Main Illustration Deep Cover: Kyle Ellingson
Polygon delves into the world of espionage throughout the history of fiction and pop culture with Deep Cover, a two-week special issue covering a variety of espionage stories and gadgets. Don’t dust off your Austin Powers DVDs for this one though – this time we’re looking at the grounded worlds of real-life spycraft.
We talk to creatives about how they’ve designed intelligence operations that feel real – or at least satisfying. And we dive into the technology fictional spies have used to gain an edge, and how it has crossed over into real life – as well as how some of the most absurd gimmicks used in fictional spy stories are sometimes actually inspired by real life. – life operations.