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A high-octane Fox thriller that premiered November 2001, starring Kiefer Sutherland as CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit) agent Jack Bauer. Each season depicts a single continuous 24-hour day with one episode per hour, complete with a ticking on-screen clock and split-screen "meanwhile" shots. The show's relentless pacing, cliffhangers, and post-9/11-era terrorism plots made it a cultural phenomenon that redefined the thriller format for television.
A tech-industry thriller starring Ryan Phillippe as a young programmer recruited by a charming but sinister software CEO (Tim Robbins) who steals code and eliminates threats. Released with Microsoft's real antitrust battle still in the headlines, it became a cult artifact of the dot-com era despite critical and commercial failure.
Denzel Washington as a working father who takes an emergency room hostage when his insurance won't cover his young son's life-saving heart transplant. A blunt, angry drama that critics panned and audiences turned into a hit — and that landed as a lightning rod in America's healthcare debate.
Two detectives, a nameless city where it never stops raining, and a killer working his way through the seven deadly sins. David Fincher's 1995 thriller ends with a box, and with an ending the studio fought to change and lost.
Clarice Starling, Hannibal Lecter behind the glass, fava beans and a nice Chianti. Jonathan Demme's 1991 thriller opened on Valentine's Day, swept the top five Oscars, and remains the only horror film ever to win Best Picture. Lecter is still the AFI's number-one movie villain.
M. Night Shyamalan's breakout thriller about a child psychologist (Bruce Willis) treating a boy (Haley Joel Osment) who whispers the film's immortal line: 'I see dead people.' A cultural phenomenon that made the twist ending a permanent fixture of cinema and grossed over $670 million worldwide.
A K2 rescue thriller where the only way up is with nitroglycerin. Chris O'Donnell carries explosives up a frozen mountain while Bill Paxton schemes below, and it's all kicked off by an opening scene in Monument Valley that burns itself into your brain: a father orders his son to cut the rope. It's December 2000 popcorn cinema in its most visceral form.