royale (2006)

The Moment: Buoyed by an injection of chips from Felix Leiter, Bond starts to carry the fight to Le Chiffre on the poker table.

Look Away When:
Le Chiffre starts weeping blood, Bond gets his tail up and the cards are turned over, with a very big pot at stake.

21 Jump Street (2012)

The Moment: Domingo recognises Schmidt and Jenko as police officers and not high school students (no shit, Sherlock) and orders two of his heavies to shoot them.

Look Away When: As soon as Domingo gives the order to shoot, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s curtains for our heroes… until the goons are revealed to be Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise!

Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)

The Moment: Uncle Charlie, already being hunted by a pair of undercover detectives, flaunts his murderous attitudes in plain sight, launching into a dinner-table diatribe about his hatred of rich widows…

Look Away When: Charlie starts in on how they are like animals, ripe for the slaughter. The weirdo…

George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.

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