The 20 greatest political thrillers of all time that are based on true events

Arguably one of the most underrated films in this list, 2000's "Thirteen Days" chronicles the Cuban Missile Crisis, the nearly two week period in 1962 where the United States almost went to war with the Soviet Union after the latter placed missiles in Cuba. In case you couldn't tell, we didn't go to war. This tense and cerebral movie explains why.

This 1991 political thriller by Oliver Stone is, as the name implies, loosely based on John F. Kennedy's assassination. In it Stone suggests that Lee Harvey Oswald was just a patsy, and that Lyndon B. Johnson was somehow involved in JFK's killing.

In 1974, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. The people largely responsible for that happening were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, reporters for the Washington Post who broke the Watergate scandal. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Woodward and Bernstein, respectively, in this 1976 thriller that's easily your favorite reporter's favorite movie. 

One of this year's Oscars also-rans, "The Post" focuses on the Washington Post's decision to publish the Pentagon Papers, which revealed the extent of the United States' involvement in Vietnam. The film is vintage Spielberg and features top notch performances from Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.

What is it about Richard Nixon that makes him a great subject for politically-oriented, riveting films? In addition to the aforementioned "All The President's Men"  and "The Post," we have "Frost/Nixon," the 2008 movie about the 1977 interviews between then-disgraced Richard Nixon and British TV host David Frost. The film was nominated for five Oscars, though failed to win any.

George Clooney's directorial sophomore effort focused on legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow taking on legendary paranoiac Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who led a witch hunt campaign against alleged communists working in the U.S. government. For those unfamiliar with history, Murrow won.

Though the specifics of the film didn't actually happen, the surveillance and fear of being watched by the Stasi felt by East Germans was very much real – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director of the film that won the 2006 foreign film Oscar (defeating eventual "Pan's Labyrinth"), grew up in East Germany and has said that his parents' own fears informed his script. Hands down, "The Lives of Others" is the best movie ever made about surveillance not called "The Conversation."

Another great Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks collaboration (serious question: can they just spend the rest of their careers doing political and/or historical thrillers?), "Bridge of Spies" focuses on lawyer James B. Donovan, who's tapped by the government to negotiate the exchange of an American spy for a Soviet KGB spy that he represented in court. 

In case you can't tell, this Tom Hanks guy is a pretty good actor. In 2007, he was cast to play the titular character in "Charlie Wilson's War," a freewheelin' lothario of a congressman who played a role in the U.S. involvement of the Soviet-Afghan War. As is the case with most movies based on real events, the filmmakers took some liberties with the fact. The most glaring of which is that this movie ends with a somewhat happy ending, when in reality, the true events depicted in this film are likely the reason why the United States eventually went to war into Afghanistan.

Winner of the Oscar for Best Picture at the 85th Academy Awards, this Ben Affleck political thriller retells the true story of how CIA operative Tony Mendez concocted an out of this world plan to rescue six American diplomats from Tehran after the 1979 takeover and hostage-taking of the U.S. Embassy. His plan? To pretend they're part of a Canadian film crew scouting for a sci-fi movie called "Argo."

Rachel Weisz plays Kathryn Bolkovac in this 2010 film about a United Nations peacekeeper who uncovers a sex trafficking operation in post-war Bosnia organized by workers of the U.S.-based conglomerate DynCorp International. Bolkovac was ignored by the U.N. of her findings and eventually fired. That didn't stop her from going to the BBC with her story.

"Zero Dark Thirty" was a critical darling when it came out. The Kathryn Bigelow-directed movie about the ten-year-long hunt for Osama bin Laden was rewarded with multiple Oscar nominations. But then came the criticisms that the film was too pro-torture (suggesting that "enhanced interrogation techniques" led to finding bin Laden), or pro-Obama propaganda.

In 2003, the Bush administration all but outed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative for what many believe was retribution for her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, writing an op-ed in the New York Times  casting doubt on the notion that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Africa – a claim that was used by the White House to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This whole affair is the focus of Doug Lyman's 2010 film, "Fair Game," which features Naomi Watts as Plame and Sean Penn as Wilson.

This "everything is connected" geopolitical thriller from 2005 is about Middle Eastern oil — and the politics and espionage behind it — is based on "See No Evil," a memoir written by former CIA officer Robert Baer. George Clooney, who also executive produced the movie, plays Bob Barnes, which in case you can't tell, is a thinly veiled allusion to the source material.

Considered by many critics to be one of the best movies made since the start of the millennium, Steven Spielberg's 2005 movie centers on Operation Wrath of God, the Israeli government's unofficial retaliatory campaign against the Palestine Liberation Organization for the killing of Israeli athletes by terrorist group Black September during the 1972 Summer Olympic games held in Munich. 

Michael Mann's venture into the world of thrillers resulted in this 1999 movie about "Big Tobacco" industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand (played by Russell Crowe). Though Mann took some liberties with the story, "The Insider"  is an adaptation of "The Man Who Knew Too Much," a 1996 Vanity Fair article. 

Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton. That alone should be reason enough to watch "The Special Relationship," the 2010 film about the relationship that existed between former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair (played by the incomparable Michael Sheen) and Clinton while they were both in office. 

Winner of the foreign film Oscar, and according to the late Roger Ebert, the best movie of 1969 full stop, "Z" tells the tragic story of the 1963 assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis. To this day, "Z" remains director Costa-Gavras' most important film.

Don't let all the "Downfall" memes fool you—you know which ones we're talking about, and if you don't, just YouTube search "Hitler reacts to..." and you'll see what we mean – this 2004 film gives you a great account of Hitler's final days as Germany's dictator.

This 2012 movie about the ad executive (played by Gael Garcia Bernal) who comes up with the campaign to remove dictator Augusto Pinochet from power in Chile is a slow burner, but it's definitely a must watch. The film shows that sometimes, dictatorships can be toppled by simply saying "no."