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The Usual Suspects
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.
1995 · Directed by Bryan Singer · 106 min · Drama · Crime · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 50 frames
Tagline
Five criminals. One line up. No coincidence.
Plot
While lying badly wounded on a ship docked in San Pedro Bay, career criminal Dean Keaton is shot dead by a shadowy figure whom he calls "Keyser." The police recover 27 bodies and two survivors from the ship: Arkosh Kovash ("Ákos Kovács"), a Hungarian mobster hospitalized with severe burns; and Roger "Verbal" Kint, a physically disabled con artist. U.S. Customs agent Dave Kujan arrives in Los Angeles to interrogate Verbal in a borrowed office belonging to LAPD police sergeant Jeff Rabin. Meanwhile, FBI agent Jack Baer visits Kovács in hospital.
In an extended flashback, Verbal relates how he and Keaton, and their associates, arrived on the ship. Six weeks earlier, in New York, Keaton and Verbal were arrested and placed in a police lineup alongside fellow criminals Michael McManus, Fred Fenster and Todd Hockney. None of them admits to participating in the truck hijacking they're accused of and are returned to a holding cell, where McManus proposes a heist to get revenge on the NYPD. They rob a jewel smuggler being escorted by corrupt cops, netting millions in emeralds. Leaks to the press result in more than fifty policemen being arrested. The group travels to California to fence the jewels through a man named Redfoot, who connects them to another jewel heist. The heist goes badly, and they're forced to kill their target, who is carrying synthetic heroin.
The men learn the job was arranged by a lawyer named Kobayashi, who claims to be a representative of Keyser Söze—a mysterious Turkish crime lord. According to legend, Söze killed his own family while they were held hostage by his Hungarian rivals, then massacred his enemies. Söze subsequently vanished, conducting business from the shadows via underlings, most unaware they work for him. Law enforcement and the criminal underworld regards him as a fearsome urban legend, unsure if he even truly exists.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Christopher McQuarrie
- Cinematography: Newton Thomas Sigel
- Edited by: Peter S. Elliot, John Ottman
- Music: John Ottman
- Production design: Howard Cummings
- Produced by: Bryan Singer, Michael McDonnell
Cast
- Stephen Baldwin as McManus
- Gabriel Byrne as Keaton
- Benicio del Toro as Fenster
- Kevin Pollak as Hockney
- Kevin Spacey as Verbal
- Chazz Palminteri as Dave Kujan
- Pete Postlethwaite as Kobayashi
- Suzy Amis as Edie Finneran
- Giancarlo Esposito as Jack Baer
- Dan Hedaya as Jeff Rabin
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: Spanish, English, French, Hungarian
- Studios: Bad Hat Harry Productions, Blue Parrot Productions
- Budget: $6,000,000
- Box office: $23,300,000
- Themes: new york city, robbery, relatives, heist, flashback, police corruption, whodunit, los angeles, california, theft, criminal
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