25 best conspiracy movies ever

JFK (1991)

Wherever there’s a dead American president, there’s a conspiracy theory. And Oliver Stone (who went on to make Nixon and W.) saw to it that former New Orleans DA Jim Garrison’s accusations of a cover-up reached a wider audience by making this pop politik movie with Kevin Costner in the lead role.

Klute (1971)

Donald Sutherland watches a call girl turning tricks for a couple of hours. His excuse? He’s on the trail of a missing businessman. That’s what they all say, Don. Fonda scooped an Academy gong for her role as the prostitute at the heart of this paranoid plot.

Capricorn One (1978)

Rather than jump on the Apollo landing conspiracy moonwagon, writer/director Peter Hyams moves his fishy story to Mars. Of course, it’s not really the red planet – the government baddies are forcing the astronauts to play along with their interplanetary hoax in a shed in the desert. But when the unmanned spacecraft explodes on reentry, the scam becomes a matter of life and death.

Z (1969)

Vive la… conspiracy? This Franco-thriller explores the assassination of Grigoris Lambrakis, a Greek politician who stood against the ruling military dictatorship. It’s presented as fiction, but there’s little hiding from the film’s target – a government which banned the letter Z, among other things.

Missing (1982)

Directed by Costa-Gavras (who also took the helm for Z, above) Missing is another shot at government corruption and conspiracy. This time, Gavras’ lens is focussed on the disappearance of American journalist Charles Horman (Jack Lemmon) in the aftermath of 1973’s Chilean coup. Pinochet banned Missing, probably the greatest of its many accolades.