Everything is connected.
A thriller centered on the conflict between The Protagonist and The Conspiracy, often with an elaborate conspiracy theory as the background.
The story starts off with either a minor meaningless crime or a high-profile murder. A person related to the criminal blamed or the uncovered victim notices some odd discrepancies in the official story and digs deeper. Before the protagonist(s) realize(s) it, they are caught in a multi-layered plot that involves possibly EVERYONE, especially those who are tasked with the official investigation... meaning that the hero/heroine can't go to the cops... or the press... or that janitor in the hallway they just passed who looks a little too much like the guy who'd been shadowing them the last day or so...
There may be some overlap between this genre and Spy Fiction, as they both tend to revolve around people who work for (or have close encounters with) secretive organizations pursuing their own political agendas. Also see So You Want to Write a Conspiracy Theory, for those interested in writing their own Conspiracy Thriller.
Examples of conspiracy thrillers include:
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Categories
Works by country
Works by medium
Related genres
Works by medium
Related genres
Multimedia Franchises
Alternate Reality Games
Anime & Manga
- 20th Century Boys
- Ace Attorney (2016) (Partially)
- Active Raid (Partly)
- Arachnid
- Argevollen
- Astra Lost in Space (Partially)
- B: The Beginning
- Babylon (2015)
- Banana Fish
- Billy Bat
- Bloody Monday
- Candy & Cigarettes
- Case File nº221: Kabukicho
- A Certain Magical Index: Miracle of Endymion
- Le Chevalier d'Eon
- Darker than Black
- The Detective is Already Dead
- El Cazador de la Bruja
- Fairy Gone
- Fullmetal Alchemist
- Fuuto P.I.
- Ghost in the Shell
- Golgo 13 (Most of the chapters/episodes have self-contained plots that fall under this)
- Golden Kamuy (Later story arcs center on this)
- Himenospia
- Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka (In some story arcs)
- Gundam
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam (the final arc)
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (towards the end)
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (the first season)
- Hero Mask
- ID: Invaded (Partially)
- Jiraishin (Jiraishin Diablo only)
- Kerberos Panzer Cop
- Kite
- Kite Liberator
- Kurokochi
- Macross Frontier
- Macross Delta
- Madlax
- Megazone 23
- The Millionaire Detective - Balance: UNLIMITED
- MW
- No Guns Life
- Noir
- Patlabor: The Series and two of the movies, but not the OVA.
- Persona -trinity soul-
- Pluto
- Princess Principal
- Psycho-Pass
- Red Eyes
- Release the Spyce
- Sakura Wars: The Movie
- Sakura Wars the Animation
- Spriggan (Some)
- Super Robot Wars Original Generation: Divine Wars
- TerraforMARS
- Terror in Resonance
- To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts
- Triage X
- Tesla Note
- Until Death Do Us Part
- Viper's Creed
- Wizard Barristers
Comic Books
- XIII
- Batman
- The Death of Captain America
- The Department of Truth: An unusual example, in which there is a Government Conspiracy, but their only goal is to prevent people from believing in other conspiracy theories, since if enough people believe in them they retroactively become true.
- Ghost Money
- Largo Winch
- Letter 44
- The Punisher MAX
- Spider-Man
- Ultimate Spider-Man
Fan Works
- The Glass Kingdom (a story set in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse).
- Sporadic Phantoms
Films — Animation
- DC Animated Universe:
- Shrek
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 theatrically released Pilot Movie for the series)
- Zootopia
Films — Live-Action
- 2009: Lost Memories
- Above the Law (2017)
- Absolon
- The Accountant (2016)
- All the President's Men: Practically the Trope Codifier. Making it worse is that it really happened: Watergate.
- The Amazing Spider-Man Series
- Android Cop
- Antitrust
- Arlington Road
- August Without Emperor
- AWOL-72
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
- The Big Hurt
- Blind Horizon
- Blow Out
- The Bourne Series:
- Brass Target
- Brooklyn Tide
- Capricorn One
- The China Syndrome
- The Circle (2017)
- The Conspiracy
- Conspiracy Theory
- The Conversation
- The Dark Knight Trilogy
- Dune (1984)
- Dune (2021)
- Enemy of the State
- Fear X
- The Fugitive
- Flashpoint (1984)
- Fleisch
- The Fury
- Futureworld
- Geostorm
- Ghost in the Shell (2017)
- G-Saviour
- The Ghost Writer
- Hidden Agenda
- Ilang: The Wolf Brigade
- In Darkness (2018)
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
- The International
- The Internecine Project
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- James Bond (some installments fit this)
- Kill the Messenger
- Kite
- The Lincoln Lawyer
- Marathon Man
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Iron Man (becomes more obvious in light of Winter Soldier)
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Captain Marvel (2019)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
- Black Widow (2021)
- The Mask of Zorro
- Men in Black: The titular MIB are portrayed as a relatively Benevolent Conspiracy responsible for suppressing all evidence for UFO/alien-related conspiracies, which of course are all true in this universe.
- The Net (1995)
- Page Eight
- Panic in the City
- The Parallax View
- Pokémon Detective Pikachu
- Revolver (1973)
- Scream and Scream Again (a Genre Mashup of conspiracy thriller and horror film)
- Secret Command (1944)
- Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue
- Shooter
- Sicario
- Snake Eyes
- Spartan
- Spider-Man Trilogy
- Star Wars (the Prequel Trilogy and The Rise of Skywalker in particular)
- Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy
- Tenet
- They Cloned Tyrone
- They Live!
- Three Days of the Condor
- Trust No 1
- The Turning Point (1952)
- Twilight's Last Gleaming
- Winter Kills
- Without Remorse
- The X-Files: Fight the Future
- Yesterday (2002)
- Zoolander
- Z
- Zone 39
Literature
Live-Action TV
- 20 Minutes
- 24
- Agent X
- Allegiance
- American Odyssey
- Ang Probinsyano (2015) (Partially)
- Arrow (the first two seasons at least)
- Athena: Goddess of War
- Battlestar Galactica (2003)
- BG: Personal Bodyguard (Last few episodes are centered on this in the two seasons)
- Believe
- Berlin Station
- Blindspot
- Black Earth Rising
- The Blacklist
- Bloodlands (2021)
- Blue Bloods (For the first season)
- Bodyguard (UK 2018)
- Bosch (Some story arcs)
- The Bridge (2011)
- The Capture
- The City Hunter
- Condor
- Cordon
- Counterpart (2018)
- Crisis (2014)
- Crisis (2017)
- Dark (2017)
- Designated Survivor
- Dig
- Diplomat Kuroda Kousaku
- DIRay
- D.☆P. (second season)
- Edge of Darkness
- The Endgame
- The Equalizer
- Eye of the Storm
- The Fixer
- The Flash (2014) (the first season)
- Frank Herbert's Dune
- Gotham
- Hard Sun
- Hometown (2021)
- Hunters
- The Honourable Woman
- The Indian Detective (Partly)
- In From the Cold
- Into the Night (Partially)
- Iris (2009)
- Jack Irish
- Jack Ryan
- Jericho (2006)
- Jordskott (Halfway through the show)
- Some Kamen Rider series:
- Krypton
- The Last Enemy
- The Last Ship
- Legends
- Line of Duty (Some)
- The Lost Symbol
- The Man in the High Castle
- Manifest
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Mech-X4
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
- Nancy Drew (2019)
- The Night Agent
- OCTB
- Occupied
- The Old Man
- Orphan Black
- Partners For Justice
- Person of Interest
- The Player
- Project Blue Book
- The Punisher (2017)
- Quantico
- Reacher
- Riverdale
- Salamander
- Severance (2022)
- Shooter
- Sisyphus: The Myth
- Slow Horses
- Sorjonen
- Special Ops: Lioness
- Spooks
- SS-GB
- Stan Lee's Lucky Man
- Stranger Things
- Strike Back
- Terriers
- The Terminal List
- Thin Ice
- Timeless
- Titans (2018)
- Treadstone
- Trigger Point
- True Detective (For the second season)
- The Unit
- Utopia (along with the remake)
- Valor
- Vagabond (2019)
- Wednesday
- Young Wallander
- Whiskey Cavalier
- The X-Files
Podcasts
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- Alpha Protocol
- Altered Beast (2005)
- Army of Two
- Assassin's Creed
- Batman: Arkham Series
- Black Command (Partially)
- Battlefield series:
- Call of Duty series:
- Criminal Case
- Criminal Case: Grimsborough (the final Story Arc reveals there was one going on throughout the game)
- Criminal Case: World Edition
- Criminal Case: The Conspiracy
- Dead to Rights
- Deus Ex Universe
- The Division
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Some rute have this).
- Flashback
- Front Mission series
- Full Metal Panic! Fight Who Dares Wins
- The Getaway
- The Getaway: Black Monday
- Ghost Recon: Predator
- Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
- Golgo 13
- Grand Theft Auto V
- G-Saviour
- Hitman (Only a few of the installments fit and each has their own conspiracy arcs, and the mission-to-mission story elements are closer to Spy Fiction)
- Horizon Zero Dawn (in the backstory)
- Judgment
- L.A. Noire
- LEGO City Undercover
- Like a Dragon
- Live A Live
- Marvel's Spider-Man
- Mass Effect (Partly)
- Max Payne
- Metal Gear
- Odium
- Parasite Eve
- Persona 2
- Phantom Doctrine
- Power Pro-kun Pocket series, when its various criminal organizations such as Team Propeller, Okami and Judgment are involved.
- Power Pro-kun Pocket 7 (Koshien Hero scenario)
- Power Pro-kun Pocket 8 (Special Mission Hunter scenario)
- Power Pro-kun Pocket 12 (Cyber Baseball scenario)
- Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
- Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
- Ring of Red
- Rival Schools
- Sakura Wars 2: Thou Shalt Not Die
- Scarlet Nexus
- Second Sight
- Shadow of Rome
- Shodai Nekketsu Koha Kuniokun
- Sigma Theory
- The Moment of Silence
- The Silver Case
- Splinter Cell
- Spy Fiction (2003)
- Tom Clancy's Elite Squad
- The Thing (2002)
- Twin Mirror
- Valkyria Chronicles
- Virginia
- Watch_Dogs
- The X-Files: Resist or Serve
- YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG
- Young Justice: Legacy
- World of Horror (Some story arcs have this)
Visual Novels
- 428: Shibuya Scramble
- Machi
- Majotachi no Nemuri
- Ne no Kami: The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto
- Policenauts
- Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness
- Root Letter (Some game routes have this genre)
- Snatcher
Webcomics
Web Animation
Web Original
- SCP Foundation: The lore focuses on the titular secret society perpetuating a massive conspiracy (specifically, a global coverup of everything that's supernatural) as the protagonists. The antagonist role tends to be filled in by various rival paranormal organizations plotting their own conspiracies.
Western Animation
- Gravity Falls
- Hit-Monkey
- Inside Job (2021) parodies conspiracy theory tropes for satirical humor, though the execution is often less like a thriller and more like a sitcom.
- Pinky and the Brain
