The Usual Suspects (1995)

Had it not been for Braveheart, perhaps The Usual Suspects would have taken home the Oscar for Best Picture. The Usual Suspects is a twisted noir thriller that involves a few crooks, a mysteriously elusive crime lord named Keyser Soze, and a $91 million heist. None of the film seems to make sense as a U.S. Customs agent (Chazz Palminteri) tries to get the straight story from a small-time con man named “Verbal” Kint about a burning tanker in the San Pedro harbor that left 27 people dead. The story unravels itself slowly, but never fully, until almost the final credits.

 

The title of the film comes from the famous line in Casablanca, delivered by Claude Rains’s character Louis. Terrific performances by Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, and Chazz Palminteri keep The Usual Suspects intriguing, and provide the proper pacing that a suspense thriller must have for success. And The Usual Suspects is a big success; it has, perhaps, the greatest twist ending ever filmed. Good dialogue and humorous moments are also a plus. The film won Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Spacey).

 

The collector’s edition sports a “making of” documentary.

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Quotes from The Usual Suspects:

 

Verbal Kint: What the cops never figured out, and what I know now, was that these men would never break, never lie down, never bend over for anybody. Anybody.

 

Dave Kujan: Do you know a dealer named Ruby Deamer, Verbal?

Verbal Kint: Do you know a religious guy named John Paul?

Dave Kujan: Did you know Ruby's in Attica?

Verbal Kint: He didn't have my lawyer.

 

Jeff Rabin: I'm telling you this guy is protected from up on high by the Prince of Darkness.

 

Keaton: I'm a businessman now.

Cop: Yeah? What's that, the restaurant business? No. From now on, you're in the gettin'-fucked-by-us business.

 

Verbal Kint: Back when I was picking beans in Guatemala, we used to make fresh coffee, right off the trees I mean. That was good. This is shit but, hey, I'm in a police station.

 

Verbal Kint: Oh gee, thanks Dave, bang-up job so far. Extortion, coercion; you'll pardon me if I ask you to kiss my pucker.

 

Verbal Kint: You think you can catch Keyser Soze? You think a guy like that comes this close to getting caught, and sticks his head out? If he comes up for anything it'll be to get rid of me. After that... my guess is you'll never hear from him again.

 

[Keaton is introducing quiet Verbal to the other suspects in the cell.]

Keaton: His name is Verbal. Verbal Kint.

McManus: Verbal?

Keaton: Yeah.

Verbal: Roger, really. People say I talk too much.

Hockney: Yeah, I was just about to tell you to shut up.

 

[After being strip-searched.]

Fenster: Man, I had a finger up my asshole tonight!

Hockney: Is it Friday already?

 

Fenster: The way I hear it, Soze is some kind of butcher. A pitiless, psycho, fucked-up butcher.

 

[Suspects in a lineup are asked to read a phrase.]

Cop: Number 1, step forward.

Hockney: Hand me the keys, you fucking cocksucker.

Cop: Number 2, step forward.

McManus: Give me the fucking keys, you fucking cocksucking motherfucker, aaarrrghh!

Cop: Knock it off! Get back! Number 3, step forward.

Fenster: [laughing] Hand me the keys, you cocksucker!

Cop: In English, please?

Fenster: Excuse me?

Cop: In English.

Fenster: Hand me the fucking keys, you cocksucker, what the fuck?

 

Verbal Kint: I just can't believe we're going to walk into certain death!

 

Fred Fenster: Ohh, is that the one about the hooker with, um, dysentery?

 

Cop: I can put you in Queens on the night of the hijacking.

Hockney: Really? I live in Queens, did you put that together yourself, Einstein? Got a team of monkeys working around the clock on this?

 

Kobayashi: One cannot be betrayed if one has no people.

 

Hockney: What about it, pretzel man, what's your story?

 

Fenster: He'll flip ya. He'll flip ya for real.

 

Verbal Kint: To a cop the explanation's always simple. There's no mystery to the street, no arch criminal behind it all. It if you find a body and you think his brother did it, you're gonna find out you're right.

 

Special Agent Dave Kujan: Let me tell you something. I'm smarter than you are. I'm going to get it out of you whether you like it or not.

 

Verbal Kint: Keaton once said, “I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him.” Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze.

 

Verbal Kint: And I'm not just talkin' fat, I'm talkin' ORCA fat.

 

Verbal Kint: The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

 

McManus: There's nothing that can't be done.

 

Kujan: He was dead just long enough for the murder rap to blow over. And then he had lunch.

 

McManus: [preparing to snipe] Old McDonald had a farm, ee-aye, ee-aye, oh. And on this farm he shot some guys. Ba-da-bip, ba-da-bing, bang-boom.

 

[Counting victims as he snipes at them.]

McManus: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... Oswald was a fag.

 

Verbal Kint: How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?

 

Verbal Kint: And then he showed these men of will what will really is.

 

Verbal Kint: It didn't make sense that I'd be there. I mean, these guys were hard-core hijackers, but there I was. I wasn't scared; I knew I hadn't done anything they could do me for. Besides, it was fun. I got to make like I was notorious.

 

 

Trivia about The Usual Suspects:

 

• Dean Keaton is another name for 26th street in Austin, Texas. Coincidence?

 

• Benicio Del Toro's delivery of the line "He'll flip ya'. Flip ya' for real." Is straight from the movie "Straight No Chaser" about jazz pianist Thelonius Monk. Monk says the line himself.

 

• The line-up scene was scripted as a serious scene, but after a full day of filming takes where the actors couldn't keep a straight face, director Bryan Singer decided to use the funniest takes.

 

• The name of the film's production company (Blue Parrot/Bad Hat Harry Productions) is an inside reference to a line from Jaws (1975), where Brody meets an old guy in a bathing cap on a beach and greets him by saying "That's a bad hat, Harry". The "Blue Parrot" part is a reference to Casablanca (1942), as is the title of the film.

 

• The order that the personal packages are given to everyone in the poolroom is the same order in which the characters die.

 

• Five actors played the part of Keyser Soze: Gabriel Byrne's and Kevin Spacey's faces are shown as Keyser Soze; in the flashback sequence, Keyser Soze is played by a man with long hair which obscures his face; and Bryan Singer and a friend of his played the parts of Keyser Soze's hand lighting a cigarette and the close up of Keyser's feet.

 

• The part of Verbal Kint was always intended for actor Kevin Spacey. Is it a coincidence that Kevin Spacey and Keyser Soze have the same initials?

 

• At one point in the film, Keyser Soze is referred to as being Turkish. "Soze" in Turkish means "to talk." This is a clue that Keyser Soze may be "Verbal" Kint.

 

• Actor Gabriel Byrne, when asked at a film festival, "Who is Keyser Soze?" replied, "During shooting and until watching the film tonight, I thought I was!"

 

• When Kevin Spacey points a gun at Gabriel Byrne, Byrne asks him what is the time. Spacey gets asked the same question, in the same circumstances, by Richard Pryor in See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989).

 

• Dean Keaton is Gabriel Byrne's real name.

 

• Continuity: When destroying the police car, McManus crushes the police lights but in the next shot they are undamaged.

 

• Continuity: Near the beginning, outside the police station, Dean Keaton's cigarette goes from lit to unlit to lit again.

 

• Continuity: Level of coffee in the mugs in the interview room.

 

• Continuity: The second time the plane lands it is suddenly a different model.

 

• Continuity: Planes landing in New York City from South America would land at JFK, not La Guardia airport. The arriving passenger was picked up at the departure section of the Delta building.

 

• Continuity: Hockney's position when Redfoot is leaving.

 

• Continuity: The Sig .228 dropped in the garage turns into a Browning.

 

• Continuity: McMannus' position when he is about to shoot Kobayashi.

 

• Crew or equipment visible: Camera operator visible on the right-hand side of the screen as Verbal descends the staircase in the final scene.

 

• Revealing mistakes: Blood squib visible in the moneybag as Hockney is shot.

 

• Continuity: The coffee cup breaks several different ways in the different shots of it hitting the ground.

 

• Factual errors: When the bodyguards are shot in the elevator, blood is splashed to the windows behind them. Kobayashi, standing behind them, avoids getting any on him.

 

• Boom mike visible: During the line-up scene, as the suspects enter the line-up booth, a microphone can be seen above Hockney's position.

 

 

Cast overview, first billed only:

Stephen Baldwin ....  Michael McManus 

Gabriel Byrne ....  Dean Keaton 

Benicio Del Toro ....  Fred Fenster 

Kevin Pollak ....  Todd Hockney 

Kevin Spacey ....  Verbal Kint 

Chazz Palminteri ....  Dave Kujan 

Pete Postlethwaite ....  Kobayashi  

Suzy Amis ....  Edie Finneran 

Giancarlo Esposito ....  Jack Baer 

Dan Hedaya ....  Jeff Rabin 

Paul Bartel ....  Smuggler 

Carl Bressler ....  Saul Berg 

Phillip Simon ....  Fortier 

Jack Shearer ....  Renault  

Christine Estabrook ....  Dr. Plummer