# Eeeeeevil conspiracies in movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379 "2006-01-10T21:15:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/21 "2006-01-11T17:05:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Beta Epsilon Lambda > > BEL as in THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BELL- a made-for-TV potential-pilot movie in which Glenn Ford refuses to obey an order from his old college frat, only to find that it’s the Secret Society which launched his business success, arranged his marriage, and controls damn near everything. Looking around suspiciously to see who suddenly leaves the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/22 "2006-01-11T17:11:26Z")
> [@Exgineer](#): > > It’s gotten to the point where “large corporation” is shorthand for “evil” these days. They don’t even feel that they have to establish that a large company is evil, but just expect us to assume that it is. > > The aforementioned _Manchurian Candidate_ remake is a prime example. Instead of a Chinese conspiracy, like in the original, they changed it to a corporate conspiracy for no real reason, even though that forced them into some lame backfilling so the title would still make sense. A corporation turned me into a newt! ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/23 "2006-01-11T17:12:58Z")
Have you ever noticed that in all these eeeevil conspiracy movies, the bad guys seem to always manage to find hordes of trained killers and gunmen? Gunmen who are willing to chase good guys down heavily populated streets firing randomly, and engage in frenzied car chases? Not to mention who are always willing to step out on a weekday night and whack a witness or two. What kind of retainer do you need on guys like that? How do you go about hiring them? Gives new meaning to [monster.com](http://monster.com)… Last season’s 24 was particularly notable for this – the bad guys had a bigger stable of trained assassins than Walmart has greeters. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/24 "2006-01-11T17:58:45Z")
> [@jellyblue](#): > > _The Bourne Identity_ (& _Supremacy_), and, to really show my age, _The Osterman Weekend_ and _Three Days of the Condor._ These movies had plots so complicated I can’t even begin to synopsize them. 😕 Considering all four of those movies are based on Robert Ludlum novels, I can appreciate your confusion. ---
**Author:** ![jellyblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@jellyblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jellyblue)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/25 "2006-01-11T18:10:34Z")
> [@Ol'Gaffer](#): > > Considering all four of those movies are based on Robert Ludlum novels, I can appreciate your confusion. Wow! I didn’t realize that. A trend! Maybe I should have read the books. Does it help? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/26 "2006-01-11T18:22:50Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > As for conspiracies in movies, how about the ones in **Chinatown** and **Who Framed Roger Rabbit?** As it happens, those plots were based loosely on **real-life** conspiracies. Very successful ones, too. > **[Los Angeles Aqueduct](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Aqueduct)** > > The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valley aqueduct was designed and built by the city's water department, at the time named The Bureau of Los Angeles Aqueduct, under the supervision of the department's Chief Engineer William Mulholland. The system delivers water from the Owens River in the Known... > **[General Motors streetcar conspiracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy)** > > The General Motors streetcar conspiracy refers to convictions of General Motors (GM) and other companies that were involved in monopolizing the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines (NCL) and its subsidiaries, and to allegations that the defendants conspired to own or control transit systems, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The suit created lingering suspicions that the defendants had in fact plotted to dismantle streetcar systems in many cities in the United... ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/27 "2006-01-11T18:27:15Z")
> [@Ol'Gaffer](#): > > Considering all four of those movies are based on Robert Ludlum novels, I can appreciate your confusion. The first three, yes, Ludlum. Thre days of the condor (originally sis days) was James Grady. ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/28 "2006-01-11T18:28:18Z")
> [@brownie55](#): > > The first three, yes, Ludlum. Thre days of the condor (originally sis days) was James Grady. Damn, Three Days and Six Days… ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/29 "2006-01-11T18:34:52Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > The first movie that comes to mind is Warren Beatty’s **Parallax View** , which deals with presidential nominee assasinations and the like - very disturbing in a '70’s sort of way… What I thought of on seeing the title to the thread. Above average for the genre. It’s almost a tie with _Capricorn One_ from about the same time in history. For preposterous, you can’t beat either version of _The Manchurian Candidate_ but the Sinatra version is hands down better. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/30 "2006-01-11T18:37:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > As it happens, those plots were based loosely on **real-life** conspiracies. Very successful ones, too. > > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los\_Angeles\_Aqueduct](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Aqueduct) > > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General\_Motors\_streetcar\_conspiracy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy) I didn’t say the conspiracies in those movies had no basis in fact (unfortunately). In another thread, I mentioned the same thing. However, [there is some debate](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_335.html) about whether the GM/streetcar conspiracy really happened. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/31 "2006-01-11T18:44:55Z")
> [@Exgineer](#): > > It’s gotten to the point where “large corporation” is shorthand for “evil” these days. They don’t even feel that they have to establish that a large company is evil, but just expect us to assume that it is. I’m reminded of **Team America**. Tim Robbins: Let me explain to you how this works: you see, the corporations finance Team America, and then Team America goes out… and the corporations sit there in their… in their corporation buildings, and… and, and see, they’re all corporation-y… and they make money. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/32 "2006-01-11T18:55:57Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > As it happens, those plots were based loosely on **real-life** conspiracies. Very successful ones, too. > … > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General\_Motors\_streetcar\_conspiracy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy) As the Wikipedia article notes, The Master has already tackled the GM streetcar conspiracy story: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_335.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_335.html) For other good eeeeevil conspiracy movies, may I suggest _FX, The Conversation, Enemy of the State, No Way Out_, and \*The Big Clock \* (the movie which inspired it). _The Matrix_ is really about the biggest conspiracy in human history, if you think about it. Now eat that red pill. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/33 "2006-01-11T18:56:58Z")
Oops, **NDP** beat me to it with the SD cite. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/34 "2006-01-11T19:15:08Z")
So . . . given that Hollywood has long since internalized the idea that conspiracy movies, however preposterous, make for good box office . . . why has nobody ever made an _Illuminatus!_ movie?! :mad: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminatus!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminatus%21) Of course, given the long and convoluted nature of the story, it would be impossible to do it justice in any format but a miniseries . . . and the only outfit that would have any interest in such a project would be . . . the Sci-Fi Channel . . . :eek: Just forget I said anything. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/35 "2006-01-11T19:28:08Z")
With regards to Live and Let Die. This was like in the 70’s. It was a bit late to be flooding the U.S. with dirt-cheat drugs. Plus, he’s a freacking drug kingpin. What did he need to use Voodoo to keep people happy/frightened? He’s got guns! And of course, the Aqueduct wasn’t even much of a conspiracy. As far as it went, it was just a pack of dishonest government officials who bought some land before making it much more valuable. Everyday, dime-a-dozen corruption, I’m sad to say. Now, if it had involved Columbian Drug Cartels, Jack Bauer facing an armageddon death clock, ninjas, pirates, and SuperOmniMegaUltra Evil Corporation, it would make a good movie. Or they could just tell the real sory and call it _Chinatown_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/36 "2006-01-11T19:28:36Z")
Every James Bond movie has a conspiracy of some sort, but I had to cock a suspicious eyebrow at the one in **Tomorrow Never Dies**. Let’s see: a media tycoon steals a device that lets him manipulate the GPS satellites. And he uses this power to cause conflicts between nations (at the beginning, China gets mighty angry when a ship, thinking it’s still in free water, strays into Chinese space), and because he causes these conflicts, he knows about them first and can report on the conflicts first, thereby becoming the world’s news leader. So, it’s all about selling newspapers? Wouldn’t just hiring better writers, and more of them, be easier? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/37 "2006-01-11T20:30:25Z")
And I hear there’s a movie called… what is it? Oh, yeah, _The DaVinci Code_ coming out this summer. Supposed to be based on a book or something. Someone told me it’s about an eeeeeevil (and ancient) conspiracy of some kind. But I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/38 "2006-01-11T20:32:32Z")
> [@Elendil's Heir](#): > > And I hear there’s a movie called… what is it? Oh, yeah, _The DaVinci Code_ coming out this summer. Supposed to be based on a book or something. Someone told me it’s about an eeeeeevil (and ancient) conspiracy of some kind. > > But I could be wrong. Conspiracy? I hear that it’s the stone truth. Read that in National Enquirer, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/39 "2006-01-11T23:41:24Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Conspiracy? I hear that it’s the stone truth. Read that in National Enquirer, I believe. Even better…The History Channel. Has no one mentioned Joe Versus the Volcano? Okay it’s tiny conspiracy…Just Lloyd Bridges getting his doctor to be Tom Hank’s doctor and then getting him to tell Hanks that he is dying of a brain cloud. How many steps does it take to be conspiracy? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379/40 "2006-01-11T23:58:32Z")
> [@Elendil's Heir](#): > > And I hear there’s a movie called… what is it? Oh, yeah, _The DaVinci Code_ coming out this summer. Supposed to be based on a book or something. Someone told me it’s about an eeeeeevil (and ancient) conspiracy of some kind. > > But I could be wrong. IIRC, the whole point of that story is that it’s a conspiracy but it ain’t evil. (The RCC, OTOH . . .) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeeeevil-conspiracies-in-movies/339379.md?page=3)