A beautiful spy. A power-hungry tech CEO. An international plot of espionage between two nations at odds. These sound like the ingredients of a spy thriller, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s resignation after an affair with an alleged Chinese spy (and a subordinate executive) proves that truth really is stranger than fiction. Ensnared in a classic honeypot—where a covert operative romances a target to extract information from (or murder) them—Huang, one of the most important men in tech, makes a cinematically classic victim.
For those who can’t get enough of the scandal but don’t want to grapple with the questions it leaves behind (Will one of the largest companies in the AI bubble collapse? What will this mean for the economy?!), we’ve curated a list of the best erotic honeypot thrillers, from wartime tales to high school schemes, to enjoy this weekend.
Notorious, 1946
As one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most romantic films, Notorious stars Cary Grant as government agent T. R. Devlin and Ingrid Bergman as Alicia Huberman, the American daughter of a convicted Nazi spy. The pair team up to infiltrate a group of Nazis hiding out in Brazil after the end of World War II, led by Sebastian (Claude Rains), an IG Farben executive who carried a torch for Alicia years earlier. But as Huberman falls in love with Devlin, her mission to seduce Sebastian grows ever more complicated. The film is the perfect Golden Age spy thriller (and widely considered one of the best films of all time), full of moral ambiguity, a love triangle, and a suspenseful uranium plot.
Charade, 1963
In this screwball romantic comedy, Cary Grant once again finds himself at the center of an international scheme involving a beautiful heroine. Stanley Donen’s Charade follows Regina “Reggie” Lampert (Audrey Hepburn), an American translator in Paris who discovers that her estranged and recently murdered husband was part of a plot to steal $250,000 in gold meant for the French Resistance during World War II. As she becomes embroiled in the deadly hunt for the missing fortune, Lampert is protected by Peter Joshua (Grant). But as her husband’s co-conspirators close in, Lambert finds out Joshua might not be who he seems. Expect double- and triple-crossing, multiple aliases, and Grant and Hepburn’s undeniable chemistry.
Body Double, 1983
Mission: Impossible has nothing on Brian De Palma’s neo-noir erotic thriller Body Double, one of the blueprints for Hollywood’s dramatic unmasking trope. After losing his job, his girlfriend, and his home, a struggling actor who suffers from intense claustrophobia (Craig Wasson) is offered a house-sitting gig at the top of the Hollywood Hills, where he begins to spy on his neighbor, Gloria (Deborah Shelton). But witnessing her murder plunges him into the underbelly of Los Angeles’s adult entertainment industry, where he tracks down Gloria’s body double (Melanie Griffith) and uncovers a scheme that made him an unwitting witness. The film is quintessentially ’80s: You have a gruesome power-drill murder. You have heavy Hitchcockian references. You have Frankie Goes to Hollywood. What more could you ask for?
Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, 1989
The third installment in the franchise that made archaeology dashing and sexy, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade finds Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) searching for his father (Sean Connery), who disappeared while on a quest for the Holy Grail. He is assisted by his father’s associate Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody), with whom he begins to fall in love during the hunt—only for her to be revealed as a Nazi collaborator working to claim the Grail for them.
L.A. Confidential, 1997
This 1950s Los Angeles police film is anything but procedural—and it launched the U.S. careers of legends Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce. L.A. Confidential follows three volatile Los Angeles Police Department officers (Crowe, Pearce, and Kevin Spacey) who investigate a high-profile massacre at a coffee shop, each with their own motives. The murders lead back to a pimp who surgically alters his escorts to look like movie stars, and one of his high-end call girls (Kim Basinger) becomes entangled with two of the officers, an affair a corrupt captain exploits to turn them against one another.
Wild Things, 1998
Erotic ’90s camp—and its grainy, sweaty aesthetics—is painting screens right now, and Wild Things embodies the genre through and through. The now-cult classic features a starry cast of ’90s royalty, including Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, Matt Dillon, and Kevin Bacon, in a tale about two high schoolers who accuse their handsome guidance counselor of rape (really, why is this the catalyst for so many erotic thrillers?). The film’s twists come around every corner, from familial fraud to a faked death to sordid affairs. With love and money on the line, who to believe—if anyone—is always in question.
Casino Royale, 2006
Daniel Craig’s first outing as James Bond found the superspy operating in a grittier landscape than his predecessors, but the adaptation of Ian Fleming’s first novel in the series stayed true to the franchise’s decades-long legacy of honeypot romances. Throughout the film, Bond finds himself on both sides of the deception: attempting to thwart Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a private banker to the world’s terrorist organizations, while simultaneously falling in love with his partner, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). It’s the perfect middle-ground film for those following both the Nvidia scandal and the highly anticipated recasting of 007.
Lust, Caution, 2007
Based on the 1979 short story of the same name by Eileen Chang, Lust, Caution is Ang Lee’s World War II-era assassination thriller about a group of students who plot to seduce and kill a high-ranking official collaborating with the Japanese-backed puppet government in Shanghai. Following the success of Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, the award-winning, Chinese-language film is sultry, sweaty, and explicit. Tang Wei’s portrayal of Wong Chia Chi, a young university student turned femme fatale, served as her breakout role—and ultimately resulted in her being blacklisted by the Chinese film industry for two years.
Duplicity, 2009
Getting back together with an ex is always a gamble, especially when you’re both government operatives trained in the art of temptation and betrayal. Such is the case for MI6 agent Ray Koval (Clive Owen) and CIA officer Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts), who rekindle an old flame before leaving government work to pursue something a little more private—and lucrative. Although they agree to present a united front (covertly, of course), their loyalties are tested as they attempt to get their hands on a highly sought-after cure for… baldness? Maybe realizing you’ve been duped together is what some people need to finally commit.
Ex Machina, 2014
Alex Garland’s directorial debut is a sharp critique of masculine and technological power, exploring the ethics of artificial intelligence (sound familiar?). The sci-fi thriller follows search engine programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) during his stay at the secluded home of tech CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaac), where he is tasked with evaluating the consciousness of Ava (Alicia Vikander), the AI robot Nathan has built. But Ava doesn’t just challenge Caleb’s understanding of artificial intelligence; she may also have a knack for manipulating the heartstrings. In a world where people are confiding in chatbot therapists and falling in love with AI avatars, Ex Machina is a work of fiction that no longer feels too far removed from the truth.
The Handmaiden, 2016
Finally, a queer honeypot affair. After being recruited by a conman posing as a count to serve as a handmaiden to a wealthy Japanese heiress—and convince her to marry him—a young Korean pickpocket finds herself caught in a deadly love triangle when she and the heiress fall in love. Park Chan-wook’s South Korean erotic thriller, set in 1930s Korea under Japanese colonial rule, has it all: an impeccable wardrobe, Victorian smut literature, and intense sapphic longing.
Red Sparrow, 2018
After her first honeypot assignment ends in disaster, ballerina-turned-Russian intelligence operative Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is trained in the art of seduction and sent to ensnare American CIA agent Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton). But when a fellow agent, known as a “Sparrow,” is murdered, Dominika begins secretly working with the CIA in an effort to protect herself and her ailing mother. The film is adapted from the first book in the Red Sparrow trilogy by Jason Matthews, who might know a thing or two about the honeypot ploy himself: He was a 33-year veteran of the CIA.
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