10 Conspiracy Movies That Will Make You Paranoid

7. The Insider

One of the true horror stories of our time that most people seemingly haven't heard of is the one involving Jeffrey Wigand and Brown & Williamson, a whistleblower who lifted the lid on the American tobacco industry and the methods they went to make a more addictive - and dangerous - cigarette.

The Insider, Michael Mann's 1999 drama detailing those events, makes for sobering viewing. Starring Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman, a journalist for CBS' famous 60 Minutes, and Russell Crowe as Wigand, the film depicts Bergman's investigation and the subsequent harassment Wigand endured at the hands of his former employers. He's targeted maliciously, made to fear for his life, and he still comes through, in the end, having been subjected to the full might of one of the country's most powerful industries.

It's a film made in the Pakula mould, and while the validity of Wigand's claims of harassment have been drawn under close scrutiny in subsequent years, it in no way nullifies the tension that dominates Mann's film.