The 25 best conspiracy thrillers

This list wouldn't be complete without All the President's Men , which many consider to be the best in the genre. If you haven't already seen it, it's not a spoiler to say that the reporters crack the case wide open. What's surprising about this conspiracy thriller, however, is how much tension Alan J. Pakula can wring from a story we already know by heart. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman are great in their parts, but it's Pakula who steals the show with his paranoid filmmaking.  

The story itself is a scam: a photographer may have captured a murder in the background but isn't sure until the final frame. Michelangelo Antonioni's murder mystery is rife with great costumes, cool colors, and rockin' music. The movie was shot in the fog of Britain but has all the sensibilities of an American conspiracy. 

Rule number one of conspiracy thrillers? Never trust the government. Rule number two? Hire Robert Redford. The actor starred in a number of the best movies in the genre, including All the President's Men, and he brought a presence to the screen that made the stories feel plausible. His best work can be found in Three Days of the Condor, a movie about a CIA agent who goes on the run when his boss tries to kill him. 

Francis Ford Coppola didn't miss in the 70s (see: The Godfather and Apocalypse Now), and this film proved just how good he can be. The Conversation tells the story of a surveillance expert who is hired to tail a mysterious couple. The case haunts him for weeks, and he spends the next two hours unraveling down to the floorboards. 

Perhaps the most stunning film on our list, The Conformist, follows Jean as he comes to the realization that his friends aren't who they seem. Against the backdrop of blue and red colors, autumn leaves and winter winds, he finds that he was on the wrong side of history all along. 

When are thrillers even more thrilling? When they are based on real events. There's an extra layer of tension in Spotlight, which follows the five reporters who tracked down the priests abusing kids in the Boston area around the turn of the century.

Action. Adventure. Paranoia. Matt Damon kicking people in the face. What more could you want from a conspiracy thriller? A perfect example of the genre,  Bourne Identity launched a series of five installments and brought the conspiracy thriller back into the mainstream. 

As far as conspiracy thrillers go, this one is up there with the best of 'em. Based on a show of the same name, The X-Files takes a plot thread from the series and condenses it into a stand-alone film. There are plenty of twists along the way, as well as some of the best action scenes in the franchise. 

A riff on Blow Up that uses mics instead of cameras, Blow Out follows a sound technician who catches a murder on tape. It sends him down a rabbit hole of cover-ups, conspiracies, murders, and twists. It's a movie that owes just as much to Hitchcock as it does Antonioni, with a number of shots that frame the characters as dots on a map. It's not quite on the same level as those films, but it does have the power to make you scream. 

A movie made at the height of the Cold War is bound to have some sort of paranoia, but this one took it to a whole 'nother level. Drawing on everything from Russian missiles to McCarthy politics to Chinese mind control, The Manchurian Candidate is one of those stories that does everything it can to scare you. It's pure fear-mongering and would go on to inspire dozens of movies like it. 

Another movie about a political assassination. This one follows a reporter who takes a deep dive into a secret agency and then finds himself behind the gun. The movie has all the sanity of a madman but is made with the same kind of energy Pakula brought to All the President's Men. This is the second film in his "paranoia trillogy," and it has some of the best moments in the genre. 

Okay, so this one is more science fiction than a conspiracy thriller. But the movie does have a political conspiracy, and there's no denying the similarities between Tom Cruise and other actors in the genre. He starts out working for the government and then finds something he shouldn't, something that needs to be investigated. 

This movie is mainly just action, but there's a plot in here somewhere. Between the scenes of Cruise running on-top-of buildings and jumping off planes, there's a conspiracy thriller about a government that turns its back on the same people who protect them from terrorists. Come for the action; stay for the intrigue. 

Like Fallout, this one sees one of our favorite action heroes take on a government conspiracy. Don't worry, though. There's still the normal amount of poker games, fistfights, car chases, and hot models. The only difference is that the action here will leave you shaken and stirred. 

What would happen if Rear Window and The Conversation had a baby, and that baby was raised by Steven Soderbergh? That's not a question many people were asking themselves in 2022, but the answer turned out to be more welcome than expected. Kimi is one of the more impressive recent genre mashups, and the story of a girl who hears a murder on her computer and spies on her neighbors from the window isn't as dumb as you'd think. 

Part documentary, part horror flick, The Act of Killing interviews the people who committed mass murders in Indonesia. The mobsters reenact their crimes for the camera and have no problem spilling their government secrets. It's one of the most harrowing experiences in movie history-- one you won't soon forget. 

Have you ever scrolled down a Twitter thread of conspiracy theories? If not, then you can just watch JFK instead. This movie sounds like it was written by a tin foil hat and has the nerve to suggest that Kennedy was murdered by the same people who killed MLK, that the government was in on it, that the Cubans fired the gun and that the Illuminati is run by our military. Some of it may be true, but most of it is bologna. Still, that bologna sure is tasty to chew on.   

The third Dr. Mabuse film came nearly 30 years after The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and over four decades after the original. It was the first time director Fritz Lang dove into the conspiracy thriller and, therefore, would become the most influential film in the trilogy. 

All the Hitchcock staples are on display. The plot is classic Hitchcock, the set-pieces would later be used in North by Northwest, and paranoia would become a normal facet of his American movies. There are moments when you want to look away from this tense thriller, but there are also moments of wit, humor, and grace. All the elements come together for a wild ride that sees one man try to outrun an entire country. 

The jury is out on what genre this belongs to, but I do know this--there has never been another conspiracy like it. Aliens invade the U.S. in the form of people and take over our government. Who are you going to call for help? The only thing you can do is run or fight, which is what our characters do in this shifty, spine-tingling classic. 

If you want to be on the edge of your seat and not know what happens next, then this is the movie for you. Jane Fonda plays a call girl who gets involved in a missing person's case led by a lanky, lonesome detective. She's not drawn to him at first, but slowly this mystery turns into a love story and then into something else. Not many movies can claim to be as haunting as this one, and even fewer can claim to be as sexy. 

Before the term "fake news" was invented, Costa Garvas made a political thriller about how the government can skewer headlines and cover the truth. The movie is filled with righteous anger and activist fervor and follows the events that happened after Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis was shot. There are many parallels to be made to American outlets today, on both sides of the political spectrum. 

This movie about the French Resistance during World War II could also be called Army of Gray. A perpetual fog hangs over the film, which is fitting for a story about men who can't see what's right in front of them. Twists, turns, and remarkable camerawork ensue. 

John Carpenter's science-fiction classic uses a blunt, obvious metaphor to create an allegory for the ways our government uses illusion to prevent us from seeing the truth. There are monsters among us. It's time we opened our eyes.

Anyone who writes this one off as another bland courtroom drama is sorely mistaken. Rob Reiner brings his magic touch to the material, and Cruise, Demi Moore, and Jack Nicholson bring their A-games. There's more to this military investigation than a speech on the casualties of war. There's a message on how things need to change, how progressive ideas are met with conservative rebuttals, and how one man can make a difference. Anyone who says otherwise can't handle the truth.