There is a significant body of films that feature surveillance as a theme or as a plot arc. These are a number of these films produced in the United States and other countries.
List of films
Film Year Description 1971 2014 The documentary features the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI and how it broke into a satellite FBI office. The group discovered and released documents about COINTELPRO, a secret domestic surveillance program that targeted "dissident groups, civil rights leaders and anti-Vietnam War activists". 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 During the Jupiter Mission chapter of the film, the HAL 9000 artificial intelligence maintains total surveillance of the spacecraft, including visual surveillance, monitoring the psychology of the crew, and lipreading. Traffic in Souls 1913 Criminals use a wired intercom and a tablet that duplicates what's written on it on a similar device in another room. The film's heroes use a wired remote mic and wax cylinder-based recording device set up in a neighbouring room to incriminate the conspirators. 1984 1956 The film is set in a totalitarian society in the future where the population may be monitored at any time. 23 1998 Hackers sell their research to Russians, but because the Russians want military data instead, the hackers have to elude them. Aelita: Queen of Mars 1924 Surveillance is used by the upper class to oversee the working class. American Pie 1999 The teenage protagonist setting up his webcam so his friends can see a girl changing clothes. The webcast is shared publicly to his peers. 1971 Burglars use a luxury apartment's surveillance technology to break in but are unaware of being under surveillance themselves. Anon 2018 Set in a futuristic world where privacy and anonymity no longer exist, the plot follows a troubled detective who comes across a young woman who has evaded the government's transparency system. Another Stakeout 1993 Sequel to Stakeout. Two police detectives and an assistant district attorney surveil a home looking for a missing witness in a Mafia case. Antitrust 2001 The protagonist learns that his company has an extensive surveillance system to observe and steal code. Bad Times at the El Royale 2018 Circa 1968, several strangers, most with a secret to bury, meet by chance at Lake Tahoe's El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past, including a widespread secret surveillance activity of rooms occupied by guests. Bedroom Eyes 1984 An avid jogger finds a prime voyeurism spot on his nightly route; then witnesses a murder. Blow Out 1981 A sound technician inadvertently records a murder and learns that it is part of ongoing political corruption. Blowup 1966 A fashion photographer unwittingly takes photographs of a murder and investigates the circumstances. Blue Thunder 1983 The film features a military helicopter with high-tech surveillance equipment. Body Double 1984 The protagonist, staying at a friend's apartment, is able to spy on the neighbor but winds up witnessing her murder. 2002 Amnesiac spy Jason Bourne eludes people from his program trying to track him down. 2004 Amnesiac spy Jason Bourne eludes people from his program trying to track him down. 2007 Amnesiac spy Jason Bourne eludes people from his program trying to track him down.Brazil 1985 The science fiction fantasy film follows a government clerk who works for a totalitarian and bureaucratic government of Orwellian proportions.The Cabin in the Woods2012A group of college students who retreat to a remote forest cabin where they fall victim to backwoods zombies, and two scientists who manipulate the ongoing events from an underground facility.Caché 2005 A couple finds on their front porch videotapes of them in their home and tries to find out who is recording them.Cape Fear 1962 A released criminal follows the family of the man who testified against him.Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2014 The superhero Captain America, resurrected in the 21st century, combats a conspiracy in the surveillance state of his country.The Circle 2017 A powerful Internet company attempts to create a utopian society by deploying widespread surveillance accessible to all.Citizenfour 2014 The documentary features Edward Snowden and his initiation of global surveillance disclosures in 2013, documenting events that first took place in Hong Kong at a clandestine meeting between Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald.Closed Circuit 2013 A pair of lawyers in Great Britain discover "an unsavory alliance" between its secret service and the criminal justice system and have to evade the surveillance state.Code 46 2003 In the near future, personal travel between countries is limited and controlled by technological means, but counterfeiting allows circumvention of these controls.Cold Eyes 2013 A South Korean surveillance unit attempts to track down a criminal leader in Seoul.Colossus: The Forbin Project 1970 A supercomputer created for running the defense systems of the United States becomes sentient and assumes total control. It begins placing all citizens under surveillance, starting with its creator.Confessions of a Nazi Spy 1939 A Nazi spy ring in the United States is tracked and disrupted by an FBI agent played by Edward G. Robinson in the years just before the outbreak of World War II. 1974 A surveillance expert is hired to combine wiretapped recordings of a couple and tries to interpret their conversations. 2008 The vigilante superhero Batman hacks every cell phone in Gotham City to set up a sonar system to find the criminal the Joker.Death in the Terminal 2016 A reconstruction in so-called Rashomon style, with several eyewitnesses offering their own perspectives on a single tragic event, a terror attack in the Beer Sheva bus station after which a bystander assumed to be the perpetrator was lynched.Death Watch 1980 In the future, the protagonist has a camera implanted in his brain and is enlisted to probe a dying woman's subconscious.Déjà Vu 2006 A detective tries to save a woman's life by utilizing advanced surveillance equipment.Demolition Man 1993 The science fiction film depicts a 2032 "San Angeles" where everyone's behavior is under surveillance. 2013 In the found-footage horror film, a teenage girl witnesses a murder via webcam, and the killer tracks her down. The film is shown through different screens including that of surveillance cameras.Disturbia 2007 A teenager under house arrest spies on his neighbor and suspects him of being a killer.Eagle Eye 2008 Two strangers meet via a strange phone call and are then tracked by someone using everyday technology.Echelon Conspiracy 2009 An American engineer gets a cell phone that gives him unlimited wealth, but he is then pursued by security agents.EDtv 1999 Ed is a video store clerk whose daily life is broadcast by a company trying to save its cable channel. 1997 A film producer is targeted to keep secret a satellite surveillance program to combat crime.Enemy of the State 1998 The main character is pursued by the National Security Agency, which uses an array of surveillance technologies.Equilibrium 2002 In a futuristic city where emotions are suppressed through surveillance and control, a law enforcement officer begins experiencing emotions himself. 2001 A journalist joins a curious psychological experiment and records the experiment in secret.Eye in the Sky (2007) 2007 In Hong Kong, a police surveillance unit monitors a master criminal without realizing the criminal is watching them as well.Eye in the Sky (2016) 2016 Complications arise when a British lieutenant general (Alan Rickman) and a colonel (Helen Mirren) order a drone missile strike to take out a group of terrorists in Nairobi, Kenya.Eyeborgs 2009 In the United States, the "Freedom of Observation Act" is passed allowing for the creation of ODIN (Optical Defense Intelligence Network). This leads to "eyeborgs" being created, a mobile camera drone administered by the Department for Homeland Security. 2004 An editor cuts together footage from a device implanted in one's body that can record an entire life, and he finds footage that has a connection with his own past.Firewall 2006 A technology executive is coerced to rob a bank by criminals holding his family hostage.Fortress 1993 The science fiction film follows a couple with an illegal second child through a panopticonal society.The Fortune Cookie 1966 A private eye secretly films a man who is feigning an injury in an attempt to collect a large amount of money through a lawsuit."Screen in Review: Lemmon Flavors 'Fortune Cookie'" by Francis Raffetto. The Dallas Morning News (subscription), 26 Oct 1966.Freeze Frame 2004 The protagonist is acquitted from the wrongful accusation of killing a woman and her twin daughters, but due to the media's portrayal, he maintains video surveillance of his own life to ensure having an alibi.Furious 7 2015 In this Fast and Furious action film series, a team of drivers tracks down a hacker to recover a surveillance device called God's Eye that can locate anyone in the world within seconds.Gattaca 1997 In the near future, an aspiring astronaut uses a cover identity in training and has to evade genetic screenings used as a surveillance mechanism.Giant 2009 A security guard at a supermarket watches a cleaning woman through video surveillance and begins stalking her outside work.Hackers 1995 A group of hackers break into a company's supercomputer and have to evade the U.S. Secret Service.Halloween: Resurrection 2002 A group of college students are trapped inside a home with a serial killer, and the killer broadcasts the subsequent events online through multiple cameras.Headhunters 2011 High-tech surveillance is used in a showdown between a headhunter who moonlights as an art thief and a potential recruit with a military background.Hey Arnold! The Movie 2002 Surveillance cameras are mounted everywhere in the villain's homebase to stop potential intruders from stealing the document, but they come in handy later when the villain is caught by said cameras burning the document in front of Arnold and Gerald.Hi, Mom! 1970 A Vietnam War veteran attempts to make "peep art" by filming people who live across from his apartment building. iHuman 2019 A documentary by Tonje Hessen Schei presenting a wide range of views on AI and society.I Love You All (Aus Liebe Zum Volk) 2004 This is a film about surveillance and blindness, about faith and disillusion.Infernal Affairs 2002 A cop works undercover in a triad, and a triad member works undercover in the police department. Each is ordered to track down the mole in the very organization he infiltrated. 2016 Amnesiac spy Jason Bourne eludes people from his program trying to track him down. 2006 An art gallery employee discovers a briefcase of classified documents about surveillance technology made by one of the NSA's suppliers, and the supplier goes after her to protect its secrets. A NSA operative blows his cover to protect the woman. 2006 In East Germany in the 1980s, a Stasi officer spies on a playwright. Logan's Run 1976 Citizens of a futuristic city are controlled by the use of a crystal on their right palm Lost Highway 1997 In part of the film, a couple receives videotapes recording the outside then the inside of their home. Look 2007 The film shows surveillance camera footage of events surrounding San Fernando Valley denizens. Loving 1970 George Segal as a philandering husband trysts with a pick-up in a child's playhouse in the back yard of the upscale house where he and his wife are attending a party, unaware that a group of men are watching with interest over a closed circuit TV monitor.Wikipedia M 1931 A city in pursuit of a child murderer has both cops and criminals engaging in surveillance and snooping on one another. The Manchurian Candidate 2004 The film is a political thriller about a soldier who has been subjected to manipulation of his mental states and brain functions such that he becomes part of a corporate-backed political conspi