WIn speculative fiction, a masquerade is a system by which people or creatures living in a wainscot society hide themselves from the outside world. The term was first coined by Robert A. Heinlein's Methuselah's Children in 1958.
WBen and Me is a 1953 American animated two-reel short subject produced by Walt Disney Productions and released theatrically on November 10, 1953. It was adapted from the children's book written by author/illustrator Robert Lawson and first published in 1939. Though both book and film deal with the relationship between a mouse and American founding father Benjamin Franklin, the book, with illustrations by Lawson, focused more heavily on actual historical events and personages, and included incidents from Franklin's French career at Versailles.
WThe Berkut is a 1987 secret history novel by Joseph Heywood in which Adolf Hitler survives World War II. It is set in the period immediately after the fall of The Third Reich. This book pits a German colonel and a Russian soldier from a secret organization against each other. The German, Günter Brumm, has been given orders to safely get the Führer out of Germany with the remaining resources of the Reich at his disposal, while Vasily Petrov, the Russian, has been given orders by Joseph Stalin to capture Hitler with the full resources of the Soviet Union at his disposal. In essence, Hitler says "Get me out of Germany, alive", while Stalin says, "Get me Hitler, alive." The book explores Brumm and Petrov pursuing their goals.
WThe Big Four is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on 27 January 1927 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, and Inspector Japp. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
WCold Harbour is a book by British writer Jack Higgins, set during World War II and first published in 1990.
WColonel Redl is a 1985 biographical drama film by Hungarian director István Szabó. The plot, set in the period before World War I, follows the rise of Alfred Redl, an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Redl, who comes from a humble background, enters military school as a boy and has an illustrious military career pushed forward by his loyalty to the crown. He is appointed the head of an intelligence gathering unit, but his attraction to men eventually causes his downfall.
WCount Belisarius is a historical novel by Robert Graves, first published in 1938, recounting the life of the Byzantine general Belisarius.
WCreators: The Past is an Italian science fiction fantasy film written by Piergiuseppe Zaia and Eleonora Fani and directed by Piergiuseppe Zaia. It stars Eleonora Fani, Jennifer Mischiati, Bruce Payne and Per Fredrik Åsly in the lead roles, and features Gérard Depardieu and William Shatner as guest stars. The story is about how the destinies of mankind are being manipulated by a race of powerful extraterrestrials known as the Creators. The film was announced as the first part of a planned trilogy.
WCrooked is a novel by author Austin Grossman, published in 2015 by Mulholland Books. It is a cosmic horror fantasy and secret history of the Cold War and the Watergate scandal, narrated by a fictionalized Richard Nixon.
WThe Crying of Lot 49 is a novel written by American author Thomas Pynchon and published in 1965. The shortest of Pynchon's novels, its narrative follows Oedipa Maas, a young Californian woman, who begins to embrace a conspiracy theory as she possibly unearths a centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution companies; only one of these companies, Thurn and Taxis, actually existed (1806–1867) and was the first private firm to distribute postal mail. Like most of Pynchon's output, Lot 49 is often described as postmodernist literature. Time included the novel in its "TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005".
WThe Da Vinci Code is a 2006 American mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard, written by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Dan Brown's 2003 best-selling novel of the same name. The first in the Robert Langdon film series, the film stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, Jean Reno and Paul Bettany. In the film, Robert Langdon, a professor of religious symbology from Harvard University, is the prime suspect in the grisly and unusual murder of Louvre curator Jacques Saunière. On the body, the police find a disconcerting cipher and start an investigation. Langdon escapes with the assistance of police cryptologist Sophie Neveu, and they begin a quest for the legendary Holy Grail. A noted British Grail historian, Sir Leigh Teabing, tells them that the actual Holy Grail is explicitly encoded in Leonardo da Vinci's wall painting, The Last Supper. Also searching for the Grail is a secret cabal within Opus Dei, an actual prelature of the Holy See, who wish to keep the true Grail a secret to prevent the destruction of Christianity.
WThe Day of the Jackal (1971) is a thriller novel by English author Frederick Forsyth about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS, a French dissident paramilitary organisation, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France.
WDeclare (2000) is a supernatural spy novel by American author Tim Powers. The novel presents a secret history of the Cold War, and earned several major fantasy fiction awards.
WDictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel is the first novel by Serbian writer Milorad Pavić, published in 1984. Originally written in Serbian, the novel has been translated into many languages. It was first published in English by Knopf, New York in 1988.
WThe Eagle Has Landed is a book by British writer Jack Higgins, set during World War II and first published in 1975.
WThe Emperor's New Clothes is a 2001 British historical drama film that was adapted from Simon Leys' novel The Death of Napoleon. Directed by Alan Taylor, the film stars Ian Holm as Napoleon and Eugene Lenormand, a Napoleon look-alike, Iben Hjejle as Nicole 'Pumpkin' Truchaut and Tim McInnerny as Dr Lambert. The plot re-invents the (secret) history surrounding Napoleon Bonaparte's exile to Saint Helena following his defeat at Waterloo.
WEnigma is a 1995 novel by Robert Harris about Tom Jericho, a young mathematician trying to break the Germans' "Enigma" ciphers during World War II. Jericho is stationed in Bletchley Park, the British cryptologist central office, and is worked to the point of physical and mental exhaustion. The book was adapted to film in 2001.
WThe Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec is a gaslamp fantasy comic book series first appearing in 1976 written and illustrated by French comics artist Jacques Tardi and published in album format by Belgian publisher Casterman, sometimes preceded by serialisation in various periodicals, intermittently since then. The comic portrays the titular far-fetched adventures and mystery-solving of its eponymous heroine, herself a writer of popular fiction, in a secret history-infused, gaslamp fantasy version of the early 20th century, set primarily in Paris and prominently incorporating real-life locations and events. Initially a light-hearted parody of such fiction of the period, it takes on a darker tone as it moves into the post–World War I years and the 1920s.
WEye of the Needle is a spy thriller novel written by Welsh author Ken Follett. It was originally published in 1978 by the Penguin Group under the title Storm Island. This novel was Follett's first successful, best-selling effort as a novelist, and it earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. The revised title is an allusion to the "eye of a needle" aphorism.
WFoucault's Pendulum is a novel by Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988, and an English translation by William Weaver appeared a year later.
WFrom Hell is a 2001 American film directed by the Hughes Brothers and written by Terry Hayes and Rafael Yglesias. It is loosely based on the graphic novel From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell about the Jack the Ripper murders. The film stars Johnny Depp as Frederick Abberline, the lead investigator of the murders, and Heather Graham as Mary Kelly, a prostitute targeted by the Ripper. Other cast members include Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane, Ian Richardson, and Jason Flemyng in supporting roles.
WThe Girl in the Kremlin is a 1957 American film noir mystery film which puts forth the premise that Joseph Stalin faked his own death in 1953 and then moved to Greece with a fortune in Soviet currency. Zsa Zsa Gabor plays a dual role, Stalin's nurse and lover as well as her twin sister who, unaware of Stalin's plot, hires an ex–O.S.S. agent to find her sister.
WThe Historian is the 2005 debut novel of American author Elizabeth Kostova. The plot blends the history and folklore of Vlad Țepeș and his fictional equivalent Count Dracula. Kostova's father told her stories about Dracula when she was a child, and later in life she was inspired to turn the experience into a novel. She worked on the book for ten years and then sold it within a few months to Little, Brown and Company, which bought it for US$2 million.
WI, Claudius is a historical novel by English writer Robert Graves, published in 1934. Written in the form of an autobiography of the Roman Emperor Claudius, it tells the history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the early years of the Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC to Caligula's assassination in AD 41. Though the narrative is largely fictionalized, most of the events depicted are drawn from historical accounts of the same time period by the Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus.
WI, Claudius is a 1976 BBC Television adaptation of Robert Graves's 1934 novel I, Claudius and its 1935 sequel Claudius the God. Written by Jack Pulman, it stars Derek Jacobi as Claudius, with Siân Phillips, Brian Blessed, George Baker, Margaret Tyzack, John Hurt, Patricia Quinn, Ian Ogilvy, Kevin McNally, Patrick Stewart, and John Rhys-Davies. The series covers the history of the early Roman Empire, told from the perspective of the elderly Emperor Claudius who narrates the series.
WThe Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels by American writers Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magic-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both historical and imaginary, related to the authors' version of the Illuminati. The narrative often switches between third- and first-person perspectives in a nonlinear narrative. It is thematically dense, covering topics like counterculture, numerology, and Discordianism.
WImperial Moon is a BBC Books original novel written by Christopher Bulis and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Fifth Doctor, Turlough, and Kamelion.
WThe Islands of Unwisdom is an historical novel by Robert Graves, published in 1949. It was also published in the UK as The Isles of Unwisdom.
WThe Key to Rebecca is a novel by the British author Ken Follett. Published in 1980 by Pan Books (ISBN 0792715381), it was a best-seller that achieved popularity in the United Kingdom and worldwide. The code mentioned in the title is an intended throwback from Follett to Daphne du Maurier's famed suspense novel Rebecca.
WKolkatay Kohinoor is an Indian Bengali thriller movie directed by Santanu Ghosh and produced by Angurbala Films It was released on 15 March 2019.
WThe Last Legion is a 2007 historical action adventure film directed by Doug Lefler and produced by Dino De Laurentiis. It is based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. It stars Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Peter Mullan, Kevin McKidd, John Hannah, and Iain Glen. It premiered in Abu Dhabi on 6 April 2007.
WThe Little White Car, is a novel by British author Dan Rhodes, published under the pen name Danuta de Rhodes in 2004 by Canongate and has been translated into 12 languages. The book's premise, based on real-world evidence, is that the car carrying Diana, Princess of Wales was in collision with a white Fiat Uno just before it crashed on 31 August 1997.
WThe Man from St. Petersburg is a thriller novel by Welsh writer Ken Follett, published in 1982.
WMason & Dixon is a postmodernist novel by U.S. author Thomas Pynchon published in 1997. It presents a fictionalized account of the collaboration between Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in their astronomical and surveying exploits in the Dutch Cape Colony, Saint Helena, Great Britain and along the Mason-Dixon line in British North America on the eve of the Revolutionary War in the United States.
WMen in Black 3 is a 2012 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin. It is the third installment in the Men in Black films series which in turn is loosely based on the comic book series The Men in Black by Lowell Cunningham. It was released fifteen years after the original Men in Black (1997) and ten years after the first sequel, Men in Black II (2002). Sonnenfeld and Steven Spielberg returned as director and executive producer, respectively. In the film, Boris the Animal, an old enemy of Agent K, escapes from prison and travels back in time to kill the younger K in order to allow his species, a ruthless alien race known as Boglodites, to attack Earth. This forces Agent J to go back in time and team up with K's younger self to save his partner and the world. With a budget of over US $215 million, it is not only one of the most expensive films made but also the most expensive comedy film made as of 2021.
WThe Mists of Avalon is a 1983 historical fantasy novel by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley, in which the author relates the Arthurian legends from the perspective of the female characters. The book follows the trajectory of Morgaine, a priestess fighting to save her Celtic religion in a country where Christianity threatens to destroy the pagan way of life. The epic is focused on the lives of Morgaine, Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere), Viviane, Morgause, Igraine and other women of the Arthurian legend.
WThe Mongoliad is a fictional narrative set in the Foreworld Saga, a secret history transmedia franchise developed by the Subutai Corporation. The Mongoliad was originally released in a serialized format online, and via a series of iOS and Android apps, but was restructured and re-edited for a definitive edition released via the Amazon Publishing imprint 47North, both in print and in Kindle format. Fan-submitted Foreworld stories were published via Amazon's Kindle Worlds imprint.
WNational Treasure is a 2004 American action-adventure film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was written by Jim Kouf and the Wibberleys, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Jon Turteltaub. It is the first film in the National Treasure film series and stars Nicolas Cage, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean, Justin Bartha, and Christopher Plummer.
WThe Night Letter is a 1978 book by Paul Spike, with a double-layered structure: an anti-Nazi spy thriller on the background of the early part of the Second World War, and an exposure of cynical and machiavellian maneuverings in the American corridors of power.
WNight Probe! is an adventure novel by Clive Cussler. This is the 5th book featuring the author’s primary protagonist, Dirk Pitt. Published in 1981, it is set in the near future of 1989, a date with ironic significance.
WThe Ninth Man is a novel set in World War II, written by John Lee, inspired by factual events, and set in the United States. In 1942, the Germans landed eight saboteurs by submarine, four in New York and four in Florida. Within two weeks all eight were caught. Lee's novel is the fictional story of a ninth agent, who evaded capture. Lee's first best-seller, The Ninth Man was published by Doubleday in 1976, by Dell in 1977, also in several magazines excerpts, eight foreign languages, a 25-part radio serial for South Africa, and has been optioned for films seven times, though it has not yet reached the screen.
WOr Give Me Death (ISBN 0-15-216687-4) is a 2003 work of historical fiction by Ann Rinaldi based on the possibility that the famous words of Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" may have been first spoken by his dying, mentally ill wife, whom he kept locked up in a cellar to prevent her from hurting anyone. The story is told through the eyes of his daughter, Patsy Henry. It is also told by his younger daughter, Anne Henry. Patrick Henry travels throughout the Thirteen Colonies, advocating independence from Britain.
WThe Patternist series is a group of science fiction novels by Octavia E. Butler that detail a secret history continuing from the Ancient Egyptian period to the far future that involves telepathic mind control and an extraterrestrial plague. A profile of Butler in Black Women in America notes that the themes of the series include "racial and gender-based animosity, the ethical implications of biological engineering, the question of what it means to be human, ethical and unethical uses of power, and how the assumption of power changes people."
WPope Joan is a 1972 British historical drama film based on the story of Pope Joan. Even though modern consensus generally considers Pope Joan to be legendary, in the film her existence is treated as fact.
WPope Joan is an international epic film produced by Bernd Eichinger, based on American novelist Donna Woolfolk Cross' novel of the same name about the legendary Pope Joan. Directed by Sönke Wortmann, it stars Johanna Wokalek as Joan, David Wenham as Gerold, her lover, and John Goodman as Pope Sergius II. The film's world premiere occurred in Berlin on 19 October 2009, with its general release in Germany on 22 October 2009.
WThe Secret History is the first novel by the American author Donna Tartt, published by Alfred A. Knopf in September 1992. Set in New England, the novel tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics students at Hampden College, a small, elite liberal arts college located in Vermont based upon Bennington College, where Tartt was a student between 1982 and 1986.
WThe Swan Thieves is a 2010 novel by American author Elizabeth Kostova. The "old painter" described in the book before the first chapter is Alfred Sisley. Beatrice de Clerval is not based on a single real artist, but Kostova was influenced in developing her life by the life of Berthe Morisot.
WThree Days to Never is a 2006 fantasy novel by Tim Powers. As with most of Powers' novels, it proposes a secret history in which real events have supernatural causes and prominent historical figures have been involved in supernatural or occult activities. The novel was shortlisted for the Locus Fantasy Award in 2007 as well as the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature in the same year.
WThe Three Musketeers is a 1993 American-Austrian action-adventure comedy film from Walt Disney Pictures, Caravan Pictures, and The Kerner Entertainment Company, directed by Stephen Herek from a screenplay by David Loughery. It stars Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O'Donnell, Oliver Platt, Tim Curry, and Rebecca De Mornay.
WThe Three Musketeers is a 2011 romantic action adventure film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and starring Matthew Macfadyen, Logan Lerman, Ray Stevenson, Milla Jovovich, Luke Evans, Mads Mikkelsen, Orlando Bloom, and Christoph Waltz. It is based on Alexandre Dumas's 1844 novel of the same title with clock-punk elements.
WTransformers: The Last Knight is a 2017 American science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line. It is the fifth installment of the live-action Transformers film series and the sequel to Age of Extinction (2014). Like its predecessors, the film is directed by Michael Bay and features Mark Wahlberg reprising his role from Age of Extinction, while Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, and Glenn Morshower reprise their roles from the first three films, as well as Laura Haddock, Isabela Moner, Jerrod Carmichael, Santiago Cabrera, and Anthony Hopkins all joining the cast. Returning Transformers include Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Hound, Drift, Crosshairs, Wheelie, Megatron, and Barricade.
WTriple is a spy thriller novel written by British author Ken Follett. It was originally published in 1979. The background of the plot is Operation Plumbat, a 1968 operation carried out by Mossad that did not become publicly known about until 1977.
WXPD is a spy novel by Len Deighton, published in 1981, and set in 1979, roughly contemporaneous with the time it was written. It concerns a plan by a group of former SS officers to seize power in West Germany, in which they intend to publish some wartime documents about a (fictional) secret meeting between Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler in June 1940, and the efforts of a British agent, Boyd Stuart, to prevent the documents becoming public.