Clear and Present Dudes: A Thriller Movies Podcast

SITREP: The Dudes are taking a short break for vague geopolitical reasons! Meanwhile we have the report on the latest John Krasinski Jack Ryan thriller 'Ghost War'. It's a great movie if you love your movies full of adverts for Dubai and Uber Eats and devoid of character. In happier news, we chat Spider-Noir with the great Nicholas Cage, the incredible Widow's Bay and Damian McCarthy's latest horr...

The Dudes delve deep into the crime thriller vigilante justice world of Jack Reacher - former military policeman investigator turned civilian drifter with nothing to lose and strong moral compass. Here in Jack Reacher (2012) and its Sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, the titular Jack is played by Tom Cruise. We try to brush off the basic criticism (he's a bit short) and try and focus on the posit...

Quick's the word and sharp's the action! The Dudes hoist the mainsail, get a broad reach on the Acheron and make hot pursuit for the Horn! 1805! OCEANS ARE BATTLEFIELDS! SHIPS ARE STICK INSECTS! IRISH DOCTORS ARE SPIES! HOBBITS ARE SAILORS! The Dudes dive deep into 2003's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. In this episode of Clear and Present Dudes, we review and analyse Peter Weir’s...

The Dudes don (Johnson) their Ray Bans and pastel suits, fire up the Ferrari Testarossa and hit the beach in this deep dive into the iconic feature-length pilot of Miami Vice. It's a vibe. It's a scene. It's groundbreaking TV that changed the medium forever, and gave us some of the sexiest most dramatic music videos of all time. It made Phil Collins seem cool. It made Leonard Cohen into a gangster...

The Dude's observe the special date with a stoner-adjacent thriller (in name only) Cisco Pike, starring Kris Kristofferson, Gene Hackman and Karen Black! Kris walks around a bunch. We hear some of his music. Gene Hackman sweats. We talk about a bunch of other movies because 2 out of 3 dudes did not love it! This is a spoilercast and every episode is full spoilers, not that you can spoil this. Cisc...

The Dudes return to Tom Clancy spy thriller territory with YET ANOTHER reboot of Jack Ryan! This time Chris Pine is at the helm, with Kenneth Branagh directing. The Dudes discuss the Cathy Ryan power rankings, and why Keira Knightley is maybe the best? Controversial. Maybe that should be the youtube thumbnail. Anyway this movie is a bit weird, and so is this episode! This is a spoilercast and ever...

The Dudes ask not for whom the bell tolls, for it tolls for Goncharov! The crime thriller arthouse Italian gangster flick from the mind of Martin Scorsese, Matteo Sciochezze, produced by Domenico Procacci goes under the magnifying glass. Starring Robert De Niro and the eponymous 'Lo Straniero' Goncharov, and co-starring a stacked cast including Cybill Shepherd, Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, Gene Hackm...

FIND THAT MAN! The Dudes are on the hunt for the one-armed man, while we flee the long prosthetic arm of the law in this week's crime thriller The Fugitive! Starring PEAK Harrison Ford, Academy Award winning Tommy Lee Jones, and JOE PANTOLIANO. Dr Richard Kimble is man convicted of murdering his wife, but when the chance to escape the bus taking him to prison arises, he seizes it and becomes...THE...

Thriller cinema has never met an auteur like Neil Breen before - this week the dudes continue hacking these government systems and find out about the weirdest movie you haven't seen! In support of Podcasthon 2026 and Trash Cats Rescue this special Bonusode is fun way to try and shed light on a subject we dudes care deeply about - cats, and how great they are, and how they shouldn't live in cat mis...

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall! And the Dudes are with him as we delve into the franchise-saving spy action thriller hit Mission Impossible III (M:I:III). JJ Abrams takes his swing at the franchise, bolstered by hit turns by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan, returning Ving Rhames, and introducing Simon Pegg as recurring character Benji Dunn. *This is a spoilercast and every ep...

This is a land of wolves, and you are not a wolf! 🐺 CAPD takes on the thrilling "Sicario" this week. We have cops and robbers and spies too in this multi-hyphenate thriller - but it's as dark as the come. Emily Blunt gives a career-defining turn as Kate Macer, a FBI agent pulled into a shady Government op to unseat the leader of the Sonora cartel. Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro support in turns...

8 years after thriller maestro Tom Clancy graced us with Clear and Present Danger a hot young Ben Affleck steps into the chinos of CIA analyst Jack Ryan - this time to prevent war between Russia and the United States when a rogue neo-nazi billionaire (sound familiar?) tries to influence US foreign policy (SOUND FAMILIAR?). *This is a spoilercast and every episode is full spoilers*In this edition,...

Zip that little pointer down to the letter 'D' for DUDES as we return to conclude Michael Mannuary 2026 with crime thriller Manhunter. The film that introduced us to Hannibal Lecter by way of Brian Cox, and William Graham via William Petersen. The Dudes dissect another American Giallo adjacent movie featuring Dennis Farina, and get in deep with the weird and unsettling world of Tom Harris' underwo...

The Dudes welcome you to Season 2 with this propulsive crime thriller from Michael Mann that sees Jamie Foxx's Max - a cabbie with big dreams - take a fare that changes the trajectory of his life, when Tom Cruise's Vincent - a hitman with 5 targets to kill in one night - gets into his cab. This is a spoilercast and every episode is full spoilers. Keywords Collateral, Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, film a...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it is to listen to three espionage-pilled dudes dissect the 1996 Brian De Palma spy thriller Mission: Impossible. Tom Cruise births the franchise that would redefine action cinema as we know it - starring Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny and Kristin Scott Thomas and Vanessa Redgrave! Stacked cast, big thrills - but a littl...

"If he pulls a knife, you pull a gun! If he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That's the Chicago way!" This week the dudes are joined by real life (distant) relative of Al Capone, Jen Lounsbury! We unpack Brian De Palma's 1987 crime thriller classic The Untouchables starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro and Andy Garcia. This is a spoilercast and...

This week the Dudes dissect the crazy-busy crime caper Smokin' Aces (2006) directed by Joe Carnahan and starring Ryan Renyolds, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Chris Pine, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, Common... the list goes on! Saanje didn't watch the movie so it was up to Mike and Ruari to explain the plot and boy, did it take some doing. This is a spoilercast and each episode is full spoilers. Keywords:...

REUPLOAD: Had to remove the movie trailer due to a copyright infringement . Another fast-food slick-ass Persian bazaar episode of Clear and Present Dudes! This week the dudes delve deep into Aaron Sorkin's feature debut - A Few Good Men, director Rob Reiner’s definitive military courtroom drama starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Keifer Sutherland and Kevin Pollack. We di...

SCOTTOBERFEST 2025! These DUDES are TRAIN DUDES! This week we conclude this year's SCOTTOBERFEST with his final movie, Unstoppable. Starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine, this movie asks - what if a train GOT AWAY? and WHO could stop it? It's phenomenal. There are no spies in it. We discuss all matters train, such as the Tyne and Wear Metro Musical, and what the thing that goes between the car...

SCOTTOBERFEST - Crimson Tide (1995)Dive stations, Dudes! In this episode, Mike, Ruari and Saanje plunge into the 1995 Tony Scott thriller Crimson Tide. They navigate the film’s torpedo-loaded themes of leadership under pressure, toxic command culture, and what happens when two men with nuclear launch keys start arguing about Clausewitz and Lipizzaner stallions. The hosts dissect the clash between...

In this episode the Dudes aren't spies, we just read books! In this week's thriller movie, Robert Redford is Joe Turner - a CIA analyst who must go on the run when his entire section house is slaughtered out of the blue. Featuring an unnerving Max Von Sydow and a mesmerising Faye Dunaway, Sydney Pollack's 1975 espionage flick Three Days of the Condor was the film that finally ended Jaws' blockbust...

Explore the espionage and thrill of Clint Eastwood's Firefox in this episode of Clear and Present Dudes. Watch as we strap in and taxi down the runway in our shonky Iranian Qaher F-313 for Clint Eastwood’s 1982 Cold War techno‑thriller action and take to the skies of political intrigue and weird special effects. We follow former USAF pilot Mitchell Gant as the CIA recruits him to infiltrate the So...

Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) as an ordinary lawyer who stumbles into a raw, dirty conspiracy after discovering evidence tied to a senator’s murder — and then finds himself hunted by a rogue NSA cell. He reluctantly joins forces with Brill (Gene Hackman), a haunted former operative, and suddenly every camera, cellphone, and piece of data is a weapon. On this episode of Clear and Present Dudes w...

On this episode of Clear and Present Dudes we dive into Bruce Willis’s 1993 river‑bound thriller Striking Distance — a gloriously daft, oddly giallo‑tinged cop movie that somehow rules. We follow former homicide detective‑turned‑river rescue cop Tom Hardy (Willis) as a string of “Polish Hill” murders, a brutal car chase, and the death of his dad (John Mahoney) pull him back into a mess of cops, fa...

If you’ve got a problem, a nobody can help, and if you can find them—maybe you can hire… the Ops Centre. The Dudes get their battle staff on and watch the 1995 TV movie Tom Clancy’s Op Centre. When a rogue KGB Colonel steals three nuclear warheads from a Ukrainian storage facility, it’s up to the National Crisis Management Centre to save the day. In this episode, we present a hilarious deep dive i...