Reddit Picked the Best Detective Movie of All Time, and It’s Not Zodiac

The detective genre is by far considered to be one of the most captivating out there, and it doesn’t matter which tropes are used in films: it’s always thrilling to see the drama behind the controversial crimes committed.

There’s also a huge variety of ways to keep the story interesting: you can go with a whodunit plot twist, or on the contrary, focus on the main character trying to solve the mystery while the viewers already know all the answers.

Sometimes, though, the answers are unclear even after the movie ends, like it was in Zodiac, the movie which many consider one of the bests in the genre.

Is Zodiac Really the Best Detective? Reddit Begs to Differ

However, there is another movie that Reddit believes is the absolute best, and it’s Clint Eastwood’s 2003 detective crime drama called Mystic River. The 89%-rated film was even an Academy Award nominee. It features a brilliant cast, including Sean Penn, Emmy Rossum, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, and others in a dramatic twist of events.

Everything starts with a tragedy, when Sean Penn’s character Jimmy Marcus’ daughter is murdered. Marcus is an ex-con, and soon he realizes that two of his childhood friends from the neighborhood are involved: Dave and Sean. One of them was the last one to see her alive, and the other one is the detective handling the case.

But it seems that Jimmy is not ready to give the police all the power, and when he starts to suspect Dave of being the killer, he decides to take matters into his own hands. But is it true or is he just blinded by the tragedy? The demons from their past start to appear in the present and turn the story into a nightmare.

21 years after release, the viewers still can’t forget some of the most powerful scenes of the movie.

“I’ve always loved this movie. The scene where Penn figures out it’s his daughter in there, wow such a powerful scene. And the scene where they’re practically making Dave confess to something he didn’t do. Those scenes have always stuck with me,” one redditor said.

If you are ready for some tough drama, Mystic River is available to stream on Netflix.