42 Puzzling Mystery Movies on Netflix You Can Stream This April

Based on James Patterson’s psychological thriller novel of the same name, this 1997 movie follows forensic psychologist and detective Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) as he searches for his missing niece, Naomi. But Naomi is merely one in a long string of women who have gone missing in the area, and she may be ensnared by a serial kidnapper, rapist, and murderer going by the name of Casanova. Cross gets a lucky break in the case when one of Casanova’s victims, Kate (Ashley Judd), escapes alive. Cross and Kate work tirelessly to track down Casanova and end his reign of terror.

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A man (portrayed by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) awakes in a hospital after a terrible accident. He quickly discovers that he has no recollection of who he is, but that’s the least of his problems. He’s also being hunted by the police, suspected of being an elusive serial killer who victimizes young women. Are the police on the trail of the right man, or is this John Doe an innocent who can’t recall enough to defend himself?

Based on the Pat Barker novel Border Crossing, this mystery movie follows child psychologist Tom Seymour (Josh Charles). Years ago, he gave a testimony that aided in the conviction of 11-year-old Danny Miller (Jasper Newell/Avan Jogia) for murder. Upon Danny’s release as an adult, Tom reconnects with him in unexpected and increasingly surprising ways. This engaging film also stars Julia Stiles as Lauren Seymour, and explores innocence, redemption, and the possibility of evil within children.

Molly’s Game is a biographical crime drama based on the memoir of the same name by Molly Bloom. When Molly (Jessica Chastain) moves to Los Angeles after the end of her Olympic skiing career, she finds herself earning cash by running underground poker games for her boss. Soon she decides to cut out the middleman, running her own high-end games with stakes that keep raising. However, her poker empire leads to a life tangled with unethical Hollywood celebrities, dangerous business tycoons, and the Russian mafia.

When she becomes the target of an FBI investigation, she must make the choice between saving her own future, or revealing life-changing secrets about innocent people caught up in her games.

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This 2008 political action thriller unravels a story from multiple perspectives. While U.S. President Henry Ashton (William Hurt) is in Salamanca, Spain, an assassination attempt is made on his life. We see the assassination and its surrounding events take place through the eyes of Secret Service agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), Spanish police officer Enrique (Eduardo Noriega), and others. This gripping flick boasts a star-studded cast that includes Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Fox, Zoe Saldana, and Forest Whitaker.

Psychotherapist Peter Bower (Adrien Brody) is haunted by the death of his young daughter. Since the little girl's passing a year ago, Bower's been bogged down by night terrors and ominous visions. Is Peter seeing ghosts, or suffering from a massive breakdown? He makes a journey back home to try and find closure, but he finds himself entangled in traumas that extend beyond the loss of his daughter.

This dark comedy crime thriller is engaging and unique, in that it tells the story backwards. Following the events of a single week, a small-town sheriff, Zeke Sikes (Benjamin Walker), investigates a group of bank robbers involved in a heist gone wrong. However, matters are complicated by the fact that one of the criminals is his brother, Andy (Rainn Wilson).

FBI agent Joel Campbell (James Spader) retires after a brutal serial killer, David Allen Griffin (Keanu Reeves), escapes his clutches. In despair, Joel moves to Chicago to try and rebuild his life, receiving therapy from Dr. Polly Beilman (Marisa Tomei). But David isn’t done killing, and he isn’t done with Joel. Intent on torturing Joel, David sends clues of the murders he plans to commit.

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Mute is a neo-noir science fiction film that takes place in the near future of 2035. A mute bartender, Leo (Alexander Skarsgård) takes a journey through the gritty and dystopian underworld of Berlin in search of his missing girlfriend, Naadirah (Seyneb Saleh). Naadirah possesses a dark and mysterious past, and Leo soon finds himself tangled up with two American surgeons, Cactus Bill (Paul Rudd) and Duck (Justin Theroux), who operate a black-market clinic.

This 2018 British film follows an alternative history of acclaimed real-life murder mystery novelist, Agatha Christie (portrayed by Ruth Bradley). The movie takes place during the time of Christie’s notorious 11-day disappearance, but frames the period as a point in which Christie decided to take up an investigation of a real murder. It depicts the case of Florence Nightingale's goddaughter’s death, and the way in which playing detective helped Christie in her subsequent novels.

Directed by Clint Eastwood, this incredibly dark crime drama based on the novel of the same name sports an all-star cast. Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon), Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins), and Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn) grew up together as close friends in Boston. Many years later, their bonds and lives are shattered when Jimmy’s daughter, Katie (Emmy Rossum), is found murdered. Ex-con Jimmy and police detective Sean are at odds throughout the investigation, while the previously traumatized Dave remains in the middle.

This film is based off the true crime novel The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins by John Pearson. Starring Tom Hardy in the roles of identical twins Ron and Reggie Kray, the movie follows the brothers and their criminal dealings in the 1960s. While Ron is a volatile paranoid schizophrenic, Reggie is a former boxer unafraid to throw around his muscle. Through tragedy, violence, and in-fighting, the siblings leave a mess behind them trailed by Detective Superintendent Leonard “Nipper” Read (Christopher Eccleston).

Connie Nikas (Robert Pattinson) and his younger developmentally challenged brother, Nick (Benny Safdie), rob a New York City bank for upwards of $50,000. But when things quickly go south during the getaway, Connie makes a run for it while Nick gets picked up by the police. Desperate to help his brother, Connie sets out on a dark and troubled adventure through the city’s criminal underworld to get his brother out of jail.

This supernatural thriller is a spine-tingling mystery. When a paramedic named Sam (Drew Fonteiro) is murdered during a getaway to a remote lake, he undergoes drastic measures to keep his friends safe. Sam’s consciousness travels through the bodies of his companions, using his experience to try and protect them from a similar fate to his own. But there’s so much more to discover about Sam as his own person along the way.

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name, this film follows the troubled and duplicitous Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) through his antics in the 1950s. When the wealthy Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn) hires Ripley to track down his extravagant playboy son, Dickie (Jude Law), Ripley becomes enchanted by the lavish life of the rich. Insinuating himself among millionaires and socialites, Ripley uses his incredible gift for lying to fit in. But how far will that get him when things take an extreme and violent turn?

This crime drama begins in 1997 with motorcycle stuntman Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling). After reuniting with his ex-lover, Romina Gutierrez (Eva Mendez), Luke turns to a life of crime in order to support his family. However, his crimes put him in the path of rookie officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) whose dogged pursuit is fueled by his desire to advance in a department full of corruption. Little do they know, their actions will reverberate further into the future than they could ever expect.

Stephen King’s 1982 novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption—as published in his collection Different Seasons—provides the inspiration behind this classic, must-see film. It’s 1947, and banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and her lover, though he claims innocence. He befriends fellow inmate Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman), and throughout their many years in prison together, strive for redemption through small acts of decency.

This dark crime thriller follows stockbroker and family man Jacob Harlon (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) following a DUI incident resulting in the death of his friend. After being sent to a California prison for 16 months, Harlon makes the startling transition into a violent and hardened gangster. As he does what he must for his own survival and the well-being of his family, his life falls under the control of gangsters like Bottles (Jeffrey Donovan) and Shotgun (Jon Bernthal)—even after his release from prison.

The true crime book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi was the basis for this classic Martin Scorsese directed film. When Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) becomes enchanted by a life in the mob, he spends the next couple of decades tangled up with partners Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) in various dangerous schemes. Caught between a complicated family life with his wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco) and the stresses of the Italian-American crime world, Hill must make clever and difficult choices to stay ahead of the danger.

Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) of the United Nations War Crimes Commission is on the hunt for a Nazi war criminal by the name of Franz Kindle—a man who has wiped out all clues to his identity except for one: he has a manic obsession with clocks. After his investigation brings him to Harper, Connecticut, Wilson has cause to believe that prep school teacher Charles Rankin (Orson Welles) is the fugitive he’s after. But will Rankin’s wife, Mary (Loretta Young), help Wilson’s investigation, or stand in the way?

Based on the novel of the same name by Susanna Jones, this psychological thriller takes place in Tokyo in 1989. A mysterious English expat, Lucy Fly (Alicia Vikander) is suspected of killing her missing friend, Lily Bridges (Riley Keough). Both women were tangled up in a precarious love triangle with local photographer Teiji Matsuda (Naoki Kobayashi), who is also missing. As Lucy is questioned by the police, a twisted and unsettling story unfolds around her—but is it true?

After their mother dies and a reverse mortgage leaves the family ranch in a state of crisis, brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner Howard (Ben Foster) set out on a spree of robberies upon the very bank that threatens their home. In pursuit of the brothers are Texas Rangers Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham). Though the Howards set out for frontier justice, Tanner’s volatile nature causes things to spiral out of control.

The gang’s all here in Martin Scorsese’s new crime drama epic. Inspired by Charles Brandt’s I Heard You Paint Houses, the movie examines the life of Frank Sheeran, an Irish-American labor union official and believed mob hitman who says he killed Jimmy Hoffa. The cast is stellar. Robert DeNiro portrays Sheeran, while Al Pacino plays a wild-eyed Jimmy Hoffa. Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, Bobby Cannavale, and Ray Romano also star. Just get settled in on the couch before you queue it up—The Irishman runs for three and a half hours!  

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This popular 2010 sci-fi thriller is a deeply layered mind-bending romp. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a professional thief who, alongside his accomplice Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), utilizes experimental military technology to penetrate the dream-state of marks. While typically the duo enter people’s subconscious to extract information for corporate espionage, a new client (Ken Watanabe) tempts Cobb with the promise to clear his criminal record if he instead plants an idea in the head of the heir to a company (Cillian Murphy). Enlisting the help of the forger Eames (Tom Hardy), the chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao), the architectural student Ariadne (Ellen Page), and Cobb’s father-in-law Professor Stephen Miles (Michael Caine), Cobb and Arthur construct a plan to build a multi-layer dream labyrinth which twists the perception of what’s real or imagined.

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A Hollywood stuntman (Ryan Gosling) lives a double life as a criminal getaway driver. However, when he starts to get close to his new neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son, he gets tangled up in a job that’s complicated from the get-go. Teaming up with Irene’s fresh-out-of-prison husband (Oscar Isaac), the Driver gets tangled up in a world of double-crossing, mob violence, and death.

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Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) is a law student with a big talent for poker, or so he thinks. When he lays it all on the line during a game of Texas Hold ‘Em, he ends up losing $30,000. Shaken, Mike makes a promise to his girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol) that he’s done with poker for good. But when his old friend Lester “Worm” Murphy (Edward Norton) rolls back into his life, Mike soon finds himself back in the gambling life. As the debt racks up, dangers mount as the Russian mob demands payment.

The Gift is a supernatural mystery thriller written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, allegedly based on the psychic experiences of Thorton’s mother. In a small Georgia town, Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) is a woman who possesses extrasensory perception—the gift of clairvoyance. When Jessica King (Katie Holmes) goes missing, Annie has a vision of the woman’s final moments. As a murder investigation unfolds, Jessica’s fiancée Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear) depends on Annie for help solving this terrible mystery.

In the aftermath of a robbery gone wrong, three criminals—Stacy (Adrien Brody), Walker (John Malkovich), and Gage (Rory Culkin)—take refuge in a warehouse in order to evade police pursuit. Little do the thieves know, a large and vicious mastiff—owned by the violent dog-fighter Blue (Antonio Banderas)—prowls the corridors of the warehouse. With a taste for blood, the dangerous animal stalks the crooks, posing a larger threat than the looming law outside the warehouse walls.

This dramatic thriller from 2016 stars Aaron Paul and Annabelle Wallis. David and Claire are a loving couple. Yet their happy life together is disrupted when Claire goes missing. After receiving very little help from the police, David sets about searching for his girlfriend on his own. Yet the deeper David digs, the less anything makes sense. Soon one thing becomes clear: Claire was not the person he thought she was.

Though actually a 6-part limited series, this thrilling Netflix political mystery is inspired by a real-life person. In the 1960s, Eli Cohen (portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen, in a startlingly serious role) is an Israeli clerk turned Mossad spy. For years, Eli works deep undercover in Syria under the name Kamel Amin Thaabet. As he makes himself indispensable and curates a group of high society associates, Cohen begins to lose sight of where Kamel stops and Eli begins.

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Tragedy strikes when FBI agent Ray Kasten (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and L.A. district attorney investigator Jess Cobb (Julia Roberts) discover the body of Jess’ teenage daughter Carolyn (Zoe Graham) in a dumpster. As Jess falls apart, Ray feels responsible and commits himself to finding the man who killed Carolyn. With the help of the new assistant district attorney (Nicole Kidman), they sink into a web of secrets that get darker and darker.

Directed by Anthony Byrne, this film is rife with dark suspense. When blind pianist Sofia (Natalie Dormer) overhears a murder in the apartment above her, she begins to fear for her own life. After crossing paths with the accused war criminal that happens to be the murder victim’s father (Jan Bijvoet), Sofia sinks into a whirlwind of corruption and intrigue. However, as Sofia ventures deeper into the dark crime world, links to her past slowly unravel.

This dark 2015 drama is based on the novel of the same name by author Gillian Flynn. When Libby Day (Charlize Theron) was eight years old, she emerged from her Kansas farmhouse as the only survivor after the brutal murder of her mother and sisters. Decades after testifying that her brother was the murderer, Libby is lured into discussing the tragedy for financial gain. As she thinks back to that awful night, she begins to doubt what she had always believed.

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This film uses offbeat comedy to bring some levity into the mystery genre. When depressed nurse Ruth (Melanie Lynskey) comes home from work to find her house has been ransacked, the police are less than helpful. As she goes looking for her own answers, she finds some unexpected encouragement and aid from her intense neighbor, Tony (Elijah Wood). As their amateur sleuthing begins to give them a sense of purpose, it also leads them into more trouble than they bargained for.

When disgraced former cop Mike Kendall (John Hawkes) stumbles upon a woman as she lies dying on the side of the road, he vows to find her killer. Hired by her grandfather (Robert Forster), Kendall takes on the case as a private investigator. The growing mystery takes him down a dark path, and though he is driven by the search for redemption, he gets wrapped up in several shady characters and unwittingly puts his own family in harm’s way.

Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether,” this film embraces the inherently unsettling nature of insane asylums. In the early 1900s, Oxford graduate Dr. Edward Newgate (Jim Sturgess) arrives at Stonehearst Asylum to take up an apprenticeship under Dr. Silas Lamb (Ben Kingsley). When Newgate becomes infatuated with one of the patients, Eliza Graves (Kate Beckinsale), he also begins to realize that Lamb’s methods for treatment are wildly unconventional. Nothing is as it seems in the asylum, and no one is safe.

In the Shadow of the Moon combines the thrill of mystery with the excitement of science fiction. In 1988, a Philadelphia police detective, portrayed by Boyd Holbrook, becomes obsessed with a string of murders. The serial killer, portrayed by Cleopatra Coleman, is unpredictable and elusive. Her victims have no apparent motive or connection. However, the evidence starts to slot into place even as the detective’s family life starts to unravel. Unfortunately, the closer he gets to the truth, the more he appears unhinged.

This South Korean mystery is one wild ride. The film follows Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in), an aspiring writer who does various jobs around Paju, a city in South Korea. When he runs into Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), a childhood classmate, she asks if he can feed her cat while so goes on a trip to Africa. Lee agrees, and the two get intimate just before Shin takes off. When she returns, she is accompanied by a man named Ben (Steven Yeun), a rich and confident man who seems to be hiding more than he lets on. When the trio hangs out together, Lee becomes increasingly jealous and suspicious of Ben’s motives. And when Shin goes missing, Lee takes it upon himself to investigate the matter, with Ben as the prime suspect.

This critically acclaimed Australian crime thriller is a mystery film that you won’t forget. The movie takes place almost entirely inside an interrogation room where Eddie Fleming (Hugo Weaving) is getting grilled by detective John Steele (Tony Martin) for crimes he claims he didn’t commit. At first, he gets questioned about a stolen vehicle. Later down the road, however, Eddie appears to have a connection to a string of killings. Both actors play well off each other, and the shocking twists and power plays in the mystery movie will have viewers glued to their screens. 

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This 2014 Canadian thriller weaves a nonlinear mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Matthew (Ryan Reynolds) and Tina Lane (Mireille Enos) have their daughter Cassandra (Peyton Kennedy/Alexia Fast) abducted on a simple Winter’s day. The loss tears what remains of their family apart. Eight years later, the parents receive evidence that indicates their daughter might still be alive. Matthew, Tina, and the police race to follow the disturbing trail of clues back to the truth.

This Spanish film will have amateur detectives mystified. Businessman Adrian Doria is blackmailed after being found with the body of his lover. Yet nothing about his story is as it seems. 

Riz Ahmed (Rogue One, The Night Of) stars as Tommy Akhtar, a private detective looking for a missing sex worker. Put on the job by her roommate, Akhtar is soon in over his head and caught up in his own past. This old-school homage is worth watching for Ahmed and Billie Piper’s performances.

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