Duplicity aside, here’s our top 10 spy couples

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This article was published 20/03/2009 (6405 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The movies teach us that being a spy is pretty awesome.

The guns. The cars. The cars with guns. It’s a fast-paced life full of danger and intrigue and tight-fitting costumes.

The movies also teach us that being in a relationship is positive, too. The cars. The conversations. The conversations in cars. On the way to the mall. Again.

When you put spies and relationships together, you get spy couples — and there is definitely nothing wrong with those. In honour of the sexy Julia Roberts-Clive Owen espionage flick Duplicity, here are our top movie spy couples.

10. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

Spy Couple: Austin Powers and Vanessa Kensington

Dossier: Austin (played with pre-Love Guru genius by Mike Myers) is the quintessential 1960s British secret agent: promiscuous, dentally challenged and all about the gadgets. Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley) is his charming, competent partner in charge of picking up the slack. Together they’re Her Majesty’s greatest weapon against Dr. Evil — bottling up a ton of sexual tension in the process.

Spy Chemistry: While Vanessa’s penchant for miniskirts and tight-fitting leather catsuits is something we can’t help but adore, it gets overruled by Austin’s nauseating penchant for nudity. Knight or not, no one wants to see your gorilla salad, dude.

9. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000)

Spy Couple: Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale

Dossier: Pottsylvanian agents Boris (Jason Alexander) and Natasha (Rene Russo) served their nation dutifully throughout the Cold War, though their missions were always thwarted by Americans Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket "Rocky" J. Squirrel. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Badenov and Fatale return to thwart a Rocky and Bullwinkle comeback, only to have it fail once again.

Spy Chemistry: While never officially linked as a couple, the sexual tension between Boris and Natasha is as hot as a Cold War era nuclear test.

8. The Avengers (1998)

Spy Game: John Steed and Emma Peel

Dossier: John Steed (Ralph Fiennes), an agent of The Ministry, is paired up with scientist Emma Peel (Uma Thurman) to discover who has sabotaged the Prospero Project — a secret Ministry initiative that can control the weather. Dapper secret agentry ensues.

Spy Chemistry: Despite being completely surrounded by a terrible film, Steed and Peel manage to maintain a solid and sexy chemistry that pulls off their respective three-piece suit plus bowler and leather catsuit. Staying sexy while the entire world goes to hell around you is rule No. 1 in the spy handbook.

7. Spy Game (2001)

Spy Couple: Nathan D. Muir and Tom Bishop

Dossier: Retiring CIA operative Muir (Robert Redford) must use all his tricks to come to the aid of protegé Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), who has been captured by the Chinese government while trying to rescue an Englishwoman he is in love with, and will soon be executed for espionage.

Spy Chemistry: Sure they’re not really a couple, but throughout the flashback scenes where we learn all about Muir’s training of Bishop, there’s a ton of chemistry and tension flying around. Plus, we’re thinking a lot of their falling out might have been because Muir was a little jealous that Bishop had feelings for someone other than him.

6. North by Northwest (1959)

Spy Couple: Roger Thornhill and Eve Kendall

Dossier: A middle-aged New York ad exec, Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for a secret agent and is pursued across the country by a spy ring and the government, with only the blond and beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) to help him.

Spy Chemistry: There’s nothing like being on the run and chased by spies, crop-dusting planes and the like to get the blood flowing. Thornhill and Kendall’s predicament lets you believe that they’d get it on like spies would.

5. xXx (2002)

Spy Couple: Xander "xXx" Cage and Yelena

Dossier: Criminal extreme sports enthusiast Xander "xXx" Cage (Vin Diesel) chooses to become a U.S. agent instead of taking a prison sentence for crashing a senator’s car as payback for the official’s banning of violent video games. His first mission is to infiltrate terrorist organization Anarchy 99, where he meets (and falls for) sultry ex-Russian agent Yelena (Asia Argento).

Spy Chemistry: Really, the only place sultry ex-Russian agents and buff criminal extreme sports enthusiasts wind up is in bed, having ridiculously impossible sex.

4. Get Smart (2007)

Spy Couple: Maxwell Smart and Agent 99

Dossier: After an attack leaves almost all CONTROL agents with their identities revealed, only bumbling analyst Maxwell "Agent 86" Smart (Steve Carell) and top agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) stand in the way of the nefarious world dominating plans of evil organization KAOS.

Spy Chemistry: He’s bumbling but lovable, she’s sexy and dangerous — how could they not fall in love? Well, how could they not after they save the world, of course. Regardless, Carell and Hathaway had unexpected and remarkable sexual chemistry that made us believe a dude who talks into his shoe could get with a sexy super agent angel woman.

3. James Bond movies

Spy Couple: James Bond and Jane Moneypenny

Dossier: He’s got a licence to kill in Her Majesty’s Secret Service. She’s the one that does all his paperwork.

Spy Chemistry: They may not be together, but it’s pretty clear from all the sparks and flirtation going on that Bond and Moneypenny are hot for each other. Inter-office romances are always tough, so we’re thinking they’re taking it slow. Considering it’s been going on 40 years, painfully slow.

2. Spy Kids (2001), Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002), Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)

Spy Couple: Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez

Dossier: To their kids, Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) and Ingrid (Carla Gugino) are just two lame parents. To the outside world, they’re just two incredibly hot people. In reality, they’re two former secret agents who are eventually dragged back into service and into increasingly ridiculous adventures.

Spy Chemistry: If Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino were in the same room together at the same time, the room would likely explode into sexy flames that would make you horny instead of burning you. Double that when they play secret agents.

1. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)

Spy Couple: John and Jane Smith

Dossier: John (Brad Pitt) and Jane (Angelina Jolie) are a bored married couple about one good argument away from divorce. Things change for the sexy when they learn that they’re both world-renowned assassins who have been hired to kill each other by competing agencies.

Spy Chemistry: Everyone knows spies are incredibly sexy. Well, assassins are like spies covered in sexy sauce. When you get Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie playing assassins together, crazy things happen. Uh, in the movie, we mean.

 

— Canwest News Service