Watched The Usual Suspects last night. It’s one of those movies where you start watching because meh…and then two hours later you’re like “What?! That’s it?”
Very entertaining movie. Good twist at the end. I saw it coming, but only about five minutes before. And it left me with lots of questions.
I watched it because of a Cracked article last week. I swear, Cracked has gotten me to see a lot of good movies and listen to a lot of good music.
All I have to say was I knew from the beginning - well as soon as possible.
The opening scene I noticed the lighter. Total Chekov’s gun and then when it shows up later …
I figured it out about half-way through. Still liked it, though!
It worked well for me because that is usually not my type of movie, crime, etc. So I wasn’t paying 100% full attention and missed some of the clues. Then when they came up later, I was like ohhhhhhh.
The only gangster/crime movie I really loved, as in adored, is RocknRolla.
The longer the movie goes on the more you know who it has to be. The surprise to me was where the names came from.
Kind of impressed you made it this long without having it spoilered for you. On the SDMB alone, I think we have a couple Keyser Soze jokes a week, with varying degrees of spoilerishness.
My friend and I went to see it in the theater, not knowing much about it. We were so floored by it that we dragged two more friends out to see it the following night, telling them they had to see it, and we’d pay for their tickets if we had to.
I was mighty pleased when it won the Oscar that year for “Best Original Screenplay”. Every now and then, when I see a movie, I think, “If it doesn’t win an Oscar for that, I’m gonna be pissed.” Before then, the only time it had happened was with Anthony Hopkins’s performance in Silence of the Lambs.
Hmmmmm, I still think we end up not knowing for sure.
Yes we know that certain people are not what they seem and one candidate stands out as having coordinated events but we never actually know if that person is Keyser Soze or if he is someone using the legend for his own means or perhaps if he is working for someone higher up.
I hate spoilers, and I’m damn good at avoiding them when I don’t want to see them. Some still get through but this is one I managed to avoid; again, I think, because I rarely watch crime movies and so don’t read about them either.
Novelty Bubble you is right too. 
I also figured it out before the reveal, but only because this woman at the Video store that I would never guess the twist ending.
I got her back a couple of years later when I saw her looking at The Sixth Sense.
For the last time, there is no Keyser Soze!
Well, the burned Hungarian is certainly real, and given what we know of Soze’s origin, the Hungarian would have no reason to lie. He describes Verbal Kint to a T. Either Kint is Soze, or he has adopted the Soze persona so well and for so long that he may as well be Soze.
One of the things that stuck with me, however, is Kujan and all of those cops that interviewed the burned Hungarian now have a description of Keyser Soze. So doesn’t that mean they all have to/will die?
It’s too late - they’ve been faxing the sketch of Keyser around too. They know Verbal is Keyser Soze, so Verbal will vanish as well. No matter how many more people Verbal kills, that sketch & the connection are part of the permanent record now.
That’s another thing about the ending - Keyser fucked up. He left a witness alive.
Someone else will have Verbal in temporary custody again some day. And they’ll let him go also. No matter how much they know about him, they’ll only see someone who could not be Keyzer Soze until it is too late. He can always hide in plain sight because he does not look, sound, or act like Keyser Soze in the presence of others. And when he does appear to be Keyser Soze, those witnesses do not have long to live.
Is Verbal actually Keyser Soze, or his he like the Dread Pirate Roberts, just the owner of the name?
I don’t think the movie gives us any reason to think its any more complicated then Verbal == Keyser.
I don’t think it’s necessary to know the answer to this. In fact the legend of Keyser Soze requires that this is never known for sure. Verbal was Keyser Soze, whether or not he was or will be the only Keyser Soze doesn’t matter. It was still Keyser Soze who killed all, and still lives amongst, now and forever.
On the other hand, I don’t know how far he’s going to get. Keyser Soze is a legend, and as demonstrated in the film, half the people you talk about scoff at the mere mention of him. Even Kujan was disgusted with the thought at first. So when he comes out and says, “Verbal Kint lied about everything, he made it all up with stuff in my office, he was really Keyser Soze,” he’s going to have a tough sell, especially with almost no evidence. Where is the evidence?
Actually I think it does, they say in the movie, " And like that he was gone. Underground. Nobody has ever seen him since. He becomes a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night. “Rat on your pop, and Keyser Soze will get you.” And no-one ever really believes."
But then there is…
“Who is Keyser Soze? He is supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.”