Review of The Usual Suspects (1995) by Brendan C — 07 Jul 2013

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

The Usual Suspects is a masterpiece in directing from Bryan Singer, and especially screenplay writing from Christopher McQuarrie. It is an absolutely awesome movie that demands to be re watched multiple times, because it gets better and better. It gets better because it is hard to follow, and because you pick up on things the more you watched it. This violent and action-packed cult classic that everybody talks about is one that not a single person ever figured out until the end. The film is loaded with twist and turns, and it has a plot that is very hard to follow, so that is why it must be re-watched. I have seen this movie three times and it got better each time.

The film opens up with Deane Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) sitting on the ground when a mysterious figure appears and asks him "How you doing Keaton?" He replies "I can't feel me legs Keyser." He shoots Keaton and burns the boat. It was a job that a group of men had to do. They had to find millions of dollars worth of cocain that wasn't there. They meaning Deane Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey), McManus (Stephen Baldwin), Todd Hockney (kevin Pollak), and Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro). The five met up with each other during a police lineup. While locked in jail for the night they come up with a plan for a job together. Keaton at first refuses because he wants to stop, but Verbal eventually gets him to do it. The needed Keaton to do it because he was an ex cop, and he knew how the cops cab service worked. They wanted to rob a jeweler who the police cab service was help smuggling jewels into the country so they could get his money, and jewels, and get the criminal and the cops arrested for smuggling. Keaton got kicked off of the force because he was involved in the cab service, and that is why they wanted him. The next job is given to them by a guy named Redfoot (Peter Greene). The job was to rob a jewel dealer who actually had heroin in his briefcase, and the job was a trick. Redfoot admits that the job came from a lawyer named Kobayashi. They are by Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), and he tells them that he works for Keyser Soze and they have stolen from him. He tells them they must attack a ship smuggling 91 million dollars worth of cocaine, that was bought by Keyser Soze's rivals. He blackmails them into doing it. They don't believe that it is really Keyser Soze, because he doesn't really exist.

Keyser Soze was an old story the gangsters knew. It was a superstitious figure. Keyser Soze came home and found his family being held hostage and he killed his family and said "I would rather see my family dead then live another day after this." He then burnt all of the houses of the men and their families and disappeared. Keyser Soze is know as the devil to gangsters, and he convinced the world he didn't exist. He showed up on that ship and killed them all. Verbal (Kevin Spacey) was the only survivor, and he saw Keyser Soze murder Keaton which was the opening scene of the movie. The whole film is Verbal talking to Agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) telling him what had ahappened over the last few weeks. The whole synopsis I gave was the story he told them. The mystery is who is Keyser Soze? Nobody figured this one out until the end. That is why it is the greatest mystery film of all time in my opinion, because it stuns you at the end. I sometimes do spoilers but I can't take the risk that somebody who hasn't seen this film reads my review, and I ruin it for that person. So I won't be putting in any spoilers.

Kevin Spacey won the Oscar for best supporting actor, and Christopher McQuarrie won for best original screenplay when this came out in 1995, and they truly did deserve it. Awesome movie.