North by Northwest
Family FavoriteG

North by Northwest

It's a deadly game of "tag" and Cary Grant is "it"!

1959 • 137 min • Thriller · Adventure

Synopsis

Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.

Our family guide

Best from age 10
94
Movie Knight Score
4576 reviews
  • 100 Reviewers · 7 · 72%
  • 80 Audience · 4569 · 28%

Advertising executive Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent, leading to a thrilling cross-country chase as he tries to uncover the truth and clear his name. He becomes entangled in a world of espionage and danger, pursued by mysterious figures.

Violence & peril
3/10
Language
1/10
Drinking, drugs & smoking
2/10
Romance & sensuality
2/10
Scary moments
4/10

Heads up

  • Some intense chase scenes
  • Characters are threatened with guns
  • Implied danger and suspense

What it models well

  • Quick thinking under pressure
  • Courage in the face of danger
  • Resourcefulness

Talk about it after

  • Mistaken identity and its consequences
  • The difference between appearance and reality
  • How trust is earned and lost
  • Spycraft and Cold War anxieties

Written by the Movie Knight editorial team for North by Northwest. Our own words, our own scoring — always double-check against your family's standards.

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Top billed cast

Director: Alfred Hitchcock • Crew: Ernest Lehman

Trailers & clips

Cary Grant Outruns a Crop Duster | North by Northwest | TCM

Movie Clip - Do Away With You

Movie Clip - The Art of Survival

Movie Clip - Crop Duster Chase

Movie Clip - A Long Night

Official Trailer 4K Ultra HD

65th Anniversary

Full Movie Preview

Reviewer notes

RecommendedTrusted family reviewers

Seen this one a few times over the years and still is one of Hitchcock's best though personally Rear Window is still my favorite of his. Still, a great espionage thriller with solid performances from both Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. **4.5/5**

Recommended

"Thornhill" (Cary Grant) is your typically fast-talking advertising executive who is meeting some folks for a drink when he is mistaken for a "Mr. Caplan". Whisked off at gunpoint to meet "Vandamm" (James Mason) and his henchman "Leonard" (Martin Landau) his protestations of innocence just get him pumped full of booze and put behind the wheel of a car, the likely suspect of a murder investigation. He has to stay o...

Recommended

Not one time did I think “This is good enough to deserve being on his (Hitchcock’s) filmography.

Recommended

***It has its points of interest, but any 60’s Bond flick is a better choice*** When an ad executive in Manhattan (Gary Cooper) is mistaken for a government agent by a foreign spy & his cronies (James Mason, et al.) he finds himself a fugitive traveling by train to Chicago wherein he meets a woman that seems to have his favor (Eva Marie Saint). After a curious encounter with a crop dusting plane everything culm...

RecommendedTrusted family reviewers

Sometimes the truth does taste like a mouthful of worms. Roger O Thornhill is a harmless and amiable advertising executive who is absurdly mistaken for a government agent by a gang of ruthless spies. Forced to go out on the lam, Thornhill lurches from one perilous scenario to another. Can he survive to prove his innocence? Is the gorgeous blonde who is helping him really a friend? All will be revealed in Alfred...

RecommendedTrusted family reviewers

I hate user/critic review websites strictly because of movies like this. People will go see like, Gran Torino, be entertained, admire a couple symmetrical shots and smooth camera pans or whatever, and rate the thing a 4.5/5, 9/10, 95%, etc. But then there are movies that have a ten minute chase scene with Cary Grant scaling down Mount Rushmore, every second of which you're screaming at the screen. Of course my mos...

Recommended

North by Northwest is famous for its famous action sequences such as hanging on Mount Rushmore and the crop duster plane scene. Essentially it is a film of mistaken identity as advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for George Kaplan by some bad guys in league with a foreign power presumably Russian. The trouble is Kaplan is a made up operative created by the CIA to flush out the film...

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Details

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