Hollywood has been more than happy to tap into (read: cash in on) the public's fascination with conspiracies. The inherent action, disguises, clever plots, subterfuge and double-dealing are tailor-made for the movies. Here's a review of our favorite conspiracy films—from A (All the President's Men) to Z. Gallery by Marita Prandoni

If this John Schlesinger-directed thriller didn't cause Americans to fear fugitive Nazi War Criminals, it certainly kept them away from their dentists. Dustin Hoffman plays a marathon runner who unwittingly becomes entangled in a plot that involves a beautiful woman, a double agent, and an infamous dentist chair torture scene that made viewers not say but scream "Ahhh!"

In the highly-anticipated adaptation of the Watergate affair, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman took on the roles of Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein, who broke the scandal. In the spring of 1972, five men burglarized the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. The revelation that they were funded by Nixon's re-election campaign ultimately led to Nixon's resignation and endless Deep Throat jokes, but that's another matter.

In Nazi-occupied France, a respected civil engineer and member of the Resistance is arrested and imprisoned by the Germans. He manages to escape during interrogation and return to his network's headquarters in Marseille. From there, he and his multi-talented team of resisters carry out complex operations involving travel by submarine to London, parachuting into France, hiding in a chateau in the French Alps and posing as German military personnel. Both the film's writer and director belonged to the French Resistance and it shows in this authentic, engrossing thriller.

In this thriller from director Brian De Palma, John Travolta has to work hard at "Stayin' Alive." Mr. Saturday Night (Fever) plays Jack Terry, a Philadelphia sound technician who attempts to record a woman's scream at a local park for a low-budget film. It would've been a pretty boring movie if he jumped out and yelled "boo"; luckily for us, he instead records evidence of a murder. Eventually Terry pieces together a plot to kill the governor (also a presidential hopeful) and begins to suspect that the screaming woman was in on it from the first.

In a film based on popular series of books by Robert Ludlum, we are re-introduced to the character of Jason Bourne, the amnesiac CIA-trained assassin forced to piece together his life (and former loves) while being pursued by sinister agents. A film that many feel rejuvenated the career of Matt Damon, it spawned two sequels a videogame and featured action-packed scenes in Paris, London, Madrid, Tangier and New York City (just to name a few.) But even though Damon has said he finished playing the role, the character of Jason Bourne will supposedly return (or is it "re-Bourne"?) in The Bourne Legacy with another actor in the title role. But who else would be believable?

Gregory Peck is somehow not totally miscast as Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who, after conducting experiments on death camp prisoners, went into hiding in South America. The film places Mengele behind a series of mysterious murders. Laurence Olivier plays Ezra Lieberman, a Nazi hunter who must thwart a plan by Mengele to resurrect Hitler through cloning. Though Lieberman is able to track down Mengele, it's only after several of his Hitler clones have already been turned loose on society. Despite being a fictional story, this one feels all too real.

This neo-noir classic stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston in a story about the seedy corruption behind securing land and water rights for southern California during the 1930s. A beautiful woman hires private eye Jake Gittes to look into her husband's possible infidelity, drawing him deeply in to her web of treachery. But after learning he's been duped, Gittes becomes all the more determined to get to the source of the scheme. He soon uncovers a conspiracy between a corrupt municipal water chief and a well-connected tycoon who'll stop at nothing to advance his economic interests. Don't miss director Roman Polanski's cameo as a knife-weilding weirdo.

Surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is introverted and obsessed with his own privacy. He also feels deeply guilty about a wiretap he conducted that resulted in the deaths of three people. Caul and an aide record the conversation of a couple in San Francisco's Union Square. After enhancing the recording and trying to get at its meaning, he senses it might place the couple in danger and keeps it for himself. Caul soon discovers that he is being watched and his own apartment is bugged. The tape disappears and a tragedy ensues, but not the one he (or the viewers) could have anticipated.

Edward Fox plays a memorably cool, composed killer and master of disguise who attempts to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle in the early 1960s. Known as "The Jackal," this professional assassin is hired by an underground organization dissatisfied with de Gaulle's decision to grant Algeria its independence. Although it was adpated from a novel, Jackal is loosely based on historical events.

To confront what they believe to be a growing threat from terrorists, agents of the National Security Administration (NSA), in cahoots with a corrupt politician named Reynolds, murder a congressman who refuses to vote for the expansion of citizen surveillance. The incident is inadvertently captured by wildlife researcher Daniel Zavitz's camera, set up to observe a very exciting, uh, goose migration. After Zavitz's untimely death, the NSA targets a labor lawyer and old friend, Robert Dean, on whom Zavitz has planted the tape. A retired NSA agent teams up with Dean to turn the tables on Reynolds, buddy cop thriller style.

This one is based on the true story of Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), a fired tobacco executive turned reluctant whistle blower. Approached by 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) to interpret scientific documents relating to cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris, Wigand finally agrees. After his former employer learns of the meeting, they threaten to dock Wigand's severance pay and medical benefits and take him to court. This provokes Wigand to help Bergman expose the crimes of Big Tobacco. Stopping at nothing, the corporations carry out death threats, spying and a smear campaign against Wigand, while Bergman endures a falling-out with CBS. In real life, both have moved forward with rewarding careers and are probably filthy rich by now.

Oliver Stone's controversial exploration of the Kennedy assassination and its alleged cover-up is actually a biographical portrait of then-New Orleans district attorney, Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner. The story starts as Garrison notices inaccuracies in the Warren Commission, President Lyndon Johnson's official investigation into the assassination. Garrison eventually files charges against a New Orleans businessman, Clay Shaw, whom he believes to be a co-conspirator in the crime, and interrogates several others who witnessed the assassination or were associated with Lee Harvey Oswald. Controversial even while filming was still in progress, Stone was attacked by critics for taking liberties with historical facts.

This critical favorite was hailed as the best noir in years when it was released in 1997, although its acclaim was soon overshadowed by the Titantic juggernaut. Set in Los Angeles in the 1950s, three LA police officers investigate a multiple murder at an all-night diner. The film highlights the uncomplimentary stereotypes of Los Angeles's dark side: organized crime, prostitution, drugs, political corruption, institutional racism and sleazy tabloids. You know, a typical day in California.

The Russians capture an American platoon in the Korean War and take them to Communist Manchuria, where they are brainwashed. Made to believe Staff Sergeant Shaw has saved their lives, their commander Marco (Frank Sinatra) recommends Shaw for a Medal of Honor. After the war, Marco has recurring nightmares and learns that a fellow soldier suffers from the same torments. An investigation reveals the existence of a brainwashed assassin, whose actions will be triggered by directives from an unknown operative. Shaw, meanwhile, detests his own power-hungry mother and his politician stepfather, who is a puffed-up McCarthy-era demagogue with White House aspirations. The stage is set for an assassination so realistic, Sinatra had the film pulled from theaters following Kennedy's murder months later.

In this futuristic sci-fi film directed by Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise stars as police officer John Anderton. The year is 2054, and Washington D.C.'s "Precrime" police force is trying to stop murders before they're committed, using the special precognition abilities of mutated humans to view imminent crimes. When Anderton himself is slated to commit a murder, he is forced to escape the authorities while attempting to prove his innocence. His investigation reveals the real motives behind other unsolved murders, leading him to a killer he never suspected.

Based on the true tale of reporter Ed Horman, Jack Lemmon portrays a conservative American father who comes to Pinochet-era Chile to help his daughter-in-law Beth (Sissy Spacek) search for his missing son, a progressive journalist. Depictions of kidnapped and tortured dissidents in secret prisons and a walk through a makeshift morgue evoke a horrific chapter in Chile's - and America's - history. In his desperate search for the truth, Ed slowly comes to realize that his own beloved government is (all together now) lying to him.

Oliver Stone stirred up the hornet's nest again with this drama about Nixon's doomed presidency. Using previously classified memos and documents from the Nixon White House, Stone tries to uncover the personal demons that governed this political leader, as well as speculating on his possible connections with the Kennedy assassination conspiracy.

This quintessential Alfred Hitchcock classic features Cary Grant playing a Manhattan advertising executive mistaken for a spy. Sought by agents of a mysterious organization who believe he is interfering with their plan to smuggle out microfilm containing government secrets, Thornhill crisscrosses the U.S. to avoid capture. Justly famous for several classic scenes, the film features a murder at the UN, a near-deadly encounter with a crop-duster biplane and something you're unlikely to ever see done today, a drunk driving scene played for laughs.

A TV newswoman witnesses the assassination of a presidential candidate. She confides in her colleague, Joe Frady (Warren Beaty) that she fears falling victim, as have other witnesses. He dismisses the idea until she is found dead, then narrowly escapes death himself as he investigates and learns of involvement by the Parallax Corporation in training high-profile political assassinations. We don't want to give anything else away, for, despite its many dated moments, Parallax is just as chilling today as it was in 1974.

Al Pacino, the man who once shouted "Say hello to my little friend" takes on a role where he finds himself without a friend in the world. Pacino plays real-life NYPD cop Frank Serpico, who gained fame after exposing the gambling pay-offs, drug deals and bribes that ran rampant through his 1960's police unit. But after exposing his co-workers' corruption, Serpico finds that neither his detective's gold shield, nor the courts can protect him from threats and attempts on his life.

This thriller, in which George Clooney plays a veteran CIA officer and Matt Damon is a Geneva based oil industry analyst, illustrates the alleged political, social and global economic evils associated with the petroleum industry. Stephen Gaghan's follow-up to his Traffic script explores illegal arms deals, torture, radicalized Middle Eastern migrant workers and an assassination plot spread out over a complex and riveting storyline.

Another nail-biter by Alfred Hitchcock, this classic continues to rank high on the list of best British films, although it isn't necessarily one of his most beloved. A Canadian in London tries to assist a counterespionage agent but when the agent is murdered and he stands accused, the Canadian has to escape both the authorities and a spy ring out to steal British military secrets. He cracks the mystery of The 39 Steps, a clandestine organization of spies who are funneling information to the foreign office.

Robert Redford takes the role of an employee of a CIA front organization, assigned to examine international media for hidden information about nefarious plans. As he awaits a response from his superiors on his interpretation of a possible pattern in several works of literature, six people in the office are executed. Using the code name Condor, he quickly arranges a meeting with the New York director of the CIA and learns that he himself is a target. Condor's struggle to find and outwit his pursuers comes to a head in the unsettling and unforgettable closing scene.

This French-language thriller from by Costa Gavras is based on the novel by Vassilis Vassilikos about political intrigue in Greece. Z refers to the popular protest slogan meaning "he lives"; "he" being Gregoris Lambrikis, the democratic Greek politician who was assassinated in 1963.The film is brazenly critical of the military dictatorship that ruled Greece during the film's making, a regime that banned such things as The Beatles, peace movements, long hair on men, labor unions, strikes, Tolstoy, Mark Twain and the letter "z".