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This article was originally published on November 4, 2020.
Movies have had a complex relationship with conspiracy theories.
The sense that we live in a world filled with dark forces and sinister plots can be queasily intoxicating.
That sense can also spill into films not explicitly about a conspiracy theory.
Weve included a few of those, too.
For ranking purposes, they fall a little lower on the list.
What might not literally be accurate can still be metaphorically true.
In the right hands, conspiracy theoryinspired movies tap into a deeper sense of unease and distrust.
They can also feed into it.
We may never know.
25.Soylent Green(1973)
25.
Everyone knows the twist at the heart of Richard Fleischers adaptation of Harry HarrisonsMake Room!
(If you dont, we wont spoil it here.)
24.National Treasure(2004)
24.
The bad guys are those seeking to exploit it for their own gain, not Americas.
23.Conspiracy Theory(1997)
23.
His weirdness was considered part of his charm.
22.Close Encounters of the Third Kind(1977)
22.
21.Who Framed Roger Rabbit(1988)
21.
Like another California story a little higher on this list,Who Framed Roger Rabbithas roots in real history.
No, Los Angeles never had a Toontown and flesh-and-blood humans never shared space with animated characters.
20.Executive Action(1973)
20.
The rest of the film meticulously lays out how their plan unfolds.
It also captures how Kennedys death came to symbolize the moment everything went wrong for a whole generation.
The films shadowy conspirators provide viewers with villains at once detestable and comfortingly familiar.
Of course these anonymous men who meet in secret to maintain the status quo are the bad guys.
19.Rebel Ridge(2024)
19.
Not all conspiracies have to dupe the whole world.
Some can work on a much smaller scale.
18.Wag the Dog(1997)
18.
Watched with too much scrutiny andWag the Dogfalls apart pretty quickly.
What looked timely in the 90s looks downright prescient a few decades on.
17.Absolute Power(1997)
17.
Looking back, 1997 now seems like the year of truly evil fictional presidents.
16.JFK(1991)
16.
But thats the power of filmmaking.
As a serious attempt to uncover that truth, its wanting, but thats not how counter-myths work.
15.The Manchurian Candidate(2004)
15.
14.Winter Kills(1979)
14.
(Richert had to work hard to make it, too.
Not very popular in its time, it plays like the almost nihilistic endpoint of the paranoid 70s thriller.
Speaking of …
13.Under the Silver Lake(2018)
13.
12.The Insider(1999)
12.
11.Three Days of the Condor(1975)
11.
Feeling he can trust no one, he forces an unsuspecting woman (Faye Dunaway) to shelter him.
10.Seven Days in May(1964)
10.
John Frankenheimer followed hisThe Manchurian Candidatewith another story of an attempt to take over the U.S. government.
The two make for a terrific study in contrasts.
9.The Parallax View(1974)
9.
8.They Live(1988)
8.
7.Secret Honor(1984)
7.
6.Blow Out(1981)
6.
5.The Conversation(1974)
5.
4.Chinatown(1974)
4.
As history it conflates and simplifies decades of historic events.
3.All the Presidents Men(1976)
3.
They served him as well in dealing with fact as they did in fiction.
The headlines of the day felt like excerpts from a disturbing, richly detailed, deeply researched thriller.
2.The Manchurian Candidate(1962)
2.
1.Z(1969)
1.
Sometimes conspiracies are not only real they hide in plain sight.
