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• Top 6 Whodunit/Murder Mystery Films of All Time

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• Knives Out

  "Knives Out" (2019), written and directed by Rian Johnson, follows a detective investigating the death of a wealthy crime novelist, gathering his dysfunctional family of suspects together in a story that consciously revives and modernizes the classic Agatha Christie-style whodunit format. Its structural twist, revealing the killer's identity to the audience relatively early rather than withholding it until a final reveal, shifted the film's tension toward a "howcatchem" format that distinguished it from more traditionally structured genre entries while still delivering a genuine late-film surprise. The film's substantial commercial and critical success, including an Academy Award nomination for its screenplay, triggered a broader mainstream revival of interest in the classic murder mystery genre, directly leading to its own sequel franchise and inspiring numerous subsequent whodunit productions. Its combination of its genre-reviving commercial success and its structurally inventive approach to the whodunit format has made "Knives Out" one of the most significant murder mystery films of the 21st century.

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• Murder on the Orient Express

  "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974), adapting Agatha Christie's classic novel, follows detective Hercule Poirot investigating a murder aboard a snowbound luxury train, assembling an all-star ensemble cast that helped define the "star-studded whodunit" as a bankable commercial format. Albert Finney's performance as Poirot earned an Academy Award nomination, and the film's genuinely star-studded supporting cast, including Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, and Sean Connery, established a template for prestige ensemble casting that subsequent Christie adaptations and other mystery films directly followed. The film's faithful, relatively straightforward adaptation of Christie's novel, preserving her classic closed-circle mystery structure in which the killer must be among a limited, contained group of suspects, reinforced the specific narrative conventions most closely associated with the "golden age" detective fiction tradition. Its combination of its genre-defining ensemble cast format and its faithful preservation of classic detective fiction structure has made "Murder on the Orient Express" one of the most historically significant whodunit films ever produced.

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• Clue

  "Clue" (1985), based on the board game of the same name, follows a group of strangers gathered at a mansion for a mysterious dinner party that turns into a murder investigation, distinguishing itself from more traditionally serious genre entries through its broadly comedic tone. The film was notably released in theaters with three different possible endings, randomly distributed to different theaters, an unusual marketing gimmick directly tied to the whodunit genre's core mystery-solving appeal, later combined into a single film for home video release. Despite a modest box office performance upon its original release, the film developed a substantial cult following over subsequent decades, eventually becoming one of the most quoted and beloved comedic entries in the murder mystery genre among later generations of fans. Its combination of its genre-parodying comedic tone and its inventive multiple-ending theatrical gimmick has made "Clue" one of the most distinctive and enduringly cult-beloved films in the whodunit genre.

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• The Last of Sheila

  "The Last of Sheila" (1973), written by actor Anthony Perkins and composer Stephen Sondheim, both passionate amateur puzzle enthusiasts, follows a group of Hollywood insiders invited on a yacht for an elaborate scavenger-hunt game that turns deadly, building one of the genre's most genuinely intricate puzzle-plot structures. Sondheim and Perkins's real-life hobby of hosting elaborate scavenger hunt parties for their friends directly inspired the film's plot, giving the mystery's puzzle mechanics an unusually rigorous, fair-play construction relative to films written by screenwriters without that specific puzzle-design background. The film's setting among cynical Hollywood industry figures, each with their own hidden motives and secrets, gave its mystery plot a satirical undercurrent about the film industry itself, distinguishing it from whodunits set among more traditionally aristocratic or wealthy-but-industry-unaffiliated suspects. Its combination of its genuinely rigorous puzzle-plot construction and its distinctive Hollywood insider satire has made "The Last of Sheila" one of the most highly regarded cult classics in the whodunit genre.

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• Death on the Nile

  "Death on the Nile" (1978), adapting another of Agatha Christie's classic Hercule Poirot novels, follows the detective investigating a murder among wealthy travelers aboard a steamship cruising the Nile River, continuing the star-studded ensemble format established by "Murder on the Orient Express" four years earlier. Peter Ustinov's performance as Poirot, the first of several times he would play the character across subsequent Christie adaptations, offered a notably different interpretation of the detective than Albert Finney's earlier portrayal, giving audiences a direct point of comparison between differing approaches to the same iconic character. Its lush, location-shot Egyptian setting, filmed substantially on location along the actual Nile River and at genuine ancient Egyptian landmarks, gave the film a visual grandeur that distinguished it from more contained, single-location whodunit productions. Its combination of its continuation of the star-studded Christie adaptation format and its genuinely spectacular location filming has made "Death on the Nile" one of the most visually distinctive whodunit films of its era.

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More in Film & TV

• Hidden Figures

  "Hidden Figures" (2016), directed by Theodore Melfi, dramatizes the true story of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, three Black women mathematicians whose calculations at NASA were critical to the success of the early American space program, based on Margot Lee Shetterly's nonfiction book of the same name. The film brought significant mainstream public attention to the real contributions of Black women "computers" at NASA during the Space Race, a history that had received relatively little prior widespread recognition, and it prompted renewed public interest in and honors for the real Katherine Johnson, who was still alive at the time of the film's release. Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe's central performances drew significant critical acclaim, and the film became a notable box office success, outperforming many contemporary awards-season dramas and demonstrating a substantial mainstream audience for historical stories centered on Black women. Hidden Figures's combination of its overdue mainstream spotlight on real, previously under-recognized NASA scientists and its strong central performances has made it one of the most culturally significant true-story films of its decade.

• 12 Years a Slave

  "12 Years a Slave" (2013), directed by Steve McQueen, dramatizes the true story of Solomon Northup, a free Black man from New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the antebellum South, based on Northup's own 1853 memoir of the same name. Chiwetel Ejiofor's lead performance and Lupita Nyong'o's supporting performance, in her film debut, both drew significant critical acclaim, with Nyong'o winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the film itself won the Academy Award for Best Picture. McQueen's unflinching, sustained visual approach to depicting the brutality of slavery, including several extended, unbroken takes of violence that the camera refuses to look away from, was widely credited with giving American slavery a more direct and confrontational cinematic treatment than most previous major studio films had attempted. 12 Years a Slave's combination of its direct grounding in Solomon Northup's own historical memoir and Steve McQueen's unflinching directorial approach has made it one of the most acclaimed and historically significant true-story films ever produced.

• Catch Me If You Can

  "Catch Me If You Can" (2002), directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, dramatizes the real early life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who successfully impersonated an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer while forging millions of dollars in checks before being caught by an FBI agent, played by Tom Hanks. The film was based on Abagnale's own memoir, and the real Abagnale, who later became a longtime security consultant working with the FBI, served as a consultant on the production, giving the filmmakers direct access to the actual details and methods behind his real-life cons. The film's stylish, buoyant tone and 1960s period production design, paired with John Williams's jazz-inflected score, gave the true story a lighter, more playful cinematic register than many other crime-based true stories, emphasizing the audacious cleverness of Abagnale's real schemes over their consequences. Catch Me If You Can's combination of its direct access to the real Frank Abagnale's own account and its stylish period filmmaking has made it one of the most purely entertaining true-story films ever produced.

• Erin Brockovich

  "Erin Brockovich" (2000), directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Julia Roberts, dramatizes the true story of the real Erin Brockovich, an unemployed single mother who, working as a legal clerk, helped build a massive lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric over water contamination in Hinkley, California. Roberts's performance won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, and her portrayal of the real Brockovich's brash, persistent determination in the face of both corporate stonewalling and professional condescension became one of the most acclaimed performances of her career. The real underlying case resulted in a $333 million settlement, at the time the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in U.S. history, and the real Erin Brockovich served as a consultant on the film and appeared in a small cameo role. Erin Brockovich's combination of Julia Roberts's Oscar-winning lead performance and its grounding in one of the largest environmental settlements in American legal history has made it one of the most acclaimed true-story legal dramas ever produced.

• The Social Network

  "The Social Network" (2010), directed by David Fincher from Aaron Sorkin's screenplay, dramatizes the founding of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University and the subsequent legal disputes with his co-founders and the Winklevoss twins over credit and ownership of the company. Sorkin's screenplay, built around competing depositions and conflicting accounts of the same events, embraced the genuine ambiguity of the real underlying legal disputes rather than presenting a single definitive version of what happened, a structural choice widely praised by critics as an unusually sophisticated approach to dramatizing contested recent history. Jesse Eisenberg's performance as a fictionalized version of Zuckerberg drew significant critical acclaim, and the film's release while the real Facebook was still a relatively young and rapidly growing company gave it an unusually immediate, real-time quality rare for a historical biopic. The Social Network's combination of its sophisticated multi-perspective legal-dispute structure and its unusually immediate proximity to still-unfolding real events has made it one of the most critically acclaimed true-story films of the 21st century.