10. Maxwell Smart
Even when you're a spy, it's more fortuitous to be lucky than smart (or, God forbid, talented) -- a fact epitomized by Agent 86, who succeeds time and again despite his ineptitude (alongside an able assist from the beauteous and competent Agent 99). The bumbling Smart hasn't yet been translated to the big screen - that doesn't happen until 2008 when Steve Carell steps into Don Adams' shoe phone -- and while we know it's never wise or hip to anticipate a movie based on a long-mothballed sitcom, we're cautiously optimistic Carell and Co. can lower the cone of silence on the doubters and haters.
9. Harry Tasker
Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in 1994's True Lies as this slick, terror-busting Bond-esque operative whose bored, lonely wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) is mulling being shaken and stirred by Bill Paxton's used-car salesman (who, ironically, misrepresents himself as a man of mystery). Tasker's plight -- add in a troubled teenage daughter -- is a recurring one for cinematic spies whose domestic battles are as booby-trapped as their professional ones.
8. Edward Wilson
As portrayed by Matt Damon in Robert De Niro's sweeping, underrated The Good Shepherd, Wilson is a dour amalgam of some of the true-life historical figures who witnessed the birth of the CIA. A distant cry from the glamourous spies we're used to, Wilson -- who looks more like a paper-pusher than a secret agent -- is a man whose idealism gives way to a rigidity that, while never compromising his work, reduces everything else in his life to ashes.
7. Jack Ryan
As penned by author Tom Clancy, Ryan is an analyst, intellectual and devoted family man -- without the duality of persona that defines and confounds his fictional counterparts. Oddly, although Clancy's books are franchise-friendly bestsellers, only four have been made into films starring three actors: Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October), Harrison Ford (Patriot Games and A Clear and Present Danger) and The Sum of all Fears (Ben Affleck).
6. The Condor
Like Ryan, Robert Redford's innocent man on the lam in Three Days of the Condor is a CIA bookworm. That's where the parallels end, as The Condor -- real name Joseph Turner -- finds himself the sole survivor of a government-sponsored massacre of American operatives. At the heart of the conspiracy he uncovers is an outlandish plot few would have believed in 1975: Something to do with the U.S. invading the Middle East for its oil supply. Yeah, right.
5. Austin Powers
Sexuality pervades tales of espionage as much as violence -- and who better personifies the unbridled libido of the secret agent archetype than Mike Myers' famously horny, mojo-powered alter ego? As opposed to Maxwell Smart, who gets awfully wound up over his missions, Austin realizes you have to love your work, bay-bee. And he does -- untethered to commitments, either personal or really political, and always eager to shag.
4. Jane Smith
What difference does casting make? Jane Smith -- of Mr. And Mrs. Smith -- originally was intended for Nicole Kidman.
Keenly aware of Kidman's lithe physique and demur bearing, the screenwriter avoided pitting the Smiths against each other in too-violent clashes. When Kidman dropped out and Jolie stepped in, suddenly there was no such concern. With Jolie as Jane, audiences would no longer worry if she'd get hurt. They'd be worrying about him.
3. Alec Leamas
Richard Burton fascinates as John LeCarre's anti-hero from 1964's The Spy Who Came in from The Cold, a man whose grip on reality slips away as he's tasked with identifying a double agent at the peak of the Cold War.
2. Jason Bourne
As portrayed by Damon, Robert Ludlum's two-decades-old creation has emerged, in film, a character keenly attuned to our times -- an unknown soldier grappling with past crimes and personal tragedies, convinced the truth will grant him freedom. Faced with the ever-murky lines between heroism and dishonour, Bourne represents a here-and-now synthesis of 1970s cynicism and present-day paranoia and self-doubt.
1. James Bond
As malleable as the genre, Bond may never be current, but he's utterly timeless -- whether he's portrayed with the cool swagger of 1960s Sean Connery, the swank escapism of 1970s Roger Moore, the shallow posturing of 1980s Timothy Dalton, the suave casualness of 1990s Pierce Brosnan or, now, the post-war-on-terror efficiency of Daniel Craig.
Even after four decades, Bond, it seems, has the ability to surprise. Moreover, who you select as your favourite Bond is a pop culture Rorschach test on par with such ones as "Elvis or the Beatles" and "Britney or Christina?" How you answer says more about you than it does about 007.
