The Usual Suspects

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The Usual Suspects

Promotional poster
Directed by Bryan Singer
Produced by Michael McDonnell
Bryan Singer
Written by Christopher McQuarrie
Starring Gabriel Byrne
Chazz Palminteri
Kevin Spacey
Stephen Baldwin
Kevin Pollak
Benicio del Toro
Music by John Ottman
Cinematography Newton Thomas Sigel
Editing by John Ottman
Distributed by UK 1995-1999
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
1995 USA Theatrical
Gramercy Pictures
Worldwide 1999-present
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) Flag of the United States January 1995 (premiere at Sundance)
Flag of the United States August 16, 1995
Flag of the United Kingdom 25 August 1995
Flag of Australia 19 October 1995
Running time 106 minutes
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $6,000,000 (est.)
Gross revenue $23,272,306 (USA)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American neo-noir film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. It stars Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak and Pete Postlethwaite. The film tells the story of Roger "Verbal" Kint (Spacey), a small-time con man who is the subject of a police interrogation. He tells his interrogator, U.S. Customs Agent David Kujan (Palminteri), a convoluted story about events leading to a massacre and massive fire that have just taken place on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro Bay. Using flashback and narration, Verbal's story becomes increasingly complex as he tries to explain why he and his partners-in-crime were on the boat.

The film, shot on a $6 million budget, was initially released in few theaters, but received favorable reviews and was eventually given a wider release. McQuarrie won an Oscar for the screenplay and Spacey won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

The title of the film is a reference to a line in Casablanca, in which Capt. Louis Renault (Claude Rains) protects Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) by ordering his men to "round up the usual suspects" rather than arrest Rick, who had just shot the German officer, Major Strasser.[1]

Contents

[edit] Plot

On the deck of a ship in San Pedro, California, a figure identified as "Keyser" speaks with an injured man called Keaton (Byrne). Keaton attempts to destroy the ship by dropping his cigarette onto some spilled fuel, but his efforts are thwarted by Keyser. The two talk briefly before Keyser appears to shoot Keaton twice. Keyser then uses his own cigarette to set the ship ablaze as he makes his escape. The next day, FBI Agent Jack Baer (Giancarlo Esposito) and U.S. Customs special agent Dave Kujan arrive in San Pedro separately to investigate what happened on the boat. Dozens of men on the pier/boat are dead, and there appear to be only two survivors – a crippled man named Verbal Kint (Spacey), and a hospitalized Hungarian man identified as Arkosh Kovash, a known criminal. Baer visits the hospital and interrogates the Hungarian, who claims that Keyser Söze, a criminal mastermind with a nearly mythical reputation, was in the harbor "killing many men." Intrigued, Baer tells the police to call in Dan Metzheiser, a Department of Justice agent, who has pursued Söze. Metzheiser is at first dismissive until the Hungarian shouts out Söze's name in anger and fear. Metzheiser has the Hungarian describe Söze while a translator interprets and a police sketch artist draws a rendering of Söze's face. Verbal Kint tells the authorities everything he knows in exchange for immunity. After making his statement to the district attorney, Verbal is placed in a police station office where Kujan requests to hear the story again, from the beginning. Verbal's tale starts six weeks earlier:

Five crooks are brought together in a police lineup on trumped-up charges. They are a diverse group; Keaton is a corrupt ex-cop who appears to have given up his life of crime, McManus (Baldwin) is a crack shot with a temper and a wild streak, Fenster (del Toro) is McManus' partner who speaks in mangled English, Hockney (Pollak) is a tough, amoral hijacker who forms an instant rivalry with McManus, and Verbal himself is a mild-mannered con artist with cerebral palsy. Incensed at their arrests, McManus convinces the others to join forces to commit a high-stakes robbery that targets corrupt police officers in the NYPD, who escort smugglers to their destinations around the city. Keaton wants nothing to do with it, but Verbal manages to tempt him in, by meeting him alone and challenging him over Keaton's girlfriend, high-powered defense attorney Edie Finneran. Verbal goads Keaton into striking him so that Keaton will be remorseful and hear him out. Thanks to Verbal's intricate plan, the robbery is a success. Not only do the criminals come away with money and jewels, but no one is killed and the corrupt cops are arrested. Kint, Keaton, McManus, Fenster, and Hockney travel to California to sell the stolen gems to McManus' long-time fence named "Redfoot" (Peter Greene).

Redfoot tells them that he has "a ton of work and no good people" and talks them into partaking in another job: the robbery of Saul Berg, a purported jewel smuggler. The robbery goes wrong, and the crew is forced to kill Saul's bodyguards as well as Saul himself. Berg's attaché case turns out to hold, not money and jewels as promised, but "a lot of China [heroin]" as Fenster puts it. An angry confrontation between the thieves and Redfoot and his posse reveals that the job came from a lawyer named Kobayashi (Postlethwaite). The men then meet with the lawyer and at the meeting, Kobayashi reveals that he works for "Keyser Söze", whose name evokes both skepticism and fear from the criminals, except for Verbal, who hadn't heard of him. Because Kobayashi has detailed and lengthy knowledge of the five's individual criminal doings, he blackmails them into performing a dangerous job for Söze – the destruction of the cargo of a ship coming to the San Pedro harbor. The ship, which will have $91 million worth of cocaine aboard it, is part of a drug deal that will revitalize Söze's competitors. "Competing with Mr. Söze has taken its toll," Kobayashi says.

Spacey as "Verbal" in The Usual Suspects
Spacey as "Verbal" in The Usual Suspects

In the present, Verbal describes to Kujan who Söze is, according to the explanations of his fellow criminals. Keyser Söze, as Verbal relates, is organized crime's answer to the bogeyman. When Söze was a small-time Turkish drug runner, a rival Hungarian gang tried to seize his territory by breaking into his house and threatening his family, raping his wife and killing one of his children. In response to the gang's threats, Söze killed his own family and all but one of the gangsters, who is spared in order to carry the news to the rest of the gang. Söze then initiated a brutal vendetta against the gang, systematically eliminating their friends, family, children, lovers, parents, and even their debtors, as well as their homes and businesses. He then completely disappeared; he almost never did business in person without an alias, and made sure that even his own henchmen did not know for whom they truly worked. With time, Söze's story took on mythic stature, with most people either doubting his existence or disbelieving it entirely.

Back in the narrative, the criminals debate on whether Kobayashi's boss is real. Keaton insists that, "There is no Keyser Söze!" Fenster disagrees, while Hockney and McManus warily abstain. Fenster bails from the group in the night, but he is tracked and killed by Kobayashi. The remaining thieves kidnap Kobayashi, killing his two bodyguards, and take him to a floor under construction in the lawyer's building. Keaton tells Kobayashi, "We know you can get to us, but now you know we can get to you." McManus is about to shoot Kobayashi, when the lawyer reveals Edie Finneran is in his office. The group carefully confirms this. After Kobayashi reveals that he has the will, information and the means to kill or brutally injure the remaining four criminals' loved ones if they do not go through with the arrangement, they are forced to concede.

On the night of the cocaine deal, the sellers (a group of Argentine mobsters) are on the dock, as are the buyers (a group of Hungarian mobsters). Keaton tells Verbal to stay back and flee if the plan goes wrong, taking the money to Edie so she can destroy Kobayashi. Keaton tells Verbal, "If I don't get him my way, she'll get him her way." Verbal is reluctant to abandon his planned position, but Keaton asks, "Do what I say." Verbal watches the boat from a distance, hiding behind a jumbled pile of marine junk. Keaton, McManus and Hockney attack the men at the pier. It seems to be going well, but then Hockney is shot while adoring the truck full of money. Keaton and McManus discover separately that there is no cocaine on the boat. Hungarians yet untouched by the thieves are being killed, and a closely-guarded Hispanic passenger/captive shouts, "I'm telling you, it's Keyser Söze!" Two shots appear to blow this captive's brains out. McManus is killed with a knife to the back of his neck, and Keaton, turning away to leave, is shot in the back. A tall figure in a dark coat appears, presumably Keyser Söze. Söze has a handgun, wears a gold wristwatch and lights a cigarette with a gold cigarette lighter. Söze appears to speak briefly with Keaton and then shoot him twice in the head. The audience sees the opening scene over again.

Verbal's story is over. Kujan then reveals what he has deduced, with the aide of Baer: The boat hijacking was not about cocaine, but rather to ensure that one man aboard the ship—Arturo Marquez, the captive, one of the few individuals alive who could positively identify Söze—is killed. After Söze presumably killed Marquez, he eliminated everyone else on the ship and set it ablaze. Kujan presses Verbal on whether Keaton truly is dead (no one truly witnessed his death; Verbal's vision was obscured by the marine junk), and even goes so far as to state that "Dean Keaton was Keyser Söze" and is therefore still alive. He also reveals that Edie has been found dead, with two bullets in her head. Kujan states that Keaton is cleaning up loose ends, and that Verbal is dead if he leaves. Verbal breaks into tears and admits that the whole affair, from the beginning, was Keaton's idea. By this time, Verbal's bail has been posted, and he departs with his immunity. Verbal retrieves his personal effects from the property officer (which include a gold wristwatch and a gold cigarette lighter), while Kujan, relaxing in the office he used for the interrogation, comments that Verbal was spared to keep the legend of Keyser Söze alive. Suddenly, Kujan notices that crucial details and names from Verbal's story are words appearing on objects around the room. Finally putting the pieces together, Kujan scrambles outside, just missing a fax with the police artist's impression of Keyser Söze's face, which looks almost exactly like the now-released Verbal Kint. As Verbal leaves the jail, his distinctive limp gradually disappears, and he shakes out his contorted, palsied hand. He then steps into a waiting Jaguar driven by "Mr. Kobayashi," departing just before Kujan arrives and misses him. In the end, Verbal Kint appears to be Söze, so it is left to the viewer to decide how much, (if any) of his narration was truthful.

[edit] Cast

  • Stephen Baldwin as Michael McManus: The actor was tired of doing independent films where his expectations were not met and when he met with director Bryan Singer, he went into a 15-minute tirade telling him what it was like to work with him. After Baldwin was finished, Singer told him exactly what he expected and wanted and this impressed the actor.[2]
  • Gabriel Byrne as Dean Keaton: Kevin Spacey met Byrne at a party and asked him to do the film. He read the screenplay and did not think that the filmmakers could pull it off and turned them down. Byrne met screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and Singer and was impressed by the latter's vision for the film. However, Byrne was also dealing with some personal problems at the time and backed out for 24 hours until the filmmakers agreed to shoot the film in Los Angeles, where the actor lived, and make it in five weeks.[2]
  • Benicio del Toro as Fred Fenster: Spacey suggested Del Toro for the role. The character was originally written with a Harry Dean Stanton-type actor in mind. Del Toro met with Singer and the film's casting director and told them that he did not want to audition because he did not feel comfortable doing them.[2]
  • Kevin Pollak as Todd Hockney: He met with Singer about doing the film but when he heard that two other actors were auditioning for the role, he came back, auditioned, and got it.[2]
  • Kevin Spacey as Roger "Verbal" Kint: Singer and McQuarrie sent the screenplay for the film to the actor without telling him which role was written for him. Spacey called Singer and told that he was interested in the roles of Keaton and Kujan but was also intrigued by Kint whom, as it turned out, McQuarrie wrote with the actor in mind.[2]
  • Chazz Palminteri as US Customs special agent Dave Kujan: Singer had always wanted the actor for the film but he was always unavailable. The role was offered to Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro, both of whom turned it down. The filmmakers even had Al Pacino come in and read for the part but he decided not to do it because he was playing a cop in Heat. Palminteri became available but only for a week. When he signed on, this convinced the film's financial backers to fully support the film because he was a high profile enough star thanks to the recent release of A Bronx Tale and Bullets Over Broadway.[2]
  • Pete Postlethwaite as Kobayashi
  • Giancarlo Esposito as FBI special agent Jack Baer
  • Suzy Amis as Edie Finneran
  • Dan Hedaya as Sergeant Jeffrey "Jeff" Rabin
  • Peter Greene as Redfoot

[edit] Production

Bryan Singer met Kevin Spacey at a party after a screening of the young filmmaker's first film, Public Access at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival.[3] Spacey had been encouraged by a number of people he knew who had seen it[2] and was so impressed that he told Singer and McQuarrie that he wanted to be in whatever film they did next. Singer read a column in Spy magazine called, "The Usual Suspects" and thought that it would be a good title for a film.[4] When asked what the film was about by a reporter at Sundance, McQuarrie replied, "I guess it's about a bunch of criminals who meet in a police line-up,"[4] which, incidentally, was the first visual idea that he and Singer came up for the poster: "five guys who meet in a line-up," Singer remembers.[5] The director also envisioned a tagline for the poster, "All of you can go to Hell".[2] McQuarrie revamped an idea from one of his own unpublished screenplays – the story of a man who murders his own family and walks away, disappearing from view. The writer mixed this with the idea of a team of crooks.[4]

The character of Söze is based on a real-life account of New Jersey's John List, an accountant who murdered his entire family in 1971 and then disappeared for almost two decades, assuming a new identity before he was ultimately apprehended.[6] McQuarrie wrote nine drafts of his screenplay over the course of four months until Singer felt it was ready to shop around to the studios. None were interested except for a European financing company.[7]

McQuarrie and Singer had a difficult time getting the film made because of the non-linear story, the huge amount of dialogue and lack of cast attached to the project. However, the European money allowed the film's producers to make offers to actors and assemble a cast. They had to offer the actors well below what they usually made but they agreed because of the quality of McQuarrie's script and the chance to work with each other.[5] However, the money fell through and Singer used the script and the cast to attract Polygram to pick up the negative.[7] The budget was set at USD $5.5 million and the film was shot in 35 days[7] in Los Angeles, San Pedro, and New York City.[8]

To research his role, Spacey met with doctors and experts on CP and talked with Singer about how it would fit dramatically in the film. They decided that it would only affect one side of his body.[2] According to Byrne, the cast bonded quickly during rehearsals.[3] He also said that they were often laughing between takes and "when they said, 'Action' we'd barely be able to keep it together."[3] Spacey also said that the hardest part was not laughing through takes, with Baldwin and Pollack being the worst culprits.[9] Their goal was to get the usually serious Byrne to crack up.[9] For example, the line-up scene took 15 takes because everyone kept laughing. Byrne remembers, "Finally, Bryan just used one of the takes where we couldn't stay serious."[3]

Del Toro worked with his friend Alan Shaterian to develop Fenster's distinctive, almost unintelligible speech patterns.[10] According to the actor, the source of his character's unusual speech patterns came from the realization that "the purpose of my character was to die".[2] Del Toro talked to Singer and told him, "it really doesn't matter what I say so I can go really far out with this and really make it uncomprehensible".[2] Spacey says that they shot the interrogation scenes with Palminteri over a span of five to six days.[9] The stolen emeralds were real gemstones on loan for the movie.[6] In the scene in which the crew meets Redfoot after the botched drug deal, Redfoot flicks his cigarette at McManus' (Baldwin) face. The scene was originally to have the Redfoot character flick the cigarette at Baldwin's chest, but the actor missed and hit Baldwin's face by accident. Baldwin's reaction in the film is real.[6]

Singer described Suspects as Double Indemnity meets Rashomon and said that it was made "so you can go back and see all sorts of things you didn't realize were there the first time. You can get it a second time in a way you never could have the first time around."[8]

[edit] Reception

DVD cover for the film
DVD cover for the film

Suspects averaged a strong $4,181 per screen at 517 theaters and the following week added 300 play dates.[7]

While embraced by most viewers and critics, The Usual Suspects was the subject of harsh derision by some. Roger Ebert, in a review for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four.[11] However, Rolling Stone magazine praised Spacey, saying his "balls-out brilliant performance is Oscar bait all the way."[12]

The film consistently ranks in the Top 20 on the Internet Movie Database.[13] It was also voted as having the best plot twist, beating out The Sixth Sense, The Crying Game and Witness for the Prosecution in an IMDB poll.[14]

[edit] Awards

[edit] Further reading

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Boggs, Carl. "A World in Chaos: Social Crisis and the Rise of Postmodern Cinema", Rowman & Littlefield, 2003, pp. 101. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Burnett, Robert Meyer. "Round Up: Deposing The Usual Suspects", 'The Usual Suspects Special Edition DVD, MGM, 2002. 
  3. ^ a b c d Ryan, James. "The Usual Suspects Puts Together Unusual Cast", BPI Entertainment News Wire, August 17, 1995. 
  4. ^ a b c Larsen, Ernest. "The Usual Suspects", British Film Institute, 2005. 
  5. ^ a b Hartl, John. ""Surprises and No Holes" in Director's Prize-Winning Mystery", Seattle Times, August 13, 1995. 
  6. ^ a b c The Usual Suspects DVD commentary featuring Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, [2000]. Retrieved on September 27, 2002.
  7. ^ a b c d "Suspects Found It Tough to Round Up Financing", Hollywood Reporter, September 13, 1995. 
  8. ^ a b Wells, Jeffrey. "Young Duo Makes Big Splash", The Times Union, August 31, 1995. 
  9. ^ a b c Parks, Louis B. "Everyone's Suspect", Houston Chronicle, August 19, 1995. 
  10. ^ Hernandez, Barbara E. "What's in a name? Benicio Del Toro knows", Boston Globe, September 5, 1995. 
  11. ^ Ebert, Roger. "The Usual Suspects", Chicago Sun-Times, August 18, 1995. Retrieved on 2007-09-27. 
  12. ^ Travers, Peter. "The Usual Suspects", Rolling Stone, 1995. Retrieved on 2007-09-27. 
  13. ^ "Top 250 movies as voted by our users", Internet Movie Database, September 27, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-27. 
  14. ^ "Daily Poll", Internet Movie Database, November 23, 1999. Retrieved on 2007-09-27. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Four Weddings and a Funeral		 BAFTA Award for Best Film
1996
tied with Sense and Sensibility		 Succeeded by
The English Patient
v • d • e
Films directed by Bryan Singer

Lion's Den (1988) • Public Access (1993) • The Usual Suspects (1995) • Apt Pupil (1998) • X-Men (2000) • X2 (2003) • Superman Returns (2006) • Valkyrie (2009)