Every so often, people need to be riveted. Thriller movies are designed to get the heart pumpin', providing a welcome diversion from all that is humdrum about life. Spent all day studying arcane literature in the library? Killer sharks to the rescue. Tired of assembling tedious spreadsheets? Bring on the sinister madmen, baby. While they may not be works of art, the smartly-executed thrillers we've listed below are guaranteed to at least produce a goose bump or two. So be thrilled, be chilled and be fulfilled. Just don't fall off the edge of your seat.

1. BONNIE & CLYDE (1967)

Bonnie & Clyde was a colossal bomb when it was first released. A film based on the real life story of lovers/bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, every critic called it "sick" and "sadistic" (well, every critic except a 125 lb. lad named Roger Ebert, who loved it), and it soon disappeared. However, producer Warren Beatty went to the Warner Bros. head and begged that the picture be given another chance. It was, and this time, it was a hit. Bonnie & Clyde hit such a strong chord in America that the critic from Newsweek actually retracted his original negative review and released a second one, praising the film.

Perhaps the original dislike of the film was based on the fact that it was released at a time when American youth was getting antsy and ready to rebel. Just as the youthful Bonnie and Clyde were rebelling against a society for which they had lost respect, parents felt their own children starting to slip away.

And then there's the film itself. Beatty and Dunaway are two young, attractive gangsters who hold up banks (making sure they only take government money, not the farmers' money), spit in the face of cops, and soon realize that they can never have a normal life. Along the way, they meet up with a cast who would later become household names (including Gene Hackman and Gene Wilder). One last interesting note: Clyde was probably the first movie hero with prolonged erectile dysfunction . . . and the children who saw the film in the late '60s later went on to invent Viagra.

Notes:

  • Nominated for 9 Academy Awards (including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and 2 Supporting Actor nominations, for Hackman and Pollard)

  • Won 2 Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (for Estelle Parsons) and Cinematography

  • Faye Dunaway's wardrobe inspired a fashion craze for little hats

  • Placed #27 on the American Film Institute's "100 Greatest Movies" List

2. THE FUGITIVE (1993)

Sure, we all enjoy a story with wonderful atmosphere and style, but if you want to revel in the essence of plot, this is the movie for you. This film defines the thriller genre, and from the second it opens to the final scene, you're going to feel like you've been pulled through a thresher. Before you've even opened your box of Junior Mints, you're going to witness one of the greatest effects ever constructed: the legendary train wreck of 1993. The sight of this train shredding a prison transport bus is a thing of beauty, and that one scene alone landed this film scores of Oscar nominations. That's how good it is.

Harrison Ford is the titular Fugitive, Dr. Richard Kimble. A respected physician charged with the brutal murder of his wife, Kimble is convicted on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to death. As he is being transported to the location of his official offing, the bus he is riding gets pummeled beyond belief by the aforementioned train. So begins a heart-pumping two hours of perpetual chase scenes in which the U.S. Marshal Service - led by Tommy Lee Jones - tries to hunt him down. Not only does Kimble have to avoid the feds, but he has to figure out who the real killer is. Harrison is quite a multitasker.

This movie is based on a true story . . . which is still continuing. Although Sam Sheppard, the real Kimble, is dead, his son is still suing to clear his father's name. We're guessing that plot arc involves little more than legal documents, boring arguments, and all the other lame things about reality. We therefore suggest you confine your Kimble-watching highs to this flick.

Notes:

  • Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture

  • Won 1 Academy Award: Best Supporting Actor (for Jones)

3. JAWS (1975)

The most influential thing about Jaws actually came about by accident. Twenty-five-year-old Steven Spielberg was directing his first big-budget picture, but the cost was getting out of control. The mechanical shark (nicknamed Bruce, after Spielberg's lawyer) kept breaking down, and there wasn't enough money to fix it. So Steven had to show the shark as little as possible. As a result, the audience doesn't even get to see the whole shark for the first 90 minutes.

What happened? It made the film better. The suspense built up so strongly the first hour, that it ended up scaring audiences more that they couldn't see the shark. The audience, like the citizens of the town the shark terrorizes, did not know what the monster looked like. The result: the first movie EVER to gross more than $100 million. And that's in 1975 disco-dollars.

Here's the lowdown: Amity Island is an island town where the citizens depend on tourist dollars brought in by summer beach-goers. But after a string of shark attacks, Sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider) and a fish expert (Richard Dreyfuss) realize that the only way to keep the sea safe is to kill the shark.

Jaws also benefited from marketing genius. Based on Peter Benchley's bestseller, it was released over the summer, thus creating the "summer blockbuster" phenomenon. When marketing departments realized that kids would return to see films again and again over the summer, studios began dumbing down their summer fare, hoping to attract the kiddies. Once Star Wars came around in 1977, there was no turning back.

Notes:

  • First film to break the $100 million barrier

  • Biggest money-maker of all time until 1977's Star Wars

  • Nominated for 4 Academy Awards (including Best Picture)

  • Won 3 Academy Awards: Best Score, Sound, Editing

  • Won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie

  • Placed #48 on the American Film Institute's "100 Greatest Movies" List

4. ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)

Right off the bat, we must warn you that this is not a horror movie. There's no blood, and there aren't any insane killers running around with butcher knives. Rather, this is a completely psychological thriller, the kind where the protagonist is trying to figure out if she's crazy or not. But now that you know what you're getting into, you'll see what a powerful piece of filmmaking Rosemary's Baby is.

The film is also important because it was one of the first to bring the concept of cults and Satanism into mainstream America. Mia Farrow (pre-Woody) is Rosemary, who is moving into a new apartment with her actor/husband Guy (John Cassavetes). Rosemary and Guy's new next door neighbors are old and a little weird, but they seem harmless. But these old fogeys start to pay a little too much attention to Rosemary, and when she becomes pregnant, she fears that they're trying to do something to her baby.

The bulk of the plot revolves around whether Rosemary is just paranoid, whether the next door neighbors belong to some dark religion, and if there is a massive city-wide conspiracy to harm her unborn child. And no one could play the role of Rosemary better than Mama Mia. With her tiny voice and expressive eyes, Farrow holds your attention on the screen.

Just when you think you have it figured out, the story takes a turn in the opposite direction, proving your original theory wrong. The final level of suspense comes from the fact that Rosemary is not trying to save herself, but her baby (go maternal instinct!). What happens at the end? All we can tell you is this: the movie completely follows up on its ideas. It doesn't sugarcoat or sell out, which is why it shocked audiences in 1968, and why it's still such a powerful ending today.

Notes:

  • Nominated for 2 Academy Awards (Screenplay and Supporting Actress)

  • Won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (for Ruth Gordon, who plays Minnie Castevet, the old lady next door)

  • While shooting, Mia Farrow divorced Frank Sinatra

  • The lullaby that Rosemary sings at the beginning and end of the film (actually sung by Mia) hit #11 on the Billboard chart

5. THE SHINING (1980)

Whoa, Jack Nicholson is one creepy mother. And so is Stephen King, but we all knew that. If you've ever gotten the willies going downstairs to fetch a glass of water in the dark, you'll die of thirst after watching this movie. Like the ad for a horror movie in Crazy People said, this movie won't just scare you, it'll f*** you up for life.

Here's the story: Jack is hired to watch over a fancy hotel for the few months that it is shut down for the winter. The snow is so bad that you can't get in or out of this place for several months, so they leave just one person up there to keep an eye on the place. Jack brings his wife and kid. And then things just go horribly wrong. The source of the psychosis is not completely understood, but as with all leading behavioral theories, we can reasonably infer that both nature and nurture play a part. Jack is nurtured into lunacy by the mind-numbing boredom of hanging around this massive abandoned hotel for months on end; but one has a pretty solid idea that nature had a good hand in making Jack predisposed for homicidal neurosis.

We won't ruin the story for you; suffice it to say that there's blood-filled (and we mean FILLED) elevators, radical hatchet surgery on bathroom doors, and a rather aggressive game of tag in a maze. This is the one movie that perfectly realizes the sheer depravity of Stephen King's mind. Despite having written some of the craziest stuff out there, very little of it has translated into good film, but this does (having Jack as your leading psycho and Stanley Kubrick to direct it certainly helps). Well, okay, The Shawshank Redemption translated well too, but that isn't the terror-inducing Stephen we know and fear.

If you really want to figure out why everyone thinks Jack Nicholson is just the baddest guy around (despite his obvious problems with fatness and oldness), take a gander at this nightmare. He is so cool in the worst way.

Notes:

  • Stephen King hated this movie, believing that it wasn't true to his book

  • Won a Saturn award for Best Horror Film.