Movies Like The Usual Suspects

Frequently asked about The Usual Suspects

Common questions people search for, with answers written by us at MoviesPack.

• Who is Keyser Söze?▾

  Keyser Söze is revealed to be Roger 'Verbal' Kint, the seemingly meek and disabled con man who narrates the entire story to Agent Kujan. The character is a near-mythical crime lord whose reputation is built on a single defining act: when Hungarian gangsters kidnapped his family to coerce him, he killed his own wife and children rather than submit, then hunted down every person connected to the threat. The name Keyser Söze is a Turkish phrase roughly meaning 'talks too much,' an ironic detail given how much of what Verbal says is fabricated.

• How much of Verbal Kint's story is true?▾

  Almost none of it. After Verbal is released and Agent Kujan realizes he has been manipulated, Kujan notices that Verbal constructed the story on the fly using names and details visible on the bulletin board in the interview room — Skokie, Redfoot, Kobayashi, and others. The characters Verbal described were invented from objects around him, meaning the elaborate heist narrative, the lineup participants' backstories, and the figure of Kobayashi were largely or entirely fabricated. The only certainties are that a boat did burn in the harbor and that Verbal Kint is Keyser Söze.

• Why does Keyser Söze orchestrate the harbor job?▾

  Söze's true motive for the Pier 51 operation is to destroy a passenger named Arturo Marquez, who is being transported on the ship and who can identify Söze to law enforcement. The cocaine and the other criminals aboard are secondary concerns; eliminating Marquez is the sole reason Söze assembled the crew of five criminals through elaborate manipulation. This is why everyone on the boat — crew, criminals, and Marquez — is killed: Söze is erasing the one man who could expose his identity.

• What is the significance of the final scene where Kujan drops his coffee cup?▾

  The shot of Kujan's coffee cup shattering on the floor marks the exact moment he recognizes the con — he looks at the bulletin board and sees that the names and details Verbal used throughout his testimony are printed on it as mundane office clutter. The visual of the cup breaking is a metaphor for his certainty about the case collapsing simultaneously. It is also the film's payoff for the audience: the clues were always visible in the frame, but neither Kujan nor the viewer was looking at the right level.

• Why do the five criminals agree to work together for Keyser Söze despite not knowing who he is?▾

  Each of the five men has previously wronged Söze — or been connected to someone who has — without ever knowing it. Kobayashi, Söze's lawyer, approaches them with evidence of their past crimes against Söze's interests and offers them a simple choice: complete the harbor job or be killed along with their families. The group complies partly out of fear of Söze's mythic reputation for total, indiscriminate retaliation, and partly because the job is framed as a one-time debt that will clear their obligations entirely.