on 3/6/2021, 2:53 pm
A list needing much more work
Posted by Solomon on 9/2/2017, 6:22 am
By chance, I discovered I did have a list labeled "conspiracy thrillers". Here it is, as is. Its origin is unknown. It is not restricted to political thrillers of the 70s and 80s. As a list of such films from 1990 onward, it is woefully incomplete. It's incomplete even for earlier years, as there are more foreign films.
The category itself is not defined within this file. A clear line drawn around political is required. A good many films on this list should be removed by that criterion. On the theory that something is better than nothing, however, and not wanting to spend time on this project, here is this messy list.
I have re-sorted this list by year, in hopes that anyone thinking about adding titles to the list might find it more productive to think about the decades 1940-80 that are quite likely underrepresented (as Mike speculates).
I would think that some subset of Dan's "spy noir" list belongs on here, and I would encourage him to sift through his filmography to see what might be applicable. Some of this clearly depends on how people interpret the term "conspiracy," and that's a discussion worth having. Would a film like KRAKATIT (1948) constitute a "conspiracy" film since everyone who becomes aware of the weapon that is developed by the protagonist is intensely interested in stealing it--and a subset of those folks work in concert to do so?
How strict is the definition? Is it simply a cabal seeking to control something--from resources to weapons to entire shadow governments? How do "syndicate noirs" fit into this, if at all? Questions worth some pondering before one adds to the list.
Frankly, a good bit of the filmography here beyond 1980 is highly unlikely to be worthy of serious consideration. It might be advisable to sift the wheat from the chaff there (if anyone is willing to do so!).
I've put a line space into the list to separate the list into decades.
Year Title
1940 Foreign Correspondent
1944 Ministry of Fear
1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1956 The Man Who Knew Too Much
1958 The Quiet American
1959 North by Northwest
1962 The Manchurian Candidate
1964 Seven Days in May
1967 The President’s Analyst
1969 The Assassination Bureau
1969 Topaz
1969 Z
1970 The Kremlin Letter
1970 No Place to Hide
1970 The Spider’s Strategem
1971 The Cage
1971 Confessions of a Police Captain
1971 Klute
1971 Love Hate
1972 A Place Called Today
1972 Days of 36
1972 Pursuit
1972 State of Siege
1972 The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe
1973 The Day of the Dolphin
1973 The Day of the Jackal
1973 Executive Action
1973 Savage
1973 Serpico
1973 Soylent Green
1974 Bingo
1974 Chinatown
1974 The Conversation
1974 Nada
1974 The Odessa File
1974 The Parallax View
1974 Ransom
1974 The Secret
1975 Un Comisar Acuza
1975 Hennessy
1975 How to Kill a Judge
1975 It’s Raining on Santiago
1975 The Killer Elite
1975 Permission to Kill
1975 The Stepford Wives
1975 Three Days of the Condor
1975 The Wilby Conspiracy
1976 21 Hours at Munich
1976 All the President’s Men
1976 Futureworld
1976 Illustrious Corpses
1976 Logan’s Run
1976 Marathon Man
1976 Network
1976 Raid on Entebbe
1976 The Sell-Out
1976 Victory at Entebbe
1977 The Domino Principle
1977 The Marksman
1977 Panic
1977 Rogue Male
1977 Le Sheriff
1977 Sleeping Dogs
1977 Twilight’s Last Gleaming
1978 The Boys from Brazil
1978 Brass Target
1978 Capricorn One
1978 Coma
1978 Dossier 51
1978 Eyes Behind the Stars
1978 Foul Play
1978 Good Guys Wear Black
1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1978 Target of an Assassin
1979 The China Syndrome
1979 Cuba
1979 The House on Garibaldi Street
1979 I as in Icarus
1979 Murder by Decree
1979 Winter Kills
1980 The Formula
1980 Hopscotch
1981 Blow Out
1981 Cutter’s Way
1982 Halloween 3
1982 Missing
1982 Wrong Is Right
1983 Blue Thunder
1983 Silkwood
1983 The Star Chamber
1984 Flashpoint
1984 Impulse
1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four
1985 Defence of the Realm
1987 The Edge of Power
1987 The Fourth Protocol
1987 Ground Zero
1987 No Way Out
1988 Above the Law
1988 They Live
1989 The Package
1989 Tango & Cash
1990 Air America
1990 The Godfather Part 3
1990 Hidden Agenda
1990 Jacob’s Ladder
1990 Total Recall
1991 Company Business
1991 Hudson Hawk
1991 JFK
1991 The Last Boy Scout
1991 Star Trek VI
1992 Bob Roberts
1992 Hoffa
1992 Sneakers
1993 The Firm
1993 The Fugitive
1993 In the Line of Fire
1993 The Pelican Brief
1994 On Deadly Ground
1995 Canadian Bacon
1995 The Net
1995 Nick of Time
1995 Nixon
1995 Panther
1996 The Arrival
1996 Eraser
1996 Extreme Measures
1996 The Long Kiss Goodnight
1996 Mission: Impossible
1996 Mulholland Falls
1997 Absolute Power
1997 Conspiracy Theory
1997 The End of Violence
1997 Fire Down Below
1997 The Game
1997 The Man Who Knew Too Little
1997 Most Wanted
1997 Murder at 1600
1997 Shadow Conspiracy
1997 The Spanish Prisoner
1997 Wag the Dog
1998 Dark City
1998 Enemy of the State
1998 Mercury Rising
1998 The Negotiator
1998 Snake Eyes
1998 U.S. Marshals
1998 The X-Files
1999 Arlington Road
1999 The Insider
1999 The Matrix
1999 The Thirteenth Floor
2000 The Skulls
2000 Who Killed Atlanta’s Children?
2001 Antitrust
2001 Conspiracy
2001 Double Take
2001 From Hell
2001 The Tailor of Panama
2002 The Bourne Identity
2002 The Dancer Upstairs
2002 Interview with the Assassin
2002 Minority Report
2003 I Witness
2004 The Manchurian Candidate
2004 Silver City
2004 The Stepford Wives
2005 The Constant Gardener
2005 Flightplan
2005 The Interpreter
2005 Munich
2005 Red Eye
2005 Syriana
2005 xXx: State of the Union
2006 The Da Vinci Code
2006 Death of a President
2006 The Sentinel
2006 V for Vendetta
2007 Charlie Wilson’s War
2007 Michael Clayton
2007 Shooter
2008 Changeling
2008 Eagle Eye
2008 Valkyrie
2008 Vantage Point
2009 Angels and Demons
2009 The International
2009 Sherlock Holmes
2010 The Ghost Writer
2010 Green Zone
2010 Inception
2010 Salt
2010 Urban Wolf
2011 Sherlock Holmes
2013 Iron Man 3
2014 Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2014 The November Man
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