Wagner Moura’s Acclaimed Crime Thriller Officially Becomes a Global Streaming Hit

We’re now just a few months away from Oscars nominations day, as we prepare for who will make their bid to become a winner at the 99th Academy Awards. The race for Best Actor is already one of the most interesting, as several names swirl around social media. The current favorite for the trophy, according to the bookies, is tied between two names: Andrew Scott in the devastating drama Elsinore, and John Malkovich in Martin McDonagh‘s Wild Horse Nine.

The most likely competition for Scott and Malkovich includes Matt Damon for his starring turn in Christopher Nolan‘s epic adaptation of Homer‘s The Odyssey, Primetime‘s Robert Pattinson, who might be rewarded for his brilliantly busy 2026, Sebastian Stan for his morally nuanced performance in Fjord, and Tom Cruise for his undeniably captivating turn in the controversial Digger. As the Best Actor race heats up, one of the most underrated nominees of the past few years has found himself back in the streaming conversation, courtesy of a 2025 Academy Award nominee that arguably should’ve left with at least one prize.

The film in question is the genre-blending slow-burner The Secret Agent, which starred the brilliantly talented Wagner Moura as Armando Solimões. Moura earned a Best Actor nod for the role, but stood little chance against some serious big hitters in this year’s competition. Other nominees included Ethan Hawke for Richard Linklater‘s Blue Moon, Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme, and Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, with Michael B. Jordan and his literally two-faced performance in Sinners walking out victorious. Right now, The Secret Agent is one of the ten most-streamed movies on HBO Max worldwide.

Four icons and four completely different ways of walking into trouble.
This is the one you would have been out there, why it fits, and what it would have cost you.

You have never explained yourself and you have never needed to,
because people work out fairly quickly that you are the most capable person in the room
without you ever having to mention it.

• Eastwood built the character out of everything he refused to do, stripping away the
  backstory, the speeches and every bit of reassurance until only the competence was left.
• You keep your own counsel, and while other people occasionally find that unnerving, you
  have never felt any real need to fix it for them.
• The Dollars films work because he genuinely is in it for himself right up until the
  moment he is not, and he never explains that part either.
• You would be gone before anybody got a chance to thank you.

You are the funniest person in most rooms and the most loyal
person in all of them, and you would be genuinely insulted if somebody suggested those two
things were in any tension.

• Doc has no real reason to be in this fight beyond the fact that his friend is in it,
  which is the only reason he has ever needed for anything.
• You lead with wit, and it does a very effective job of hiding how seriously you take the
  handful of people you actually care about.
• Val Kilmer’s performance is the most quoted in the entire genre because the jokes keep
  getting sharper as the situation gets worse.
• You would spend everything you had on this and still describe it as a good week.

You never wanted this job, and you took it anyway because the
alternative was standing there watching somebody less careful do it badly, which is the most
Western reason there has ever been.

• Earp is the reluctant authority figure, a man who came to town specifically to be left
  alone and somehow ended up answerable for all of it.
• You are protective by instinct, so when something goes wrong your first thought is who
  is exposed rather than who is to blame.
• These films understand that keeping order costs far more than breaking it, and that the
  person holding the line almost never gets thanked.
• You would do the whole thing again, and you would complain about it the entire time.

Nobody has ever successfully talked you out of something you had
already decided was right, and a long line of grown adults has found that out the hard way.

• Mattie is the most relentless character in the Western canon and she manages it through
  argument, paperwork and flat refusal rather than a fast draw.
• You have no patience for being managed, so you negotiate, you check the details and you
  turn up exactly when you said you would.
• True Grit is the rare Western where the moral centre is the youngest person on screen
  and every adult around her has to catch up.
• You would get what you came for, and the film is honest about what that takes out of
  you.

What Else Is Popular on HBO Max?

Image via Vitrine Filmes

Image via Neon

Image via Neon

Image via Neon

Image via Neon

Image via Vitrine Filmes

Image via Neon

Image via Neon

Image via Neon

Image via Neon

The Secret Agent is currently the sixth most-watched movie on HBO Max, so what are the five films proving more popular? In fifth place is the Kit Harington-led werewolf horror The Beast Within; fourth place goes to Johnny Depp‘s 2004 thriller Secret Window; the Noughties-defining comedy Superbad is in third place; the 2026 horror gem Evil Dead Burn ranks in second place; and top of the list is Anne Hathaway‘s Mother Mary.

The Secret Agent is one of the ten most-streamed movies on HBO Max worldwide. Stay tuned to Collider for more.

The Secret Agent