The Usual Suspects

On a foggy night in San Pedro harbor, a ship explodes, leaving behind a massacre and one survivor. That survivor, Roger Verbal Kint, sits in a customs office telling his story to Agent Dave Kujan. Verbal has cerebral palsy, a limp, and a stammer. He looks harmless. But the story he tells is anything but.

Written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer, The Usual Suspects is a neo-noir puzzle box that unfolds backward. Five criminals pulled into a police lineup for a hijacked truck find themselves recruited for a jewel heist. Then a lawyer named Kobayashi appears, claiming they all owe a debt to a mythical crime lord named Keyser Söze. The jobs get bigger, the bodies pile up, and the question becomes: who is Keyser Söze? The film builds its reputation on that question, and on a final reveal that rewrites everything you have just watched.

Shot in 35 days on a $6 million budget, the film became a sleeper hit and a cultural reference point. Kevin Spacey won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Verbal. McQuarrie took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The film holds a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.1 on IMDb. Its twist ending has been debated, imitated, and spoofed for three decades.[edit]

Five men are brought together in a New York police lineup: Dean Keaton, a former cop turned criminal trying to go straight; Michael McManus, a hotheaded Irish thief; Fred Fenster, a safecracker who mumbles his way through every conversation; Todd Hockney, an explosives expert with a short fuse; and Roger Verbal Kint, a crippled con man who talks his way through life. The lineup is a setup, a frame by corrupt cops. The five bond over their shared anger and plan a small revenge heist. They steal a shipment of emeralds from a jeweler. It goes smoothly. Too smoothly.

Soon after, a lawyer named Kobayashi approaches each man separately. He tells them they are all in debt to Keyser Söze, a crime lord so ruthless and elusive that most people believe he is a myth. Söze, Kobayashi explains, once wiped out an entire Hungarian mob family because one of its members threatened his own family. He disappeared afterward, leaving only stories. Now he wants the five men to work for him to clear their debts. They have no choice. Refusal means death.

The jobs escalate. First a jewelry store robbery, then a car bombing, then a hijacking of a cargo ship carrying a cargo of stolen Hungarian communist jewels. The men grow suspicious of each other. Keaton, the natural leader, tries to find a way out. Verbal, the weakest, seems to go along. McManus and Hockney bicker constantly. Fenster barely speaks. Kobayashi appears and disappears at will, always one step ahead. The group learns that Söze has informants everywhere, maybe even among them.

As the night of the final job approaches, a Hungarian survivor of the ship massacre is being guarded in a hospital. He saw the face of the man who killed his crew. Agent Kujan, convinced Keaton is the mastermind, interrogates Verbal to build a case. Verbal tells a story that paints Keaton as the architect, a man who manipulated everyone from behind the scenes. Kujan listens, pushes, and slowly pieces together what he believes is the truth. Verbal seems cooperative, even pathetic, a small-time crook caught in something far bigger than himself.

The story weaves between Verbal's interrogation and the events on the ship. The men board the vessel, expecting to steal jewels. Instead, they find a trap. Gunfire erupts. Most of them die. The ship explodes. Verbal is the only one who escapes, found floating in the water. Kujan thinks he has cracked the case. He lets Verbal go.[edit]