10 Great Movies With Plots That Make Your Head Hurt

3. The Big Sleep

If the plot to the Coen brothers movie The Big Lebowski often feels like it doesn't really make any sense and has more dead ends and non sequiturs than you can count, then you can thank Raymond Chandler for that - the Coens were inspired by the film The Big Sleep, directed by Howard Hawks and based on Chandler's book. It's hard to deny that Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart's on-screen chemistry sizzles throughout The Big Sleep - it's considerably harder to understand what on earth is going on from start to finish. Ostensibly a film noir which studies the process of a criminal investigation, few movies have proven to be so head-scratchingly baffling. Even the screenwriters didn't know what it was about - when they asked Chandler to explain he simply said he was as confused as they were. Still, while the plot remains as difficult to untangle as a ball of string the size of a planet, the visuals, atmosphere and overall air of intrigue are more than enough to make this essential viewing. One of Hollywood's greatest and most confusing films ever made.