The Best Conspiracy Films
by AdemAyakta | created - 18 Oct 2011 | updated - 1 week ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Three Days of the Condor (1975)
R | 117 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A bookish CIA researcher in Manhattan finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow
Votes: 62,613 | Gross: $41.51M
2. The 39 Steps (1935)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle
Votes: 61,573
3. The Glass Key (1942)
Passed | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Director: Stuart Heisler | Stars: Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Brian Donlevy, Bonita Granville
Votes: 7,403
4. Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger
Votes: 14,707
5. Double Indemnity (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 167,540 | Gross: $5.72M
6. Vertigo (1958)
PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Votes: 427,187 | Gross: $3.20M
7. North by Northwest (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
Votes: 346,330 | Gross: $13.28M
8. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Thriller
An American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 79,863
9. Bullitt (1968)
M/PG | 114 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A nonconformist San Francisco cop is determined to find the underworld kingpin who killed the witness under his protection.
Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, Don Gordon
Votes: 75,874 | Gross: $42.30M
10. The Conversation (1974)
PG | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 121,931 | Gross: $4.42M
11. I... For Icarus (1979)
120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Conspiracy thriller inspired by the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of JFK. After a fictional president is assassinated, a determined, tough prosecutor investigates the emerging conspiracy behind it.
Director: Henri Verneuil | Stars: Yves Montand, Michel Albertini, Roland Amstutz, Jean-Pierre Bagot
Votes: 4,569
12. Body Heat (1981)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
During an extreme heatwave, a beautiful Florida woman and a seedy lawyer engage in an affair while plotting the murder of her rich husband.
Director: Lawrence Kasdan | Stars: William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson
Votes: 40,155 | Gross: $24.06M
13. Blow Out (1981)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A movie sound recordist accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz
Votes: 63,354 | Gross: $13.75M
14. Blue Thunder (1983)
R | 109 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The cop test pilot for an experimental police helicopter learns the sinister implications of the new vehicle.
Director: John Badham | Stars: Roy Scheider, Warren Oates, Candy Clark, Daniel Stern
Votes: 23,358 | Gross: $42.31M
15. Body Double (1984)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A young actor's obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby leads to a baffling series of events with drastic consequences.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Gregg Henry, Deborah Shelton
Votes: 38,261 | Gross: $8.80M
16. Defense of the Realm (1985)
PG | 96 min | Thriller
After a newspaper reporter helps expose a Member of Parliament as a possible spy, he finds that there's much more to the story than that.
Director: David Drury | Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Greta Scacchi, Denholm Elliott, Ian Bannen
Votes: 2,526 | Gross: $0.75M
17. No Way Out (1987)
R | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A coverup and witchhunt occur after a politician accidentally kills his mistress.
Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Sean Young, Will Patton
Votes: 46,018 | Gross: $35.51M
18. Homicide (1991)
R | 102 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A Jewish homicide detective investigates a seemingly minor murder and falls in with a Zionist group as a result.
Director: David Mamet | Stars: Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, Vincent Guastaferro, J.J. Johnston
Votes: 8,175 | Gross: $2.97M
19. House of Games (1987)
R | 102 min | Crime, Thriller
A psychiatrist comes to the aid of a compulsive gambler and is led by a smooth-talking grifter into the shadowy but compelling world of stings, scams, and con men.
Director: David Mamet | Stars: Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Mike Nussbaum, Lilia Skala
Votes: 24,043 | Gross: $2.59M
20. Sneakers (1992)
PG-13 | 126 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A security pro finds his past returning to haunt him when he and his unique team are tasked with retrieving a particularly important item.
Director: Phil Alden Robinson | Stars: Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier, Jo Marr
Votes: 62,558 | Gross: $51.43M
21. The Pelican Brief (1993)
PG-13 | 141 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A law student uncovers a conspiracy, putting herself and others in danger.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard, John Heard
Votes: 96,036 | Gross: $100.77M
22. The Fugitive (1993)
PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt led by a seasoned U.S. Marshal.
Director: Andrew Davis | Stars: Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore
Votes: 318,857 | Gross: $183.88M
23. The Usual Suspects (1995)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.
Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin
Votes: 1,146,077 | Gross: $23.34M
24. Mission: Impossible (1996)
PG-13 | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
An American agent, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny
Votes: 470,516 | Gross: $180.98M
25. The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
PG | 110 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
An employee who develops a lucrative secret process for his corporation is tempted to betray the company when higher ups attempt to take the process from him. Dastardly intrigue ensues.
Director: David Mamet | Stars: Steve Martin, Ben Gazzara, Campbell Scott, Ricky Jay
Votes: 25,865 | Gross: $10.20M
26. Enemy of the State (1998)
R | 132 min | Action, Thriller
A lawyer becomes targeted by a corrupt politician and his N.S.A. goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a politically motivated crime.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet
Votes: 259,026 | Gross: $111.55M
27. Conspiracy Theory (1997)
R | 135 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
A taxi driver with a penchant for conspiracy theories becomes a target after one of these theories turns out to be true. Unfortunately, to save himself, he has to figure out which theory it is.
Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, Patrick Stewart, Cylk Cozart
Votes: 107,284 | Gross: $75.98M
28. The Matrix (1999)
R | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving
Votes: 2,054,667 | Gross: $171.48M
29. Minority Report (2002)
PG-13 | 145 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
John works with the PreCrime police which stop crimes before they take place, with the help of three 'PreCogs' who can foresee crimes. Events ensue when John finds himself framed for a future murder.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow
Votes: 584,620 | Gross: $132.07M
30. Spartan (2004)
R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The investigation into a kidnapping of the daughter of a high-ranking US government official.
Director: David Mamet | Stars: Val Kilmer, Derek Luke, William H. Macy, Tia Texada
Votes: 33,036 | Gross: $4.43M
31. Fracture (2007)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After shooting his wife, Ted confesses his crime and asks the court to move his case to trial. He represents himself against Willy, a successful lawyer. But there's more to the case than meets the eye.
Director: Gregory Hoblit | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pike
Votes: 219,015 | Gross: $39.02M
32. Redbelt (2008)
R | 99 min | Drama, Sport
A fateful event leads to a job in the film business for top mixed-martial arts instructor Mike Terry. Though he refuses to participate in prize bouts, circumstances conspire to force him to consider entering such a competition.
Director: David Mamet | Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen, Emily Mortimer, Max Martini
Votes: 21,519 | Gross: $2.34M
33. Edge of Darkness (2010)
R | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
As homicide detective Thomas Craven investigates the murder of his activist daughter, he uncovers a corporate cover-up and government conspiracy that attracts an agent tasked with cleaning up the evidence.
Director: Martin Campbell | Stars: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Bojana Novakovic
Votes: 99,061 | Gross: $43.31M
34. Drive (I) (2011)
R | 100 min | Action, Drama
A mysterious Hollywood action film stuntman gets in trouble with gangsters when he tries to help his neighbor's husband rob a pawn shop while serving as his getaway driver.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks
Votes: 704,871 | Gross: $35.06M
35. The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A lawyer defending a wealthy man begins to believe his client is guilty of more than just one crime.
Director: Brad Furman | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy
Votes: 253,868 | Gross: $58.01M
36. Jack Reacher (2012)
PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
A homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper responsible for a mass shooting.
Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars: Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, Werner Herzog
Votes: 365,175 | Gross: $80.07M
Tell Your Friends