Top 10 Mind Blowing Conspiracy Documentaries

WatchMojo

Put on your tin foil hats! For this list, we’ll be looking at the most fascinating documentaries that explore or (in some cases) expose various conspiracies.

Transcript

00:00 Where's we go and say, hey, by the way, there's Seattle.

00:02 You can see it right now with your camera.

00:04 That's it.

00:05 A picture says a thousand words.

00:06 - Welcome to WatchMojo.

00:07 And today we're counting down our picks

00:09 for the top 10 mind-blowing conspiracy documentaries.

00:12 - I had great trouble understanding

00:13 why two dozen Secret Service agents

00:16 hadn't seen a man with a gun.

00:18 - For this list, we'll be looking

00:19 at the most fascinating documentaries

00:21 that explore, or in some cases, expose various conspiracies.

00:24 We'll be limiting this list to feature-length films

00:26 so multi-episode shows like "The Family"

00:28 will not be included.

00:29 Did any of these documentaries change your mind?

00:31 Let us know in the comments below.

00:33 Number 10, "The Social Dilemma."

00:36 - Yeah, these things, you release them

00:37 and they take on a life of their own.

00:39 And how they're used is pretty different

00:41 than how you expect it.

00:42 - It's no secret that social media is bad for you,

00:44 but we didn't know just how bad.

00:46 "The Social Dilemma" is a very sobering documentary

00:48 from Jeff Orlowski that expounds on the dangerous influence

00:51 of your favorite social app.

00:53 Whether it's Facebook, Instagram,

00:54 or the app formerly known as Twitter,

00:56 they all have the same goal, to keep you scrolling.

00:58 What results sounds like something

00:59 out of a conspiracy thriller,

01:00 a world in the throes of phone addiction,

01:02 political radicalization, mass amounts of misinformation,

01:05 actual propaganda, and plummeting mental health rates.

01:08 And there's no way out.

01:09 Interviews with prominent social media experts

01:11 detail how it all works, and it makes us wanna go

01:14 off the space on our phones and computers.

01:16 - I was the president of Pinterest.

01:18 Before that, I was the director of monetization

01:22 at Facebook for five years.

01:23 - Number nine, "Mirage Men."

01:25 - Let's take one step at a time.

01:26 You're looking at Richard Doty,

01:28 the professional disinformer, trained to lie.

01:32 - UFOs, the cornerstone of any great conspiracy theory.

01:35 But what if UFOs themselves were the conspiracy theory?

01:38 Stay with us.

01:38 "Mirage Men" posits the possibility

01:40 that the American government intentionally fabricates

01:43 so-called UFO sightings.

01:44 And why would they do that?

01:45 Seemingly to draw attention away

01:47 from top-secret military projects.

01:49 - Doty found a lot of gullible people in the UFO community

01:53 that would easily believe what he said.

01:55 - One can't help but think of Area 51,

01:57 the infamous Air Force facility

01:59 that tests experimental aircraft in the Nevada desert.

02:02 "Mirage Men" features extensive interviews

02:04 with a former member of the United States Air Force

02:06 Office of Special Investigation,

02:07 which lends further credence to the film's thesis.

02:10 It's a thought-provoking documentary

02:11 about government cover-ups and manipulation,

02:13 and really, what more can you ask for?

02:15 - Now, Doty played a massive role

02:19 in the perpetuation of the Roswell myth.

02:22 Many of the ideas prominent in the UFO subculture

02:26 for two decades.

02:28 - Number eight, JFK, the smoking gun.

02:31 - Who killed President John F. Kennedy?

02:34 - The policeman says, "No, you cannot come in here.

02:35 You cannot come in here."

02:37 - And have these two experts finally found the smoking gun

02:41 hidden in plain sight all along?

02:44 - We've all been down the JFK road before.

02:46 Even for those who don't often buy into conspiracy theories,

02:48 the JFK assassination bears an intense

02:50 and tantalizing interest.

02:52 An Australian detective named Colin McLaren

02:54 wrote a book titled "JFK, the Smoking Gun,"

02:57 which argued that Kennedy was accidentally shot

02:59 by an agent of the Secret Service.

03:01 - Was it more a deliberate attempt of a cover-up

03:04 of what happened earlier that day in Dealey Plaza?

03:07 - This book was then adapted into a film

03:08 which blends investigative and ballistics work

03:10 to uncover the truth behind the president's death.

03:13 There are some interesting arguments here,

03:14 and it's nice to see a new theory about the shooting

03:16 that hasn't been covered again and again.

03:18 It all adds another layer to the enduring mystery.

03:21 - Hickey picks up the AR-15 to return fire

03:24 and flicks off the safety.

03:25 As the follow-up car lunges forward,

03:27 he loses his balance and accidentally pulls the trigger.

03:30 - Number seven, the Great Hack.

03:33 - These digital traces of ourselves

03:36 are being mined into a trillion-dollar-a-year industry.

03:41 - Let's head back to Facebook,

03:42 because that site is just a trove of conspiracies turned true.

03:45 In 2018, a man named Christopher Wiley

03:47 came forth and dropped a bombshell.

03:48 A British consulting firm called Cambridge Analytica

03:51 had been harvesting personal data

03:53 from millions of Facebook profiles

03:54 and selling this data to American political campaigns.

03:57 - Like, now I'm the dad who reads the privacy policy

04:00 and says, "No, you see here, they read your messages.

04:05 Are you okay with that?"

04:07 - The Great Hack explores this scandal in great depth

04:09 using interviews with prominent figures,

04:11 including a former employee of Cambridge Analytica

04:13 and journalist Carol Cadwaller.

04:15 It asks us to consider notions of privacy

04:17 in the digital age and informs us with startling clarity

04:20 that, yes, our identities are absolutely for sale.

04:22 - There's no way to go off the grid.

04:25 So you have to understand

04:28 how your data is affecting your life.

04:31 - Number six, the devil we know.

04:33 - How long do they wait to take pictures?

04:36 - I'm sure they wanted to get that one taken right away

04:38 because--

04:39 - There's a chance that they might not make it.

04:40 - That's what they said.

04:42 - This shouldn't come as a big surprise,

04:43 but corporations do not have our best interests at heart.

04:46 The devil we know, it's all about perfluoroactanoic acid,

04:49 a dangerous compound used in a wide variety of products.

04:52 If listening about industrial compounds sounds boring,

04:54 rest assured, it isn't.

04:55 The documentary's argument is told

04:57 through the lens of Parkersburg, West Virginia,

04:59 a small town that once housed a DuPont facility.

05:01 - Just thinking about, I need an answer.

05:04 You know, I need to know what's going on.

05:07 I need to know why this happened.

05:09 - DuPont would dump the industrial acid

05:10 into the local water, killing cattle, deforming children,

05:13 and giving both locals and workers cancer.

05:15 It's a fascinating if terrifying story

05:17 about corporate negligence,

05:19 the intentional concealment of dangerous information,

05:21 and the lengths that companies will go to

05:23 to gain more profit.

05:24 - In their negotiations around this,

05:27 they said that they were going to use his land

05:29 for non-hazardous waste.

05:31 But very quickly, he noticed changes in the water.

05:35 - Number five, behind the curve.

05:37 - So Mark called and said that he was a member

05:41 of the Flat Earth Society.

05:44 And I said, "Oh, Mark, what are you onto now?"

05:48 - The world has seen a sharp rise in flat earthers

05:51 in recent years, and most people blame the internet for that.

05:53 Behind the Curve explores the recent phenomenon

05:55 delving into the belief itself,

05:57 how it spreads, and the way that people find community

05:59 through their fringe opinions.

06:01 The film contains a lot of memorable characters

06:03 and hilarious situations,

06:04 like when the believers conduct tests

06:06 to prove that the earth is flat,

06:07 only to end up proving the exact opposite.

06:09 - We don't see you, Enrique.

06:12 Lift up your light way above your head.

06:15 Interesting.

06:18 - But the documentary also has a heart

06:20 and never sets out to demonize its subjects.

06:22 Rather, it takes a rather sympathetic approach

06:24 and asks the viewers to consider how it is

06:26 they got to that point in the first place.

06:28 - I caught his smile when I was talking

06:29 about the planetarium part, and he wasn't buying it.

06:32 It's in his head.

06:33 He may research it, may not.

06:34 That's what the billboard's for.

06:35 We're just trying to put the seeds in people's heads.

06:37 - Number four, unacknowledged.

06:39 15 years later, Dr. Stephen Greer

06:43 opened his archives of documents and interviews.

06:47 - There are about a billion alien documentaries out there,

06:49 but none quite like "Unacknowledged."

06:51 That's thanks to the presence of Stephen M. Greer,

06:53 a prominent ufologist who founded

06:55 the Disclosure Project back in 1993.

06:58 The goal of this project was to get the truth

07:00 about extraterrestrial life and UFO sightings

07:02 out of the secretive American government.

07:04 - It says point blank.

07:05 When there's a very strong piece of evidence,

07:08 we need to set up something so we release

07:09 certain type of balloons and film it

07:12 so that it will look like that.

07:14 - "Unacknowledged" convincingly presents Greer's findings

07:17 through never-before-seen documents

07:18 and witness testimonies, including briefings

07:20 with Pentagon generals and even the director of the CIA.

07:23 It has a degree of authority and legitimacy

07:25 that other alien documentaries do not,

07:27 and it may just convert a few nonbelievers to the cause.

07:30 - This is arguably the most important UFO document

07:33 in history.

07:34 The irony of it is I couldn't disclose it.

07:37 - Number three, the war on democracy.

07:39 (speaking in foreign language)

07:43 Coming from filmmakers Christopher Martin

07:52 and John Pilger, the war on democracy

07:54 makes a very uncomfortable thesis.

07:56 With fantastic archival footage and absorbing narration,

07:59 it posits that the United States has secretly

08:01 but directly intervened in Latin American politics.

08:03 Along the way, the country has often undermined

08:06 the democracy of others for its own self-interests.

08:08 Through the manipulation of politics

08:09 and even the direct overthrow

08:11 of democratically elected leaders,

08:12 American intervention has led

08:14 to a full-blown human rights crisis.

08:15 The war on democracy explores how larger

08:18 and more powerful nations often mold the less fortunate

08:20 and often for their own selfish gains.

08:22 (speaking in foreign language)

08:26 (crowd cheering)

08:29 Number two, Icarus.

08:40 - I am estimating that I would have tested him

08:43 50 times, five-O.

08:44 - You tested Lance 50 times and never caught him.

08:50 - Correct.

08:51 - A fast-paced and wickedly exciting documentary,

08:54 Icarus plays out like a Hollywood thriller.

08:55 Filmmaker Brian Fogle hopes to explore the concept

08:58 of doping in professional sports,

09:00 so he consults with the head

09:01 of Russia's anti-doping agency, Grigory Rodchenkov.

09:04 As their friendship blossoms, Rodchenkov reveals

09:06 that Russia has a widespread doping system in place

09:09 and that the country continuously cheats in the Olympics.

09:11 - What did Russia have to do

09:12 with the hiding blood passports of all the athletes?

09:17 - Let's talk in my office.

09:20 - These revelations allegedly put Rodchenkov's life

09:23 in danger, and the filmmakers are forced to protect him

09:25 from those hoping to silence his revelations.

09:27 With the reveal of shocking truths

09:28 and an absorbing storyline, Icarus is a documentary

09:31 that proves real life can be as exciting as fiction.

09:34 - I know that I could change the past, telling the truth.

09:38 But would you like telling the truth?

09:44 You will be annihilated.

09:46 - Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel

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10:00 Number one, Citizen Four.

10:04 - You may be the only one who can prevent that,

10:06 and that is by immediately nailing me to the cross

10:08 rather than trying to protect me as a source.

10:11 - When it comes to conspiracy documentaries,

10:13 there's just no beating Laura Poitras' Citizen Four.

10:16 This was the codename given to Edward Snowden,

10:18 the famous whistleblower who uncovered

10:19 a global surveillance program.

10:21 This documentary is shot in an unconventional manner,

10:24 with Poitras sitting in a hotel room with Snowden

10:26 and journalist Glenn Greenwald.

10:27 - Well, I'm hoping to start publishing with him

10:30 like a day or two days, as long as you're good with that.

10:34 - The firsthand account provides unique and intimate access

10:36 into the unfolding story, as Snowden grapples

10:39 with the revelations and the personal consequences

10:41 that he will face for revealing them.

10:42 The strong emotional connection is also bolstered

10:45 by an exhilarating storyline,

10:46 as Snowden hosts clandestine meetings, evades the law,

10:49 and smuggles himself out of the country.

10:51 It's a thriller with a heart, and it's all unbelievably real.

10:54 - If all ends well, perhaps the demonstration

10:57 that our methods worked will embolden more

10:59 to come forward, Citizen.

11:02 - Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,

11:06 and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell

11:08 to be notified about our latest videos.

11:10 (dramatic music)

11:13 (chanting)

11:15 (dramatic music)

11:18 ♪♪

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