Best Secret Past Movies & TV Shows

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

A entertainment lawyer navigates the nefarious lives of her rich and famous clients.

Hutch Mansell, a suburban dad, overlooked husband, nothing neighbor — a "nobody." When two thieves break into his home one night, Hutch's unknown long-simmering rage is ignited and propels him on a brutal path that will uncover dark secrets he fought to leave behind.

During the rise of the PC era in the early 1980s, an unlikely trio - a visionary, an engineer and a prodigy - take personal and professional risks in the race to build a computer that will change the world as they know it.

Lyra is an orphan who lives in a parallel universe in which science, theology, and magic are intertwined. Her search for a kidnapped friend uncovers a sinister plot involving stolen children and turns into a quest to understand a mysterious phenomenon called Dust. She is later joined on her journey by Will, a boy who possesses a knife that can cut windows between worlds. As she learns the truth about her parents and her prophesied destiny, the two young people are caught up in a war against celestial powers that ranges across many worlds.

As Lord Voldemort tightens his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds, Hogwarts is no longer a safe haven. Harry suspects perils may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemorts defenses and to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Even as the decisive showdown looms, romance blossoms for Harry, Ron, Hermione and their classmates. Love is in the air, but danger lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.

Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.

A fading southern belle tries to build a new life with her sister in New Orleans.

Jeff Bailey seems to be a mundane gas station owner in remote Bridgeport, California. He is dating local girl Ann Miller and lives a quiet life. But Jeff has a secret past, and when a mysterious stranger arrives in town, Jeff is forced to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

Robyn McCall, an enigmatic former CIA operative with a mysterious background, uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn.

The Popes are a family who haven't been able to use their real identity for years. In the late sixties, the parents set a weapons lab afire in an effort to hinder the government's Vietnam war campaign. Ever since then, the Popes have been on the run with the authorities never far behind.

Wounded to the brink of death and suffering from amnesia, Jason Bourne is rescued at sea by a fisherman. With nothing to go on but a Swiss bank account number, he starts to reconstruct his life, but finds that many people he encounters want him dead. However, Bourne realizes that he has the combat and mental skills of a world-class spy—but who does he work for?

Bourne is brought out of hiding once again by reporter Simon Ross who is trying to unveil Operation Blackbriar, an upgrade to Project Treadstone, in a series of newspaper columns. Information from the reporter stirs a new set of memories, and Bourne must finally uncover his dark past while dodging The Company's best efforts to eradicate him.

A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.

When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.

When a CIA operation to purchase classified Russian documents is blown by a rival agent, who then shows up in the sleepy seaside village where Bourne and Marie have been living. The pair run for their lives and Bourne, who promised retaliation should anyone from his former life attempt contact, is forced to once again take up his life as a trained assassin to survive.

Proposed by the President of the United States to fill the post of Secretary of State, Robert Leffingwell appears before a Senate committee, chaired by the idealistic Senator Brig Anderson, which must decide whether he is the right person for the job.

A blackmailer preys on an actress who is trying to protect her daughter from her past.

Two detectives are dispatched to investigate the murder of a young girl on the outskirts of Dublin, but as the case of the missing children intensifies, both are forced to confront the darkness that lies in their past.

Just as Tessa's life begins to become unglued, nothing is what she thought it would be. Not her friends nor her family. The only person that she should be able to rely on is Hardin, who is furious when he discovers the massive secret that she's been keeping. Before Tessa makes the biggest decision of her life, everything changes because of revelations about her family.

Failed college coach Norman Dale gets a chance at redemption when he is hired to coach a high school basketball team in a tiny Indiana town. After a teacher persuades star player Jimmy Chitwood to quit and focus on his long-neglected studies, Dale struggles to develop a winning team in the face of community criticism for his temper and his unconventional choice of assistant coach: Shooter, a notorious alcoholic.

After the sudden death of ex-Secret Intelligence Service man Alexander, his wife Alison investigates when mysteries from her husband's past come knocking.

Concerned her widowed mother Tracy will be lonely when she leaves for college, kind-natured Ashley secretly creates an online dating profile for her mom and meets Jared, who seems like the perfect match. When Tracy "accidentally" meets Jared and they fall in love, Ashley is comforted to see her mother happy until Jared moves in and begins doing whatever he can do to shut her out of their new life. It quickly becomes apparent that Jared's hold on Tracy will lead to devastating consequences if Ashley doesn't do something about it and must find a way to take Jared down.

A year after Sheila is killed in a hit-and-run, her multimillionaire husband invites a group of friends to spend a week on his yacht playing a scavenger hunt-style mystery game — but the game turns out to be all too real and all too deadly.

Gael travels to the Island of Roatan to finish his last novel and finds love at first sight. Sofia and her father missed their cruise and are forced to stay in the wonderful island. Three love stories around this magical place.

A former prisoner of war, Frank Enley is hailed as a hero in his California town. However, Frank has a shameful secret that comes back to haunt him when fellow survivor Joe Parkson emerges, intent on making Frank pay for his past deeds.

Judge Clarence Thomas' nomination to the United States' Supreme Court is called into question when former colleague, Anita Hill, testifies that he had sexually harassed her.

A divorcee is surprised to learn her ex-husband has suddenly remarried a much younger woman; and even more surprised to discover her dark and treacherous past.

An ex-convict drifter and his flawed young partner are made sheriff and deputy of a Western town.

Smart, sexy Allison can't help but fall in love with Philip, a dashing software billionaire, and they quickly marry. But soon this new bride begins to think her hubby was involved in the mysterious death of his first wife. This suspicious newlywed needs to get to the truth - but as things turn dangerous, she may not make it to their first anniversary!

Simon and Robyn are a young married couple whose life is going as planned until a chance run-in with Simon's high school acquaintance sends their world into a tailspin.

Stephanie, a dedicated mother and popular vlogger, befriends Emily, a mysterious upper-class woman whose son Nicky attends the same school as Miles, Stephanie's son. When Emily asks her to pick Nicky up from school and then disappears, Stephanie undertakes an investigation that will dive deep into Emily's cloudy past.

Paratroopers Captain 'Rip' Murdock and Sergeant Johnny Drake are mysteriously ordered to travel to Washington, DC. When Drake learns that he is to be awarded the Medal of Honor, he disappears before newspaper photographers can take his picture. Murdock follows the clues and tracks him down, where he learns Drake is dead. Further investigations reveal unexpected twists. Rip learns that Johnny had been accused of murder and sets out to find out whatever he can. He falls in love with Coral whose husband Johnny is supposed to have killed.

Melissa learns that her new husband Kevin is a philanderer with no ambition. The two become roommates from hell while Kevin remains in the house until the divorce is finalized, but when he turns up dead, all eyes are on Melissa.

In the sixties, Eddie and the cruisers was the hottest band around. But the tragic death of its lead singer broke the band up. Only Eddie is not dead. He works as a carpenter in Montreal. His love of music forces him to create a new band which will have to struggle with its anonymity.

Biographer Margaret Lea travels to the isolated rural mansion of the famous writer Vida Winter, who asks her to write her biography. Although initially she is reluctant, as Vida is known for constantly distorting the facts of her life, Margaret soon becomes fascinated with the story of a dark childhood, a disturbing tale that leads her to finally confront the traumas of her own past.

In the 1940s, a young couple moves into a remote Louisiana home which has a history of violence that seems to be repeating itself.

Thornton Sayre, a respected college professor - secretly formerly a silent films romantic action hero - is disturbed, feeling his privacy has been violated, and his professional credibility as a scholar jeopardized, when he learns his old movies have been resurrected and are being aired on TV. He sets out to demand this cease. However, his former co-star is the hostess of the TV show playing the films, and she has other plans.

A hippie radical, Huey Walker has been a fugitive for decades, accused of a crime that he may not have committed. Finally apprehended, Walker is escorted to trial by uptight 20-something FBI agent John Buckner. While the two seem to be polar opposites, it turns out that Buckner may have more in common with Walker than is initially apparent, a point that is driven home when the pair faces off against a sinister small-town sheriff.

Hancock is a down-and-out superhero who's forced to employ a PR expert to help repair his image when the public grows weary of all the damage he's inflicted during his lifesaving heroics. The agent's idea of imprisoning the antihero to make the world miss him proves successful, but will Hancock stick to his new sense of purpose or slip back into old habits?

Nicolas Shaw is a retired U.S. special operative who becomes part of an elite 'invisible' team that quietly takes out the worst villains around the world.

The Brogan family enters a witness protection program and are moved to a bucolic neighborhood to begin a new life, but they soon realize that it's not so easy to escape the past.

A war veteran suffering from amnesia, returns to Los Angeles from a San Francisco veterans hospital hoping to learn who he is and discovers his criminal past.

A rancher, his shady bride and his one-armed brother fight amid carpetbaggers in Texas.

In this adaptation of the best-selling roman à clef about Bill Clinton's 1992 run for the White House, the young and gifted Henry Burton is tapped to oversee the presidential campaign of Governor Jack Stanton. Burton is pulled into the politician's colorful world and looks on as Stanton -- who has a wandering eye that could be his downfall -- contends with his ambitious wife, Susan, and an outspoken adviser, Richard Jemmons.

Meet Ellen Sheppard, an American living in Britain. Her English husband, Jason Sheppard, has been killed and she's under suspicion despite the appearance of a happy marriage. Jason's friend assists Ellen go over the facts to see if they can find the real killer.

Young newlywed Kristin begins to doubt her husband Jay's love when his aunt and rival is found murdered. Kristin starts to investigate the death, and Jay's checkered past, only to become his next target. Starring: Shenae Grimes-Beech, Samantha Ferris.

William Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk. But keeping Cirk on the straight-and-narrow proves impossible, dragging Tell back into the darkness of his past.

Friends, family, and lovers struggle to find love, forgiveness, and meaning in an almost war-torn world riddled with comedy and pathos. Follows Solondz's film Happiness (1998).

Emily Boynton, the stepmother to three children, blackmails the family lawyer into destroying a second will of her late husband that would have freed the children from her dominating influence. She takes herself, the children, and her daughter-in-law on holiday to Europe and the Holy Land. At a dig, Emily is found dead and Hercule Poirot investigates.