FAQ for
The Usual Suspects (1995) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for The Usual Suspects can be found here.

No. American film-maker Christopher McQuarrie wrote the screenplay for The Usual Suspects.

The title comes from a line in the classic film Casablanca (1942), where the corrupt police chief, anxious to cover up the murder of a Nazi officer, tells a subordinate to "round up the usual suspects," meaning that the police should find a bunch of random criminals to be questioned. In the film, the criminals are rounded up without any evidence specifically pointing to them. The police are hoping to randomly get one of them to confess. Thus, they are the "usual suspects." because they have been convicted of crimes that relate to the one for which they have previously been arrested.

The usual suspects are five small time crooks that are brought together in a police lineup on trumped-up charges. There is Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a corrupt ex-cop trying to go straight, crack shot Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin), his partner Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak) the hijacker, and Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey), a con artist crippled by cerebral palsy.

There was no cocaine. When Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite) blackmailed the five men, he said that it was their job to get on the ship and destroy the cocaine on board. Söze was using them as a diversion. While they were killing the other men on the ship and looking for the drugs, Söze sneaked onto the ship and killed Arturro. (Castulo Guerra) Arturro was the one man who could positively identify him, so Söze needed him dead.

Yes. At the end of the movie, US Customs agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) concludes that Keyser Söze must be Dean Keaton. In an ironic twist, however, Söze actually turns out to be Verbal Kint.

Yes, there are some. One is Verbal's relative position on the night of the attack. He is hiding behind a stack of material on the dock. When Hockney is killed, Verbal would have been the closest person to him. In his testimony, shown in flashback, Verbal supposedly takes cover behind some large spools of rope on the dock as he observes Soze on the boat. However, when the camera zooms in on this area from the opposite side after the explosion, no one is seen peering through the ropes. In the opening scene we see Keyser Söze look at a gold watch and produce a gold cigarette lighter. Later, in the scene where the gang threatens Kobayashi, we see Verbal wearing a similar watch. He also collects this watch, along with a gold cigarette lighter, as he leaves the police station, despite having earlier demonstrated his inability to use a similar lighter during his questioning. In the interrogation, Verbal comments that when he gets dehydrated his urine becomes thick and lumpy. In the opening scene when Keyser Söze urinates on the fire, his urine is thick and lumpy. When agent Kujan begins to suggest that Keaton might be the one behind the hit on the docks, Verbal can be seen starting to smile. When Kujan comes around from behind Verbal and looks him in the face, the smile disappears, and Verbal continues to pretend loyalty to Keaton. Keyser Söze is described by Verbal as being of mixed Turkish/German heritage. "Söze" is Turkish for "talks too much," or "verbal." "Keyser" sounds like the German word "Kaiser," meaning "emperor," while "Kint" sounds like "king." Director Bryan Singer has referred to the name as essentially meaning "The king that talks too much."

Yes and no. Verbal tells Kujan the story as if he was simply Verbal Kint and not Keyser Söze. Verbal tells Kujan that it was his plan to rob the corrupt police officers without killing anybody. Then they fenced the goods to Redfoot, who then offered them the next job of robbing Saul Berg, which was set up by Kobyashi. etc. etc. which finally led to the events at the end of the film, leaving Verbal the only survivor. When pushed by Kujan, Verbal is adamant that Dean Keaton was his friend and that he wasn't the mastermind behind all the events. When pushed harder by Kujan and given all the facts, Verbal breaks down and admits that they all followed Keaton from the beginning, and that he planned and executed everything. Of course, we learn that a lot of what Verbal had to say was made up. At the very least, the names of those involved, such as Redfoot and Kobayashi, were clearly invented on the spot. However, we see that the person who he referred to as Kobyashi was real, as he picks Verbal up at the end. So it's likely the events were true, but certain aspects may have been fabricated or names changed in order to keep Kujan from being able to trace anyone who had actually been involved, thus preserving Söze's identity. For example, the incident when "Kobyashi" met with the five of them, gave them their police files, and gave them the assignment of robbing the ship of the supposed cocaine and money, was likely true. In addition, some elements, such as the presence of the five men at the lineup, would be easy for Kujan to check out and are likely true. Verbal/Soze is an expert liar, and a good liar knows that he or she should stick as closely to the truth as possible. For example, Verbal tells the truth when he tells Ageny Kujan that sometimes his urine is "thick and lumpy."

At the end of Kujan's interrogation of Verbal Kint, Kujan looks over the details strewn across the bulletin board, recognizing most of the names from Verbal's account of the events, just as an artist's depiction of Keyser Söze makes its way to the police station via fax. It is Verbal Kint. As Verbal walks down the street, his leg straightens out, his fingers uncrimp, and he lights a cigarette. Kujan runs from the building in an attempt to catch Verbal, but the man called "Kobayashi" has picked him up. Keyser Söze has once again disappeared.

Several people have noted that The Usual Suspects reminds them of Basic (2003), about the murder investigation of a hated Army Ranger sergeant and several of his Special Forces on what appears, at first, to have been a routine training exercise during a hurricane in the jungles of Panama. Another movie said to be like The Usual Suspects is Memento (2000), in which a man suffering from short-term memory loss hunts for the killer of his wife, the last thing he remembers. Also, there is Frailty (2001), in which a young man believes that his brother may be the serial killer who calls himself "God's Hands." Other murder mysteries with plenty of twists include, for starters, Identity (2003), The Big Sleep (1946), Mystic River (2003), Primal Fear (1996), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), and Se7en (1995).