A Glean movie guide
Mind-Bending Realities
Don't trust your eyes.
Psychological thrillers and high-concept sci-fi that will leave you questioning everything.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Memento
A masterclass in non-linear storytelling that forces you to piece together a fractured memory.
Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.
- 02
The Prestige
A dark, obsessive tale of rival magicians where every detail is a piece of a larger puzzle.
A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.
- 03
Fight Club
A gritty psychological thriller that masterfully deconstructs identity through an unreliable lens.
A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.
- 04
The Game
A relentless mystery that blurs the line between a harmless prank and a deadly conspiracy.
In honor of his birthday, San Francisco banker Nicholas Van Orton, a financial genius and a cold-hearted loner, receives an unusual present from his younger brother, Conrad: a gift certificate to play a unique kind of game. In nary a nanosecond, Nicholas finds himself consumed by a dangerous set of ever-changing rules, unable to distinguish where the charade ends and reality begins.
- 05
The Machinist
A haunting exploration of guilt and insomnia that challenges your perception of what is real.
Trevor, an insomniac lathe operator, experiences unusual occurrences at work and home. A strange man follows him everywhere, but no one else seems to notice him.
- 06
Tenet
A massive, high-concept spectacle that pushes the boundaries of time and narrative structure.
Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
- 07
Source Code
A tight, reality-bending thriller that uses a repeating loop to solve a high-stakes mystery.
When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.
- 08
Arrival
A deeply intellectual sci-fi drama that explores how language shapes our perception of time.
Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.
- 09
Predestination
A complex, paradox-heavy journey through time that centers on a shocking search for identity.
Predestination chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to prevent future killers from committing their crimes. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must stop the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time and prevent a devastating attack in which thousands of lives will be lost.
- 10
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
A surreal and poignant look at the subconscious and the painful fragments of memory.
Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.
- 11
Dark City
A visually stunning noir that questions the nature of memory in a world where reality is shifting.
A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.
- 12
Coherence
A tense, low-budget marvel that turns a simple dinner party into a mind-bending existential crisis.
Four couples gather for dinner the night a mysterious and powerful comet passes overhead.