5 Best Mystery Movies Of The 21st Century, Ranked

Who doesn't love a good mystery? Whether it's a classic whodunnit or something a bit more abstract, the genre has been a mainstay of cinema since forever and the last few decades in particular have provided some fantastic additions. Today, we're ranking five of the best mystery movies of the 21st century.

Now the line between mystery, thriller, and other adjacent subgenres is a thin one, and one that everyone draws a bit differently. Our goal today is to look specifically at movies where the mystery is a core part of the plot — where the characters, as well as the viewer, are primarily concerned with catching a culprit or untangling a web. Films like "Oldboy" or "Fight Club," for instance, though they feature elements of mystery, operate primarily in other genre spaces.

The honorable mentions list is too long to include in its entirety, but special mention deserves to be given to the recent Kenneth Branagh Hercule Poirot films — all of which have a delightful balance of drama, whimsy, and ensemble flair. Unfortunately, none of them quite made the cut, but they still deserve credit for helping to revitalize the murder mystery on the big screen. Curiously, our list of five films features only three total directors, with two different filmmakers earning multiple entries.

With that out of the way, let's get to the rankings.

No director has done more for the traditional whodunnit on film in the 21st century than Rian Johnson, and his 2022 murder mystery "Glass Onion" won't be the last time we discuss his work here. The sequel to 2019's massively popular Netflix mystery "Knives Out," "Glass Onion" brings Daniel Craig's endlessly charming Benoit Blanc for another investigation, this time on the private island of tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton). After Bron's high-profile murder mystery game, attended by Blanc and a roster of other wealthy neo-aristocrats, turns genuinely deadly, the detective must unravel the various motives at play to identify the killer.

While lacking the explosive zeitgeist that propelled its predecessor, "Glass Onion" is crafted with the same mastery of the form. The different characters blend classic whodunnit archetypes with a hefty dose of shrewd critique regarding our modern culture and the bourgeoisie of the 21st century. On top of that impressive blend, the film also manages to be consistently colorful, funny, and surprising, helped hugely by a particularly spectacular performance from Janelle Monáe.

Johnson has hit a perfect three for three on his "Knives Out" mystery movies, and they are rightfully counted among the best in the genre. The original however, edges "Glass Onion" out just a bit, but we'll get to that shortly.

David Fincher is rightfully seen as one of the modern masters of the thriller genre, and while some of his films dive deeper into the realms of horror, thriller, or crime genre than traditional mystery, he still excels at the latter. "Gone Girl" is a perfect example — a riveting story of emotional darkness, vindictiveness, and longing, stretched over a simple but deeply effective mystery plot.

When Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) goes missing, suspicion immediately falls on her husband Nick (Ben Affleck), leading to a tangled investigation that uncovers lies, infidelity, and manipulation on what appears to be both sides. As the story progresses, the film jumps around in time to show different sides of the past and the truth of Amy's disappearance.

The nonlinear narrative is nothing new for the mystery genre, nor was it in 2014 when "Gone Girl" came out. But Fincher pulls the model off here with such skill and slickness that it feels like a masterwork. Then there's Pike's performance, loaded with enough concussive force to launch her to new heights of stardom. Of all the films ranked here, this is the one where the mystery itself plays the smallest role in the overall story, yet it's the mystery that puts this hideous, fascinating relationship under the microscope. "Gone Girl" is a story about marriage and the things we do to hurt the people we once claimed to love, but it's also one of the best mystery films of the last 26 years.

The second David Fincher film on this list, and the bronze medal winner on our mystery movie podium, is also one of the director's most underrated projects. Less talked about than "Fight Club" or "Seven" and less successful at the box office than "Gone Girl," "Zodiac" came and went in 2007 without a single Oscar nomination, due largely to the film's late release in the film season. But with a cast that features Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, and Brian Cox, plus Fincher's own esteemed status, the film's shutout at the Academy Awards remains a strange anomaly.

Based on the real Zodiac Killer investigation, Fincher, screenwriter James Vanderbilt, and other members of the production team conducted extensive research, including poring over the old police case files and even re-interviewing people attached to the original murders. The film handles the case with precision, as well as its psychological impact on the media and police searching for the killer. But perhaps most significantly, "Zodiac" is a mystery film with an ambiguous ending, mirroring the unsolved nature of the actual case, and so many others.

There is a case to be made that "Zodiac" is in fact the best mystery film ever produced, as it's more fundamentally about the nature of an unsolvable mystery than the specific mystery itself. But that's also a bit cerebral for a genre built on the butler having done it, so third place feels fair.

If a classic murder mystery is what you're looking for, you won't do better than "Knives Out." Brilliantly paced, exceptionally well plotted, and packed with ensemble talent, this is the platonic ideal of the whodunnit, brought into the modern era with style and top-tier film craft. We could spend this entire section talking about each performance in turn, from Daniel Craig's debut as Benoit Blanc (a huge part of his transition out of the James Bond typecast), to Ana de Armas' deeply compelling turn as Marta Cabrera, or the perfectly snide supporting spots from Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, or Michael Shannon. But the cast isn't the only reason "Knives Out" is so great.

The film is meta without becoming a parody; a love letter to the genre, while still elevating it in surprising ways. We'll leave the details unspecified for anyone who still has yet to watch the movie, but the way that Rian Johnson gives you the answer so early, then obfuscates it with twist after twist, is pure joy to watch. There are plenty of little details in "Knives Out" that pay dividends on repeat watches, which is always one of the most fun parts of these sorts of ensemble mysteries.

Beyond its elegant narrative machinery, the film has plenty to say about class and cash as they pertain to the social order — a theme that would continue to resonate through the "Knives Out" sequels. For the most traditional mystery viewers, this could have easily held the number-one spot, but we went with something a bit older for the gold medal.

It feels blasphemous to say, given his modern superstardom, but Christopher Nolan may well have made his greatest film in 2000. "Memento" is the ultimate mystery movie. The film itself is a mystery the audience must uncover, about a character trying to solve a mystery as he struggles against a mental condition that turns every moment of his life into its own small mystery. Psychologically, it's a story about the gnawing sensation of leaving something unsolved, as well as the often insufficient satisfaction of finally finding the answer. By the end of "Memento," the mystery itself evolves into something different entirely.

So many of the cinematic signatures that would become Nolan's calling cards are here: the nonlinear narrative, black-and-white sections, the repetition of language and scene, the long-con sub plot, and so on. And those all work pretty well in his later, bigger films, but they are especially affecting here, in a film with essentially three characters, shot in three or four locations.

The limitations are the strength of "Memento." Guy Pearce is a powerhouse as Leonard, a man so traumatized by the murder of his wife that his brain has ceased to form new memories, forcing him to tattoo the clues of his murder investigation on his own skin in order to find the killer. Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano are similarly excellent in the two main supporting roles, and Nolan smashes this small handful of players together in the most interesting of ways, making a mystery film that's both riveting on the first watch and incredible on every subsequent visit.