The best thriller movies built on a mystery are the ones that let you solve them and still surprise you. Eight are ranked below on national preservation first, then Academy Awards won, then worldwide box office.
Two are in the National Film Registry, three were directed by the same man, and the runtimes run from 113 to 158 minutes. The last column says whether the film plays fair with the audience, which is the only question that matters in this genre.
| # | Film | Runtime | Record on paper | Does it play fair |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | L.A. Confidential (1997) | 2 hours 12 minutes | National Film Registry, 2015 | Yes, every clue is on screen |
| 2 | Memento (2000) | 1 hour 53 minutes | National Film Registry, 2017 | Yes, if you can hold the order in your head |
| 3 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) | 2 hours 38 minutes | 1 Academy Award | Yes, and it shows the archive work |
| 4 | Gone Girl (2014) | 2 hours 29 minutes | National Board of Review: Top Ten Films | Yes, and then it changes the question |
| 5 | Knives Out (2019) | 2 hours 10 minutes | $312.9 million worldwide | Yes, almost ostentatiously so |
| 6 | Shutter Island (2010) | 2 hours 18 minutes | National Board of Review: Top Ten Films | Yes, but only on a second viewing |
| 7 | Prisoners (2013) | 2 hours 33 minutes | National Board of Review: Top Ten Films | Yes, and it makes you wish it did not |
| 8 | Zodiac (2007) | 2 hours 38 minutes | $84.7 million worldwide | No, because the real case never resolved |
What a Mystery Thriller Owes the Audience
A mystery thriller has one obligation: the information needed to solve it has to be on screen before the solution is. Break that and the twist is a cheat, however well staged. Seven of the eight films above keep the contract, and the eighth breaks it deliberately because the real case was never solved.
That is a harder test than the genre usually meets. It rules out most films that reveal a hidden twin, a secret will or an unseen accomplice in the last reel.
It also produces unusually long films. Six of these eight run over two hours, because laying clues fairly takes screen time that a cheat does not.
The Eight Best Thriller Movies, Ranked
1. L.A. Confidential (1997): Three Detectives and a Conspiracy That Adds Up
Director: Curtis Hanson · Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes · Starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce · National Film Registry, 2015
Curtis Hanson compressed a long James Ellroy novel into 132 minutes without losing the plot mechanics. It won two Academy Awards, for supporting actress and adapted screenplay, and entered the National Film Registry in 2015.
The structure runs three detectives who despise each other toward the same answer from different directions. Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce were both unknown in the United States, which is why the casting still works.
It grossed $126.2 million. Every piece of the conspiracy is shown before it is explained, which is the definition of playing fair.
2. Memento (2000): A Mystery Told Backwards, and It Holds
Director: Christopher Nolan · Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes · Starring: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano · National Film Registry, 2017
Christopher Nolan runs the colour scenes in reverse and the black and white scenes forward until they meet. The gimmick is not a gimmick: it puts the audience in the same position as a man who cannot form new memories.
The Library of Congress selected it in 2017, alongside Die Hard and Titanic. It grossed only $40.1 million, the smallest figure on this list.
At 113 minutes it is the shortest pick here, and it is the one most people watch twice in the same week.
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011): A Cold Case, Two Investigators, One Island
Director: David Fincher · Runtime: 2 hours 38 minutes · Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer · One Academy Award
David Fincher won the Academy Award for film editing for a 158-minute film that is mostly two people reading old photographs. The investigation is the pleasure, not the obstacle.
Rooney Mara plays Lisbeth Salander as genuinely strange rather than stylishly damaged, and the performance earned a best actress nomination.
It grossed $233 million. If the Swedish original put you off, this version is tighter and colder.
4. Gone Girl (2014): The Mystery That Solves Itself Halfway Through
Director: David Fincher · Runtime: 2 hours 29 minutes · Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris · $370.9 million worldwide
David Fincher gives away the answer at the midpoint and the second half is better for it. The film stops being about where she went and starts being about two people performing a marriage for cameras.
Rosamund Pike earned a best actress nomination and the National Board of Review listed it among the ten best films of 2014. It has spent two weeks in the United States Netflix top ten.
It grossed $370.9 million, the highest figure here. At 149 minutes it never feels it.
5. Knives Out (2019): A Whodunnit That Respects the Rules It Breaks
Director: Rian Johnson · Runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes · Starring: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas · $312.9 million worldwide
Rian Johnson writes a locked-house mystery, resolves it in the first act, and then spends 130 minutes on what the resolution was hiding. Every clue is visible and most are visible twice.
Daniel Craig plays the detective as an outsider nobody takes seriously, and Ana de Armas gets the actual lead. The film grossed $312.9 million on a modest budget.
It is the lightest pick here by some distance and the easiest to put on with other people in the room.
6. Shutter Island (2010): The Mystery You Are Meant to Get Wrong
Director: Martin Scorsese · Runtime: 2 hours 18 minutes · Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley · $294.8 million worldwide
Martin Scorsese stages a missing-patient investigation on a hospital island in 1954 and signals the answer in almost every scene. Most viewers miss it, which is the design.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays a marshal who is coming apart, and the final line is deliberately ambiguous about how much he understands.
It grossed $294.8 million and the National Board of Review named it among its ten best films of 2010. At 138 minutes it is slower than its trailer promised.
7. Prisoners (2013): A Missing-Child Case With No Comfortable Answer
Director: Denis Villeneuve · Runtime: 2 hours 33 minutes · Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis · $122.1 million worldwide
Denis Villeneuve spends 153 minutes on two men, a father who abducts a suspect and a detective who keeps working the case properly, and refuses to tell you which approach is right.
Roger Deakins shot it and earned an Oscar nomination. Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal are both playing against type and neither gets a redemptive scene.
It grossed $122.1 million, has spent three weeks in the United States Netflix top ten, and is the hardest watch on this list.
8. Zodiac (2007): The Mystery With No Solution, Which Is the Point
Director: David Fincher · Runtime: 2 hours 38 minutes · Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards · $84.7 million worldwide
David Fincher adapted a case that was never closed and refused to invent an ending. The film is 158 minutes of handwriting analysis, jurisdiction disputes and men losing years to a puzzle.
It took $84.7 million, a commercial disappointment that has since become the most admired film in his catalogue. The basement scene has no violence in it at all and is the most frightening in the film.
Watch it when you want obsession rather than resolution. It is the only pick here that refuses to pay off.
Why One Director Has Three Films Here
David Fincher directed Zodiac, Gone Girl and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, three of the eight. That is not an oversight in the selection, it is what the credential test produces: he makes procedural thrillers where the investigation is shot as work rather than as montage.
- Fincher: Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Zodiac
- Nolan, Scorsese, Villeneuve, Johnson, Hanson: one film each
- Shortest to longest: Memento at 113 minutes, Zodiac and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at 158
If you want the same discipline with a horror edge, the horror thrillers ranked on the same record include his other famous investigation picture.
The Three Tests Each Film Had to Pass
Every pick needed a checkable record: National Film Registry selection, an Academy Award, a National Board of Review listing or a verified worldwide gross. Inside the Registry group the Oscar count broke the tie, and gross broke the rest.
Each also had to put its evidence on screen before its solution, and had to be in wide enough circulation to start on a streaming service tonight.
The fair-play column is the judgement call, and it is the one to read before the ranking. A film can be excellent and still not be the one you want at eleven at night. The most decorated films ever made include almost no mysteries at all, which is why the Registry does more work in this ranking than the Academy.
How to Choose Your Next Mystery Thriller
If you want the most satisfying solve, take Knives Out, which is also the only pick here that is genuinely funny. If you want the best-constructed one, take Memento and give it your full attention for 113 minutes.
If you want a long evening with a case that builds, take Zodiac or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, both 158 minutes. If you want to be unsettled rather than entertained, take Prisoners and do not watch it last.
Memento then Shutter Island runs 4 hours 11 and makes a strong double bill about unreliable narrators, in that order rather than the reverse. The action thrillers ranked the same way are the faster option when nobody wants to concentrate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best mystery thriller movie?
By record rather than opinion, L.A. Confidential: two Academy Awards in 1998 and selection for the National Film Registry in 2015. Memento is the other Registry pick here, added in 2017, and is the more structurally ambitious of the two.
Which thriller on this list is shortest?
Memento at 113 minutes, then Knives Out at 130 and L.A. Confidential at 132. Zodiac and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are the longest at 158 minutes each.
Does Zodiac have an ending?
Not a conclusive one. The real Zodiac case was never officially solved, and David Fincher refused to invent a resolution. The film names a likely suspect and then shows why the evidence never held.
What makes a mystery film play fair?
Every piece of information needed to reach the solution appears on screen before the solution does. Knives Out and L.A. Confidential are the clearest examples here, and Shutter Island technically qualifies even though almost nobody solves it first time.
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