All the President's Men might be a taut, engrossing thriller heavy on dialogue, but sometimes we prefer our conspiracy thrillers to be a little faster paced and exciting. Tony Scott delivers action and conspiracies in one neat package in Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith as everyman Robert Clayton Dean who unwittingly gets caught up in a plot by rogue government agents covering up a murder. The rogue agents in question come from the National Security Agency, a previously low key but exceptionally funded wing of the US government who have since become household names thanks to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. While the scale of their operations only became common knowledge in recent years, Enemy of the State takes the concept of a total surveillance state watching our every move to craft a fast-paced thriller full of chases and a plot as twisty as a rollercoaster. Gene Hackman also makes an appearance, all but reprising his role from Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, playing the aging security expert who helps Dean escape from a number of close calls.
