What are the best movies about the U.S. Secret Service?

August 31, 2010 5:55 PM

What are the best fictional movies focused around the U.S. Secret Service? I'm more interested in movies with fictional Presidents and situations.
posted by agregoli to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

In the Line of Fire is a classic in the genre.
posted by jedicus at 5:56 PM on August 31, 2010

In the Line of Fire is good, although Eastwood's character was part of Kennedy's fateful Dallas detail.
posted by Scoo at 5:57 PM on August 31, 2010

I really like In the Line of Fire as well. I find that IMDB has gotten a little bit better at actually being able to tell me what movies are good in my narrow interest area. For example, you can do a tag search for "secret service" and president and then limit it to only movies who have gotten more than ten votes and have over a 6.0 rating. [example]. The ones they suggest are The Sentinel, Vantage Point and Spartan. Spartan looks more special-ops-ish so maybe not up your alley. I haven't seen these but they all look pretty interesting.
posted by jessamyn at 6:11 PM on August 31, 2010

Guarding Tess
posted by Right On Red at 6:17 PM on August 31, 2010 [2 favorites]

To Live and Die in L.A. is one of the best crime films of the 1980s.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:24 PM on August 31, 2010 [5 favorites]

(I should add, though it is very much about the Secret Service, the film has nothing to do with protecting a President.)
posted by Joe Beese at 6:27 PM on August 31, 2010

(I should add, though it is very much about the Secret Service, the film has nothing to do with protecting a President.)

Well, it does for the first scene. Then it moves on to counterfeiting, which is what Treasury Agents presumably focus on much of the time.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:45 PM on August 31, 2010

Not sure if this is "the best", but I enjoyed The Sentinel
posted by um_maverick at 7:00 PM on August 31, 2010

That first scene in To Live and Die in L.A. is the shittiest part of the movie. Stupid middle-eastern stereotype, ludicrous action. The rest is excellent.
posted by randomstriker at 7:30 PM on August 31, 2010

I would very much recommend against Vantage Point, especially if your interest is in stories about the Secret Service. It's basically a 90-minute version of 24, portraying a Secret Service with no notable qualities apart from streaks of belief-beggaring incompetence that happen to align perfectly with its ridiculously convoluted twist-within-a-twist-within-a-twist plot.
posted by bjrubble at 8:11 PM on August 31, 2010

I though that Breakheart Pass was awesome. But it's a Western that has a Secret Service agent in it.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:00 PM on August 31, 2010

I though Murder at 1600 was decent. It's got Wesley Snipes as a cop, Diane Lane as Secret Service teaming up to solve a murder in the White House. The President is fictional.

Also, what Joe Beese said was not an opinion, it's a verifiable fact.
posted by fryman at 11:16 PM on August 31, 2010

I'll go and tear up my Akira Kurosawa Fan Club membership card in a second, but I swear to God I actually enjoyed First Kid despite its obvious shortcomings.

Bonus Bizarre Fun Fact & Derail: Brock Pierce, who starred with Sinbad in First Kid, is a founder of MMO gold seller IGE.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:03 AM on September 1, 2010

Spartan, which jessamyn mentioned, is a movie I love (David Mamet!) but is more of a kidnapping recovery film than a protecting the president film. Highly recommended however.
posted by haveanicesummer at 11:21 AM on September 1, 2010