The Usual Suspects
Short description
The Usual Suspects centres on Verbal Kint, a small-time con man with a disability who is taken into custody after a massacre aboard a ship in Los Angeles harbour. Questioned by a customs agent, he describes how he and four other criminals were brought together for a police line-up weeks earlier, and how that encounter drew them into a robbery that went badly wrong. The story he tells keeps returning to Keyser Soze, a crime figure of almost mythical reputation whom most people believe to be invented, and who may have been manipulating the five men from the start. Kint's account is the interrogators' only real lead, and its reliability is left for the viewer to weigh.
Bryan Singer directed, working from Christopher McQuarrie's screenplay, with Singer and Michael McDonnell producing. The film was Singer's second feature and the first of his credits listed here; McQuarrie's script won him an Academy Award. The cast includes Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak, Kevin Spacey and Chazz Palminteri, part of a credited cast of 35 and crew of 126. Made for around 6 million dollars, it took roughly 23 million worldwide, a strong return on a modest budget.
Its reputation has endured: on IMDb it holds 8.5 out of 10 across about 1.2 million votes, and on TMDB 8.2 from far fewer. A critics' rating of 7.8 from 83 reviews places professional opinion below the very high audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Michael Biehn was offered the lead role, but after reading the script, he didn't understand it and turned it down. Steven Baldwin became the next potential candidate, and he took on the role. Biehn later admitted that he had made a mistake by refusing to work with Bryan Singer.
- The face recognition scene was an improvisation by the actors.
- Benicio del Toro was cast in the film on the recommendation of Kevin Spacey. Originally, the role of Fenster was intended for someone like Harry Dean Stanton.
- When Peter Greene's character flicks a cigarette towards McManus (played by Stephen Baldwin), it hits him in the face, although it was intended to hit his chest. Baldwin's reaction was genuine and unscripted, so Bryan Singer decided to keep that take in the film.
- The names of all the characters in the film are derived from the names of employees at the law firm and detective agency where Christopher McQuarrie worked in his youth.
- The idea for the film originated from the concept of a poster for the movie, depicting men lined up for identification at a police station.
- While developing his character, Kevin Spacey met and spoke with doctors and cerebral palsy specialists.
- The film was shot in just 35 days. Throughout the narrative, enough clues were scattered regarding Keyser Söze's identity to motivate repeat viewings. The advertising campaign was launched with the slogan 'Do you know who Keyser Söze is?' Later, while accepting an 'Oscar', Kevin Spacey quipped: 'Whoever Keyser Söze is, I can assure you he'll be dead drunk tonight.'
- It took 18 hours to film the robbery scene in the underground parking lot. According to Gabriel Byrne, the director still didn't have the material he needed the next day and continued filming in the underground parking lot, even despite threats from the insurance company to shut down the project.
- According to Kevin Spacey, Bryan Singer managed to convince each of the leading actors that the role of Keyser Söze was intended for them. When it turned out that this was not the case, Gabriel Byrne, for example, left the set in a rage and then argued with the director for another half hour.
- Originally, Kaiser Sose (played by Scott B. Morgan) was to be named Kaiser Soom, after a former boss of Christopher McQuarrie. McQuarrie let this boss read the script, but he adamantly refused to be associated with such a villain and asked for the character's name to be changed.
- When writing the script, McQuarrie drew on one of his early, unpublished works, whose protagonist, after eliminating his own family, disappeared from the sight of the criminal world and the police for a long time. All the characters were given the names of employees of a law firm where the screenwriter once worked. He found the word 'soze', meaning 'chatter' (a hint at the main character's nickname), in an English-Turkish phrasebook. The screenwriter later described 'The Usual Suspects' as a hybrid of 'Rashomon' and 'Double Indemnity'.
- “Fenster” translates from German as “window.” Initially, the character was supposed to be the oldest. Benicio Del Toro was initially offered the role of McManus. He himself volunteered to try out for the role of Fenster. Del Toro came up with the idea for Fenster to speak incoherently, and the director agreed. In one scene, Hockney, played by Kevin Pollak, replies to Fenster's line: “What did he just say?” – the actor genuinely couldn’t understand what Del Toro had said. Similarly, MacQuarrie's line, “Please speak English,” said to Fenster, was not in the script, nor was Fenster’s reaction to it.
- Gabriel Byrne initially refused the offer to star in the film. He changed his mind after a detailed conversation with screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and director Brian Singer. On the eve of filming, the actor informed the filmmakers that he would not be able to play the role after all due to personal issues, as he could not leave Los Angeles. Singer made the necessary changes to the plot for the actor’s sake, so that the entire film could be shot in five weeks exclusively in Los Angeles.
- The role of Verbal Kint was originally intended for Kevin Spacey.
- When Kevin Spacey received the script, he had to read it twice because he didn't understand everything the first time.
- When Kevin Spacey saw Brian Singer's first film, 'Public Access' (1993) at the Sundance Film Festival that same year, he met the young director there and told him he wanted to star in his next film.
- Screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie once worked at a detective agency, and his experience there definitely influenced the portrayal of criminals and law enforcement in the script.
- A more accurate translation of the title is 'The Usual Suspects'.
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