The 10 Greatest Mystery Movies From the Last 30 Years, Ranked According to IMDb

Mys­tery films are known for their inves­tiga­tive plots that revolve around a pro­tag­o­nist tasked with solv­ing a crime or prob­lem. They typ­i­cal­ly fea­ture sus­pense­ful sto­ry­lines, clues, plot twists, and atmos­pher­ic set­tings. Audi­ences are invit­ed to use their log­ic and rea­son­ing to solve the crime or prob­lem in a man­ner that makes the genre par­tic­u­lar­ly engag­ing. Chances are if you’re watch­ing a mys­tery film you’re like­ly to find your­self draw­ing con­clu­sions and mak­ing deter­mi­na­tions in an attempt to solve the crime your­self, and that’s pre­cise­ly what makes the genre such a fun watch.

Mys­tery has been an essen­tial film genre since time immemo­r­i­al. In the last thir­ty years alone, we’ve seen dozens of con­tem­po­rary clas­sics emerge from the genre. Christo­pher Nolan’s Memen­to and Mar­tin Scors­ese’s Shut­ter Island are just a few titles to name a few. For this list we’ll be look­ing at the ten best mys­tery films of this era based on IMD­b’s rat­ings. Only films released between 1995 and 2025 will be includ­ed.

‘Blade Runner 2049’ (2017)

Image via Warn­er Bros.

Blade Run­ner 2049 is Denis Vil­leneuve’sse­quel to Rid­ley Scott’s Blade Run­ner, and stars Ryan Gosling as K, a blade run­ner for the Los Ange­les Police Depart­ment. When K dis­cov­ers a shock­ing secret about the repli­cants that threat­ens to upend soci­ety, he’s forced to go out in search of for­mer blade run­ner Rick Deckard (Har­ri­son Ford), who’s been miss­ing for over thir­ty years.

Blade Run­ner 2049 is a stun­ning sequel to Scot­t’s orig­i­nal mas­ter­piece. It fea­tures daz­zling immer­sive visu­als that trans­port audi­ences into the unique world of futur­is­tic Los Ange­les. Blade Run­ner 2049 marks cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Roger Deakinsand Vil­leneu­ve’s third col­lab­o­ra­tion after Pris­on­ers and Sicario, and fea­tures some of Deakins’ most beau­ti­ful work. Every shot is expert­ly framed, and the daz­zling col­or palette fea­tures neon, indus­tri­al grays and deep oppres­sive oranges con­trast­ing against each oth­er to build a dream-like atmos­phere. Blade Run­ner 2049’s cap­ti­vat­ing sto­ry­line and mes­mer­iz­ing visu­als make it one of the most unique­ly craft­ed mys­ter­ies of recent mem­o­ry.

‘Gone Girl’ (2014

David Finch­er’s Gone Girl tells the sto­ry of a writer, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), and his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), who share what appears to be a pic­ture-per­fect mar­riage. When Amy goes miss­ing on the cou­ple’s fifth wed­ding anniver­sary, the sub­se­quent inves­ti­ga­tion and media spec­ta­cle erase the union’s facade and opens the door to a mar­riage fraught with decep­tion.

Gone Girl fea­tures Pike in one of her most rec­og­niz­able roles. She anchors the film with a stun­ning por­tray­al of a woman scorned and dri­ven by vengeance. It’s a plot twist that smacks audi­ences upside the head with no warn­ing what­so­ev­er. Fincher’s metic­u­lous direct­ing style is in top form, and the cool, desat­u­rat­ed col­or palette of Gone Girl match­es Nick­’s hol­low­ness and Amy’s cal­cu­lat­ing sociopa­thy. Gone Girl is a thought-pro­vok­ing mys­tery thriller that fea­tures an ensem­ble cast that deliv­ers stun­ning per­for­mances from top to bot­tom.

‘Shut­ter Island’ (2010)

Image via Para­mount Pic­tures

When a bril­liant mur­der­ess escapes Ashe­cliffe Hos­pi­tal, a fortress-like insane asy­lum locat­ed on an island amid the tur­bu­lent and windy ocean, US Mar­shal Ted­dy Daniels (Leonar­do DiCaprio) and his part­ner Chuck (Mark Ruf­fa­lo) are tasked with inves­ti­gat­ing. As Ted­dy inves­ti­gates her baf­fling escape and finds evi­dence of nefar­i­ous events that had tak­en place at the hos­pi­tal, he finds he must con­front his own per­son­al demonsas his own sense of real­i­ty begins to fall apart.

Mys­tery is not a genre thatScors­ese’s typ­i­cal­ly asso­ci­at­ed with, but with Shut­ter Island he pre­dictably deliv­ers a phe­nom­e­nal film that man­ages to keep audi­ences guess­ing from start to fin­ish. DiCaprio gives a killer per­for­mance as an observ­ably put-togeth­er US Mar­shal who steadi­ly los­es his mind and sense of iden­ti­ty dur­ing the course of his inves­ti­ga­tion. Shut­ter Island’s atmos­phere and struc­ture are shaped to evoke a sense offear and dread with a grow­ing under­tone of dis­ori­en­ta­tion that’s stun­ning­ly direct­ed by Scors­ese.

‘Pris­on­ers’ (2013)

Vil­leneu­ve’s Pris­on­ers fol­lows the sto­ry of Keller Dover (Hugh Jack­man), who’s placed in an incon­ceiv­able sit­u­a­tion when his 6‑year-old daugh­ter, Anna (Erin Gerasi­movich), and her friend sud­den­ly go miss­ing. The only lead is a mobile home that was parked on the street on their street. Detec­tive Loki (Jake Gyl­len­haal) arrests the dri­ver (Paul Dano), but is forced to let him go due to lack of evi­dence. Keller decides to take mat­ters into his own hands.

Pris­on­ers is a grip­ping sto­ry that’s espe­cial­ly relat­able to view­ers who are par­ents. The thought of your child going miss­ing is enough to send any par­ent spi­ral­ing. Jack­man’sper­for­mance is rich with emo­tion, anger, and des­per­a­tion as he search­es for his miss­ing child. Pris­on­ers fea­tures astound­ing pac­ing and metic­u­lous clue-drop­ping that make it a film that not only engross­es its audi­ence, but also rewards mul­ti­ple view­ings. It’s a heart­break­ing thriller that should’ve earned Vil­leneuve an Oscar.

‘Incendies’ (2010)

Image via Enter­tain­ment One

Vil­leneu­ve’s Incendies tells the sto­ry of Naw­al (Lub­na Aza­bal), a dying Mid­dle East­ern woman who leaves sep­a­rate let­ters for her twin chil­dren that they’re only allowed to read after she pass­es away. Simon (Max­im Gaudette) is tasked with tak­ing her let­ter to the broth­er the sib­lings did­n’t know about, while Jeanette (Mélis­sa Désormeaux-Poulin) is to deliv­er her let­ter to the father the sib­lings nev­er knew. The twins take a trip to the Mid­dle East on sep­a­rate har­row­ing jour­neys.

Incendies is a grip­ping sto­ry that unfolds like a puz­zle, slow­ly reveal­ing a fam­i­ly’s hid­den past as the sib­lings trav­el across war-torn land­scapes. Vil­leneuve mas­ter­ful­ly blends togeth­er­per­son­al and polit­i­cal trau­ma to tell a har­row­ing sto­ry that cul­mi­nates in a dev­as­tat­ing final rev­e­la­tion that’s bril­liant­ly exe­cut­ed. Incendies is an essen­tial 2010s film, and one of Vil­leneu­ve’s best works to date

‘Old­boy’ (2003)

Old­boy tells the sto­ry of Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a man who has been held cap­tive in a hotel-like room for 15 years with no knowl­edge of his cap­tor or the rea­son for his cap­tiv­i­ty. After final­ly being released, Oh Dae-su finds him­self enmeshed in a com­plex con­spir­a­cy as he seeks revenge on his enig­mat­ic cap­tor (Yoo Ji-tae). Old­boy is a grip­ping film that fea­tures a thrilling sto­ry­line and no short­age of action.

Old­boy is a mas­ter­ful­ly told sto­ry that’s bril­liant­ly direct­ed by Park Chan-wook. The film builds sus­pense and ten­sion as it moves towards its shock­ing and unfor­get­table cli­max. Chan-Wook’s draws inspi­ra­tion from Oedi­pus the King and the works of Franz Kaf­ka to tell one of the most har­row­ing revenge sto­ries ever com­mit­ted to film, and Min-sik gives a stun­ning per­for­mance as the lead. With its mon­u­men­tal plot twist and heart-pound­ing fight chore­og­ra­phy, Old­boy is a must-watch mys­tery and thriller film.