The Usual Suspects is a 1995 crime thriller that keeps viewers guessing until the very end. Its twist ending reveals how the whole story we have been told is one big lie told by a clever con man.
The movie follows five criminals lined up by police as the usual suspects in a big crime. They are brought together after a truck hijacking goes wrong. The main storyteller is Roger Verbal Kint, played by Kevin Spacey. He has a limp and tells his tale to police in an office. He describes a mysterious crime boss named Keyser Soze who pulls all the strings. Soze is like a ghost, someone who kills his own family to prove he fears nothing and then vanishes into legend.[1]
As Verbal spins his yarn, we meet the other suspects. There is Dean Keaton, a crooked ex-cop trying to go straight. Michael McManus is a pro thief. Fred Fenster speaks in code. Todd Hockney is a mechanic with a grudge. They get pulled into a job robbing a drug shipment on a boat. Verbal says Soze set it all up through a shady lawyer named Kobayashi. The boat job ends in fire and death, with only two survivors: a burned Hungarian who speaks no English and Verbal himself.[1]
The police detective, Dave Kujan, listens hard. He thinks Keaton is the real mastermind. But as Verbal talks, details fill the room around him. Names on a coffee mug, brands on a bulletin board, little office items all match his story. It looks like Verbal made it up on the spot from junk he saw while waiting to be questioned.[1][3]
Then comes the big reveal. After Verbal leaves, Kujan knocks over the mug. He realizes the limp was fake. Verbal walks normal outside, gets in a fancy car, and drives off. A sketch of Soze matches Verbal’s face. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist, Verbal had said earlier. Now we see he is Soze, or at least the storyteller who fooled everyone.[1][3]
But not everything is fake. The boat did burn. Bodies pulled from the wreck include Keaton and others. The Hungarian survivor is real too. He later tells police a different story, one without Soze pulling strings. So Verbal mixed truth with lies to escape blame. He turned a messy crime into a myth about an unbeatable boogeyman.[1]
Fans still argue if Soze is real or just Verbal’s invention. Did Verbal change details to seem harmless? Or did he craft the whole thing? The ending works because it makes you rewatch and spot the clues. Verbal’s limp vanishes. His walk changes. Even sounds in the film repeat to hint at the con.[3][6]
Hidden details add layers. Keaton’s hair shifts when he lies in flashbacks. Verbal reads the room like a bulletin board to build his tale live. The lawyer Kobayashi ties back to real office props. It all shatters when Kujan sees the truth too late.[3]
This ending changed how movies tell stories. It trusts viewers to piece it together. Verbal walks free, and we are left wondering what was real.[1][5]
Sources
https://entertainment.ie/movies/movie-news/key-scene-the-usual-suspects-454015/
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/movie-twists-best-films-all-time-b2887657.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iAglMy6QCg
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814/news/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFx-Iw_AB1M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7SRgDA98w4
