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.
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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.
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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.
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11:10 (dramatic music)
11:13 (chanting)
11:15 (dramatic music)
11:18 ♪♪