The conspiracy thriller (or paranoid thriller) is a subgenre of thriller fiction. The protagonists of conspiracy thrillers are often journalists or amateur investigators who find themselves (often inadvertently) pulling on a small thread which unravels a vast conspiracy that ultimately goes "all the way to the top." The complexities of historical fact are recast as a morality play in which bad people cause bad events, and good people identify and defeat them. Conspiracies are often played out as "man-in-peril" (or "woman-in-peril") stories, or yield quest narratives similar to those found in

whodunit A ''whodunit'' (less commonly spelled as ''whodunnit''; a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal ...

s and detective stories. A common theme in such works is that characters uncovering the conspiracy encounter difficulty ascertaining the truth amid the deceptions: rumors, lies,

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

, and counter-propaganda build upon one another until what is conspiracy and what is coincidence become entangled. Many conspiracy fiction works also include the theme of secret history and paranoid fiction.

Literature

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, British Army officer, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. As a ...

's 1915 novel '' The Thirty-Nine Steps'' weaves elements of conspiracy and man-on-the-run archetypes. Dashiell Hammett's 1924 short story " Nightmare Town" is conspiracy fiction on a small scale, depicting an Arizona town that exists as part of an insurance-fraud scheme, and a detective slowly uncovering the truth.

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a re ...

's 1943 novel '' Ministry of Fear'' (brought to the big screen by

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

in 1944) combines all the ingredients of paranoia and conspiracy familiar to aficionados of the 1970s thrillers, with additional urgency and depth added by its wartime backdrop. Greene himself credited Michael Innes as the inspiration for his "entertainment". Conspiracy fiction in the US reached its zenith in the 1960s and 1970s in the wake of a number of high-profile scandals and controversies, most notably the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the Presidency of Richard Nixon, administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Resignation of Richard Nixon, Nix ...

and the subsequent resignation of

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

from the presidency. Several fictional works explored the clandestine machinations and conspiracies beneath the orderly fabric of political life. American novelist

Richard Condon Richard Thomas Condon (March 18, 1915 – April 9, 1996) was an American political novelist. Though his works were satire, they were generally transformed into thrillers or semi-thrillers in other media, such as cinema. All 26 books were writte ...

wrote a number of conspiracy thrillers, including the seminal '' The Manchurian Candidate'' (1959), and '' Winter Kills'', which was made into a film by William Richert in 1979. '' Illuminatus!'' (1969–1971), a trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, is regarded by many as the definitive work of 20th-century conspiracy fiction. Set in the late '60s, it is a psychedelic tale which fuses mystery, science fiction, horror, and comedy in its depiction (and mourning, and mocking) of one of the more paranoid periods of recent history.

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...

's '' The Crying of Lot 49'' (1966) includes a secretive conflict between cartels dating back to the Middle Ages. '' Gravity's Rainbow'' also draws heavily on conspiracy theory in describing the motives and operations of the Phoebus cartel as well as the development of ballistic missiles during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Pynchon's ''

Inherent Vice ''Inherent Vice'' is a novel by the American author Thomas Pynchon, originally published on August4, 2009. A darkly comic detective novel set in 1970s California, the plot follows sleuth Larry "Doc" Sportello whose ex-girlfriend asks him to i ...

'' (2009) also involves an intentionally ambiguous conspiracy involving a group known as the Golden Fang. John Macgregor's 1986 novel '' Propinquity'' describes an attempt by a modern couple to revive the frozen body of a gnostic medieval Queen, buried deep under Westminster Abbey. Their attempt to expose the feminine aspect of Christianity's origins results in fierce Church opposition and, eventually, an international manhunt.

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...

's '' Foucault's Pendulum'' (1988) features a story in which the staff of a publishing firm, intending to create a series of popular occult books, invent their own occult conspiracy, over which they lose control as it begins to supplant the truth. The popular 2003

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

'' The Da Vinci Code'' by

Dan Brown Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his Thriller (genre), thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon (book series), Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), '' ...

draws on conspiracy theories involving the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion. Other contemporary authors who have used elements of conspiracy theory in their work include

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...

, William S. Burroughs,

Don DeLillo Donald Richard DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter, and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as consumerism, nuclear war, the complexities of language, art, televi ...

, James Ellroy, Joseph Heller,

Robert Ludlum Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 Thriller (genre), thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original ''Bourne (novel series), The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copi ...

David Morrell David Morrell (born April 24, 1943) is a Canadian-American author whose debut 1972 novel ''First Blood (novel), First Blood'', later adapted as the 1982 First Blood, film of the same name, went on to spawn the successful Rambo (franchise), ''Ra ...

and James Clancy Phelan. One of the first science fiction novels to deal with a full-blown conspiracy theory was

Eric Frank Russell Eric Frank Russell (January 6, 1905 – February 28, 1978) was a British people, British writer best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's ''Asto ...

's '' Dreadful Sanctuary'' (1948). This deals with a number of sabotaged space missions and the apparent discovery that Earth is being quarantined by aliens from other planets of the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

. However, as the novel progresses it emerges that this view is a paranoid delusion perpetuated by a small but powerful

secret society A secret society is an organization about which the activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence ag ...

. Philip K. Dick wrote a large number of short stories where vast conspiracies were employed (usually by an oppressive government or other hostile powers) to keep common people under control or enforce a given agenda. Other popular science fiction writers whose work features conspiracy theories include William Gibson, John Twelve Hawks, and

Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work explores mathemati ...

. In the 2019 conspiracy sci-fi thriller,
Reality
' by DC Wince, the main characters unwittingly discover the 9/11 plot that has been created by Metatron, an artificially intelligent supercomputer controlled by a secret powerful group called The Syndicate. After being kidnapped, they attempt to survive the sinister group's Reality game in the Sahara Desert and warn the world of the impending terrorist attacks.

Film and television

In 1944,

made a movie called '' Ministry of Fear'' in which the protagonist must expose an apparent charity organization as being a front for Nazi spies. In 1958,

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

made a movie called '' Touch of Evil'', co-starring

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) was an American actor. He gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous Cinema of the United States, Hollywood films including biblical epics, science-fiction f ...

and himself in which a Mexican police officer (Heston) works with an American police Captain (Welles) the latter of whom is ultimately revealed as the true villain who has repeatedly secured his convictions through planting evidence and attempts to cover up this plot. The first season of the 1966 television series ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' includes an episode wherein a crewman fakes his own death and frames Captain Kirk for being responsible through criminal negligence to get him court-martialed whilst simultaneously tampering with the (seemingly infallible) ''Enterprise'' computer to ensure conviction. In the 1973 dystopian science-fiction film '' Soylent Green'', Charlton Heston plays a police officer who investigates the murder of a businessman and discovers that the elite have come with a scam to enrich themselves by converting dead humans to a synthetic food substance called Soylent Green, and those responsible for the conspiracy use homicide to silence those including Heston's character who seek to expose that "Soylent Green is people". In 1976, director Alan J. Pakula and screenwriter William Goldman made the movie '' All the President's Men'', based on the true story of the effort to expose President Nixon's crimes which the government tried to cover up. In 1985, George P. Cosmatos made the movie '' Rambo: First Blood Part II'' (sequel to the 1982 film '' First Blood'') starring Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, a Vietnam War veteran who seeks to rescue American prisoners of war left behind in Vietnam whose existence has been covered up. In 1993, Chris Carter created the television series ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...

'' about a pair of FBI agents dealing with extraterrestrial life forms whose existence the government deliberately conceals. In 2008, J. J. Abrams created a television series Fringe which is about an FBI agent, a brilliant scientist and his estranged son investigates unexplained cases related to government conspiracy and a parallel universe. The 2005 television series ''

Prison Break ''Prison Break'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Paul Scheuring for Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. The series revolves around two brothers: Lincoln Burrows (Dominic P ...

'' depicts a man who deliberately gets himself sent to jail to help his brother break out after said brother was framed for the murder of the Vice President's brother and sentenced to death as a result of an elaborate conspiracy. The television series '' The Mentalist'', 2008–2015, revolves around Patrick Jane, whose investigation after the serial killer known as Red John, reveals a secret organization inside law enforcement. The 2013 series '' The Blacklist'' centres on an elusive criminal mastermind who strikes a deal with the FBI in an effort to take down the secret Cabal that framed him whose members include the Attorney General, Secretary of State and National Security advisor. The Netflix series '' House of Cards'' depicts an ambitious and Machiavellian congressman who kills his way to the presidency and goes to great lengths to conceal that fact. The Canadian cartoon '' Detentionaire'' revolves around a conspiracy involving hypnosis and an ancient pre-human civilization.

Notes

References

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External links

British TV Conspiracy Drama
at the BFI's Screenonline {{film genres Conspiracy Fiction by genre Film genres Thriller films by genre Thriller genres Thrillers

Literature

Film and television

See also

Notes

References

External links