The Usual Suspects (1995): Who Is Keyser Söze and Why Should You Care?
If you were even remotely conscious during the 90s, or have access to the internet now, you’ve probably heard of The Usual Suspects. Directed by Bryan Singer (back when that name didn’t come with a fire hazard warning) and written by Christopher McQuarrie, this 1995 neo-noir crime thriller is widely considered one of the best plot twist films of all time.
Or the most frustrating. It depends on whether you like your movies with logical structure or enjoy being bamboozled into submission by a narrator who lies more than a politician in an election year.
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Plot Summary (Spoiler Alert… But It’s 30 Years Old, So Come On)
The Usual Suspects opens with a flaming ship, a mysterious man getting shot and Kevin Spacey monologuing like a smug Philosophy 101 dropout. From there, we dive into the aftermath: a group of criminals, each more morally flexible than the last, are rounded up for a crime none of them committed.
The group includes:
- Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne): A former crooked cop trying to go straight, which is adorable.
- Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin): A trigger-happy lunatic with the subtlety of a jackhammer.
- Fred Fenster (Benicio del Toro): Mumbles more than a drunk marbles salesman.
- Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak): The resident explosives expert and general grump.
- Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey): The physically disabled conman who seems harmless, until he isn’t.
The entire story is told through Verbal’s police interrogation, where he recounts how this gang of misfits ended up working for the terrifying, mythical crime lord Keyser Söze—a man so legendary he might as well be Voldemort with better business acumen.
Keyser Söze: The Boogeyman of Crime Cinema
Ah, Keyser Söze. A name whispered with the same reverence normally reserved for ancient gods and tax inspectors. In the film, Söze is less a character and more a demonic bedtime story. According to Verbal, Söze once murdered his own family just to prove a point to rival criminals. Psychopath? Yes. Dedicated to brand consistency? Absolutely.
But here’s the catch – no one knows what Söze looks like. He’s a phantom, a myth, a cinematic red herring in a trench coat. The film keeps you guessing until the very end and even then, it basically slaps you across the face with a “Gotcha!” and leaves you doubting everything you just saw.
It’s like being gaslit by a movie, and people loved it.
The Performances: Acting, Eyebrow Raises and Mumblecore
Let’s talk about the cast of The Usual Suspects, because this isn’t some D-list direct-to-DVD nonsense.
- Kevin Spacey won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing Verbal Kint, a man who pretends to be the weakest in the room until he pulls a Kaiser Söze and melts into urban legend.
- Gabriel Byrne smolders with moral ambiguity, which is frankly his default setting.
- Benicio del Toro delivers a performance so mumbly, even other characters in the film are like, “What did he just say?”
- Chazz Palminteri as Agent Kujan, who spends the film connecting dots like a man trying to assemble IKEA furniture blindfolded.
Everyone commits to their roles like their careers depend on it, which they sort of did and the ensemble chemistry carries a lot of the film’s moral and narrative weight.
Direction & Style: Bryan Singer Before The Fall
Bryan Singer directs The Usual Suspects with all the subtlety of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, while shouting, “LOOK AT THE RABBIT!” The whole movie is stylish, slick, and deliberately disorienting. From nonlinear storytelling to rapid-fire dialogue, it throws everything at you except an instruction manual.
It’s clever, sure, but at times it also feels like the film is showing off how clever it is. You know that guy at a party who quotes Nietzsche while vaping? That’s The Usual Suspects in cinematic form.
The Twist Ending: Cinema’s Greatest Con Job?
And then there’s that ending. The big reveal. The narrative gut punch that launched a thousand “Top 10 Movie Twist” listicles.
As Agent Kujan pieces the story together, he realizes that everything Verbal said was pulled from random objects around the office. The coffee cup, the bulletin board, the fax machine—Verbal’s entire story is basically a cut-and-paste job from whatever was within eye-level.
Then—bam!—Verbal drops the limp, walks confidently out of the station and becomes Keyser Söze before your very eyes. Somewhere, M. Night Shyamalan dropped his juice box in awe.
It’s brilliant. It’s maddening. It’s cinematic trolling on a grand scale.
Legacy: Does It Still Hold Up Today?
So, 30 years later, does The Usual Suspects still work?
Narratively, yes. It’s airtight, stylish and impeccably acted. It takes the unreliable narrator trope and turns it into a full-blown scam, which is either genius or infuriating depending on your tolerance for narrative manipulation.
Culturally, though? Things are… complicated.
I can’t not mention the issues surrounding director Bryan Singer’s scandals and Kevin Spacey’s, uh, what should we call it… reputation nosedive, the film’s once-untouchable status has become a little murky. Watching it now is a bit like revisiting your favourite childhood show, only to find out all the puppets were in therapy.
That said, the film’s twist remains iconic. It paved the way for movies like Fight Club, Memento and Gone Girl films that use unreliable narrators to kick you in the brain. And it still gets new audiences to go, “Wait… what?!”
Recommended If You Like:
- Films that gaslight you for 106 minutes
- Plot twists that make you question your life choices
- Gabriel Byrne’s existential brooding
- Watching Kevin Spacey before he became cinematic Voldemort
- Puzzle-box movies that reward rewatching (and punish inattentiveness)
My Final Thoughts: A Masterpiece or Just Cinematic Gaslighting?
Here’s the thing: The Usual Suspects is undeniably influential. It’s clever, quotable and has one of the most iconic final scenes in movie history. But it’s also the cinematic equivalent of a smug grin a film so committed to its own misdirection, it risks collapsing under the weight of its own cleverness.
But maybe that’s the point. Maybe we’re all Verbal Kint, sitting in front of a bulletin board, desperately trying to make sense of a story that was never real to begin with.
Or maybe we just really like movies that mess with our heads and give us trust issues.
Either way, Keyser Söze walks among us.
If You Like The Usual Suspects, I Recommend These Movies:
Primal Fear (1996) – The ending will have you staring at the credits like you just got slapped.
Gone Girl (2014) – A missing wife becomes a national spectacle—then things get weird.
Oldboy (2003) – Korean vengeance served ice cold, with a side of WTF.
The Usual Suspects
McManus
Keaton
Fenster
Hockney
Verbal
Dave Kujan
Kobayashi
Edie Finneran
