25 best conspiracy movies ever

They Live! (1988)

While best known as a wrestler, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper does strong work as the lead in John Carpenter’s hilariously OTT sci-fi actioner. Piper’s drifter discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the truth of the world: that disguised aliens live among the populace and are working to subjugate humanity.

Arlington Road (1999)

Widower Jeff Bridges slowly begins to suspect his new neighbour Tim Robbins might be involved in a terrorist plot – but is he merely paranoid due to the stress of losing his wife? Arlington Road delivers tension by the bucketload, ramping it up until a fantastic final reel.

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Robert Redford plays a low level CIA worker who becomes embroiled in a deadly spy game in Sydney Pollack’s cold war thriller. You couldn’t accuse Redford of not doing his homework: he had former CIA director Richard Helms act as his personal consultant during the production.

Blow Out (1981)

One of Brian de Palma’s lesser known pictures, Blow Out stars John Travolta as an movie sound recordist who accidentally captures audio evidence that a fatal car crash was actually a murder. The name and plot are a nod to Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blow-Up, in which a photographer captures a murder in the background of one of his shots.

Seven Days in May (1964)

Kirk Douglas uncovers a military plot to oust a pro-nuclear disarmament US president in John Frankenheimer’s tense thriller. The movie’s US release was delayed several months because of the assassination of John F Kennedy, while Brazil’s government – the result of a coup similar to that shown in the movie – banned it entirely.