The Hollywood films almost by rule distort the real details, but some scripts do manage to pass the general idea. Never trust the Hollywood details but if you

The Hollywood films almost by rule distort the real details, but some scripts do manage to pass the general idea. Never trust the Hollywood details but if you are interested in any topic, search the books (or the news articles) that did the research based on the primary sources. If you're interested in the history of older "spying" technology (as in NSA) see the books of James Bamford. Or, more recently, search for coverage of what is known due to Snowden. Some details emerge much later, e.g. about the quality of the pictures achievable from the satellites in sixties (i.e. more than 50 years ago): https://www.wired.com/2014/04/lost-lunar-photos-recovered-by-great-feats-of-hackerdom-developed-at-a-mcdonalds/ https://www.wired.com/2014/04/lost-lunar-photos-recovered-by... For CIA topics there are also some very good researched books. I'd say, the truth is much more fascinating than the movies.