Favourite Film Endings: The Usual Suspects

My checklist for a great film includes a good ending – and it gets extra brownie points if it’s a twist ending too. I don’t know what it is that is so effective about twist endings – but I think it’s mainly that feeling of chills and slight bewilderment I feel while I walk out of the theatre as the credits roll.

So I thought I would share with you a couple of my favourite endings.. starting off with the neo film noir The Usual Suspects... SPOILERS (obviously)….

The Usual Suspects

Director: Bryan Singer

Release Date: 25 August 1995

The Line Up

One line up. One question. One of the most famous twist endings in cinematic history.

The twist here is a somewhat Chekhov’s gun, because we are introduced to the idea of the mysterious ‘Keyser Soze’ at the very beginning of the film – infact it was Keyser himself who delivered the film’s opening line – “How ya doin’ Keaton?”. With the exception of the ending - we never actually see Keyser in the flesh from head to toe but, based on Verbal’s account (whether it be completely true or not at all) we quickly understand that Keyser Soze, whoever he may be, is certainly someone to be feared.

The one thing I like about this particular twist ending is that it does take you down the right path. From very early on the film we can quite easily make a safe assumption that the ending will reveal the true identity to Keyser Soze – which in turn leads you down another path with asking yourself ‘ok, who *exactly* is Keyser Soze?’ Is it a character who we’ve already been introduced to? The film cleverly leads us to a false assumption that Keaton is in fact Keyser Soze. In fact when Gabriel Byrne was interviewed not long after the film was released he stated that he was almost certain that he was Keyser Soze. We are introduced to the idea that Kujan has about Keaton being Soze almost at the very end of the film, therefore leading us to the false assumption to Keyser's true identity. Plus I think 'proving' this evidence on Keyser's true identity to Verbal Kint gives a slight ironic twist to the ending. 

When it was first revealed to me that the somewhat shy, introverted ‘cripple’ Verbal Kint (played by Kevin Spacey) is infact the dreaded Keyser Soze, I immediately hit the scene skip button right back to the beginning and proceeded to watch the film with a completely different view on it. I watched every single action and listened to every single word from Verbal Kint. When Verbal Kint sits alone in the interrogation room, silently scanning the notice board – I came to the assumption that he must just be bored on first viewing. However, when I watched this scene a second time, I soon realized that my first assumption was wrong, and now I just thought “You cunning little sod.” (.....I still love you Kevin). Also who can forget that long concentrated stare at the bottom of Kujan's coffee cup - which would inevitably allow Kint to come up with the blackmailing lawyer "Mr. Kobayashi".

Throughout the film, there are clues to Keyser’s true identity. Here’s a couple which I have picked up on…

1. ‘Keyser Soze’ roughly translates from Turkish and German to ‘King Blabbermouth’ – after the line up scene, Verbal explains to the other ‘suspects’ that he was given the nickname Verbal (his real name being Roger) because he was often too talkative.
2. In the interrogation room, Verbal explains that he used to get dehydrated a lot as a kid and that his piss would often be really thick and come out like ‘snot’.. at the beginning of the film we see Keyser urinating to be quite heavy.
3. Keyser is seen at the beginning of the film with a gold watch and lighter... we then see Verbal using similar items later on in the film.

So was Verbal’s story all true or just completely made up on the spot? Personally, I think it had elements of both, but I suppose it can be anyone’s guess. Let's take Mr. Kobayashi for example - we did indeed see Spacey get into a car with Pete Postelthwaite (who did portray Kobayashi in Verbal's account) - which could highlight elements of truth to the story. However Verbal never mentions him until after he gets a glance at the bottom of the coffee cup..... perhaps he is just giving a false name to the character.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. On the other hand the easiest trick Kevin Spacey ever pulled was convincing the world he was a damn fine actor!