SPYSCAPE has a sneaky entertainment line-up for you this holiday season. Our movie recommendations are certain to fire up your evening and our Top 100 spy books are hand-picked by real-life spies. We’ve also put together five special spycraft podcasts where you’ll meet sweet-talking case officers, daring undercovers, and an NSA mole. So gather around the fire, warm your toes, and let it snow!
Festive films
SPYSCAPE has drawn up the ultimate naughty-and-nice list of holiday films from Batman Returns to Iron Man 3 and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Settle in for an evening of must-stream movies with our Top 15 spies and superheroes selection. Is there a better way to make your evening merry and bright?
What do intelligence operatives do to relax? Read spy books, naturally. We asked real-life officers from the CIA, FBI, Mossad, GCHQ, and even the KGB to recommend their favorite spy novels and non-fiction espionage books. You won’t find another list like it anywhere in the world. Our Top 100 is a literary feast exclusive to SPYSCAPE.
When US Colonel Harry Shoup picked up the military hotline in Colorado he expected the Pentagon. After all, only Shoup and a four-star general in Washington, D.C. had the red phone’s number. It was 1955 during the Cold War and Shoup steeled himself, wondering if there was an impending missile attack. Instead, a small voice asked, “Is this Santa Claus?"
It may be a holiday classic now but Jimmy Stewart’s It’s a Wonderful Life slumped at the box office in 1946 and drew the ire of the FBI who considered the film subversive. J. Edgar Hoover’s G-men identified a ‘malignant undercurrent’ in the holiday classic and were disturbed by the lifestyle of the movie’s screenwriters. We’ve dug into the FBI files to see what the red scare was all about.
Tradecraft - the art of spying - is learned on the job, not in spy school. In our five-part holiday special, SPYSCAPE brings you the most cunning examples of tradecraft from our True Spies podcast series so far. You’ll meet sweet-talking case officers, daring undercovers, and spies who shaped history. Could you master the craft?
SPYSCAPE crossword puzzles are set by our top team of cruciverbalists (store that word away for a 15-letter challenge!) For this year’s festive challenge, we’ve selected five fiendishly difficult puzzles from Humbug! to Tech Trees and A Black-Tie Affair. Beware, however. Our puzzle masters often add codes to crack or hidden messages that only become apparent when the grid is complete!
