Agatha Christie, alongside William Shakespeare himself, is the best-selling fiction writer of all time. Her unparalleled collection of grisly murder mystery novels, which nearly always followed the exploits of the two iconic, Christie sleuths -- Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple -- established the Murder Mystery (or the Whodunit?) as a blockbuster genre of fiction, long before the term itself was even invented.

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There have been numerous filmed adaptations of some of the definitive Whodunits written by "The Queen of Crime" herself. Peter Yustenov's as Hercule Poirot in the original Death on the Nile, Sideny Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express, and Joan Hickson's turn as the titular Miss Marple in the BBC's series from the 1980s, are all examples of timeless Christie adaptations. But beyond direct adaptation, there have also been countless films that have cribbed key storytelling elements and devices, directly from Christie's canon. And like any great mystery, they are not always the ones you would expect.

'Knives Out' (2019)

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Rian Johnson's Knives Out is arguably the one, singular piece of entertainment, that is most responsible for reigniting a widespread interest in Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries, across pop culture in the last decade. This movie is a gloriously classic, yet unmistakably modern take on the Whodunit.

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Johnson has never failed to give Christie the overwhelming amount of praise that she deserves, for single-handedly inventing the modern notion of what an effective murder mystery could be. This first installment of the Knives Out saga has a generational cast, populated with bizarre, reprehensible, and lovable characters, not the least of which being Daniel Craig's air apparent to Hercule Poirot himself, Benoit Blanc.

'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' (2022)

The ensemble cast of Rian Johnson's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Image via Netflix

Johnson continues to carry the proverbial Christie torch with his ravishing follow-up to 2017's Knives Out, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. This time around, Johnson crafts an even more intricate, and even more boldly Christie-inspired, Swiss watch of a classic murder mystery plot.

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The introduction of Johnson's privileged crew of "Disrupters" all receiving their respective puzzle-box invitations to a lavish getaway on billionaire Miles Bron's (Edward Norton) private Grecian island, is a contemporary spin on a classic Christie set-up. Watching this cadre of equally suspicious acquaintances, get more than they bargained for on their dream vacation, evokes the isolation and paranoia of contained, pressure-cooker Christie mysteries like, And Then There Were None.

'The Hateful Eight' (2015)

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Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaker who is never afraid to wear his influences on his sleeve, and The Hateful Eight is no exception in that department. This bloody, gutsy, snowbound Western, has several overarching influences on its Cinematic tone: gritty Sam Peckinpah Westerns, darkly absurdist Harold Pinter stage plays, the icy paranoia of John Carpenter's The Thing etc. One of the largest influences of course being, the work of Agatha Christie.

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While this Tarantino Western undoubtedly achieves a tone of its own, in part by reaching levels of politically-charged, gruesome violence that even the bloodiest Christie mystery would never even attempt to conjure, the dramatic structure of The Hateful Eight unquestionably stands on the shoulders of the Agatha Christie "Lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key" storytelling formula.

'The Last of Sheila' (1973)

all of the characters from Last of Sheila under the word "Sheila"

The screenplay for The Last of Sheila was written by Anthony Perkins (who also starred in Murder on The Orient Express), and the late, Pulitzer prize-winning, titan of Broadway songwriting himself, Stephen Sondheim. Together, this unlikely screenwriting duo crafted a star-studded, intricately plotted, and infectiously fun Whodunit.

Sondheim's deep appreciation for the storytelling structure of the Agatha Christie murder mystery, is evident in The Last of Sheila from the first frame, to the last. This movie's tone, setting, and darkly comedic sensibility, all provided a huge amount of inspiration for Rian Johnson in writing Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

'Old' (2021)

A Scene from the Movie Old (2021)
Image via Universal Pictures

M Night Shyamalan's newest, perplexing, unsettling, and polarizing movie Old, according to the writer-director himself, is deeply informed by his abiding love of Agatha Christie. Shyamalan cites two specific Christie storytelling staples that he utilized in Old: a group of disparate characters whom the audience learns more about as they all get swept up in a positively hellish circumstance, and an emphasis on brutal acts of violence being committed in the placid beauty, of broad daylight (à la Evil Under The Sun).

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The questions being asked by the audience in Old are less "Who is murdering who?" and more "What the hell is going on here?", but if one is open to this movie's consistently jarring and unnerving tone, than unraveling the mystery of Old will likely be a rewarding experience.

'Scream' (1996)

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Image via Dimension Films

Scream screenwriter and creator Kevin Williamson is, in a way, the father of genre in his own right. But many may not know that Williamson's iconic, meta Slasher/Horror Comedy, which is still producing successful sequels to this day, took a great deal of inspiration from Agatha Christie as well.

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Williamson has noted that he learned a key lesson in structuring a murder mystery, when he read several Agatha Christie interviews in which she divulged a nugget of her writing process, "I just reveal. I don't worry about a mystery". This process of working backwards, and developing concentric layers of plot reveals as he went, is what Williamson credits with helping him nail the satisfying formula of his signature franchise, from its very first installment back in 1996.

'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' (2005)

Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Nearly every Shane Black screenplay contains at least one of these two elements: 1. Christmas and 2. A pair of antagonistic detectives hunting down the dirty details of a violent, murder mystery plot. The Nice Guys, The Last Boy Scout, Long Kiss Goodnight, and even Iron Man 3 (more on the Christmas side) all fall under Black's unique, and often meta vision, of the murder mystery genre. The consistently underrated gem of a detective story, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is perhaps the cleverest take on the murder mystery, that Black ever wrote.

Black, being a lover of classic hard-boiled detective fiction, also named Christie's Ten Little Indians (title since changed to And Then There Were None) as a major influence on his predilection for violent mysteries stories. Clearly, Christie's propensity for writing satisfyingly macabre, spider-web-like plots in her books, made an impact on Black's own sensibility as a writer.

'Murder Mystery' (2019)

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Image via Netflix

The screenplay for Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston's Netflix Whodunit, Murder Mystery, was penned by Scream 5 screenwriter and murder mystery devotee, James Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt has described his elevator pitch for the movie as being, "What if an American couple crashes into an Agatha Christie Story?".

The movie mostly delivers on this high-concept premise, as the screenplay provides ample amounts of genuinely fun twists, turns, and Christie-style conundrums for Sandler and Aniston's hapless couple, to tackle onscreen. Murder Mystery's clever deconstruction and fulfillment of the Christie formula, ultimately makes it a pleasant note, in the recent surging symphony of murder mystery content we've seen in popular culture.

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