Black Box

Mathieu Vasseur, a crash investigator for the French civil aviation authority, works on the recorder from a plane that went down in the Alps. Terrorism looks like the answer at first. As he replays the tapes he hears something else and starts tracing a cover-up that reaches aircraft manufacturers and security firms. Yann Gozlan directed. Pierre Niney stars. It is a French-Belgian production, released in September 2021. Its strength is sound itself: most of the tension comes from one audio recording being rewound again and again through a pair of headphones. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 94 percent. One critic wrote that the nature of the conspiracy is perhaps a little too obvious, but that the narrative skilfully keeps the viewer in suspense. It sold 1.2 million tickets in France and grossed around 9.7 million dollars worldwide. It took five César nominations including Best Actor for Niney and Best Original Screenplay. In December 2025 Netflix acquired remake rights with Tim Fehlbaum attached to direct. Who it is for: viewers who like thrillers built on technical detail and cold French procedure. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the conspiracy to surprise them. It becomes clear early who the villain is.