Murder on the Orient Express

Kenneth Branagh directs and stars in this 2017 adaptation of Agatha Christie's most famous locked-room mystery, casting himself as the mustachioed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot aboard the opulent Orient Express. When a passenger is found stabbed in his compartment, Poirot must sort through a train full of suspects, each with a motive and each with an alibi that almost holds. The film assembles a sprawling ensemble of A-list talent, from Michelle Pfeiffer to Johnny Depp to Judi Dench, and Branagh stages the investigation with a formal elegance that leans into the period's glamour. The solution, one of mystery fiction's most famous twists, lands with genuine emotional weight thanks to Branagh's decision to let Poirot wrestle with the moral implications rather than simply solve the puzzle. The snowbound train, trapped by an avalanche, becomes a pressure cooker of secrets.