The Usual Suspects Ending, Explained

The usual suspects end has was considered one of the greatest twists in cinema history and contributed to the crime thriller’s lasting legacy. The film follows a group of criminals who work together on specific jobs, such as jewelry robberies and robberies, but their lives are put in grave danger when they are hired by the mysterious Keyser Söze. The job is a drug operation on a docked ship, and Kobayashi, who is Söze’s lawyer, blackmails the suspects into working the job based on all the times they stole from Söze.

The story is told from the perspective of Roger “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey), one of the suspects and the only survivor after the failed attack. He is being interrogated by US Customs agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) in a police station office. The non-linear narrative of The usual suspects cuts between the intense interrogation and Verbal’s very colorful version of what happened. However, the confusing film only makes sense at the end, with the final revelation of The usual suspects being an iconic moment in the film.

What happens at the end of the usual suspects

Verbal’s story wasn’t the truth

All over The usual suspectsVerbal Kint, a loudmouth with a limp, explains to Agent Kujan what happened on the boat, being specific about some details and vague about others. In Verbal’s version of the story, Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), the leader of the suspects, angrily discovers that there is no cocaine on the ship, let alone $91 million worth, leaving them to wonder why it is there.

Just before the ship is blown to smithereens, the team is hunted by the phantom killer, Keyser Söze. The “suspects” are massacred by Söze at the shipyard. Verbal explains that it was a setup and that Söze sent them there to die.

Agent Kujan concludes that Keaton is the real Keyser Söze and killed the team, and Verbal reluctantly agrees before limping away. In The usual suspects‘final scene, a satisfied Kujan looks around the office after seemingly solving the case, until he realizes that everything Verbal told him was a complete lie.. News clippings on a cork board and other items in the office share names from Verbal’s story, showing that he made it all up right there in the room.

About that, Verbal grabs a lighter and a gold watch from reception, walks down the street, limps and gets into a car directed by the real “Kobayashi”. Kujan pursues Verbal, but it is too late: he has completely disappeared.

Verbal Kint is Keyser Söze

Several clues about Keyser suggest his true identity and motives

While The usual suspects‘the twist ending is shocking, the film left many clues as well as an explanation as to why the crime lord took this approach to dealing with those who wronged him. Söze once murdered a group of Hungarian mobsters who were holding his family hostage, but left one alive. He then massacred his own family and told the Hungarian to spread the word about what he was capable of.

At the time, Söze only conducted business through subordinates who never really knew who they worked for. However, regardless of whether this urban legend is true, it explains Keyser’s ruthless and calculating tactics. Verbal has Kujan not only dismiss him as a mysterious crime lord, but the agent comes up with his own entirely different theory. It’s a masterclass in manipulation and deception, something audiences heard repeatedly throughout the film and that Keyser Söze is great at.

As soon as Verbal leaves the building, a sketch of Keyser Söze is faxed to the police station. That’s it based on the description given by the boat’s sole survivor questioned by FBI agent Jack Baer (Giancarlo Esposito), and the police sketch looks exactly like Verbal. An earlier close-up of Söze’s hands saw him using the lighter and the gold watch as well. These details help to make The usual suspects the kind of film that rewards audiences for paying attention.

Why did Verbal kill everyone on the boat

The suspects were never meant to survive

The usual suspects is full of intense action scenes, but the boat sequence brings the mystery to the boiling point. Although the gang was under the impression that they were going to part with $91 million worth of cocaine to stop a Hungarian gang from competing with Keyser Söze’s own drug empire, that was not the reason. Instead, although they didn’t know it, Söze sent the gang to kill the only man who knew their true identity. The Hungarians brought the man on the ship so they could look for the crime lord and kill him.

From the beginning The usual suspects, when Keaton memorably confronts Söze, the main characters have always been expendable, with no real value or influence on the plot. However, Söze’s plan did not completely work, as a man who knew his identity survived and shared Söze’s identity with Agent Baer and the entire police force. Verbal was so obstinate about people not knowing his true identity that he caused millions of dollars worth of destruction and killed dozens of men.

The True Meaning of The Usual Suspects’ Ending

The mystery film was designed to make audiences question everything

The end of The usual suspects it makes viewers question what’s real and what’s not, and even Gabriel Byrne thought Keaton was Keyser Söze during filming. Although the film provides evidence of specific inventions that Verbal Kint recounted, it is far from clear how much of the rest of the story is true. The knowledge that some of the names Verbal told Agent Kujan are not real therefore calls into question how genuine the other names are, or whether the characters even existed.

Verbal is an unreliable narrator, and the only concrete fact known about Keyser Söze is that Kobayashi exists. However, even so, his name is not Kobayashi. Although the film has a concise and clear ending, The usual suspects‘The message is that nothing is as it seems. Since the Keyser Söze in the urban legend looks completely different from the Verbal, the name may even be a transmitted pseudonym.

Ultimately, the film isn’t about a group of eccentric crooks, and it isn’t about a war on drugs. That’s it a film about a genius villain protagonist who hides in plain sight. It’s about how far he will go so that the truth about him remains as obscure as possible, to the point where the public has no idea. With the audience left in the dark for so long, it leaves an impact at the end when they discover the bad guy has escaped.

What Makes The Usual Suspects Ending So Iconic

The public likes to be fooled

There have been countless movie endings over the years where only the truly special ones can stand out as effective conclusions. What it does The usual suspectThe ending of works so well is how it misleads the audience. This can be difficult to pull off, as this ending can leave fans feeling like they simply wasted their time with the film. The usual suspects makes it work because the rest of the film is very strong and the audience is very emotional.

If the film had ended with the reveal of Keaton defeating Keyser Söze, The usual suspects it certainly wouldn’t have been as popular a film, but it wouldn’t have been bad either. It was a smart and gripping crime thriller right up until the final moments, with audiences not necessarily expecting anything else. However, the final moments brilliantly place the audience in the same position as Agent Kujan, slowly coming to the realization that they have been tricked.

Instead of being frustrating, it’s an exciting moment for the audience, similar to seeing a magic trick being performed. The film is also smart enough to keep the twist from being too obvious, but also not a confusing reveal that comes out of nowhere. Once it’s clear what’s going on, viewers can immediately start putting the pieces together and see how it all makes sense. As I watch again The usual suspects It’s a fun experience to see all the clues, the ending still lands with great impact to close the film.

What Critics Said About The End of The Usual Suspects

The reception to Twist wasn’t always so enthusiastic

The usual suspects won two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Kevin Spacey) and Best Original Screenplay. Along with its lasting legacy as a beloved crime story, one would expect the film to be a huge critical success. However, there were some prominent critics at the time who took issue with the film and were particularly disappointed with the ending, which they felt was manipulative and made the film inconsequential. Celebrated critic Roger Ebert gave the film just one and a half stars out of four, saying (through RogerEbert.com):

“The story turns into a blinding revelation that changes the nature of everything that has come before, and the surprise filled me not with joy but with the feeling that the writer, Christopher McQuarrie, and the director, Bryan Singer, had Better would be to unravel its carefully knitted sleeve of fiction and just tell us a story about its characters – the ones that are real, in any case. I prefer to be surprised by motivation and not by manipulation.”

Likewise, Tom Gliatto of People felt that the film’s twist misled the audience in a way that was not pleasant and felt misleading:

“But The Usual Suspects’ surprises and twists feel dizzyingly arbitrary because director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie resort to subtle tricks in storytelling and point of view. A little red herring is one thing. But don’t hit me in the face with it, all good?”

Although it appears that the twist ending grew in popularity compared to how some initially accepted the conclusion, other critics felt that the ending served the mystery well and separated itself The usual suspect typical fare for the genre. Washington Post critic Hal Hinson felt there were too many unanswered questions at the end, but felt it could have served the film well:

“Ultimately, The usual suspects You may be too smart for your own good. The twist at the end is complicated, but crucial questions remain unanswered. What’s interesting, though, is how little it interferes with our enjoyment. After the movie you’re still trying to connect the dots and make everything fit together – and nowadays, how often can we say that?”