The Usual Suspects Plot Summary
This 1995 crime thriller was directed by Bryan Singer and features a packed cast including Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Toro, and Kevin Pollak. The Usual Suspects sees a survivor of a pier shoot-out recounting the events leading up to and including the shoot-out. The survivor, Verbal Kint (Spacey), reveals that it all leads back to a notorious crime lord named Keyser Söze. Verbal is a crippled and unassuming man who seems to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The longer Kint’s story goes, the more the special agent detaining him believes he knows who Söze really is.
The movie starts out with the ending of the shoot-out and the death of Dean Keaton (Byrne). We then follow Verbal as he is taken into custody and interrogated regarding the events of the shoot-out. The film’s plot is told mostly through flashbacks with the occasional scene taking place back at the police station. It is clear from the very beginning that nothing is as it seems, and audiences should check their expectations at the door.
The Line Up
Special Agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) requests the talkative Kint to start from the beginning when he was detained for questioning alongside four other men. Six weeks before the shoot-out, a truck hauling spare gun parts was hijacked in Queens.
The police round up five men who they believe could be responsible. These usual suspects consist of Verbal, Dean Keaton, Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin), Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), and Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak). The men are asked to repeat a line supposedly said by the hijacker, a task they do not take seriously. While properly introducing themselves while in a holding cell, McManus convinced the others to join him on a job.
The job is to perform a robbery targeting a group called New York’s Finest Taxi Service. New York’s Finest Taxi Service consists of corrupt NYPD officers who provide transportation to smugglers for a hefty fee. The job is successful, and the men travel to a fence to sell their loot. While there, the fence talks the group into performing another job for a large payday. The job is to rob a jewel smuggler named Saul Bass. Once there, the group realizes the smuggler isn’t dealing with jewels as they were told, it is heroin.
After a heated confrontation between the men and the fence, he reveals he was actually hired by a lawyer named Kobayashi. They request a meeting with Kobayashi, who it turns out was expecting to meet them all along.
The Legend of Keyser Söze
Kobayashi reveals is working for Keyser Söze, and the group has caught his attention. Söze is a legendary Turkish crime lord who many believe doesn’t exist. In the present, Kint tells Kujan the legend of Keyser Söze as he has heard it. According to the story, Söze’s family was being harassed in Turkey by a rival Hungarian gang. Wanting to show he can not be reasoned with, Söze kills his own family and then takes out the entire gang. Afterwards, Söze disappears and conducts all of his business through middlemen. Kint’s flashback then shows that Kobayashi relays to the group that they are to do a job for Söze. Should they refuse, all of their dirty secrets will be leaked. Kobayashi shows each men a detailed file on each of their lives, showing that Keyser Söze knows all about them.
The group believes Keyser Söze is a ghost story and that Kobayashi is using it as a front to get the group to do his dirty work. Fenster decided to ditch the group and run away, but he is caught and killed off-screen. The remaining men decide to pay Kobayashi a visit and threaten him to leave them alone. Before he can be executed, Kobayashi reveals that lawyer Edie Finneran is in his office. Finneran is the girlfriend of Keaton, and she will be killed if the group does anything. Kobayashi then threatens loved ones of all the men, stating if he dies then they will as well.
Still not fully believing the Keyser Söze, the group still agrees to do the job out of fear for their loved ones.
The Pier Job
The men arrive at the pier and witness a cocaine deal from a distance. The buyers, Hungarian mobsters, and the sellers, Argentine mobsters, are in position, just like Kobayashi said they would. Keaton tells Kint to stay back and wait for them. He tells him to stay hidden and if things go south, take the money to his girlfriend Edie Finneran. Keaton says if things do go wrong, Finneran can use the money to take down Kobayashi legally. Kint reluctantly agrees, and the other men get to work.
The three men split up while thy take out the mobsters and search for the cocaine. Hockney is killed from behind, and Keaton and MacManus each discover there is no cocaine. The group has been set up, and they were never meant to leave the pier alive.
While the two men discover the set-up, an unseen killer is taking out mobsters themselves. A man in a dark coat, seemingly Keyser Söze, kills MacManus and shoots Keaton. Kint’s pov sees the man seemingly kill Keaton, revealing the events that led to the film’s opening.
Who is Keyser Söze?
Verbal wasn’t the only survivor of the shoot-out. A Hungarian mobster also survived, although badly burned. When the man regains consciousness, he says he saw Keyser Söze with his own eyes. While Kint told his story, The mobster described Keyser Söze to a sketch artist.
Back in the police office, Kint wraps up his story. Kujan then reveals his deduction. According to Kujan, the pier job was never about cocaine. The real job was to kill an Hispanic prisoner aboard the ship who could positively identify Keyser Söze. The ship was then set ablaze, ensuring all loose ends were delt with. Even Edie Finneran didn’t survive, as Kujan reveals she was found dead. Kint was nothing more than a fall guy, which is why he is alive. Kujan had his suspicion who Keyser Söze was, and Kint’s story all but confirmed it for him.
Keyser Söze is nothing more than an alias used by Dean Keaton. According to Kujan, this was Keaton’s idea from the very beginning. From the truck hijacking to the pier job, Keaton was the mastermind. He was stringing everybody along, and faked his death to help sell the lie to Kint. Verbal saw Keaton as a friend, and is clearly distraught by this information. Kint’s bail is posted, and he limps out of the office.
Meanwhile, Kujan sips his coffee and looks over a bulletin board that was placed behind him during the interrogation. He realizes that much of Kint’s story was lifted straight from this board. He was making everything he said up, and Kujan fell for it. While trying to deduce why Kint would lit, the sketch from the Hungarian arrives via fax. The sketch is a dead match for Verbal Kint.
Kint’s limp begins to disappear as he leaves the station. Everything Verbal said was a lie. Even his condition was a fallacy, as he can walk just fine. Verbal was the real Keyser Söze the entire time. He is the one who set up the group. He is the one who hired Kobayashi. And he is the one who killed Dean Keaton.
Is Keyser Söze Real?
While it is revealed that Verbal was the mastermind behind the entire film, one question remains. Did verbal simply use the Keyser Söze name for fear? Or was there some truth in the legend. As with many great films, this is left fully ambiguous. At one point, Kint claims Keyser Söze is a story to scare criminals, a boogeyman of sorts.
In many ways, this means Keyser Söze is real. The legend of the man may not be real, but even if the worst criminals use the name as an alias, this means in some way Keyser Söze is a real criminal.
One of my favorite movies. Kevin Spacey was unstoppable in the 90s.