The 20 Greatest Crime Thriller Movies of All Time

Rain-soaked procedurals, ice-cold noirs and psychological gut-punches from every era share this lineup, mixing untouchable classics with modern obsessions. Where do you stand?

1. 1
   The Silence of the Lambs

   The 1991 Best Picture winner pairing a young FBI trainee with imprisoned cannibal Hannibal Lecter to catch a serial killer.
   1000pts

   DI
2. 2
   Se7en

   David Fincher's bleak 1995 procedural following two detectives hunting a killer staging murders around the seven deadly sins.
   974pts

   WE
3. 3
   Memories of Murder

   Bong Joon-ho's 2003 masterpiece about detectives chasing a real, never-caught rural Korean serial killer.
   646pts
4. 4
   Shutter Island

   Scorsese's 2010 psychological thriller set at a remote asylum for the criminally insane.
   564pts
5. 5
   Nightcrawler

   A 2014 thriller following a sociopathic freelance cameraman filming Los Angeles crime scenes for profit.
   515pts
6. 6
   Oldboy

   Park Chan-wook's 2003 revenge thriller about a man imprisoned for 15 years with no explanation.
   515pts
7. 7
   Chinatown

   Roman Polanski's 1974 noir following a private eye into a web of water, money, and family secrets.
   400pts
8. 8
   L.A. Confidential

   The 1997 neo-noir untangling police corruption and a diner massacre in 1950s Los Angeles.
   400pts
9. 9
   Fargo

   The Coen brothers' 1996 dark thriller about a bungled kidnapping and a pregnant Minnesota police chief.
   400pts
10. 10
    Heat

    Michael Mann's 1995 epic pitting an obsessive detective against a disciplined career thief in Los Angeles.
    329pts
11. 11
    No Country for Old Men

    The Coen brothers' 2007 Best Picture winner tracing a drug-money chase and the relentless killer Anton Chigurh.
    329pts
12. 12
    Prisoners

    Denis Villeneuve's 2013 drama of a desperate father taking justice into his own hands after his daughter vanishes.
    329pts
13. 13
    Gone Girl

    Fincher's 2014 adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel about a wife's disappearance and its media firestorm.
    248pts
14. 14
    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

    Fincher's 2011 adaptation following a journalist and a hacker investigating a decades-old disappearance.
    248pts
15. 15
    Collateral

    Michael Mann's 2004 thriller trapping a Los Angeles cab driver with a contract killer for one night.
    248pts
16. 16
    The Usual Suspects

    The 1995 heist thriller built around a police lineup and the myth of the phantom Keyser Söze.
    248pts
17. 17
    Mystic River

    Clint Eastwood's 2003 drama in which a childhood trauma resurfaces after a murder binds three men.
    248pts
18. 18
    The Departed

    Scorsese's 2006 Boston crime thriller of a mole and an undercover cop planted on opposite sides of the law.
    154pts
19. 19
    Zodiac

    Fincher's meticulous 2007 dramatization of the hunt for San Francisco's uncaught Zodiac killer.
    154pts
20. 20
    Psycho

    Hitchcock's genre-defining 1960 thriller about a motel, a missing embezzler, and Norman Bates.
    0pts

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