Directed by Jonathan Lynn, who cowrote the script with John Landis, and produced by Debra Hill, it stars the ensemble cast of Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren, with Colleen Camp and Lee Ving in supporting roles.

Greeted by the butler Wadsworth and the maid Yvette, each guest receives a pseudonym to maintain confidentiality: "Colonel Mustard", "Mrs. White", "Mrs. Peacock", "Mr. Green", "Professor Plum", and "Miss Scarlet".

He then presents the six guests with weapons—a candlestick, rope, lead pipe, wrench, revolver, and dagger—and suggests someone kill Wadsworth to protect their secrets before turning out the lights.

Recreating the night's events and amidst a brief interruption from an evangelist, he explains how the other five victims were Boddy's informants who are each connected to one of the guests, which dovetails into one of three possible outcomes.

Intending to sell the guests' secrets, Scarlet prepares to use the revolver to kill Wadsworth, who argues there are no bullets left before disarming her just as law enforcement raid the manor and the evangelist is revealed to be the chief of police.

Wadsworth further reveals he is an undercover FBI agent before accidentally firing the last bullet in the revolver at a chandelier, which narrowly misses Mustard as it falls.

Producer Debra Hill initially acquired the rights to adapt the game from Parker Brothers and intended to distribute through Universal Pictures.

[5] As early as 1981 Hill mentioned plans to adapt the game into a movie, with P. D. James reported to be writing the screenplay with multiple endings.

[6] The multiple-endings were developed by John Landis, who had initially been set to direct, and who claimed in an interview to have invited playwright Tom Stoppard, writer and composer Stephen Sondheim, and actor Anthony Perkins to write the screenplay.

[8] Carrie Fisher was originally cast to portray Miss Scarlet, but withdrew to enter treatment for drug and alcohol addiction; she was replaced with Lesley Ann Warren.

[13][better source needed] To decorate the interior sets, authentic 18th- and 19th-century furnishings were rented from private collectors, including the estate of Theodore Roosevelt.

Published in 1985, both adaptations feature a fourth ending cut from the film:[17] in a variation on the-butler-did-it trope, Wadsworth explains how he killed Boddy and the other victims, then reveals to the guests that they've all been poisoned, leaving no witnesses to his perfect crime.

[18][19] The film was released to home video for both VHS and Betamax videocassette formats in Canada and the United States on August 20, 1986, and to other countries on February 11, 1991.

[23] La-La Land Records released the John Morris score for the film as a limited-edition CD soundtrack in February 2011.

[26] Similarly, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "Clue offers a few big laughs early on followed by a lot of characters running around on a treadmill to nowhere.

"[27] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing that it has a "promising" cast but the "screenplay is so very, very thin that [the actors] spend most of their time looking frustrated, as if they'd just been cut off right before they were about to say something interesting.

The website's critics consensus reads, "A robust ensemble of game actors elevate Clue above its schematic source material, but this farce's reliance on novelty over organic wit makes its entertainment value a roll of the dice.

[35] Hasbro Studios moved the project to 20th Century Fox by August 2016, envisioned as a "worldwide mystery" with action-adventure elements, potentially establishing a franchise with international appeal.

[36] Ryan Reynolds optioned a three-year first-look deal in January 2018, planning to star in the remake, with a script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

[3][42] The stage production of Clue premiered in 2017 at Bucks County Playhouse, adapted by Hunter Foster with additional material by Eric Price.