Feeling Paranoid? These Are the Best Conspiracy Movies (2024)

Don’t trust anybody.

Okay, that’s a bad way to start an article recommending some movies, but it’s the only acceptable mindset for someone in a paranoid thriller. Films about paranoia and conspiracy trade in a special type of horror, one that challenges a viewer’s fundamental assumptions about story structure and character types.

Conspiracy theory films became more prominent in the 1970s when the Watergate scandal and other revelations of government misdoings eroded faith in the country’s structures. However, paranoid thrillers existed before and continue to exist today, including these 24 classics.

1. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

“Why don’t you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?” That simple question creates a whole host of problems in The Manchurian Candidate, a Cold War classic from director John Frankenheimer.

Written by George Axelrod and based on the novel by Richard Condon, The Manchurian Candidate involves a communist plot to install a puppet in the American government by brainwashing Korean War vets Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) and Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra).

The depiction of the villains might strike some modern viewers as, at best, cartoonish and, at worst, racist. But no one can deny the power of Frankenheimer’s dynamic direction and Angela Lansbury’s outstanding performance as Shaw’s duplicitous mother.

2. Hot Fuzz (2007)

The second feature film from writer/director Edgar Wright and co-writer/star Simon Pegg, Hot Fuzz has all the pop culture references and frenetic imagery that marked their breakout film Shaun of the Dead. However, Wright and Pegg put those qualities to work in a story about an over-achieving police officer Nicholas Angel (Wright) sent to the peaceful English village of Sandford, where he teams with bumbling fellow constable Danny Butterman (Nick Frost).

In between the playful buddy dynamics that develop, Wright and Pegg unveil a conspiracy by a secret cult determined to uphold “the greater good.”

3. The Conversation (1974)

Between the masterpieces The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, writer/director Francis Ford Coppola made a passion project that proved just as outstanding as his most famous works. The Conversation follows Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a surveillance expert who prizes and defends his own privacy.

When he records what sounds like a murder, Harry must leave his hermetic lifestyle and expose himself in search of the truth. Between Hackman’s understated performance and Coppola’s claustrophobic filmmaking, The Conversation proves that no one can escape their responsibility to others.

4. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Of course, the “Master of Suspense” must appear on this list, first with his mistaken identity masterpiece The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Hitchcock’s mid-period muse Jimmy Stewart makes for the ideal everyman in over his head when his character Dr. Ben McKenna has his vacation with his wife Jo (Doris Day) interrupted when a man they befriended in a chance meeting whispers a dying warning in his ear.

From that point on, the McKennas find themselves on the run, carrying secrets they don’t understand from people who can use that information to do further harm.

5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Based on the 1954 novel by Jack Finney, director Don Seigel’s first adaption of Invasion of the Body Snatchers captured the fear of conformity and imposters that permeated the Red Scare. For the 1978 version, director Philip Kaufman and screenwriter W. D. Richter moved the action to San Fransisco, the heart of the self-improvement craze.

As health inspector Matthew (Donald Sutherland) and his friend Elizabeth (Brooke Adams) investigate the strange loss of affect around them, they find themselves stymied by the feel-good pop psychology of the time, as espoused by Dr. David Kibner (a wonderful Leonard Nimoy). The update both makes the story more applicable to viewers of the 1970s and proves the themes remain applicable outside of 1950s suburbia.

6. Chinatown (1974)

“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”

There’s a reason this last line stands among the best in cinema history. Written by Robert Towne and directed by Roman Polanski, Chinatown updates the film noir for the 1970s.

What begins as a search for a wayward husband turns into a larger conspiracy about water rights in 1937 Los Angeles. Jack Nicholson is perfect as a cynical noir hero overwhelmed by the heartless corruption he faces, a corruption so entrenched in the system that even sympathetic friends tell him to ignore the evil he uncovered instead of facing it.

7. Silkwood (1983)

Directed by Mike Nichols from a script by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen, Silkwood is more grounded than most other movies on this list. That could be because Silkwood tells the true story of Karen Silkwood, a low-level worker at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site who becomes a union activist.

Based on the book Who Killed Karen Silkwood? by Howard Kohn, Silkwood avoids the historiography or histrionics that could mark a story with a clear distinction between the uncaring company and the union leader. Instead, Nichols, Ephron, and Arlen sketch Karen (played by Meryl Streep) as a complicated human being.

8. Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Some would argue Three Days of the Condor is the definitive political thriller of the 1970s, and even one of the best conspiracy movies ever.

The film stars Robert Redford as Joe Turner, a nondescript CIA agent with the codename “Condor.” When Turner steps out for lunch one day, he avoids a secret attack that kills all of his co-workers and goes on the run to discover the perpetrator.

Adapting the book Six Days of the Condor by James Grady, director Sydney Pollack and writers Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel tap into the decade’s mistrust of government and also the fear of a random attacker, as represented when Turner kidnaps a random woman (Faye Dunaway) and forces her to participate.

9. They Live (1988)

They Live operates like a great Twilight Zone episode, in which a drifter named Nada (pro wrestler Roddy Piper) discovers special sunglasses that allow him to see the alien invaders living among us. Written and directed by John Carpenter, They Live mixes social commentary with its over-the-top action.

The film features a six-minute-long fight scene between Nada and fellow laborer Frank Armitage (Keith David), as well as some great one-liners written by big-time wrestler Piper). Not only this, but the script also connects capitalists and conservatives to the alien invaders.

10. North by Northwest (1959)

Even those who have never seen the Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest know the scene in which Cary Grant dodges a low-flying biplane. But to know why a nondescript airplane becomes a weapon of death, they’d have to watch the whole film, written by Ernest Lehman.

Grant plays ad exec Roger Thornhill, who gets mistaken for a man called George Kaplan in a small mishap at a restaurant. The confusion leads Thornhill into a world of deceit, one that connects him to shady figures played by Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and some of the greatest set pieces in cinema history.

11. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

No one did paranoia like author Ira Levin, whose novels Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives inspired two mainstays of the film genre. Of the two, the former work remains the most influential, thanks to its outstanding performances and application of gothic horror tropes to the (then) modern urban lifestyle.

Writer and director Roman Polanski uses multiple techniques to isolate frail, vulnerable housewife Rosemary (Mia Farrow), who comes to New York City with her actor husband Guy (John Cassavetes). Despite befriending eccentric neighbor Minnie (Ruth Gordon), Rosemary suspects that not all is as it seems in her social circle. Rosemary’s Baby builds to one of the most memorable climaxes in cinema history, notable for both the revelation of the conspiracy around Rosemary and the new mother’s desperate choice.

12. Get Out (2017)

Sketch comedian-turned-auteurist director Jordan Peele drew inspiration from Rosemary’s Baby for his debut film Get Out. The instantly iconic film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington, a Black American who comes with his white girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) to her parent’s country estate. Although Mr. and Mrs. Armitage (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) extend a welcome to Chris, something seems off, a feeling accentuated by his best friend Rod (Lil Rel Howard).

Both a masterclass in tension and a comedic exercise, Get Out uses the tropes of paranoid thrillers as a statement on race and appropriation in the United States.

13. Michael Clayton (2007)

Michael Clayton is a fixer, a lawyer who high-priced clients call when they have messy problems to solve. Played by George Clooney at his most slick, Clayton knows how the system works and the cynicism to make it work for him. But when one of his colleagues (Tom Wilkinson) suffers a crisis of conscience, Clayton finds a world much bigger and more powerful than he ever imagined.

Written and directed by Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton brings the conspiracy movies of the 1970s into the 2000s, complete with a moral ambiguity and despair that fits the post-9/11 era.

14. The Game (1997)

David Fincher’s third feature The Game requires more than a little suspension of disbelief. Powerful banker Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) enjoys almost total control over his life. And yet, when his ne’er-do-well younger brother Conrad (Sean Penn) gifts him a game from a shady organization called Consumer Recreation Services, Nicholas plays along.

From that moment on, Nicholas learns that the lines between the game and reality blur, stripping away not just his sense of control but also his grasp on reality. The script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris sometimes stretches credulity, but all is forgiven when the movie reaches its openhearted conclusion.

15. The Fugitive (1993)

For most of its running time, The Fugitive seems like a simple mistaken identity case. After being charged with the murder of his wife (Sela Ward), Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) goes on the run to prove his innocence and bring the real killer, a one-armed man, to justice. He’s pursued by a determined U.S. Marshall (Tommy Lee Jones), who doesn’t care about the facts of Kimble’s case.

Director Andrew Davis expanded Jeb Stuart and David Twohy’s script adaptation of the 1960s TV series created by Roy Huggins into a bigger story about corporate greed and medical malfeasance.

16. All the President’s Men (1976)

Although based on a true story, All the President’s Men feels more flashy and star-driven than most movies about real events. Then again, when that real event involves a conspiracy spearheaded by the president of the United States, writer William Goldman and director Alan J. Pakula are justified in their Hollywood approach.

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman portray Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who detailed their investigation into the Watergate scandal in their book All the President’s Men. The story has all the stuff of a Hollywood thriller, which Pakula and Goldman bring to the screen with flash and panache.

17. The Insider (1999)

Director Michael Mann loves a story about a man making a hard decision. But while those men most often come from the world of crime, The Insider follows men exposing criminal acts.

The film was written by Mann and Eric Roth and based on the article “The Man Who Knew Too Much” by Marie Brenner. The Insider stars Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand, a former executive in the Brown & Williamson tobacco company who wishes to reveal the industry’s lies about the health risks it poses. Working with CBS news producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) and host Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer), Wigand stands against the powerful lobby that seeks to silence his testimony.

18. The Wicker Man (1973)

Forget the meme-worthy remake from 2006, the original The Wicker Man is a classic of British horror.

The 1973 version of The Wicker Man follows the conservative and religious police officer Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) to the remote island of Summerisle, where he investigates a girl’s disappearance. Howie at first enjoys the cooperation of the village patriarch Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), but he cannot help but notice the strange occurrences around him, including an attempted seduction by Willow MacGregor (Britt Ekland).

Director Robin Hardy and writer Anthony Shaffer take their time building an eerie atmosphere, full of unease, before leading Howie to the spine-tingling climax.

19. The Parallax View (1974)

Before making All the President’s Men, director Alan J. Pakula honed his conspiracy skills with The Parallax View, written by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr. and based on the novel by Loren Singer. Warren Beatty plays investigative journalist Joe Frady, who learns from his colleague (Paula Prentiss) about a secret plan to kill witnesses to a political assassination.

As Frady looks into it, he discovers the Parallax Corporation, an organization that recruits security personnel and makes them into secret killers. The Parallax View doesn’t quite have the same punch as The Manchurian Candidate or All the President’s Men, but it does have its effective scenes, such as the surreal brainwashing sequence.

20. Enemy of the State (1998)

Most would consider it utter foolishness to try to replicate masters Francis Ford Coppola and Gene Hackman, but that’s what director Tony Scott and writer David Marconi do with their Will Smith vehicle Enemy of the State.

When labor lawyer Robert Clayton Dean (Smith) ends up with a video that incriminates top members of the American intelligence community, he becomes a target of the NSA. Dean gets help from the surveillance expert Brill, played by Hackman and looking a lot like Harry Caul. Admittedly, Enemy of the State doesn’t have the depth of character or filmmaking that one finds in The Conversation. Still, its tense story does make for a rollicking good time.

21. The Firm (1993)

Gene Hackman makes his third appearance on this list with The Firm, based on the novel by John Grisham. Tom Cruise stars as top-level Harvard Law grad Mitch McDeere, who plans to join the exclusive Tennessee firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke after passing the bar exam. Although the job comes with many perks, which McDeere flaunts to his wife Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn), mentor Avery Tolar (Hackman) warns that the partners also expect total loyalty.

At once, the firm tests McDeere’s loyalty when they challenge his ethics, while also showing the extent of their power.

22. JFK (1991)

As the dates on this list demonstrate, the 1990s rival the 1970s for generating conspiracy theories. Part of that renewed interest in the paranoid genre stems from the success of Oliver Stone’s epic biopic JFK, which he co-wrote with Zachary Sklar.

Rather than the story of the life of John F. Kennedy, JFK instead follows the investigation into the President’s killing, led by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner). Across the movie’s three-hour-plus runtime, Stone points the finger at a number of possible suspects, which drew initial derision but also ignited a public thirst for paranoia.

23. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

On the surface, The Long Kiss Goodnight owes a debt to Lethal Weapon and other buddy action movies more than it does to The Manchurian Candidate. Part of that comparison comes from writer Shane Black, who penned Lethal Weapon, and seasoned action director Renny Harlin.

But rest assured, the story of schoolteacher Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) who, with the help of private detective Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson), discovers that she’s an amnesiac assassin, contains plenty of conspiracy elements. The Long Kiss Goodnight may not have the depth of other entries on this list, but it makes up for the lack of pure action.

24. The X-Files (1998)

No phenomenon better encapsulated the 90s paranoia craze than The X-Files, the weekly television series about paranormal investigators Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson).

The 1998 movie The X-Files may not be the best entry in the show’s 11-season run (though much better than the second film in 2008, The X-Files: I Want to Believe), but it does crystalize some of the show’s central concepts, including a government conspiracy to collude with alien invaders. Directed by Rob Bowman and written by series creator Chris Carter, The X-Files feels more like a long episode than a movie, but it’s fun nonetheless.