Thought-Provoking Psychological Thrillers
These are movie where after I've watched them, I need to take time to think about what I'd just seen. Some of these movies even had me feel like I'd missed something and needed to see them again.
I'm not claiming that these movies are all good. But they all had me thinking.
I'm not claiming that these movies are all good. But they all had me thinking.
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- DirectorTony ScottStarsDenzel WashingtonPaula PattonJim CaviezelAfter a ferry is bombed in New Orleans, an A.T.F. agent joins a unique investigation using experimental surveillance technology to find the bomber, but soon finds himself becoming obsessed with one of the victims.Claire is murdered as a part of a terrorist event. But she's important because she dies before the bomb went off which starts the ATF agent Doug (played by Denzel) to want to go back in time to save her. But they have already found his DNA at her house, so has he already gone back? If he couldn't save her the last time, what can he do different this time?
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJoseph Gordon-LevittElliot PageA thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.A dream within a dream. So, is this all for real or have we been stuck in someone's dream this whole time?
- DirectorDuncan JonesStarsJake GyllenhaalMichelle MonaghanVera FarmigaA soldier wakes up in someone else's body and discovers he's part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train within 8 minutes.The soldier isn't really going back in time, he's being placed into someone else's life to find the bomber of a train. So how is it that he's changing events? Can he really stop the bomb from killing all thoes people in the first place?
- DirectorGary FlederStarsShane BrollyVincent D'OnofrioGary SiniseIn the future, an alien race uses androids as bombs to attack Earth. A government weapons specialist is accused of being one such android and sets out to prove his innocence.Spencer is suspected of being a clone made with a bomb inside that will detonate when he is close to certain targets. Is he who he believes himself to be? Or is he really a ticking . . . well you know?
- DirectorJohn WooStarsBen AffleckAaron EckhartUma ThurmanWhat seemed like a breezy idea that would net an engineer millions of dollars ends up leaving him on the run for his life and trying to piece together why he's being chased.Jennings works on projects and when he's done his memory of the time is wiped away. Why is he being chased after this last job? What was he working on? Most importantly, why did he refuse the large paycheck?
- DirectorPaul VerhoevenStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerSharon StoneMichael IronsideWhen a man goes in to have virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars implanted in his mind, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real - or is he?Recall will give you the memories of a vacation without leaveing their office. Quade asks to be put on Mars as a secret agent. Everything that followes is so unbelieveable. So is this all real, or is he stuck in his own mind at Recall?
- DirectorD.J. CarusoStarsShia LaBeoufMichelle MonaghanRosario DawsonJerry and Rachel are two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move.When Jerry and Rachel have to ban together and figure out what's going on when a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met tells them to do things or else. Who is this voice over the phone? How can she know everything about them?
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsMichael DouglasDeborah Kara UngerSean PennAfter a wealthy San Francisco banker is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, his life is turned upside down as he begins to question if it might really be a concealed conspiracy to destroy him.Nicholas goes through all kinds of tests before he can receive his birthday present, the live action game. But when will the game begin? Is everyone involved in this game? Does this game even exsist?
- DirectorJonathan MostowStarsBruce WillisRadha MitchellVing RhamesSet in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others' surrogates.Is the world really so dangerous that we would live our lives through surrogates? Wouldn't our lives begin to feel muted or dull compared to real life?
- DirectorEric BressJ. Mackye GruberStarsAshton KutcherAmy SmartMelora WaltersEvan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.The actions he takes, and enables others to take during his blackouts, change the timeline in the new future where he awakes. Moreover, the assimilation of dozens of years' worth of new memories from the alternate timelines causes him brain damage and severe nosebleeds.
How can he bring about the best present by changeing his past? Do his attempts to alter the past end up only harming those he cares about? - DirectorMichael BayStarsScarlett JohanssonEwan McGregorDjimon HounsouA man living in a futuristic sterile colony begins to question his circumscribed existence when his friend is chosen to go to the Island, the last uncontaminated place on earth.Lincoln begins having dreams that include memories that he knows are not from his own experiences. Lincoln discovers that the "lottery" is actually a guise to remove inhabitants from the compound.
Would people really be so blind by the need to stay alive that they would sacrifice the lives of others whom they deem as non-people. - DirectorKurt WimmerStarsChristian BaleSean BeanEmily WatsonIn an oppressive future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system and state.This is a place where human emotion was deturmined to be the root cause of conflict. All emotionally stimulating material is banned and "sense offenders" are persecuted. After accidentally missing a dose, Preston begins to experience emotions which make him question his own morality and moderate his actions, while attempting to remain undetected by the suspicious society in which he lives.
- DirectorAndrew NiccolStarsJustin TimberlakeAmanda SeyfriedCillian MurphyIn a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Will Salas is accused of murder and on the run with a hostage.The citizens of New Greenwich can have anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand years of time. Some citizens have so much time they can't fit it all into the time-tracker in their bodies (which maxes out at 9999 years), and must store it in portable time-containment-units at home or at a bank.
In this reality, poverty equils death. The question is, why are people dying when there should be unlimited amounts of time? - DirectorGeorge NolfiStarsMatt DamonEmily BluntLisa ThoresonThe affair between a politician and a contemporary dancer is affected by mysterious forces keeping the lovers apart.The Adjustment Bureau ensures that people's lives proceed as determined by "the plan", a complex document Richardson attributes to "the Chairman".
Do we really have free will? Is this what predestination looks like? - DirectorM. Night ShyamalanStarsMel GibsonJoaquin PhoenixRory CulkinA widowed former reverend living with his children and brother on a Pennsylvania farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields, which suggests something more frightening to come.The story focuses on a former Episcopal priest named Graham Hess who discovers a series of crop circles in his cornfield. He slowly becomes convinced that the phenomena are a result of extraterrestrial life.
Can small things (like leaving water glasses everywhere) in life come to a critical point where there was a purpose? And if so, does that mean that there's someone who orchestrated these events beforehand? - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsTeresa WrightJoseph CottenMacdonald CareyA teenage girl, overjoyed when her favorite uncle comes to visit the family in their quiet California town, slowly begins to suspect that he is in fact the "Merry Widow" killer sought by the authorities.Charlie is bored with life till her uncle comes to town. She soon learns that her uncle is one of two men suspected of being a serial killer known as the "Merry Widow Murderer" who seduces, steals from, and murders wealthy widows. Can this be?
How well do we really know the people around us? - DirectorRichard KellyStarsJake GyllenhaalJena MaloneMary McDonnellAfter narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.I can't really point at any specific questions for this film. It just had me saying "what?".
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsFrank SinatraLaurence HarveyJanet LeighAn American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?
How does the mind control work? Can you be controlled through brainwashing? - DirectorJonathan DemmeStarsJodie FosterAnthony HopkinsScott GlennA young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.Is the former psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer helping with the investigation? Or is he just messing with everyone?
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsMorgan FreemanBrad PittKevin SpaceyTwo detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.What is evil?
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.This movie is really about the descent into madness.
- DirectorBill PaxtonStarsBill PaxtonMatthew McConaugheyPowers BootheA mysterious man arrives at the offices of an FBI agent and recounts his childhood: how his religious fanatic father received visions telling him to destroy people who were in fact "demons."One night many years ago, their father tells them that they have been tasked by God to root out and destroy demons whose names were to be provided for him by an angel.
Are they destroying demons or killing people? What would you do if God commanded you to do something like this? - DirectorD.J. CarusoStarsShia LaBeoufDavid MorseCarrie-Anne MossWhen a teenager is placed under house arrest, he succumbs to despair and starts spying on his neighbors, hoping to spice up his life. This, however, leads him to witness a serial killer on the loose.Or Rear Window
After Kale's mother, Julie, cuts him off from television, video games and music to keep costs down, Kale starts spying on his neighbors. After Kale witnesses several strange occurrences at Turner's house, Kale and his best friend Ronnie think Turner might be a serial killer.
This demonstrates the impulse of morbid curiosity. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnthony PerkinsJanet LeighVera MilesA Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.I understand that the relationship of child and mother is important. This film takes that relationship to a whole new level.
- DirectorGregory HoblitStarsDenzel WashingtonJohn GoodmanDonald SutherlandHomicide detective John Hobbes witnesses the execution of serial killer Edgar Reese. Soon after the execution, the killings start again, and they are very similar to Reese's style."Time Is on My Side"
Can demons die? What is possession? - DirectorGregory HoblitStarsDennis QuaidJim CaviezelShawn DoyleAn accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years. The son tries to save his father's life, but then must fix the consequences.This is all about second chances.
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsNatalie PortmanMila KunisVincent CasselNina is a talented but unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her artistic director and a seductive rival, Nina's grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking nightmare.
- DirectorRichard FleischerStarsCharlton HestonEdward G. RobinsonLeigh Taylor-YoungA nightmarish futuristic fantasy about the controlling power of big corporations and an innocent cop who stumbles on the truth.
- DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsSean PennBenicio Del ToroNaomi WattsA freak accident brings together a critically ill mathematician, a grieving mother, and a born-again ex-con.
- DirectorBryan SingerStarsKevin SpaceyGabriel ByrneChazz PalminteriThe 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.
- DirectorKenneth BranaghStarsKenneth BranaghEmma ThompsonAndy GarciaA woman who has lost her memory is taken in by a Los Angeles orphanage, and a private eye is enlisted to track down her identity, but he soon finds that he might have a past life connection to her that endangers their lives.
- DirectorSam RaimiStarsCate BlanchettKatie HolmesKeanu ReevesA fortune teller with extrasensory perception is asked to help find a young woman who has mysteriously disappeared.
- DirectorTarsem SinghStarsJennifer LopezVince VaughnVincent D'OnofrioAn F.B.I. Agent persuades a social worker, who is adept with a new experimental technology, to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer in order to learn where he has hidden his latest kidnap victim.
- DirectorJoel SchumacherStarsColin FarrellKiefer SutherlandForest WhitakerPublicist Stuart Shepard finds himself trapped in a phone booth, pinned down by an extortionist's sniper rifle. Unable to leave or receive outside help, Stuart's negotiation with the caller leads to a jaw-dropping climax.
- DirectorJames MangoldStarsJohn CusackRay LiottaAmanda PeetStranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.
- DirectorGary FlederStarsMichael DouglasSean BeanBrittany MurphyWhen the daughter of a psychiatrist is kidnapped, he's horrified to discover that the abductors' demand is that he break through to a post traumatic stress disorder suffering young woman who knows a secret...
- DirectorBradley KingStarsDanielle PanabakerMatt O'LearyGeorge FinnThree friends discover a mysterious machine that takes pictures twenty-four hours into the future, and conspire to use it for personal gain, until disturbing and dangerous images begin to develop.
- DirectorMichael SpierigPeter SpierigStarsEthan HawkeSarah SnookNoah TaylorAs his last assignment, a temporal agent is tasked to travel back in time and prevent a bomb attack in New York in 1975. The hunt, however, turns out to be beyond the bounds of possibility.
- DirectorDoug LimanStarsTom CruiseEmily BluntBill PaxtonA soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsJohn David WashingtonRobert PattinsonElizabeth DebickiArmed with only the word "Tenet," and fighting for the survival of the entire world, CIA operative, The Protagonist, journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a global mission that unfolds beyond real time.