The Conspiracy is a 2012 Canadian Conspiracy Thriller film written and directed by Christopher MacBride and features actors Aaron Poole, James Gilbert, Alan C. Peterson, and Julian Richings. It tells the story of two documentary filmmakers who set out to create a film about a conspiracy theorist named "Terrance G" who disappears during the making of the film. The two filmmakers are subsequently drawn into the world of a global syndicate whose aims and machinations are clouded in secrecy.
Not to be confused with Conspiracy (2001).
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Ancient Conspiracy: The Tarsus Club is revealed to be this.
- Animal Motifs: Members of the Tarsus Club are divided into ravens and lions, complete with masks, and the core of their mythos is the worship of Mithras with a heavy focus on the bull hunting-and-slaying scene. The bull is also a mask, forced on people who try and infiltrate the club who are then hunted and slain. It is heavily implied these infiltrations, and therefore slayings, are an annual occurrence.
- The Bad Guys Win: The Tarsus Club kills off Aaron and likely Terrence whom were the closest to exposing their evil practices. Afterwards, they reveal themselves to the world and go on a Villain with Good Publicity campaign, claiming they're just a political society that has world leaders meet to discuss business and nothing more. All the dissenting voices of the documentary which Mark is behind are members of the Tarsus Club and the film turns out not to be about exposing an evil conspiracy, but about defending the organization as a Move Along, Nothing to See Here, and pointing out how sad and miserable conspiracy theorist are.
- Bait-and-Switch: The film leads viewers into believing they are watching a documentary that exposes an evil secret society. The ending reveals that the film is actually meant to defend that society and make the conspiracy theorist who tried to expose them look crazy and pitiful.
- Becareful What You Wish For: Aaron more so than Jim wanted to find out if a secret society that does human sacrifices really exist. Not only does he find out they do exist, he becomes the one sacrificed.
- Being Watched: After Jim and Aaron start to investigate Terrence disappearance, a black vehicle starts following them where ever they go.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Terrance, Aaron, and Mark, at least he poses as one.
- Evil All Along: Played with. Was Jim forced to let his friend get sacrificed, or was he an inspiring member of the Tarsus Club from the beginning and helped set his friend up to prove himself loyal enough to become an official member.
- He Knows Too Much: Both Terrence and Aaron are killed for this reason. And both seems to have been led to their sacrificial deaths by an insider in the Tarsus Club, who either posed as a truther or a whistle blower, and possibly in Jim’s case, a friend.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: The Tarsus Club hunts human beings for sport and for proof of loyalty if allowed to join.
- I Have Your Wife: Its implied during the twist that Jim’s wife and son are kidnapped by the Tarsus Club, and is the reason Jim lets his best friend Aaron get hunted and killed.
- The Infiltration: With the help of an insider, Jim and Aaron are able to sneak into a Tarsus Club human sacrifice night. Turns out that insider set them up. Jim possibly being part of the setup is left to interpretation.
- Karma Houdini: The Tarsus Club, the Insider who set Aaron and possibly Terrence up to be killed, and Jim, who may or may not have been with them all along, completely get away with their actions and do a good job doing damage control.
- Mockumentary: The film plays on the conspiracy theory wave that happened during the 2000s on the internet.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Terrence the popular online conspiracy theorist is a mix between Alex Jones and Michael Moore.
- Room Full of Crazy: Terrance's, which Jim takes up after his disappearance.
- Shoutout: The film has a lot:
- Many of the popular conspiracies that developed on the internet are highlighted.
- Jim and Aaron sneaking into the Tarsus Club, is similar to Alex Jones and his cameraman sneaking into the Bohemian Grove and recording it.
- The Tarsus Club revealing themselves to the world and claiming they are an honest political society is similar to the Bildenburg Group that was rumored by conspiracy theorist for decades as being one of the biggest secret societies of the evil elite, recently revealed themselves to the world and claiming Move Along, Nothing to See Here.
- And insider coming forward and revealing the secrets of an evil secret society is similar to many online videos and articles of people whom claimed to have one time been a member of the secret societies, but were able to escape and are now revealing the truth.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: Used in the title and used phonetically: when characters name important figures their names are bleeped and the characters' mouths are blurred, and all faces at the Tarsus Club are blurred.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Once it becomes clear to the Tarsus Club that too many people know about them. They decide to use the conspiracy video Aaron and Jim were going to make to reveal themselves and claim they are an honest political society. This turns out to be the film the viewers are watching in the end.
- Walking Spoiler: Well, it is a conspiracy theory based film, so this shouldn't be a surprise.
