It's the time-tested stuff of captivating cinema: one person up against forces beyond his or her control. Toss in healthy doses of political malfeasance, nefarious cabals, illicit surveillance, and cover-ups, and you've got the formula for a crackling good time at the movies. We here at RT have compiled our list of the best-reviewed conspiracy films of all time, perfect for a night of paranoia and intrigue.

You'll find plenty of your favorites here, movies that explore everything from corporate shenanigans (The Insider) to governmental machinations (The Bourne Ultimatum) to phone tapping (The Conversation). And what list of paranoid classics would be complete without plenty of Hitchcock? However, unlike the villains in these films, we decided to shine some light on our process. We utilized a weighted system that factors in both Tomatometer and number of reviews, and each movie needed 20 reviews to qualify. Thus, some of the best-known celebrated conspiracy flicks (sorry, JFK and Wag the Dog) didn't quite make the critical cut. Which of these flicks earned the best marks from the critics? The truth is out there. So debug your house, dust off your fake passport, and be prepared to navigate the twists and turns of RT's Best Conspiracy Movies!

• Each critic from our discrete list gets one vote, all weighted equally.
• Reviews without ratings are not counted toward the results.
• Because reviews are continually added, manually and otherwise, we have a cutoff
  date at which new reviews are not counted. The current cut off date is 3/29/2009.
• We use a weighted formula to account for variation in the number of reviews
  per movie per year. The winners are determined by the rankings,
  designated as the "adjusted score," after applying said formula:

  t + ((r-a) ÷ a) if number of reviews > average number of reviews for
  corresponding year.
  t * (r ÷ a) if number of reviews < average number of reviews for
  corresponding year
  t if number of reviews = average number of reviews for
  corresponding year
  with "r" representing the number of rated reviews, "t" the
  Tomatometer score, and "a" the average number of reviews
  per movie for corresponding year