Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "encoded-message"

1. Zodiac (2007)

R | 157 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Between 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.

Director: David Fincher | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards

Votes: 598,795 | Gross: $33.08M

2. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

PG-13 | 129 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery

Detective Sherlock Holmes is on the trail of criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty, who is carrying out a string of random crimes across Europe.

Director: Guy Ritchie | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris, Rachel McAdams

Votes: 480,705 | Gross: $186.85M

3. Safe (I) (2012)

R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

Mei, a young girl whose memory holds a priceless numerical code, finds herself pursued by the Triads, the Russian mob, and corrupt NYC cops. Coming to her aid is an ex-cage fighter whose life was destroyed by the gangsters on Mei's trail.

Director: Boaz Yakin | Stars: Jason Statham, Catherine Chan, Chris Sarandon, Robert John Burke

Votes: 117,660 | Gross: $17.14M

4. Sabotage (1936)

Not Rated | 76 min | Crime, Thriller

A Scotland Yard undercover detective is on the trail of a saboteur who is part of a plot to set off a bomb in London. But when the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Oscar Homolka, Desmond Tester, John Loder

Votes: 18,756

5. The Cheap Detective (1978)

PG | 92 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery

San Francisco, 1940, detectives, dames, documents, Nazis, and a treasure.

Director: Robert Moore | Stars: Peter Falk, Ann-Margret, Eileen Brennan, Sid Caesar

Votes: 5,752

6. The Zodiac (2005)

R | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Horror

An elusive serial killer known as the Zodiac terrorizes the San Francisco Bay in the late 1960s, while detectives aim to stop him before he claims more victims. Based on a true story.

Director: Alexander Bulkley | Stars: Justin Chambers, Robin Tunney, Rory Culkin, William Mapother

Votes: 7,483 | Gross: $0.04M

7. Dressed to Kill (1946)

Passed | 76 min | Crime, Mystery

Sherlock Holmes sets out to discover why a trio of murderous villains, including a dangerously attractive female, are desperate to obtain three unassuming and inexpensive little music boxes.

Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Patricia Morison, Edmund Breon

Votes: 6,920

8. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

Unrated | 83 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

Extraterrestrials traveling in high-tech flying saucers contact a scientist as part of a plan to enslave the inhabitants of Earth.

Director: Fred F. Sears | Stars: Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum

Votes: 9,117

9. Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942)

Approved | 68 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson must protect a Swiss inventor of an advanced bomb sight from falling into German hands.

Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Karen Verne

Votes: 6,657

10. Fulltime Killer (2001)

R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Drama

Two very different hitmen find themselves to be in each other's way. They use all their skill to solve the problem.

Directors: Johnnie To, Ka-Fai Wai | Stars: Andy Lau, Takashi Sorimachi, Kelly Lin, Simon Yam

Votes: 6,778 | Gross: $0.01M

11. The Betrayed (2008)

R | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

The story follows a young woman as she's put through a psychological journey under the thumb of a mysterious figure who suspects her husband of stealing millions from a crime syndicate.

Director: Amanda Gusack | Stars: Melissa George, Oded Fehr, Christian Campbell, Alice Krige

Votes: 2,475

12. Comrade X (1940)

Passed | 104 min | Comedy, Romance

An American reporter smuggling news out of Soviet Moscow is blackmailed into helping a beautiful Communist leave the country.

Director: King Vidor | Stars: Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Oscar Homolka, Felix Bressart

Votes: 1,833

13. The Falcon's Brother (1942)

Approved | 63 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Tom Lawrence, Gay's brother, takes over for his injured sibling in a case which involves Nazi espionage and political assassination.

Director: Stanley Logan | Stars: George Sanders, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Don Barclay

Votes: 972

14. Foxhole in Cairo (1960)

80 min | War, Drama

A German Agent in Libya is allowed to get back to Rommel with false information.

Director: John Llewellyn Moxey | Stars: James Robertson Justice, Adrian Hoven, Niall MacGinnis, Neil McCallum

Votes: 193

15. They Met in the Dark (1943)

Approved | 95 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller

During WW2, a Royal Navy Commander stumbles upon a murdered woman and discovers a network of Nazi spies and Fifth-Columnists.

Director: Karel Lamac | Stars: James Mason, Joyce Howard, Tom Walls, Phyllis Stanley

Votes: 540

16. Curse of the Zodiac (2007 Video)

R | 82 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery

Though decades have passed since the multiple murderer held the state of California hostage with fear, the mystery of the identity of the Zodiac killer has never been solved.

Director: Ulli Lommel | Stars: Cassandra Church, Jack Quinn, Victoria Ullmann, Lyn Beausoleil

Votes: 938

17. A Southern Yankee (1948)

Approved | 90 min | Comedy, History, War

A hapless bellboy in a St. Louis hotel near the end of the Civil War is recruited by the Union secret service to impersonate a notorious Confederate spy.

Directors: Edward Sedgwick, S. Sylvan Simon | Stars: Red Skelton, Brian Donlevy, Arlene Dahl, George Coulouris

Votes: 544

18. Panama Patrol (1939)

Approved | 67 min | Action, Drama, Mystery

The head of the cipher bureau, Phillip Waring, is about to marry his secretary, Helen Lane, when he is informed that the state department has discovered a message that must be decoded. With... See full summary »

Director: Charles Lamont | Stars: Leon Ames, Charlotte Wynters, Adrienne Ames, Weldon Heyburn

Votes: 97

19. The Supermarket (2009)

116 min | Comedy, Drama

To the young people of Ellington the Supermarket was many different things. Another home, a place they'd known as long as they can remember. A one-of-a-kind place to work, build friendships... See full summary »

Director: Timothy Norman | Stars: Matt Jenkins, Bob Ondek, Pat Tanner, Brian Madore

Votes: 24

20. The Next of Kin (1942)

Approved | 102 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Wartime propaganda piece giving the warning "Be like Dad, Keep Mum". A gossipy housewife is overheard talking about what her son is doing by a Nazi spy.

Director: Thorold Dickinson | Stars: Mervyn Johns, John Chandos, Nova Pilbeam, Reginald Tate

Votes: 303

21. The Bride Wore Crutches (1940)

Approved | 55 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

Reporter (North) witnesses a bank robbery, finds the robbers, joins them and .... This impresses his girlfriend (Roberts).

Director: Shepard Traube | Stars: Lynne Roberts, Ted North, Edgar Kennedy, Robert Armstrong

Votes: 23

22. Biography (1987– )
Episode: Allan Pinkerton: The Original Private Eye

TV-14 | Documentary, Biography, History

Alan Pinkerman was a Scotish immigrant who escaped the slums of Glasgow to found the first, and for a time, the world's most prominent detective agency in the United States. His many ... See full summary »

Stars: Jack Perkins, Allan Pinkerton

23. The Adventures of Shirley Holmes (1997–2000)
Episode: The Case of the Maestro's Ghost (1997)

Family, Mystery

Stink tells his classmates a ghost story concerning a former Sussex Academy student who disappeared the night before an international piano recital and never seen again. According to Stink,... See full summary »

Director: Gary Harvey | Stars: Meredith Henderson, John White, Phillip Jarrett, John Gilbert

Votes: 37

24. Conspiracy? (2004– )
Episode: FDR and Pearl Harbor (2004)

Documentary

Several theories surrounding the Roosevelt Administration's foreknowledge of Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor are explored; that they did not have prior intelligence, that they bungled the ... See full summary »

Director: Laura Verklan | Stars: Ashton Smith, Stephen Budiansky, Robert Goldberg, Matthew S. Harrison

Votes: 12

25. Secret Agent (1964–1967)
Episode: Not So Jolly Roger (1966)

TV-PG | 51 min | Action, Adventure, Crime

The Jolly Roger is pirate radio station on an old sea fort. A DJ is killed just as he sends a message saying that the station is sending coded messages to foreign submarines. Drake goes undercover as a DJ to find out what is happening.

Director: Don Chaffey | Stars: Patrick McGoohan, Edwin Richfield, Wilfrid Lawson, Lisa Daniely

Votes: 107

26. Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971)
Episode: Happy Birthday, Adolf (1966)

TV-PG | 30 min | Comedy, War

Hogan and his men must destroy a German anti-aircraft artillery unit so that the Allies can send in a bombing raid on Hitler's birthday.

Director: Robert Butler | Stars: Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, John Banner, Robert Clary

Votes: 242

27. Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971)
Episode: The Missing Klink (1969)

TV-PG | 30 min | Comedy, War

Hogan wants to kidnap Burkhalter and trade him for a captured underground agent and instead finds out that Klink is his hostage.

Director: Marc Daniels | Stars: Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, John Banner, Robert Clary

Votes: 240

28. Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971)
Episode: The Pizza Parlor (1966)

TV-PG | 30 min | Comedy, War

To get an Italian officer to defect, the Heroes use pizza to tempt him.

Director: Gene Reynolds | Stars: Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, John Banner, Robert Clary

Votes: 243

29. I Spy (1965–1968)
Episode: Affair in T'Sien Cha (1965)

60 min | Action, Adventure

Whilst in Hong Kong, and not currently on assignment, Kelly narrowly escapes a sniper's bullet while playing a tennis. He and Alexander Scott, are actually a pair of U.S. agents, Shortly ... See full summary »

Director: Sheldon Leonard | Stars: Robert Culp, Bill Cosby, Vera Miles, Roger C. Carmel

Votes: 68

30. Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001–2011)
Episode: Gone (2005)

TV-14 | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Goren finds himself matching wits with a paranoid chess master suspected of murdering a young woman in town to visit her fiancée.

Director: Christopher Swartout | Stars: Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, Jamey Sheridan, Courtney B. Vance

Votes: 309

31. Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001–2011)
Episode: Inert Dwarf (2004)

TV-14 | 55 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Goren and Eames are investigating the death of a genius mathematician's assistant.

Director: Alex Chapple | Stars: Vincent D'Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, Jamey Sheridan, Courtney B. Vance

Votes: 343

32. Mission: Impossible (1966–1973)
Episode: Old Man Out: Part 1 (1966)

TV-PG | 50 min | Action, Adventure, Crime

An elderly cardinal has been taken prisoner by an Eastern European country because the clergyman is a leader of the political opposition. He is being held in a prison where no escape has ... See full summary »

Director: Charles R. Rondeau | Stars: Steven Hill, Barbara Bain, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus

Votes: 412

33. Mission: Impossible (1966–1973)
Episode: The Hostage (1970)

TV-PG | 50 min | Action, Adventure, Crime

Paris's cover identity as a wealthy and influential American proves a bit too convincing. He is kidnapped and held for the ransom by rebels demanding the release of three of their comrades.... See full summary »

Director: Barry Crane | Stars: Peter Graves, Leonard Nimoy, Lesley Ann Warren, Greg Morris

Votes: 157

34. Mission: Impossible (1966–1973)
Episode: The Martyr (1970)

TV-PG | 50 min | Action, Adventure, Crime

Premier Anton Rojek, the anti-Western head of an East Bloc state, plans to hold a "youth congress," hoping to get the young people of his country to endorse his repressive regime. The IMF's... See full summary »

Director: Virgil W. Vogel | Stars: Peter Graves, Leonard Nimoy, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus

Votes: 146

35. The Prisoner (1967–1968)
Episode: Hammer Into Anvil (1967)

TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Number Six vows revenge and goes after a sadistic Number Two after he drives a fellow Village resident to her death.

Director: Pat Jackson | Stars: Patrick McGoohan, Patrick Cargill, Victor Maddern, Basil Hoskins

Votes: 879

36. Criminal Minds (2005– )
Episode: Revelations (2007)

TV-14 | 42 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

Reid has been kidnapped, and the BAU's only things to profile are a house, a computer, and the live feed the kidnapper is sending to them.

Director: Guy Norman Bee | Stars: Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Gibson, Paget Brewster, Shemar Moore

Votes: 3,741

37. Numb3rs (2005–2010)
Episode: The Janus List (2007)

TV-PG | 43 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

When Charlie and Don are specifically asked for by a bomber who's rigged a bridge, it puts them on a trail of espionage in- and outside the states, and a devastating betrayal.

Director: John Behring | Stars: Rob Morrow, David Krumholtz, Judd Hirsch, Alimi Ballard

Votes: 398

38. Batwoman (2019–2022)
Episode: A Secret Kept from All the Rest (2020)

TV-14 | 42 min | Action, Adventure, Crime

When members of Gotham's intelligentsia begin disappearing, Jacob and the Crows go searching for the newest homicidal threat to the city; Kate starts questioning the loyalty of everyone around her just when she needs them the most.

Director: Greg Beeman | Stars: Ruby Rose, Rachel Skarsten, Meagan Tandy, Nicole Kang

Votes: 1,119

39. The F.B.I. Files (1998–2009)
Episode: Shattered Shield (1999)

TV-PG | 50 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime

The FBI cracks down on police corruption related to drug trafficking in New Orleans. The investigation relied on a key informant and undercover agent.

Director: Stuart Taylor | Stars: James Kallstrom, Anthony D. Call, Terrance Afer-Anderson, Brian Anderson

Votes: 41

40. Caprica (2009–2010)
Episode: Pilot (2009)

Not Rated | 93 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

Caprica, 58 years before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Two families, the Graystones and the Adamas, are bound by a tragedy with unforeseen consequences, including the development of the Cylons.

Director: Jeffrey Reiner | Stars: Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, Alessandra Torresani

Votes: 1,118

41. Midsomer Murders (1997– )
Episode: Secrets and Spies (2009)

TV-14 | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

A number of murders near a government safe house in Midsomer appears to be connected to a group of British spies stationed in East Berlin during the Cold War.

Director: Renny Rye | Stars: John Nettles, Jason Hughes, Jane Wymark, Barry Jackson

Votes: 823

42. White Collar (2009–2014)
Episode: Threads (2009)

TV-PG | 43 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

After advanced technology embedded with security data is secretly woven into a designer's dress, Neal and Peter must plunge into the world of New York City's Fashion Week to prevent an international criminal from selling it.

Director: Dennie Gordon | Stars: Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, Tiffani Thiessen

Votes: 1,253

43. Atashinchi no danshi (2009– )
Episode: Hômuresu musume vs Henjin 6-kyôdai (2009)

Comedy

Add a Plot

Director: Hidetomo Matsuda | Stars: Maki Horikita, Jun Kaname, Yoshinori Okada, Osamu Mukai

Votes: 7

44. How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014)
Episode: The Window (2009)

TV-PG | 30 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

Maggie a girl next door Ted has wanted to date for years has suddenly broken up with her latest boyfriend, giving him and many other guys a chance to score with her.

Director: Pamela Fryman | Stars: Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris

Votes: 3,578

45. White Collar (2009–2014)
Episode: Home Invasion (2010)

TV-PG | 43 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

Caffrey and Burke pursue a female thief who has made off with items from an extremely valuable collection. Should they fail to capture her in time, her exploits threaten to cause an international incident.

Director: Ken Girotti | Stars: Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, Natalie Morales

Votes: 942

46. Chuck (2007–2012)
Episode: Chuck Versus the Living Dead (2010)

TV-PG | 43 min | Action, Comedy, Drama

Chuck's father returns when he finds out Chuck uploaded the new Intersect. Chuck enlists the help of Morgan on a new mission.

Director: Jay Chandrasekhar | Stars: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Ryan McPartlin

Votes: 1,204

47. Burn Notice (2007–2013)
Episode: Center of the Storm (2010)

TV-PG | 43 min | Action, Crime, Drama

In the aftermath of a hurricane, Michael poses as a hitman as part of his plan to protect a federal witness, and is forced to turn to Vaughn so that he can speak to Simon about his coded Bible.

Director: Colin Bucksey | Stars: Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Coby Bell, Bruce Campbell

Votes: 447

48. White Collar (2009–2014)
Episode: By the Book (2010)

TV-PG | 43 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

For the first time ever, Mozzie must turn for help to the FBI, via Neal, desperately worried when the person of his affection, waitress Gina De Stefano from a local diner, disappears. ... See full summary »

Director: Michael Smith | Stars: Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, Marsha Thomason

Votes: 866

49. Covert Affairs (2010–2014)
Episode: Walter's Walk (2010)

TV-PG | 45 min | Action, Comedy, Crime

Annie tries to reach out and protect a mother and son after the son uncovers a coded IRA message.

Director: Félix Enríquez Alcalá | Stars: Piper Perabo, Christopher Gorham, Kari Matchett, Anne Dudek

Votes: 428

50. White Collar (2009–2014)
Episode: Payback (2011)

TV-PG | 42 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

When Peter is kidnapped by an old nemesis, Neal must race against time and defy the FBI to save him.

Director: Russell Lee Fine | Stars: Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay, Willie Garson, Marsha Thomason

Votes: 843